I agree in the first instance. For each of us individually we are only as far away from the gathering or being with the Son of Man (as Jesus referred to Himself more than any other phrase) coming on the clouds as we are from our own death. Since none of us knows what will happen to us in the next five minutes, it behooves us to lead our lives as if each waking moment could be our last. Thus the emphasis on leading a righteous life, being sober and moral, because our meeting the Lord could happen at any time. Remember, Paul said the dead in Christ are raised first, or as I like to say, they get a six-foot head start on those that are alive and are left.
In the second part, I ask you to examine the Jesus' Olivet Discourse found in Matthew 24, Mark 13 or Luke 21. Jesus gives several events in linear sequence order that predate His physical return to earth. These have not all happened yet. There has not been a Temple for the Abomination of Desolation to be set up in for over 1900 years. That is a condition that has to be satisfied before Jesus returns. This is the same reason by which Paul reassures the Thessalonians that they have not missed the coming of our Lord. I may not live to see that or other prerequisite conditions take place, but I know I will see Jesus arriving in His Glory as will all those in the Book of Life who have died up to that time when I am gathered up.
Please correct me if I am mistaken. The temple today is the body of the believer in the Church Age. The believer is indwelt by the Holy Spirit to provide a temple for the indwelling of Jesus Christ.
The soul is the battleground of temptation and our remaining in Him, it resides in our thinking and our volition. The filling of the Holy SPirit is the Spirit controlling our soul and reigning over our thinking, taking the gnosis or academic knowledge and thought and turning it into an epignosis or working knowledge which flows out of our self or our heart.
I've often considered why some who receive a physical mark of a beast would not receive salvation. God's sovereignty might declare anything except that which dpes against his essence. Surely it would seem that the Perfect Sacrifice was a far greater payment than any mark associated with commerce. But the mark is only identified to us as associated with the ability to buy and sell or transact.
I've also considered that in recent years, technology has evolved to the point of provided personal commuication and studied the interface between neural activity and thinking.
I suspect the mark is presented as necessary for economic transaction, but is also used by the beast to counterfeit God in the thinking process of man. Such would be an abomination of desolation. It would also compete physically with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ creating a situation where God in His love for us would probably act in wrathful expedient indignation.
There is a difference between potential and actual correlation, though, so this interpretation may not be accurate. When I look at those who are unbelievers in their zeal to promote an artificial state or world through anything antiChristian is seems an ideal target for them will be to control the thoughts of others and in a fashion that is antiChristian. If they found a mechanism to perform this by planting a subdermal computing and communication device, then it would be a natural ploy to associate the device with something for our personal good and safety,..something to preserve our financial identity and retain the apparant security which a cosmic world might appeal to provide.
Those who seek to control in such a world, might not even divulge their ulterior motives as they would already have been hardened in their hearts to reject anything of divine good, but would instead even lower themselves to worship anything supernatural if it promised them power such as fallen angels. A concealed animosity towards anything Christian would prevail in their hearts and their thinking solution would be the mechanics of physically eradicating any thought or volition which might choose God over rebellion from His plan.
But then again you may be correct, in that the temple referenced is more similar to the physical building more associated with the Temple Mount.