THE PAROUSIA IN
THE APOSTLOTIC
EPISTLES
INTRODUCTION
WE
have seen how the Parousia, or coming of Christ, pervades the Gospels from
beginning to end. We find it distinctly announced by John the Baptist at the
very commencement of his ministry, and it is the last utterance of Jesus
recorded by St. John. Between these two points we find continual references to
the event in various forms and on various occasions. We have seen also that the
Parousia is generally associated with judgment,- that is, the judgment of Israel
and the destruction of the temple and city of Jerusalem. The reason of this
association of the coming of Christ with the judgment of Israel is very
apparent. The Parousia was the culminating event in what may be called Messianic
history, or the Theocratic government of the Jewish people. The incarnation and
mission of the Son of God, though they had a general relation to the whole human
race, had at the same time an especial and peculiar relation to the covenant
nation, the children of Abraham. Christ was indeed the 'second Admit,' the new
Head and Representative of the race, but before that, He was the Son of David
and the King of Israel. His own declared view of His mission was, that it was
first of all special to the chosen people,-- 'I am not sent but to the lost
sheep of the house of Israel ' (Matt. xv. 24). The very title which He claimed,
'Christ,' the Messiah, or Anointed One, was indicative of His relation to
Judaism and the Theocracy, for it recognised Him as the rightful King, come in
the fulness of time 'to His own,' to take possession of the throne of His father
David. This special Judaic character of the mission of the Lord Jesus is
constantly recognised in the New Testament, though it is often ignored by
theologians and almost forgotten by Christians in general. St. Paul lays great
stress upon it.
'Now
I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision, to confirm
the promises made unto the fathers'(Rom. xv. 8); and we might well add, 'to
fulfil the threatenings' as well. The phrase 'the kingdom of God' is distinctly
a Messianic and Theocratic idea, and has a special and unique reference to
Israel, over whom the Lord was King in a sense peculiar to that nation alone
(Deut. vii. 6 ; Amos iii. 2). We shall see that 'the kingdom of God' is
represented as arriving at its consummation at the period of the destruction of
Jerusalem.
That
event marks the denouement of the great scheme of divine providence, or
economy, as it is called, which began with the call of Abraham and ran a course
of two thousand years. We may regard that scheme, the Jewish dispensation, not
only as an important factor in the education of the world, but also as an
experiment, on a large scale and under the most favourable circumstances,
whether it were possible to form a people for the service, and fear, and love of
God ; a model nation, the moral influence of which might bless the world. In
some respects, no doubt, it was a failure, and its end was tragic and terrible;
but what is important for us to notice, in connection with this inquiry, is that
the relation of Christ, the Son of David and King of Israel, to the Jewish
nation explains the prominence given in the Gospels to the Parousia, and the
events which accompanied it, as having a special bearing upon that people.
Inattention to this has misled many theologians and commentators :-they have
read 'the earth,' when only 'the land' was meant; ' the human race,' when only
'Israel' was intended; 'the end of the world,' when 'the close of the age, or
dispensation,' was alluded to. At the same time it would be a serious mistake to
undervalue the importance and magnitude of the event which took place at the
Parousia. It was a great era in the divine government of the world: the close of
an economy which had endured for two thousand years; the termination of one aeon
and the commencement of another; the abrogation of the 'old order' and the
inauguration of the new. It is, however, its special relation to Judaism which
gives to the Parousia its chief significance and import.
