The book of Thessalonians wasn’t written to you.

Among other things, the bible is a history book. It tells of many stories like Noah’s flood, the end of the first and second temple, the story of Moses etc… It also tells of what was going on with a specific people in, the book of Thessalonians.

When Paul argued in the synagogue at Thessalonica, he created converts and enemies in the Jewish leadership. The leaders sought to punish both the teachers of Christianity and their converts, and captured Jason and some others. They took them to the Romans where they accused them of proclaiming another king against Rome (Acts 17:5 discusses Paul at Thessalonica).

After Paul left them, he wrote…

2 Thes 1:6-10

God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled (Thessalonians get the relief), and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. (When? The second coming) ⁸ He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord (How? With Separation and everlasting destruction. Separation from the Lord is the description of “death” in Genesis. Everlasting destruction is hell.) and from the glory of his might  on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. (All those that have believed up to that point.) This includes you (You Thessalonians I’m writing to), because you believed our testimony to you.

A few points:

• Their punishment is everlasting destruction(Hell) and being shut out (separated) from His presence, which is the same thing. This is a spiritual punishment that comes after physical death.
• Their relief comes in the spiritual world, not the physical.
• “To be marveled at among all those who have believed” indicates there are no unbelievers in his proximity. This is another spiritual event indicator.
• 1 Thes 4:15-17 ¹⁷After that, we who are still alive and are left (You Thessalonians I’m speaking to and I)will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.

Paul indicates here that some of them would still be alive when Jesus returns. He writes to a specific audience that includes himself and those with him.

Paul was not likely raptured. He writes in 2 Timothy 4:6-8 about his demise being near. So either Paul is lying and the Bible is in error, or this ‘caught up’ refers to being raised in the spirit. That also means that the second coming was to be a spiritually driven event, not a physical one. Read my book to see how Revelation manifests itself on earth.

Conclusion:

Paul was writing to give relief and hope to new Christians who were being harassed and imprisoned by Jewish leadership for departing from the Jewish faith. He was telling them that their relief would come from Jesus’s second coming, which would happen in their lifetime and manifest in the spirit world.

The only way all of this can be possible is for the second coming to have occurred in 70 AD when the temple was destroyed. Book of Thessalonians shows this.

This is not a text for future generations who are worried about some ‘end times’ prophecy!

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