The Cradle, the Cross, and the Crown (105 page)

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¹
See Morris,
Thessalonians
, 213, 227.

²
See study notes at 2 Thess 2:5-7 in the ESV Study Bible (Wheaton: Crossway, 2008), 2318.

By describing the precursors to the Day of the Lord, Paul hoped to persuade his readers that those climactic events still lay in the future. Paul insisted that the Day of the Lord will be preceded by a great apostasy and by the coming of an Antichrist figure. The figure is identified as “the man of lawlessness” because he will lead a great rebellion against God's authority. He is further identified as the “son of destruction” because he is destined for destruction by Christ. The Antichrist figure will arrogantly claim to be divine and will enthrone himself in the holy of holies in the temple of Yahweh in Jerusalem.

Some commentators have argued that Paul's prophesy regarding the coming Antichrist has failed. For example, Wanamaker claimed: “The passage can no longer be understood as valid, since the temple was destroyed in A.D. 70 without the manifestation of the person of lawlessness or the return of Christ occurring.”
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Evangelical scholars with a high view of Scripture argue that the passage remains valid. The emerging consensus does so by arguing that Paul's apocalyptic language should be interpreted symbolically rather than literally and is “a graphic way of saying that he [the man of lawlessness] plans to usurp the authority of God.”
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Other interpreters affirm the interpretation that may be traced to Hippolytus (c. 170-236) and possibly to Irenaeus (c. 130-200), which holds that the temple in Jerusalem will be rebuilt in the last days.
⁵⁶

Although one should not construct an eschatological view from the Thessalonian letters in isolation from other eschatological texts, Paul's discussion seems most consistent with the notion of a premillennial return of Christ that acknowledges that the church will experience the persecution associated with the mystery of lawlessness.
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Jesus' return will end this period of tribulation and usher in his earthly reign. Paul's argument that the Day of the Lord had not come and that the church would recognize its approach because of the appearance of the man of lawlessness implies that believers who are alive at the time will be present when the man of lawlessness appears. Moreover, in 1 Thess 4:17, the catching up and the Second Coming are contemporaneous. The text does not seem to allow for a seven-year interval between the two events, nor does Paul's discussion of the Second Coming in 2 Thess 2:1-10.
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If Paul had affirmed a pretribulational rapture, his most powerful argument against the notion that the Day of the Lord had already come would have been to argue that the church had not yet been raptured. But Paul did not use this potentially powerful argument, apparently because he saw the Second Coming and the catching up as concurrent. The royal terminology “meet” and “coming” seem to imply that an earthly reign follows the Second Coming. However, the precise nature or duration of this earthly reign is not defined. Many legitimate questions still surround this text. Whatever view one adopts, one must affirm the view with humility and be willing to reexamine one's position as new evidence surfaces.

The Eternal State of Believers
The Thessalonian letters offer important descriptions of the eternal state of believers and unbelievers after the Second Coming. Paul comforted believers in 1 Thess 4:13—18 with the assurance that after the Second Coming and the
accompanying resurrection of the dead “we will always be with the Lord.” Paul did not specifically refer in this text to the resurrection and glorification of living believers. But the adverb “first” in the clause “the dead in Christ will rise first” implies that the resurrection of believers soon follows. First Corinthians 15:51—57 supports this assumption by associating the bodily transformation of living believers with the “last trumpet,” which is probably to be identified as a trumpet blast related to the Second Coming as described in 1 Thess 4:16.

Paul did not clearly identify the place where believers will spend eternity in this text. The “air” is the place where believers meet Christ but not necessarily where they remain.
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“So we will always be with the Lord” is not equivalent to “there [i.e., in the air] we will always be with the Lord.” What matters for Paul is that believers eternally experience the joys and blessings of the Lord's glorious and comforting presence. For this reason Paul repeated in 1 Thess 5:10 that believers “will live together with him.”

