2 Thessalonians 2:1-3 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,
This would seem to indicate that the anti-Christ comes out of the church, maybe one of the megachurch preachers or a pope. A pope would be in a position to yield tremendous power since he already has a billion followers and a good many of them will believe anything he says.
This falling away is underway now. There's a major split in the church with scripture believing people on one side and liberal gay marriage/abortion types on the other. The laws favor the liberal churches and I expect that when it's over, the true Jesus believing church will be underground, just like the early church under Rome.
While the tribulation will be world wide, the Bible indicates that the territory within the ancient Roman empire will be the center of events. That's a good share of Europe with power coming from Rome (or maybe the Vatican?).