Passing
from the Gospels to the Epistles we find that the Parousia occupies a
conspicuous place in the teaching and writings of the apostles. It is natural
and reasonable that it should be so. If their Master taught them in His lifetime
that He was soon to come again; that some of themselves would live to see Him
return ; if in His farewell conversation with them at the Paschal supper He
dwelt upon the shortness of the interval of His absence, and called it ' a
little while ;' and if at His ascension divine messengers bad assured them that
He would come again even as they had seen Him go; it would be strange indeed if
they could have forgotten or lost sight of the inspiring hope of a speedy
reunion with the Lord. They certainly often express their expectation of His
coming. That hope was the day-star and dawn that cheered them in the gloomy
night of tribulation through which they had to pass : they comforted one another
with the familiar watchword, 'The Lord is at hand.' They felt that at any moment
their hope might become a reality. They waited for it, looked for it, longed for
it, and exhorted one another to watchfulness and prayer. So the Lord had
commanded them, and so they did. Could they be mistaken ? Is it possible that
they cherished illusions on this subject? May they not have misunderstood the
teachings of the Lord ? If this were possible, it would shake the foundations of
our faith. If the apostles could have been in error respecting a matter of fact
about which they had the most ample means of information, and on which they
professed to speak with authority as the organs of a divine inspiration, what
confidence could be reposed in them on other subjects, in their nature obscure,
abstruse, and mysterious ? No one who has any faith in the assurance which the
Saviour gave His disciples that He would send the Holy Spirit to ' guide them
into all the truth,' to ' teach them all things,' and to ' bring all things to
their remembrance that he had said unto them,' can doubt that the authority with
which the apostles speak concerning the Parousia is equal to that of our Lord
Himself. The hypothesis that a distinction may be made between what they
believed and taught on this subject, and what they believed and taught on other
subjects, will not bear a moment's examination. The whole of their teaching
rests upon the same foundation, and that foundation the same on which rests the
doctrine of Christ Himself.
We
now proceed to examine the references to the Parousia contained in the Epistles
of St. Paul,-- taking them in their chronological order, so far as this may be
said to be ascertained.
THE PAROUSIA IN THE EPISTLES TO THE
THESSALONIANS.
THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS
It
is generally agreed that this is the earliest of all the apostolic epistles, and
its date is assigned to the year A.D. 52, sixteen years after the conversion of
St. Paul, [1] and twenty-two Years after the crucifixion of our
Lord. It is evident, therefore, that any suggestions of inexperience, or
new-born enthusiasm, being visible in this epistle, afterwards toned down by the
riper judgment of subsequent years, are quite out of place. We can detect no
difference in the faith and hope of 'Paul the aged' and that of the 'weighty and
powerful' writer of this epistle. It is, therefore, most instructive to observe
the Sentiments and beliefs which were manifestly current and prevalent in the
minds of the early Christians.
Bengel
remarks : 'The Thessalonians were filled with the expectation of Christ's
advent. So praiseworthy was their position, so free and unembarrassed was the
rule of Christianity among them, that they were able to look each hour for the
coming of the Lord Jesus.' [2] This is strange reasoning. It is
true the Thessalonians were filled with the expectation of Christ's speedy
coming, but if in this expectation they were deceived, where is the
praiseworthiness of labouring under a delusion ? If it was an amiable weakness,
'sancta simplicitas,' to expect the speedy return of Christ, it seems a
poor compliment to praise their credulity at the expense of their understanding.
We
shall find, however, that the Christians of Thessalonica stand in no need of any
apology for their faith.
EXPECTATION OF THE SPEEDY COMING OF
CHRIST.
1 THESS.
i. 9, 10-- 'Ye turned to God from your idols,
to serve the living and true God; and to wait for his Son from the heavens,
whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, who delivereth us from the coming
wrath.'
This
passage is interesting as showing very clearly the place which the expected
coming of Christ held in the belief of the apostolic churches. It was in the
front rank; it was one of the leading truths of the Gospel. St. Paul describes
the new attitude of these Thessalonian converts when they 'turned from their
idols to serve the living and true God;' it was the attitude of 'waiting for
his Son.' It is very significant that this particular truth should be
selected from among all the great doctrines of the Gospel, and should be made
the prominent feature which distinguished the Christian converts of
Thessalonica. The whole Christian life is apparently summed up under two heads,
the one general, the other particular : the former, the service of the living
God; the latter, the expectation of the coming of Christ. It is impossible to
resist the inference, (1) That this latter doctrine constituted an integral part
of apostolic teaching. (2) That the expectation of the speedy return of Christ
was the faith of the primitive Christians. [3] For, how were
they to wait ? Not Surely, in their graves; not in Heaven; nor in Hades; plainly
while they were alive on the earth. The form of the expression, 'to wait for his
Son from the heavens,' manifestly implies that they, while on earth, were
waiting for the coming of Christ from heaven. Alford observes 'that the especial
aspect of the faith of the Thessalonians was hope; hope of the return of
the Son of God from heaven;' and he adds this singular comment: 'This hope was
evidently entertained by them as pointing to an event more immediate than the
church has subsequently believed it to be. Certainly these words would give them
an idea of the nearness of the coming of Christ; and perhaps the
misunderstanding of them may have contributed to the notion which the apostle
corrects, 2 Thess. ii. 1.' This is a suggestion that the Thessalonians were
mistaken in expecting the Saviour's return in their own day. But whence did they
derive this expectation ? Was it not from the apostle himself ? We shall
presently see that the Thessalonians erred, not in expecting the
Parousia, or in expecting it in their own day, but in supposing that the
time had actually arrived.
