At some point the man of sin comes into view, but when. In 2nd Thessalonians we find some reference.

2nd Thessalonians 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.

Verse 1-2

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. 

The first sentence is already something to be careful with. Because the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ can have a few pointers. Referring to what is mentioned at the 6th seal in Revelation 6:16, we can clearly see the coming of Jesus Christ. He may not set foot on Earth, but no soul on this planet will deny then that He has not come. So that is one point in time to be very sure about. The second point in time when Christ is coming is when Christ does set foot on the ground. But we need more context.

Verse 3-4

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.

Here the apostle writes to the Thessalonians who are somewhat confused about the Day of the Lord. But Paul ensures this all is still to come. So we now see that there is a "falling away" first,  many many people will turn away from God. And it says that before the Day of the Lord comes the man of sin is revealed. If we are in the end-time and if we are close to the Day of the Lord this horrible character is alive today. Verse 4 shows and confirms also what is said in Daniel 9 and Matthew 24.

Implicitly, if we look verse 4, what it says about the man of sin: " ... he sits as God in the temple of God...". This means that there must be a temple of God. And two temples have been already been destroyed. The first one by the Babylonians, and the second one by the Romans. There is no temple at this time. That is why we now talk of the Third Temple of God. And that is exactly what the Jews want to build today, to reinstate the offerings. And the Holy place is most likely near- or the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem (have not got into that yet). 

Another thing not to be taken lightly is what happens if the man of sin is revealed. This is where the Great Tribulation starts. Because the man of sin will attack Israel and will try to wipe out all Jews and also Christians. 

Thus it says:

• The gathering and the day of the Lord does not start before the falling away and the revealing man of sin.
• The revealing man of sin implies the Great Tribulation.
• Sequence:
  1. falling away & revealing man of sin (in any order or at the same time, as order is not revealed (yet))
  2. start of the Great Tribulation
  3. Gathering & the Day of the Lord (in any order or at the same time, as order is not revealed (yet))

Verse 5-7 - the restrainer

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.

If there is one Person in the Holy Trinity that the saints would like to be the Restrainer He'd would be probably The Holy Ghost. But nowhere in the Bible it is said Who the Restrainer is. But in verse 6 He is referred to as one of the Holy Trinity. To me the Restrainer could be the One Who holds the plan of redemption. And God the Father is the only One Who holds the plan, He knows all the dates and times, as the Son and the Holy Ghost do not. Because Jesus said:  "only the Father knows..." (Matthew 24).

Then again if the Holy Ghost does do all the work here, then He might also restrain. But I cannot put that into a reference of proof of Scripture.

Verse 8 - 2nd coming

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. 

A brief look into the future, when Christ sets foot on the ground, who brings destruction to all the wicked. Here the beginning and the end of the Great Tribulation are in one sentence. But there is also a sequence of events. When He (the restrainer) is taken out of the way, the lawless one, the man of sin, will be revealed. This is very interesting. It might mean that if the Restrainer is gone and the church is raptured (?), that the saints do not have to know who this man is. 

The big question here is really, who is the Restrainer?

I've read somewhere that a Baptist church says it is Satan, but that does not hold ground with me. The reason is, is because of what Jesus said, a kingdom which is turned against itself shall at some point cease to exist. Like the Pharisees said of Jesus that He casts demons out by an upper demon. 

It means that God does not restrain you from doing good, and Satan does not restrain you from doing bad. God does restrain you from the evils He allows, and Satan (tries to) restrains (tempts) you from being or doing good. So that Satan could be the restrainer does not compute in my mind.

If the Restrainer is God the Father or God the Son, or both, then it means the saints are not necessarily raptured when the man of sin is made known. Because the Holy Ghost still does His work in the Saints in the mean time.

It also occurs to me that I have never read a reference in the Bible wherein the Holy Ghost is associated with works in relation to sinners who have not repented. As they have no intention to be holy. So even saying that the Holy Ghost restrains is still a difficult thing to say. Of course we saints want the Holy Ghost to be the Restrainer, because that implies that we at least don't have to know who the man of sin is.... or even then, do we?

Which make me come to the next point. To whom is the man of sin made known? If the this man is already a world leader in the covenant period he made for Israel, and the saints are not raptured. Then certainly the saints will know who He is, but the Jews don't. And the Bible is all about Israel, first the Jew then the gentile.

Verse 9-12 - judgement

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.

Here we see that many who want unrighteousness will be under the judgement of God, so they believe the lie of Satan. 

Analysis

The signs of the falling away are already here in our time. I remember that not long ago some people broke, a copy, of the 10 commandment tablets of Moses on mount Sinai and yelled that they were not satisfied and cocked up a new set of 10 commandments. The falling away is also in false churches like the charismatics and so on... and paganism is on its way back and the godless are everywhere. But there is peak moment of that which brings God to a point to say: "enough is enough". And He pulls away the Restrainer. 

The question we can ask ourselves is what is this peak point? The text does not really say that there is a sequence to the matter of the falling away and the revealing of the man of sin. Because the "AND" can also imply that these events are simultaneous. But then I would have a very good candidate for the peak point:

That point is that the man of sin says he is God, standing in the Holy place, and then that those who follow him believe that. That would be the bomb I believe; believing that Satan is God, that is the ultimate falling away and that is when enough is enough. 

What more is said is that the Day of the Lord does not come until the man of sin is revealed. Now I know that he is behind the covenant of 7 years. But nowhere it says that this man will be revealed by then. For certain, the Jews will not recognize this man as the man of sin. They will welcome the man of sin into their midst.

So what is said in verse 1-2 is at the start of the day of the lord - meaning when the Lord comes but does NOT set foot on earth. This implies that the gathering is not the harvest at the end when the Lord does set foot on earth. Then it is the gathering of the resurrection of the saints and the rapture. That means in simple terms this:

1. the falling away (either in sequence or at the same time - or reversed with 2.:)
2. man of sin revealed
3. the Great Tribulation 
4. The Day of the Lord.
5. resurrection of the saints
6. the rapture
7. Wrath of God (6th seal)

I put the day of the Lord first before the rapture because I think we are raptured IN the day of the Lord, because the second coming is the Day of the Lord. This text gives a nasty feeling that for hopefully a short time we are confronted with the nasty mug of the man of sin. For sure the man of sin starts the Great Tribulation period. Because not only he will attack Israel but he wants to get his hands also on the saints to stop them from making more disciples. 

This letter to the Thessalonians actually says that we are going to see partially the Great Tribulation period until the Day of the Lord. Also meaning that the Day of the Lord is starts in the Great Tribulation. 

And it all still fits of what Scripture literally says. We are not appointed to wrath we will be saved from the wrath to come. And even that we come out of the Great Tribulation in Revelation 7:9-17.

I really do not make a point about when that man of sin is revealed to us Christians. But it really comes down to the Jews only when they understand that their man of the covenant is the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place and claims to be God. And the only point in time when that happens is at the start of the Great Tribulation.