The Everlasting Destruction of Unbelievers
In 2 Thess 1:4—12, Paul turned his attention to the consequences of the Second Coming for unbelievers. He emphasized that the return of Christ would initiate the righteous judgment of the wicked. The characterization of God's judgment as “righteous” counters claims that God's judgment is unjust. Paul emphasizes the righteous nature of divine judgment further by portraying divine judgment as an act of talionic justice in which the wicked receive a punishment appropriate to their crimes: “It is righteous for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you” (2 Thess 1:6). Unbelievers are fully deserving of judgment because they have rejected the one and only means of salvation, obedience to the gospel's commands to repent and believe in Christ. Eternal punishment is thus an act of “vengeance” against those who “don't know God and…who don't obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus” (2 Thess 1:8).

Paul described the result of divine condemnation as “everlasting destruction.” This destruction is not an annihilation in which the sinner ceases to exist and thus finds escape from God's eternal wrath. It is rather a state of continual misery and ruin that results from a confrontation with the glorious divine Christ. Although many interpreters regard the phrase “away from the Lord's presence and from his glorious strength” as an indication that eternal punishment consists of separation from God, the phrase more likely identifies the source or cause of eternal destruction.
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Due to the verse divisions of the modern NT, English readers naturally assume that Paul described the instrument of divine punishment as “flaming fire.” However, this interpretation has been contested by interpreters who suggest that the phrase “with flaming fire” modifies the noun “revelation” and portrays Jesus' coming as a theophany.

Although the description of Jesus' coming is clearly theophanic (i.e., a manifestation of God's presence), “with flaming fire” more likely modifies “taking vengeance” as the HCSB suggests. Second Thessalonians 1:8 appears to be a paraphrase of the Greek translation
(LXX) of Isa 66:15. The Greek texts of these two passages share the word “vengeance” and the phrase “in flaming fire.” Isaiah 66:15—16 warns, “Look, the LORD will come with fire—His chariots are like the whirlwind—to execute His anger with fury, and His rebuke with flames of fire. For the LORD will execute judgment on all flesh with His fiery sword, and many will be slain by the LORD.”
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Paul thus “uses the image of the flaming fire to portray the frightening experience awaiting the enemies of God when God inflicts vengeance on the Thessalonians' oppressors” and on those who reject the good news.
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The Greek word order places special emphasis on the phrase “with flaming fire” and intensifies Paul's warning about the horrific nature of eschatological punishment.

A Christian Work Ethic
Because of the unique challenge posed by the presence of the “lazy” (1 Thess 5:14) who lived “irresponsibly” (2 Thess 3:6—15), Paul emphasized the importance of a Christian work ethic in these letters.
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The “lazy” were apparently refusing to work and were taking advantage of the generosity of other members of the church. This lifestyle of idleness may have been adopted by some members of the church because of their confused eschatology. Perhaps, like some end-time enthusiasts today, they quit their jobs and climbed on their rooftops to sit and wait for Christ's return. Whatever the motivations for their behavior, Paul insisted that such behavior was contrary to Christian teaching and to the apostle's own example. He had forfeited his right as an apostle to live at the church's expense and had instead labored and toiled night and day to make a living.

Paul listed several damaging consequences of the behavior of the idle. First, because the idle were not occupied with work, they used their free time to interfere with the work of others (2 Thess 3:11). Second, their refusal to work was placing an undue financial burden on generous brothers and sisters. Third, their behavior earned the disrespect of unbelievers or “outsiders” (1 Thess 4:10—12). Paul insisted that the church must not support the idle. A few pangs of hunger would be just the motivation needed to inspire productivity in those who were unwilling to work. Paul even urged the church to initiate a process of compassionate church discipline in order to encourage the idle to change their behavior.

Paul's teaching demonstrates the importance of believers working diligently to provide for themselves and their families through wholesome work. It also reminds believers that their faithfulness on the job can become either a positive or negative testimony to unbelievers.

Election and Perseverance
Although the Thessalonian letters do not give a lengthy or detailed explanation of the doctrines of election and perseverance, they offer the clearest succinct treatment of those doctrines in Pauline literature. In 2 Thess 2:13—15, Paul expressed his conviction that God had chosen the members of the church at Thessalonica for salvation. God had determined to save these believers “from the beginning,” in eternity
past. Since God had made his choice before the Thessalonians were even born, it was clear that his decision was motivated by his own mysterious grace and not by the merit of the Thessalonians (Rom 9:11). Paul hinted at the gracious nature of election by describing the elect as “brothers loved by the Lord” (2 Thess 2:13). This identification of believers occurs only twice in Paul's letters (see 1 Thess 1:4). In both texts, the phrase is connected to a discussion of divine election.