The
last clause of the verse is no less important,-' Jesus, who delivereth us from
the coming wrath.' These words carry us back to the proclamation of John
the Baptist,-- 'Flee from the coming wrath.' It would be a mistake to suppose
that St. Paul here refers to the retribution which awaits every sinful soul in a
future state; it was a particular and predicted catastrophe which he bad in
view. 'The coming wrath' [h orgh h ercomenh] of this passage is identical with
the 'coming wrath' [orgh mellousa] of the second Elijah ; it is identical
with 'the days of vengeance,' and 'wrath upon this people,' predicted by our
Lord, Luke xxi. 23. It is 'the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous
judgment of God,' spoken of by St. Paul, Rom ii. 5. That coming 'dies irae'
always stands out distinct and visible throughout the whole of the New
Testament. It was now not far off, and though Judea might be the centre of the
storm, yet the cyclone of judgment would sweep over other regions, and affect
multitudes who, like the Thessalonians, might have been thought beyond its
reach. We know from Josephus how the outbreak of the Jewish war was the signal
for massacre and extermination in every city where Jewish inhabitants had
settled. It was to this ubiquity of 'the coming Wrath' that our Lord referred
when He said, 'Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered
together' (Luke xvii. 37). Here again, as we have so frequently had occasion to
remark, the Parousia is associated with the judgment.
'THE WRATH' COMING UPON THE JEWISH PEOPLE.
I Thess. ii. 16
-- ' But the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost.'
Here
the apostle represents the 'coming wrath' as already come. Now it is certain
that the judgment of Israel, that is, the destruction of Jerusalem and the
extinction of the Jewish nationality, had not yet taken place. Bengel seems to
think that the apostle alludes to a fearful massacre of Jews that bad just
occurred at Jerusalem, where 'an immense multitude of persons (some say more
than thirty thousand) were slain.' [4] Alford's explanation is
: ' He looks back on the fact in the divine counsels as a thing in past
time, q.d. " was appointed to come;" not "has come." Jonathan Edwards, in
his sermon on this text, refers it to the approaching destruction of Jerusalem.
"The wrath is come," i.e. it is just at hand; it is at the door : as it proved
with respect to that nation : their terrible destruction by the Romans was soon
after the apostle wrote this epistle." [5] Either Bengel's
supposition is correct, or the final catastrophe was, in the apostle's view, so
near and so sure that he spoke of it as an accomplished fact.
We
may trace a very distinct allusion in the language of the apostle in verses 15
and 16 to our Lord's denunciations of 'that wicked generation' (Matt. xxiii. 31,
32, 36).
THE BEARING OF THE PAROUSIA ON THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST.
I Thess. ii. 19.--
' For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing ? Are not even ye in the
presence of our Lord Jesus at his coming ?'
The
uniform teaching, of the New Testament is, that the event which was to be so
fatal to the enemies of Christ was to be an auspicious one to His friends.
Everywhere the most malignant opposers and persecutors of Christianity were the
Jews; the annihilation of the Jewish nationality, therefore, removed the most
formidable antagonist of the Gospel and brought rest and relief to suffering
Christians. Our Lord had said to His disciples, when speaking of this
approaching catastrophe, 'When these things begin to come to pass, then look up,
and lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh' (Luke xxi. 28). But
this explanation is far from exhausting the whole meaning of such passages. It
cannot be doubted that the Parousia is everywhere represented as the crowning
day of Christian hopes and aspirations ; when they would 'inherit the kingdom,'
and 'enter into the joy of their Lord.' Such is the plain teaching both of
Christ and His apostles, and we find it clearly expressed in the words of St.
Paul now before us. The Parousia was to be the consummation of glory and
felicity to the faithful, and the apostle looked for 'his crown' at the Lord's
'coming.'
CHRIST TO COME WITH ALL HIS HOLY ONES.
I Thess. iii. 13.
-- ' To the end that he may stablish ' your hearts unblameable in holiness
before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his
holy' [ones].
