The second
epistle to the Thessalonians opens with an encouragement from the Apostle Paul.
He commended the Thessalonian Christians for their “faith and patience” amidst
their “persecutions and tribulations (2 Thess. 1:4).” In verses 5 to 8, Paul
urged the Thessalonians to be patient because when the Lord comes (apokalypsei), “the world
will see a radical reversal. The afflictors of the church will reap affliction
from the Lord, and those afflicted for the sake of the Lord will reap rest in
his marvelous presence. Persecution by the wicked demonstrates not only that
the wicked deserve punishment but also that the church is on the side of good.
If this were not so, the world would not persecute them. Thus God is right when
he counts the church “worthy of the kingdom.” At the same time the perseverance
of the church (their response to persecution) is also evidence of their genuine
faith. Thus their willingness to suffer for the kingdom is evidence that God is
right to declare the church worthy of the kingdom.”[1]
Paul
emphasized the fact that Christians will eventually find relief from their
persecution when the Lord returns (ἀποκάλυψις) to judge the wicked, and
punish them “with
everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord (2 Thess. 1:9).”
Christians, on the other hand, will be awarded with rest.
It is clear
that this relief from persecution is not pretribulational. Paul did not tell
the Thessalonians to look forward to a rapture that will take the Church out of
the persecutions and sufferings she encounters. Contrariwise, the Church was
urged to persevere until the Lord is “revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not
God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Thess. 1:7-8).”
2
Thessalonians 1:4-10 presents an immense problem for the pretribulational
understanding of the rapture. Gundry writes, “The resultant difficulty for
pretribulationism is that Paul places the release of Christians from
persecution at the posttribulational return of Christ to judge unbelievers,
whereas according to pretribulationism this release will occur seven years
earlier.”[2]
Charles
Wanamaker agrees that the rewarding of the saints and the punishment of the
wicked takes place at the end of the existing age. He notes:
“The apocalyptic significance of v.
7a is confirmed by v. 7b. It depicts the end of the existing order at the appearing
of the Lord Jesus on the day of Judgment. God’s decisive act of repaying the
enemies of Christ’s people with affliction and rewarding the faithful for their
endurance of affliction will occur ἐν τῇ ἀποκαλύψει τοῦ κυρίου Ἰησοῦ ἀπ᾽ οὐρανοῦ μετ᾽ ἀγγέλων δυνάμεως αὐτοῦ (v. 7b) ἐν πυρὶ φλογός (v. 8a) (“at
the revealing of the Lord Jesus from heaven with the angels of his power [or
might] in flaming fire”).”[3]
At the ‘revelation’ (ἀποκάλυψις), the Lord will judge the living and the dead, and relegate the wicked
to everlasting punishment. This is the final judgment at the end of the
existing age. It is apparent that 2 Thessalonians 1:4-10 does not describe a
secret coming prior to the Great Tribulation.
The
Apokalypsis
Another difficulty
with the Pretribulational view is encountered when one considers the Greek word
used in verse 7 (apokalypsei). The pretribulationalist will agree that the “revelation” (ἀποκάλυψις) of our Lord is a
posttribulational event. They believe that this “revelation” of Christ refers
to His Second Coming with His saints 7 years after the pretribulation rapture.
The ‘revelation’ is obviously a public, glorious return; it can hardly be a
secret occurrence.
In order to
escape the thrust of this entire passage (i.e. 2 Thess. 1:4-10), the
pretribulationist may broaden the meaning of “revelation” (apokalypsei) to include
the Great Tribulation as well as the secret rapture. It is, however,
unimaginable how a pretribulation rapture can be read into this passage of
Scripture when we consider the meaning of apokalypsei.
We discussed
previously that the Second Coming of our Lord is referred to as his
“revelation” (apokalypsei) in 2
Thessalonians 1:7. Elsewhere in the New Testament, it is called his parousia or epiphaneia.
Michael Martin explains the biblical meaning of the term “revelation,”
“The Lord’s arrival on that day is
here termed his “revelation” (apokalypsei). The word
indicates the disclosing of something previously hidden and is most often used
in the New Testament of the revealing of God’s will or nature (1 Cor 14:26; Gal
1:12, 16). It is only used here in the Thessalonian correspondence. Elsewhere
the Lord’s arrival was termed his parousia or epiphaneia (cf. 2:8).”[4]
Commenting
on 2 Thessalonians 1:7, Wanamaker likewise understands that the parousia of Christ and the revelation (ἀποκάλυψις) mentioned
in verse 7 are one and the same event:
“The parousia or coming of Christ is
revelatory in that the Lord Jesus is currently hidden in heaven, and therefore
those who persecute the readers are in (willful) ignorance about him (cf. v.
