The Thessalonians received the gospel in tribulation but remained faithful in anticipation of the arrival of Jesus– 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10.
Opposition to the new faith forced Paul to leave Thessalonica before his work was completed. When he attempted to return to the city, he was thwarted “by Satan.” Because of anxieties about the congregation, he sent Timothy to investigate. His first letter is his thankful response after receiving good news about the congregation’s faithfulness.
The arrival of Jesus will mean vindication and “rest” for the righteous, but everlasting loss for the wicked – 2 Thessalonians 1:5-10.
Paul’s second letter to the Thessalonians was written in the months following his departure from the city. The first epistle expressed joy at the good news that the Thessalonians were remaining faithful despite persecution. The second addressed three main issues: Persecution, believers who refused to work, and questions about the “arrival” of Jesus.
Jesus will destroy the works of the “Lawless One” and “paralyze” him at his “arrival” in glory – 2 Thessalonians 2:8-12.
Next, Paul explains how Jesus will deal with the “lawless one” at his “arrival.” In doing so, he employs language from Daniel’s vision about the “little horn speaking great things.” Originally, that image represented the Seleucid ruler who attempted to destroy the Jewish faith through deceit and persecution, Antiochus Epiphanes.
False information about the “day of the Lord” caused alarm among many in the congregation at Thessalonica – 2 Thessalonians 2:1-2.
Paul addressed claims that the “Day of the Lord had set in,” rumors that were disrupting the congregation in Thessalonica, apparently, spread by a “spirit,” a word (logos), or a letter, “as if from us.” In response, Paul listed two events that must occur BEFORE the “parousia” of Jesus – the “revealing of the man of lawlessness” and the “apostasy.”
In explaining the future resurrection, Paul lists the key events that will precede or coincide with the arrival of Jesus – 1 Corinthians 15:20-28.
In his first letter to Corinth, Paul outlined the events that will occur at the “arrival” or ‘parousia’ of Jesus, one of several Greek terms applied by Paul to his “coming.” Regardless of which term he used, he always spoke of one “coming,” “revelation,” or “appearance” of Jesus at the end of the age.
SYNOPSIS – The note of finality in passages about the return of Jesus leaves no room for any interim period after his arrival.
Several of the passages in the New Testament present the future return of Jesus as an event of great finality. His “arrival” in glory will be accompanied by celestial and terrestrial upheaval, the ushering in of the New Creation, the resurrection of the righteous, the judgment of the ungodly, and the cessation of death, all of which leaves little if any room for any subsequent interim period during which sin and death continue, however rare.
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