The salvation planned for the elect is experienced by them through “sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth.” The fact that “sanctification” precedes “belief” in the word order of this clause probably implies that it does so chronologically as well. Thus the “sanctification” of which Paul speaks here refers to God's gracious work of liberating the sinner from his bondage to his sinful nature and moving him to repent and believe. Paul also implied this in 1 Thess 1:4—5, where evidence of the Thessalonians' election was demonstrated by the fact that the apostle's gospel proclamation “did not come to you in word only, but also in power, in the Holy Spirit, and with much assurance.” The powerful activity of the Spirit in assuring the Thessalonians of the truth of the gospel appears to be equivalent to the sanctifying work of the Spirit in connection with faith in 2 Thess 2:13 as well.

Divine election clearly did not eradicate the necessity of human choice for Paul. Paul affirmed both divine sovereignty and human responsibility. He placed responsibility for the sinner's rejection of the gospel in the lap of the sinner and not God, arguing that sinners perish “because they did not accept the love of the truth in order to be saved” and characterizing the condemned as “those who did not believe the truth but enjoyed unrighteousness” (2 Thess 2:11). Paul stated that God confirms and even heightens the unbelief of those who are perishing, but he did not view God as the original source of their unbelief.

In 2 Thessalonians, Paul's appeal to the doctrine of election serves a very practical purpose. It functioned to comfort and encourage believers who may have been frightened by anticipations of the great delusion that would accompany the work of the Antichrist discussed in the immediately preceding context. Paul assured the believers that although many would be misled by the “unrighteous deception” of the man of lawlessness, by his “false miracles,” and by the “strong delusion,” the believers would be guarded from deception. The doctrine of election demonstrated that their faith in Christ was no accident, nor was it merely a product of their own human whim. Their salvation was grounded in God's eternal purpose and dependent on his own faithfulness. Because of God's powerful call, they would obtain the glory that he planned for them (1 Thess 5:23-24; 2 Thess 2:14; 3:3). Paul viewed the believer's eternal security as a by-product of the doctrine of election. Paul's appeal to the doctrine of election to comfort Christians anticipating the great delusion probably demonstrates his awareness of and dependence on the eschatological teachings of Jesus. Jesus also appealed to the doctrine of election to encourage his followers as they anticipated the deceptions that would occur in the great tribulation (Mark 13:21—24).

CONTRIBUTION TO THE CANON

• Teaching regarding the events immediately preceding the second coming of Christ, including the rapture (1 Thess 4:13-18)
  
• Teaching on the “man of lawlessness,” the Antichrist (2 Thess 2:3—4), and “the one now restraining,” whose identity is disputed (2 Thess 2:7)
  
• Believers' election and calling by God (1 Thess 1:4; 2 Thess 2:13—15)
  
• The importance of a Christian work ethic (1 Thess 5:12—14; 2 Thess 3:6—13)
  
• Teaching on how to live expectantly in the light of Christ's return (e.g., 1 Thess 5:1-22)
  

STUDY QUESTIONS

1. Why are the Thessalonian letters often neglected? Why are they significant?
   
2. Which one of the letters do many modern scholars reject as Paul's? Why?
   
3. What role does theology play in assigning authorship to 2 Thessalonians?
   
4. When was 1 Thessalonians likely written? How long was 2 Thessalonians written after 1 Thessalonians?
   
5. What are some of the primary reasons Paul wrote the Thessalonian letters?
   
6. What was the cause of the Thessalonians' deficient work ethic?
   
7. How does rhetorical criticism help the modern reader better understand the Thessalonian letters?
   
8. What is the most likely genre of the Thessalonian letters?
   
9. What are the five major rhetorical components of 1 Thessalonians and how do they function?
   
10. Who is “the man of lawlessness” in 2 Thessalonians 2, and who has been identified as “the restrainer”?
    
11. Which position regarding the rapture finds most support in 1 Thessalonians and why?
    
12. What is the most significant contribution of the Thessalonian letters to the NT canon?