Revelation 16:13-16

So here we find a religious personage called the false prophet. He is operating against Christ, he is anti-Christ. He is right in that period up to what is normally called Armageddon and we find demons coming out of their mouths, indicating the source of their supernatural power and the signs being done. So the association with the dragon is also very clearly stated. Revelation 17:1-6 - I will not read all of these, you're very knowledgeable about them, but again the symbol changes to a woman—the church who was shown to be guiding, controlling the beast—again, a close association with the political power.

Revelation 16:13-14

The whole world gathered to fight against Christ at His coming. God has a schedule and with His wisdom He knows how long it's going to take for people to get into a state of almost absolute lawlessness against Him on a worldwide scale.

This is the kind of events that the man of sin is playing a leading part. He is not someone associated with the true church, he is someone associated with the mystery of iniquity. So the final push toward this is going to be led by the beast and his evil companion in evil, the false prophet.