9). As a result they have no idea about the danger confronting them in the
impending judgment (see vv. 9f.). The parousia of the Lord Jesus will come as
an unexpected and frightening turn of events for them. On the other hand, for
the oppressed it will vindicate their steadfastness. Paul’s intention may have
been to provide his readers with the power to withstand their oppressors
through esoteric knowledge of the coming reversal.”[5]
There is really no biblical basis to allocate the word parousia to a secret coming of
Christ, and the word revelation to a visible
coming. According to 2
Thessalonians 1:4-10, His revelation
will bring immediate destruction to the wicked. At the same time, a much
awaited rest will be awarded to His saints. His Church will obviously still be
on terra firma when He comes again; she is not raptured prior to the Great
Tribulation.
Robert
Gundry gives us a summary of the exegetical problems associated with the
unnecessary distinction between the terms
parousia and apokalypsis:
“Three main terms appear in the NT
for the second coming: “revelation” (ἀποκάλυψις),
“appearing” (ἐπιφάνεια), and
“coming” or “presence” (παρουσία, parousia). Almost all contemporary
pretribulationists acknowledge that the three terms are used indiscriminately
for what they regard as the two phases of Jesus’ return. Ἀποκάλυψις appears in 1
Corinthians 1:7 and 1 Peter 1:7, 13; 4:13 concerning the hope of believers in
the present age. And παρουσία appears in
Matthew 24:3, 27, 37, 39 and 2 Thessalonians 2:8 concerning the
posttribulational advent. Thus, the distinction which used to be made between
the pretribulational Parousia and the posttribulational revelation breaks
down.”[6]
Considering the aforementioned reasons, it is, therefore, ludicrous to
contrive a two-phased coming of our Lord Jesus when one studies 2 Thessalonians
1:4-10. Where can we find in this passage a secret, hidden coming of Jesus
prior to the Great Tribulation to rescue His saints?
Vern
Poythress concludes,
“In short, the consignment of
non-Christians to hell is simultaneous with the relief of Christians in the
rapture. There is no intermediate stage of tribulation between the two events.
Therefore the rapture of the saints and the open appearing of Christ take place
together. 2 Thessalonians 1 is in tension at this point with pretribulational
and midtribulational premillennialism.”[7]
2
Thessalonians 2:1-12
2
Thessalonians 2:1-3 in the NIV reads:
“Concerning the coming of our Lord
Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers, not to become
easily unsettled or alarmed by some prophecy, report or letter supposed to have
come from us, saying that the day of the Lord has already come. Don’t let
anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion
occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to
destruction.”
Paul begins
the second chapter of the epistle with these words, “Concerning the coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him (2 Thess. 2:1, NIV).” Here,
Paul once again discusses the parousia
(παρουσία) of Christ. The parousia
and the gathering (rapture) of Christians are referred to as one event. This is
clear from the usage of the single article which connects the coming of Christ
and the gathering of Christians. Commenting on 2 Thessalonians 2:1, Leon Morris
explains that “the use of the single article shows that the coming of the Lord
. . . and the gathering of the saints are closely connected. Indeed, they are
two parts of one great event.”[8]
This
understanding is consistent with Paul’s teaching in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 that
the parousia of Christ (1 Thess. 4:15) is accompanied by the
simultaneous rapture and resurrection of Christians. It must also be emphasized that the parousia in 2 Thessalonians 2:1 is the same term used in 1 Thessalonians 4:15. 2 Thessalonians
2:1-12, therefore, must be studied in
conjunction with 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.
We shall
begin to see the difficulties encountered by the pretribulationist in this
passage. The inseparable events of the parousia
and the gathering of saints are apparently placed after the great religious
apostasy (verse 3) and the appearance of the Antichrist (verse 8). These events
(i.e. the apostasy and the Antichrist’s unveiling), according to the
pretribulationist, occur during the Great Tribulation. The posttribulational motif
in this passage is hard to ignore.
In view of
the preceding chapter (2 Thess. 1) and Paul’s discourse on Christ’s
posttribulational advent, it is
reasonable to understand the parousia (2 Thess. 2:1) as one and the same event discussed in 2
Thessalonians 1:4-10. It is highly unlikely that Paul suddenly turns his
attention from a posttribulational advent of Christ to a secret
pretribulational coming which is not mentioned in the first chapter of this epistle.
