II Thessalonians 2:1-12
1 Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you,
2 not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come.
3 Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition,
4 who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.
5 Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things?
6 And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time.
7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way.
8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming.
9 The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders,
10 and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
11 And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie,
12 that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
Paul made it clear to the Thessalonians that Christ could not return to set up His kingdom until "the One Who restrains is removed - until the Rapture takes place, the Body of Christ (His Church) is taken off the scene, and that "One Who restrains", the Holy Spirit, Who does His work through the Church, is removed.
And, as long as they, the Thessalonian church, was still on the earth, along with the rest of Christ's Church, then the Antichrist had not made his appearance, and the time for Christ's return was not yet.
Paul could not have been more clear that he did not think that Christ's return would happen in his time.
And my gut feeling is that everyone who denies reality, who denies the evidence of Christ's soon return that is happening right in front of their faces, are usually not sure that they are ready for Him to come and have no security about where they stand with God, and therefore try to make themselves feel better by convincing not only themselves but everyone else that the return of Christ, if it happens at all, is millions of years away.
Well said GiovannaNicoletta!