This
passage furnishes another proof that the apostle regarded the period of our
Lord's coming as the consummation of the blessedness of His people. He here
represents it as a judicial epoch when the moral condition and character of men
would be scrutinised and revealed. This is in accordance with I Cor. iv. 5 : '
Judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will
bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the
counsels of the hearts : and then shall every man have praise of God.' Similarly
in Col. i. 22 we find an almost identical expression,-'To present you holy, and
unblameable, and unreproveable in his sight,' words which can only be understood
as referring to a judicial investigation and approval.
That
this prospect was not distant, but, on the contrary, very near, the whole tenor
of the apostle's language implies. Is St. Paul still without his crown of
rejoicing? Are his Thessalonian converts Still waiting for the Son of God from
heaven ? Are they not yet ' stablished in holiness before God' ? not yet
presented holy, and unblameable, and unreproveable in His sight? For this was to
be their felicity 'at the coming of the Lord Jesus,' and not before. If that
event therefore has never yet taken place, what becomes of their eager
expectation and hope? If they could have known that hundreds and thousands of
years must first Slowly run their course, could St. Paul and his children in the
faith have been thus filled with transport at the thought of the coming glory?
But on the supposition that the Parousia was close at hand; that they might all
expect to witness its arrival, then how natural and intelligible all this eager
anticipation and hope become. That both the apostle and the Thessalonians
believed that 'the coming of the Lord was drawing nigh,' is so evident that it
scarcely requires any argument to prove it. The only question is, were they
mistaken, or were they not?
A
remark may be added on the concluding word of the passage. 'Agioi, holy, may
refer to angels, or men, or to both. There is nothing in the text to determine
the reference. It is true that in the next chapter (ver. 14) we are told that
them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him but this seems to refer
rather to the raising of the sleeping saints from their graves, than of their
coming from heaven with Him. We are therefore precluded from referring agioi to
the dead in Christ. The more so that Christ at His coming is always represented
as attended by His angels.
'He
shall come with his angels' (Matt. xvi. 27) ; 'with the holy angels' (Mark viii.
38) ; 'with his mighty angels' (2 Thess. i. 7); 'all his holy angels with him'
(Matt. xxv. 1).
This is in accordance also with Old Testament usage. The royal state of
Jehovah when He came to give the law at Mount Sinai is thus described,-- 'He
came with ten thousands ' i.e. , of saints, angels (Dent. xxxiii. 2).
'The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels ; the Lord is
among them as in Sinai' (Ps. lxviii. 17). 'Ye received the law by the
disposition [at the injunction, - Alford] of angels' (Acts vii. 53). We may
therefore take it as probable that the reference in this passage is to the
angels.
EVENTS ACCOMPANYING THE PAROUSIA.
1. The Resurrection of the
Dead in Christ.
2. The Rapture of the Living Saints
to Hearen.
I Thess. iv. 13-17
-- ' But I would not have .you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which
are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even ,is others which have no hope. For if we
believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus
will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by [in] the word of the
Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall
not prevent [come before, take precedence of] them which are asleep. For the
Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the
archangel and with the trump of God: and first the dead in Christ shall rise
then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in
the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the
Lord.'
These
explanations of St. Paul are evidently intended to meet a state of things which
had begun to manifest itself among the Christians of Thessalonica, and which had
been reported to him by Timotheus. Eagerly looking for the coming of Christ,
they deplored the death of their fellow Christians as excluding them from
participation in the triumph and blessedness of the Parousia. ' They feared that
these departed Christians would lose the happiness of witnessing their Lord's
second coming, which they expected soon to behold.' [6]- To
correct this misapprehension the apostle makes the explanations contained in
this passage.
First,
be assures them that they had no reason to regret the departure of their friends
in Christ, as if they bad sustained any disadvantage by dying before the coming
of the Lord; for as God had raised up Jesus from the dead, so He would raise u
His sleeping disciples from their graves, at His return in glory.
Secondly,
he informs them, on the authority of the Lord Jesus, that those of themselves
who lived to see His coming would not take precedence of, or have any advantage
over, the faithful who had deceased before that event.
Thirdly,
he describes the order of the events attending the Parousia : --
1. The descent of the Lord
from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and the trump of
God.
