Greetings, Rev316,
I'm always happy to share what I know, whether people believe it or not. Of course, I like it better when they look at the scriptures and do what the Bereans did. That said, I'll post the scripture again:
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Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to Him, we ask you, brothers,
2not to be easily disconcerted or alarmed by any spirit or message or letter seeming to be from us, alleging that
the Day of the Lord has already come.
3Let no one deceive you in any way, for it will not come until the apostasy occurs and the man of lawlessness—the son of destruction—is revealed.
4He will oppose and exalt himself above every so-called god or object of worship. So he will seat himself in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.
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* The coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to Him
* The Day of the Lord has already come
As you can see, Paul starts out with "the coming of our Lord and our being gathered to Him and then in verse 2 refers to "The Day of the Lord." Many do not catch Paul's change to "the Day of the Lord" in v. 2 and read right over it so that they interpret it as follows:
"Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to Him, we ask you, brothers,
2not to be easily disconcerted or alarmed by any spirit or message or letter seeming to be from us, alleging that the coming of our Lord and our being gathered to Him has already come."
"The coming of our Lord and our being gathered to Him" is of course referring to John 14:1-3, I Thess.4:16-17 and I Cor.15:51-53, which all have to do with believers within the church being caught up to meet the Lord in the air, aka the rapture. The Day of the Lord on the other hand, is the time period of God's wrath, the book of Revelation being a detailed account of said wrath. I've said it before and say again, I wish that we had a copy of the letter that the Thessalonians sent to Paul which prompted his response to them. If we did have it, I'm sure that this whole controversy would immediately be cleared up.
To understand Paul's response it is very important to understand why the Thessalonians wrote him about this. And the answer is that, there were people there in Thessalonica teaching that 'the Day of the Lord' had already come. In support of them knowing this, in v.5, Paul says to them "Do you not remember that I told you these things while I was still with you?" So, the Thessalonians knew the order of these events to first be the gathering of the church, with the Day of the Lord, the time of God's wrath, to follow. These are two separate events which are closely linked together. For once the church is gathered, the time of God's wrath immediately follows, which will be carried out via the seals, trumpets and bowl judgments, as well as the plagues of wrath that that two witness bring.
All that said, because there were people there in Thessalonica teaching that the Day of the Lord/the time of God's wrath had already come, the Thessalonian's were concerned as to why they were not caught up to meet the Lord air. They were concerned that they had entered into the time period of God's wrath. Hey Paul! How come we were not caught up to meet the Lord in the air like you taught us? And of course Paul comforts them, telling them not to let anyone deceive them in any way, for 'The Day of the Lord" will not come until the apostasy occurs and the man of lawlessness—the son of destruction—is revealed.
The Lord took upon himself God's wrath that every believer deserves, satisfying it completely. When we believed, we were credited with the righteousness of Christ and reconciled to God. Therefore, God's wrath no longer rests upon those who believe and we must therefore be gathered to the Lord and removed from the earth prior to said wrath.
There are some who have been creative in interpreting this scripture. As and example, regarding the following:
"Let no one deceive you in any way, for it (Day of the Lord) will not come until the
apostasy occurs and the man of lawlessness—the son of destruction—is revealed. "
The word apostasia translated as 'apostasy' can be translated as rebellion, revolt, defection and departure. So, they took the word 'departure' and interpreted it to mean to depart up into the air to meet the Lord. However, if one is going to use the word 'departure' it must retain the original meaning of apostasia, which 'implies desertion from a previous
standing.' In this case it would mean departure from ones stand in faith. In further support of this, the only other place the word 'apostasia' is used, is in Acts 21:21 when the one speaking with Paul said,
"But they are under the impression that you teach all the Jews who live among the Gentiles
to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or observe our customs."
So, 'anastastia' is used to describe departing from the teachings of the Law given through Moses.
I could not buy into that interpretation either. They are basically believing and teaching that the scripture says the following:
"The coming of the Lord and our being gathered to Him, will not take place until we depart up to meet Him in the air," which is basically repeating the same thing.
In I Thessaloniahs 4:16-18, 5:1-5, Paul also gives us the chronological order of the these two events:
The Gathering of the Church
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For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will be the first to rise.
17After that, we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord. - I Thess.4:16-17
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Then regarding the above, Paul says:
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Now about the times and seasons, brothers, we do not need to write to you.
2For you are fully aware that the Day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.
3While people are saying, “Peace and security,” destruction will come upon them suddenly, like labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.
4 But you, brothers, are not in the darkness so that this day should overtake you like a thief.
5For you are all sons of the light and sons of the day; we do not belong to the night or to the darkness. - I Thess.5:1-5
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To be grammatically correct, the 'times and seasons' that Paul mentions, would have to refer back to what he had just spoken about, which was the dead being resurrected and the living being caught up with them to meet the Lord in the air. That said, if I were to paraphrase it would read as follows:
Now about the times and seasons of when the Lord descends from heaven and the living are caught up to meet the Lord in the air, we do not need to write to you. Notice once again in v.2, that Paul after giving a detailed account of our being gathered to the Lord, he again refers to the Day of the Lord, which follows the gathering of the church. He also gives the order of these two events in v.3-4:
"While people are saying, “Peace and security,” destruction will come upon them suddenly, like labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.
But you, brothers, are not in the darkness so that this day should overtake you like a thief. "
Those who will be saying "Peace and Security" will be the wicked. The sudden destruction that will come upon them, is in reference to the time of God's wrath, the Day of the Lord. Then notice after he refers to those who will be saying "Peace and security" he says, "But you, brothers." I don't even have to finish the rest of the verse, because the words "but you, brothers" infers the opposite of not escaping. He then says that we do not belong to the night or darkness, which represents that time of God's wrath where the sudden destruction will come upon them. Paul's meaning of this time of darkness (the day of the Lord) not overtaking us, is because the event of the church being caught up in the air will take place prior to that, with the darkness immediately following. And since believers within the church are not appointed to suffer God's wrath, then we must be gathered prior to said wrath.
I hope this information is beneficial.
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