Visions of Rapture: Perfect Delight

People are always asking, “Do we have to worry about the tribulation?” Some things don’t change. That, was in fact, a primary worry in Thessalonica during the Apostle Paul’s tenure.

I Thessalonians gives you a real crash course on the type of Believers involved. If you want a see a model church and Believers behaving the way Paul would have them to, the Thessalonians were largely that.

 It isn’t that they didn’t have problems—every chapter identifies some of them—but it’s that they had the solutions to the problems engrained in them. Paul wrote his first epistle to them in Acts 18. The Church at Thessalonica was established in Acts 17.

“They hadn’t been Believers very long but they certainly got the grounding,” says Jordan. “Paul had spent some months there grounding them according to the Pauline design for the edification of a Believer and it took!”

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Paul writes to them, “We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers;
[3] Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father.”

Jordan explains, “They’re growing exceedingly in their faith, their charity is abounding toward one another but their patience of hope is under attack. They’re being sustained by their hope but their hope is under attack and you’ll see it chapter 2.”

In II Thessalonians 2, Paul calms them with, “Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him,
[2] That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.
[3] Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.”

Jordan explains, “Notice there’s somebody sending out some information to the Thessalonians claiming that it’s coming from Paul. They understood Paul’s apostleship, they understood the authority of Paul in the life of a Believer today, and they’re sending out false information, even counterfeiting God’s Words.

“You know, the Bible version issue didn’t start with you and me. It was a problem in Paul’s day. Here’s some people in the 1^st Century, before the New Testament is completely written, and they’re already counterfeiting Paul’s epistles, corrupting God’s Word.

“When Paul says were not as many, corrupting the Word of God, there’s a lot of people who do that. He’s saying MANY do it. Well, here’s some of them and they’re doing it for the purpose of shaking in mind and troubling the thinking of these saints. They’re trying to make them think the day of Christ is already here; that it’s at hand."

(Editor's Note: To be continued tomorrow and expect a new entry each day from now on!)