The Second Coming in 1st Thessalonians

The Second Coming in 1st Thessalonians

Below is the 22nd of multiple excerpts from The Parousia, the late 19th-century masterpiece on the Second Coming by James Stuart Russell. "THE PAROUSIA [SECOND COMING] 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, and twenty-two years after the crucifixion of our Lord [in A.D. 30]. It is evident, therefore, that any suggestions of inexperience, or new-born enthusiasm, being visible in this epistle, afterwards toned down [in his later letters] by the riper judgment of subsequent years, are quite out of place. ... "[Johann Albrecht] 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.' 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' [holy innocence; naivete], 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 [1 Thess. 1:9-10]---'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 [1st-century] Christians. 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. [Henry] 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 [Alford continues] would give them an idea of the nearness of the coming of Christ; and perhaps the [alleged] misunderstanding of them may have contributed to the notion which the apostle corrects, 2 Thess. ii. 1 [2 Thess. 2:1].' This is a suggestion [by Alford] 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 [Second Coming], 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 [Matt. 3:7].' 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 had in view. 'The coming wrath' ([Greek:] he orge he erchomene) of this passage is identical with the 'coming wrath' (orge mellousa) of the second Elijah [John the Baptist]; it is identical with 'the days of vengeance,' and 'wrath upon this people,' predicted by our Lord, Luke xxi. 23 [Luke 21:22-23]. It is 'the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgment of God,' spoken of by St. Paul, Rom. ii. 5 [Romans 2:5]. 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 [the 1st-century Jewish historian] Josephus how the outbreak of the Jewish[-Roman] war [that culminated in the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in A.D. 70] was the signal for massacre and extermination in every city where Jewish inhabitants had settled. It was to this ubiquity [omnipresence] 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 [Luke 17:37]). Here again, as we have so frequently had occasion to remark, the Parousia is associated with the judgment." [to be continued]