Imminence of the Second Coming to the 1st-Century Thessalonians

Imminence of the Second Coming to the 1st-Century Thessalonians

Below is the 24th of multiple excerpts of commentary from Parts I and II of The Parousia, the late 19th-century masterpiece on the Second Coming by James Stuart Russell. The initial 31 posts on this blog deal with the Book of Revelation, which is cogently interpreted in Part III of Russell's magnum opus. (For all blog posts, see russellparousia.blogspot.com)

"EXHORTATIONS TO WATCHFULNESS IN PROSPECT OF THE PAROUSIA [SECOND COMING]. "1 Thess. v. 1-10 [1 Thess. 5:1-10].---'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 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 [as prophesied by Jesus in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21, culminating in Rome's destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in A.D. 70]. 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 [J.A.] 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 had a direct and present bearing upon the actual position and 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 [1 Thess. 5:23]---'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 [Greek: parousia] of our Lord Jesus Christ.' "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' ([Greek:] holokleron) be preserved in sanctity till the Lord's coming. This implies the continuance of their corporeal life until that event." ------ Visit russellparousia.blogspot.com to see all posts