The first Christians were awaiting the imminent return of the Saviour with great eagerness and joy. We know this from many texts in the writings of Paul in the New Testament, that they expected this momentous event ‘soon’ and possibly in their lifetime.
Recently while having coffee with a young friend, she said she was eagerly waiting for Jesus’ return. She gushed “I can hardly wait for the Rapture to come!” So young with much of her life still ahead of her! A life she could be spending serving her King here. Instead she wanted ‘out of here’.
Are you like her, awaiting the ‘soon’ return of Jesus?
Let’s examine some of Paul’s words written about 51 AD to the Thessalonians (1:9 -10):
. . . . you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is, Jesus who rescues us from the wrath to come.
Paul, writing to believing Christians living in the Roman city of Thessalonica, expected with them, an imminent, soon return of the Lord. That is a fact.
Please read that passage again. Paul believed they (and Paul himself) were waiting for Jesus to come from heaven. Let the implications of that sink in.
Yair I know. That’s a challenge.
As we read this letter today, bear in mind we are reading mail written to believers living 2000 years ago. We must resist the temptation to think we are being addressed by Paul or by the Holy Spirit. Many people think it applies to us today. That is absurd.
This praise of the Thessalonians from Paul and Silvanus doesn’t make sense unless Jesus actually returned in their generation a long time ago. If he did not, nothing in that letter was of any benefit!
Paul knew and believed that Jesus was coming back before his generation had passed away. Of course, following Jesus’ words, Paul did not know “either the day nor the hour” of his return. But he and all the apostles knew it would occur while many would still be alive. Jesus had said it. (Mat 24:30-34)
Were they mistaken? Or more seriously, was Jesus mistaken?
If they were mistaken then their faith was in vain. For all Paul had taught these Thessalonians would have been a waste of time! That would mean the END of the Christian faith. Despair. Hopelessness. Eternal life gone. Resurrection gone. All gone. No one would be following Jesus today!
Please think logically about this.
Let me ask you who still await Jesus’ coming a very important question.
Do you really, seriously, logically imagine that those same real believers who eagerly read Paul’s words, were then terribly disappointed because if they continued to notice others of their community, one by one, passing away while Jesus still had not come, as Paul taught!
If Jesus still had not come then–which is what many modern believers seem to hold—and when the last one of those original Thessalonian believers would have passed away, can you imagine the consternation, the feelings of utter despair and loss of trust in God that would have followed?
Today, some 2000+ years have passed since those original Thessalonian believers were alive. So if you hold the view that Jesus is yet to appear a second time, it logically follows that the faith of Paul’s readers must have been totally in vain. Destroyed.
Then, no one would have ever heard the gospel! The Christian message would be dead in the water from that point.
Come on. Think about it for a minute: If Jesus’ coming was near for these believers, it cannot be near for us, can it? And if Jesus’ coming is still coming near for us today, you must conclude Paul was in gross error.
Do you see the problem? Your problem?
Ask yourself this question: if those Thessalonians were wrong by expecting Jesus to come within their lifetime, why didn’t Paul correct them? Why didn’t he write ‘no, you’ve got it wrong, Jesus won’t be coming for a long, long, time!’
But Paul did not correct them. Instead he continued to encourage them as he wrote this letter to encourage them and then followed it with another letter, which we call Second Thessalonians, with further encouragements about Jesus’ imminent return in judgment on His enemies, unbelieving Israel!
Can you see how illogical it is to expect Jesus to return a second time today if ithat event was promised for the Thessalonians? There wont be a third coming either.
If you trust Paul’s letters were and are the true Word of God, your belief is logically impossible.
Ian Thomson 