Journey Through The Bible
     Old Testament Reading: Amos 7-9
     New Testament Reading: 2 Thessalonians 2

Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him: We ask you, brothers and sisters, not to be easily upset or troubled, either by a prophecy or by a message or by a letter supposedly from us, alleging that the day of the Lord has come. Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way (2 Thessalonians 2:1-3a).

Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians gives detailed instructions about the events surrounding the coming of the Lord—most notably the Rapture of the Church. That marvelous day when Believers all over the world, both living and dead, will be taken from the earth to heaven in a twinkling of an eye to meet the Lord in the air.

Because the Tribulation is the worldwide outpouring of God’s wrath, God has not destined Believers to go through it. In the same way that Lot and his family were taken out of Sodom before the outpouring of God’s wrath, so we will be taken out of the world before the Tribulation. The doctrine of the Rapture should have had a comforting effect on the Thessalonians. However, a false report stating that the Day of the Lord had already come, shook the Thessalonians’ composure, and caused confusion and anguish among the Believers.

The purpose of Bible prophecy is not for us to make a calendar, but to build character. Paul emphasized this in both of his letters to the Thessalonians, and Jesus warned us not to set dates (Mark 24:36, 42). Date setters are usually up-setters, and that is exactly what happened in Thessalonica.

Paul appealed to them to calm down based on the truth he had taught them while with them and in his first letter. The Lord will return and catch His own up to meet Him in the air (1Thes 4:13-17). The coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him (v1) is not two separate events, but one great event that will occur suddenly and without warning.

Once the church is out of this world, Satan and his forces will unfold their program. It will be a time of Tribulation for the people left on the earth. Satan and his host will work on earth, and God will send righteous judgments from heaven. Revelation chapters 6 through 19 describe this period of time.

Paul then warned the church at Thessalonica and all Christians throughout history to stand firm and hold to the traditions you were taught, whether by what we said or what we wrote (v15). The traditions Paul referred to are not man-made religious ideas that are not based on the Word of God. Our Lord rejected man’s religious traditions (Mark 7:1-13) and Paul warned against them in Colossians 2:8. Paul was referring to the traditions of the Apostles and Prophets, our New Testament. We need to stand firm on the clear teaching of God’s Word and not be swayed by the false teaching of men, especially with issues concerning the end times that so easily divide the church today.