2. The raising up of the dead who had departed in the Lord.
3. The simultaneous rapture of the living saints, along with the resuscitated
dead, into the region of the air, there to meet their coming Lord.
4. The everlasting reunion of Christ and His people in heaven.
The legitimate
inference from the words of St. Paul in ver. 15, 'we who are alive and remain
unto the coming of the Lord,' is that he anticipated it as possible, and even
probable, that his readers and himself would be alive at the coming of the Lord.
Such is the natural and obvious interpretation of his language. Dean Alford
observes, with much force and candour, -
' Then, beyond question, he
himself expected to be alive, together with the majority of those to whom he
was writing, at the Lord's coming. For we cannot for a moment accept the
evasion of Theodoret and the majority of ancient commentators (viz. that the
apostle does not speak of himself personally, but of those who should be
living at the period), but we must take the words in their only plain
grammatical meaning, that "we which are alive and remain" [oi zwntej oi
perileipomenoi] are a class distinguished from "they that sleep" [oi
koimhqentej] by being yet in the flesh when Christ comes, in which class by
prefixing " we " he includes his readers and himself. That this was his
expectation we know from other passages, especially from 2 Cor. v.'
[7]
But while thus
admitting that the apostle held this expectation, Alford treats it as a mistaken
one, for he goes on to say :
"Nor need it surprise any
Christian that the apostles should in this matter of detail have found their
personal expectation liable to disappointment respecting a day of which it is
so solemnly said that no man knoweth its appointed time, not the angels in
heaven, not the Son, but the Father only (Mark xiii. 32).'
In like manner
we find the following remarks in Conybeare and Howson (chap. xi.):
' The early church, and even
the apostles themselves, expected their Lord to come again in that very
generation. St. Paul himself shared in that expectation, but, being under the
guidance of the Spirit of truth, he did not deduce therefrom any erroneous
practical conclusion.'
But the
question is, had the apostles sufficient grounds for their expectation ? Were
they not fully justified in believing as they did ? Had not the Lord expressly
predicted His own coming within the limit of the existing generation ? Had He
not connected it with the overthrow of the temple and the subversion of the
national polity of Israel ? Had He not assured His disciples that in 'a
little while' they should see Him again ? Had He not declared that some of
them should live to witness His return ? And after all this, is it necessary to
find excuses for St. Paul and the early Christians, as if they had laboured
under a delusion ? If they did, it was not they who were to blame, but their
Master. It would have been strange indeed if, after all the exhortations which
they bad received to be on the alert, to watch, to live in continual expectancy
of the Parousia, the apostles had not confidently believed in His speedy coming,
and taught others to do the same. But it Would seem that St. Paul rests his
explanations to the Thessalonians on the authority of a special divine
communication made to himself, ' This I say unto you by the word of the
Lord,' etc. This can hardly mean that the Lord had so predicted in His
prophetic discourse on the Mount of Olives, for no such statement is recorded;
it must therefore refer to a revelation Which he had himself received. How,
then, could he be at fault in his expectations? It is strange that so great
incredulity should exist in this day respecting the plain sense of our Lord's
express declarations on this subject. Fulfilled or unfulfilled, right or wrong,
there is no ambiguity or uncertainty in His language. It may be said that we
have no evidence of such facts having occurred as are here described,-- the Lord
descending with a shout, the sounding of the trumpet, the raising of the
sleeping dead, the rapture of the living saints. True; but is it certain that
these are facts cognisable by the senses ? is their place in the region of the
material and the visible ? As we have already said, we know and are sure that a
very large portion of the events predicted by our Lord, and expected by His
apostles, did actually come to pass at that very crisis called 'the end of the
age.' There is no difference of opinion concerning the destruction of the
temple, the overthrow of the city, the unparalleled slaughter of the people, the
extinction of the nationality, the end of the legal dispensation. But the
Parousia is inseparably linked with the destruction of Jerusalem ; and, in like
manner, the resurrection of the dead, and the judgment of the 'wicked
generation,' with the Parousia. They are different parts of one great
catastrophe ; different scenes in one great drama. We accept the facts
verified by the historian on the word of man ; is it for Christians
to hesitate to accept the facts which are vouched by the word of the Lord ?
EXHORTATIONS TO WATCHFULNESS IN PROSPECT OF THE PAROUSIA.
