As to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we beg you, brothers and sisters, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as though from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord is already here. Let no one deceive you in any way; for that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first and the lawless one is revealed, the one destined for destruction. He opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, declaring himself to be God.
— 2 Thessalonians 2:1–4
A computer or a system can't sit in the temple or declare itself to be God. It's a man.
RC, this is a great passage for a couple of reasons.
The church was , apparently, upset that they may have missed the coming, citing they may have heard about it, or GOTTEN A LETTER!?!?!?!? What was their understanding of the NATURE of the 'coming'??? You could be alive on earth afterword!?!?
The other 'he takes his seat in the temple of GOD' the 'man of lawlessness'. True a computer cannot do it, and neither can a LAWLESS man TODAY!!! Today the Temple of GOD on earth is a spiritual place, it is the church......... When Paul wrote to the Thessalonians there was a 'Temple of GOD' that a man could walk into and sit down, it was the Temple in Jerusalem. One of the Caesars DID have his 'likeness' hung in the temple, which caused a great revolt among the Jews, and the Caesars were thought of, viewed as and worshipped by Romans as diety...........
