What Mistake Did the Thessalonians Make re: the Timing of the Second Coming?

What Mistake Did the Thessalonians Make re: the Timing of the Second Coming?

Below is the 26th 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)
"2 THESS. ii. 1-12. [2 Thess. 2:1-12]---'But, as concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together [Greek noun: episunagoges] to him, we beseech you, brethren, that ye be not soon shaken from your mind, nor be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter, as from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord is come [Greek: enesteken (perfect tense), meaning 'has come upon' or 'has arrived,' which is erroneously translated as 'at hand' by the King James Version]. Let no man deceive you by any means; for (that day shall not come) unless there shall have come the apostasy first, and the man of sin shall have been revealed, the son of perdition: who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or an object of worship: so that he seateth himself in the temple of God, and openly declareth himself a god. ...'
"Few passages have more exercised and baffled commentators, or are regarded to this day as involved in deeper obscurity, than the one before us. There is no reason, however, to suppose that it was unintelligible to the Thessalonians, for it refers to matters which had formed the topic of frequent conversation between them and the apostle, and possibly not a little of the obscurity of which expositors complain may arise from the fact that, to the Thessalonians, it was only necessary to give hints, rather than full explanations. "The apostle [Paul] begins by distinctly stating the subjects on which he is desirous of setting the Thessalonians right. They are, (1) ‘the coming of Christ,’ and (2) ‘our gathering together unto him.’ These are evidently [i.e., in an evident or clear manner] regarded by the apostle as simultaneous, or, at all events, closely connected. What are we to understand by this 'gathering together unto Christ’ at the Parousia [Second Coming]? There is no doubt a reference here to our Lord’s own words, Matt. [xxiv]. 31 [Matt. 24:31]: ‘He shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds,’ etc. The [Greek verb] episunaxiousi (shall gather together) in the gospel [of Matthew] is evidently [clearly] the episunagoges (the gathering together) of the epistle [to the Thessalonians]; and we have another reference to the same event and the same period in 1 Thess. iv. 16, 17 [1 Thess. 4:16-17]: ‘For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump [trumpet] of God,’ etc. This can be nothing else, then, than the summoning of the living [by rapture] and the dead [by resurrection] to the tribunal of Christ. "That great and solemn ‘gathering’ the Thessalonians had been taught to ‘wait for;’ but it appears they were labouring under some misapprehension concerning the time of its arrival. Some of them had formed the opinion that ‘the day of Christ’ had actually arrived ([Greek:] enesteken). It is important to observe that our [King James] English version does not give the correct rendering of this word. The apostle does not say, ‘as that the day of Christ is at hand,' but ‘as that the day of Christ is [already] present, or, is actually come.' The constant teaching of St. Paul was, that the day of Christ was at hand, and it would have been to contradict himself to tell Christians of Thessalonica [in his second letter] that that day was not at hand. Yet nothing is more common than to find some of our most respectable scholars and critics deny that the apostles and early Christians expected the Parousia in their own day, on the strength of the [King James Version's] erroneous rendering of this word enesteken. ... "Most singular of all [in its tortuous reasoning] is the explanation of Dr. [Henry Peter] Lange:---‘The first epistle [to the Thessalonians] is pervaded by the fundamental thought, 'the Lord will come speedily:' the second, by the thought, 'the Lord will not yet come speedily.' Both of these are in accordance with the truth; because, in the first part, the question is concerning the coming of the Lord in His dynamic rule in a religious sense; and, in the second part, concerning the coming of the Lord in a definite historical and chronological sense.’ "What can be more arbitrary and whimsical than such a distinction [as made by Lange]? ...Who would presume to interpret Scripture if it spoke in such ambiguous language as this? ... "...[It is clear that]...[t]he apostle does not correct himself [about the imminency of the Parousia], nor does he refer to two different ‘comings,’ but he corrects the mistake of the Thessalonians, who affirmed that the day of Christ had actually come ([Greek:] enesteken). ...

-----
Next excerpt: Events That Must Precede the Second Coming ----- Visit russellparousia.blogspot.com to see all posts

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Rapture (Snatching Away) of Living Saints in the 1st Century

The Rapture (Snatching Away) of Living Saints in the 1st Century [See blog editor's note on the use and meaning of the term "rapture" after Russell's excerpt] Below is the 16th 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) "THE CRUCIAL QUESTION [of whether the rapture happened in the 1st century] "Doubtless most readers will shrink from the demand made upon their faith, when they are asked to believe that the predictions of our Lord in Matt. xxiv. [24:31], and the kindred prophecy of St. Paul in 1 Thess. iv. [1 Thess. 4:15-17, regarding the "rapture" (snatching) of living saints] had a veritable accomplishment [in connection with Christ's ...
Read more

How Does God Measure Time?

How Does God Measure Time? Below is the 39th 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) "THE CERTAINTY OF THE APPROACHING CONSUMMATION. "2 Pet. iii. 8, 9 [2 Peter 3:8-9].--- ‘But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.’ "Few passages have suffered more from misconstruction than this , which has been made to speak a language inconsistent with its obvious intention, and even incompatible with a ...
Read more

Revelation's Messages to the Seven 1st-century Churches of Asia Minor

Below is the ninth of multiple excerpts of commentary on the Book of Revelation from The Parousia , the late 19th-century masterpiece on the Second Coming by James Stuart Russell: " The First Vision "THE MESSAGES TO THE SEVEN CHURCHES.  "[Rev.] Chap. i. 10-20; ii. iii [Rev. 1:10-20; 2, 3] "Notwithstanding what has been said respecting the imagery and symbolism of the Apocalypse [Book of Revelation],  it is not to be forgotten that underlying these symbols there is everywhere a substratum of fact and reality. We have only to read the messages to the seven churches to discover that we are in a region of actual fact and intense reality.  There is such individuality of character in the graphic delineations of the spiritual state of the several churches, that  we cannot doubt that they are accurate and truthful portraits of the Christian communities [in 1st-century Asia Minor] which they describe . There is indeed a strange commingling of figure [symbol] and fact [in ...
Read more