I Thess. v. 1-10.--
'But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto
you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a
thief in the night. For when they shall ray, Peace and safety; then sudden
destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child ; and they
shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should
overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of
the day : we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep
as do others ; but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep, sleep in
the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us, who
axe of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and
for an helmet, the hope of salvation. For God hath not appointed us to wrath,
but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that,
whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him.'
It
is manifest that there would be no meaning in these urgent calls to watchfulness
unless the apostle believed in the nearness of the coming crisis. Was it to the
Thessalonians, or to some unborn generation in the far distant future, that St.
Paul was penning these lines ? Why urge men in A.D. 52 to watch, and be on the
alert, for a catastrophe which was not to take place for hundreds and thousands
of years ? Every word of this exhortation supposes the crisis to be impending
and imminent.
To
say that the apostle writes not for any one generation, nor to any persons in
particular, is to throw an air of unreality into his exhortations from which
reverent criticism revolts. He certainly meant the very persons to whom he
wrote, and who read this epistle, and he thought of none others. We cannot
accept the Suggestion of Bengel that the 'we which are alive and remain'
are only imaginary personages, like the names Caius and Titius (John Doe and
Richard Roe) ; for no one can read this epistle without being conscious of the
warm personal attachment and affection to individuals which breathe in every
line. We conclude, therefore, that the whole bad a direct and present bearing
upon the actual position end prospects of the persons to whom the epistle is
addressed.
PRAYER THAT THE THESSALONIANS MIGHT SURVIVE UNTIL THE COMING OF CHRIST.
1 THESS.
v. 23 -- ' Now may the God of peace himself
sanctify you wholly, and may your spirit, and soul, and body, all together be
preserved blameless at the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.'
[8]
If any shadow
of a doubt still rested on the question whether St. Paul believed and taught the
incidence of the Parousia in his own day, this passage would dispel it. No words
can more clearly imply this belief than this prayer that the Thessalonian
Christians might not die before the appearing of Christ. Death is the
dissolution of the union between body, soul, and spirit, and the apostle's
prayer is that spirit, soul, and body might 'all together' [oloklhron] be
preserved in sanctity till the Lord's coming. This implies the continuance of
their corporeal life until that event.
Footnotes
1. Conybeare and
Howson. -
2. Gnomon, in
loc. -
3. ' It is known
to every reader of Scripture that the First Epistle to the Thessalonians speaks
of the coming of Christ in terms which indicate an expectation of His speedy
appearance: "For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we," etc.
(chap. iv. 15-17; v. 4). Whatever other construction these texts may bear,
the idea they leave upon the mind of an ordinary reader is that of the
author of the epistle looking for the day of judgment to take place in his own
time, or near to it.'-- Paley's Horae Paulinae, chap. ix.
'If we were asked
for the distinguishing characteristic of the first Christians of Thessalonica,
we should point to their overwhelming sense of the nearness of the second
advent, accompanied with melancholy thoughts concerning those who might die
before it, and with gloomy and un practical views of the shortness of life and
the vanity of the world. Each chapter in the First Epistle to the Thessalonians
ends with an allusion to this subject; and it was evidently the topic of
frequent conversations when the apostle was in Macedonia. But St. Paul never
spoke or wrote of the future as though the present was to be forgotten. When the
Thessalonians were admonished of Christ's advent, he told them also of other
coming events, full of practical warning to all ages, though to our eyes still
they are shrouded in mystery,-- of " the falling away," and of " the man of
sin." " These awful revelations," he said, " must precede the revelation of the
Son of God. Do you not remember," he adds, with emphasis, in his letter,
" that when I was still with you, I often told you this ! You know therefore
the hindrance why he is not revealed, as he will be in his own
season." He told them, in the words of Christ Himself, that " the times and the
seasons of the coming revelations were known only to God; " and he warned them,
as the first disciples had been warned in Jude, that the great day would come
suddenly on men unprepared, .. as the pangs of travail on her whose time is
full," and "as a thief in the night; " and he showed them both by precept and
example that though it be true that life is short and the world is vanity, yet
God's work must be done diligently and to the last.'-- Conybeare and Howson,
Life and Epistles of St. Paul, chap. ix. -
4. Gnomon,
in loc. -
5. Works, vol.
iv. p. 281 -
6. Conybeare and
Howson ch. xi. -
7. Greek
Testament, in loc. -
8. Conybeare and Howson's
Translation -
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