Zechariah 11:16-17 says antichrist shall lead Israel and he is called a shepherd and he had a flock ! The word shepherd and flock are used (not a politician or king) showing that he came out from the church.
He has a flock, it's most of the world at that point. They will be worshipping him as savior but he will be a fake. Even many Christians will worship him believing he is Christ. That's what the "falling away" is because unsaved people don't have anything to fall away from (faith, the truth) They will be like the foolish virgins.
Paul states this is why we have to have the full armour on and in place, -to be able to fight the wiles of the devil and to be able to stand in that "evil day".
The timeframe can not be symbolic, though, it was a dire warning for the first church and God does not lie.
The key to understanding the timeframe to Revelation is this verse,
Revelation 1:10 "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet,"
As I said on another thread, this is not some day of the week like Sat/Sun. John and others always said first day of the week or so on. We are talking about the Lord's day which is the day of the Lord. It's the same day. He's obviously just heard the 7th trumpet. He sees Christ. He's then told to write about the past/present/future of that timeframe -the Lord's day. That's man's tradition that glosses over this as a day of the week, it's not the Bible text. The Lord's day is another way of saying Day of Christ, Day of the Lord, etc. It's always been about one day.
And we have one bible, one Revelation given to us by Christ. We don't have a bible for every generation. The events will unfold for one. That's why we watch. We don't fret as some like to think, at least I don't. I watch as we are told to do so I can be ready if it happens in my lifetime. As many others did in their lifetime. Nothing wrong with that. Some act like it's a waste of time to keep watch but it's part of being a Christian seeing how it's Christ that told us to keep watch so that "day" doesn't overtake us a a thief.
Christ says he comes quickly- would you call that symbolic? Obviously he hasn't returned so we have to remember we are on God's time, not our own
He calls the last time scoffers ignorant because they don't realize that earth is of "old". So 2000 yrs is about 2 days to our Father.