Robert Gundry elucidates further:
“In [2 Thess.] 2:1 Paul mentions
“our gathering” second in order to the Parousia. In the light of the
immediately preceding description of the posttribulational advent, it seems
natural to regard the Parousia as a reference to that event rather than a
sudden switch to a pretribulational Parousia unmentioned in the first chapter
and unsupported in 1 Thessalonians. Several verses later (2:8) the Parousia
again refers to the posttribulational advent of Christ. If then the context of
2:1 leads us to regard the Parousia there as posttribulational, it is
singularly strange that “our gathering together to Him” should be connected
with it and mentioned second in order - unless the rapture, too, is
posttribulational.”[9]
The
aforementioned evidence gives us a hint that the parousia and the gathering of Christians mentioned in 2
Thessalonians 2:1 is a posttribulational event.
The
Thessalonian Problem
In 2 Thessalonians 2:1ff., Paul was required to
correct certain doctrinal aberrations held by the Thessalonians “concerning
the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him.” The
doctrinal error Paul corrected in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12 was a belief that “the
day of the Lord has already come (2 Thess. 2:2, NIV).” The Greek verb
translated “has come” (ἐνέστηκεν) is in the perfect tense. This means that the action
of the verb has happened in the past, although it has lasting results in the
present. Leon Morris agrees with this understanding:
“The content of the particular
report was “that the day of the Lord has already come” . . . . Some
commentators hold the meaning to be that the day of the Lord was on the very
point of occurring. The verb, however, does not mean “to be at hand” but rather
“to be present.’”[10]
Thus, the
Thessalonian problem was not a misunderstanding that the Day of the Lord was at
hand or imminent. Their error was to believe that they were already at the
early stages of the Day of the Lord. Michael Martin elaborates on this
doctrinal error that had affected the Thessalonian church,
“The false teaching is identified in
v. 2. Somehow the church had heard that “the day of the Lord has already come.”
The day of the Lord in Scripture is a fairly flexible concept. The title could
signify a specific event of judgment at the end of time or a complex of events
that may somewhat extend its temporal scope. In this passage, however, Paul
used “the day” of a climactic point of eschatological judgment concurrent with
the “splendor of the coming” of the Lord Jesus (v. 8). The “rebellion” and the
revelation of the “man of lawlessness” (v. 3) are presented as preliminary.”[11]
A proper
understanding of the Thessalonian error will allow us to glean much precious
information regarding Paul’s understanding of the eschaton. Paul wrote, “Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for
that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness
is revealed, the man doomed to destruction (1 Thess. 2:3, NIV).” The
Thessalonians had misunderstood that the Day of the Lord will include the Great
Tribulation. Furthermore, the Thessalonians even believed that they had already
entered the Great Tribulation. Paul corrected their misinterpretation by
stating that “that day will not come (2 Thess. 2:3)” unless the apostasy takes
place and the Antichrist is revealed. These two prominent events must precede
the Day of the Lord (ἡμέρα τοῦ κυρίου, also known as the Day of Christ in the KJV).[12]
This means that the Day of the Lord does not
include the Great Tribulation.
Thus, the Day of the Lord begins with the revelation of Jesus Christ at His parousia. This contradicts the Bible Presbyterian understanding that the Day of the Lord includes the Great Tribulation.[13] Our conclusion is devastating to the pretribulation rapture theory. George Eldon Ladd writes:
“If this “day of the Lord” is to be
identified with the glorious Revelation of Christ at the end of the Tribulation,
then Paul’s argument in this prophecy has omitted its most important point,
namely, that the Rapture is the first event which will take place; and since
the Rapture had not taken place and the Thessalonian Christians were still on
earth, it was impossible that the Day of the Lord had come. Such things as the
apostasy and the appearance of the Man of Lawlessness could have only an
academic interest for the Thessalonians if they were to be caught up from the
earth before these events took place. . . . Paul’s failure at this point to
assert that the Rapture of the Church would be the first in this succession of
events would be a surrender of his strongest argument to settle the
Thessalonian problem. The day of the Lord could not possibly have come, for the
Rapture had not taken place. Why did he not simply assert this to be true? He
does not do so; there is no affirmation of a pretribulation rapture here.”[14]
Apparently,
the Thessalonians had also misunderstood that the Second Coming was in the
immediate future. This would explain why some of them had given up their
secular employment in fanatical excitement and wild anticipation of the parousia (2 Thess. 2:2, 3:6-14).
Unfortunately - for pretribulationism - Paul did not teach an imminent or
any-moment return of Christ. He was convinced that two conspicuous events must
take place prior to the Day of the Lord, namely, a religious apostasy and the
revealing of the Antichrist. In fact, the parousia
of Christ is coupled with the destruction of the man of lawlessness. “And then
the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the
breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming. (2 Thess. 2:8,
NIV).” This statement implies a close temporal association between the
unveiling of the Antichrist and the parousia,
that is, the Antichrist will be revealed shortly before the Second Coming.
Rapture or
Apostasy?
Few
scholars, for example E. Schuyler English and Kenneth S. Wuest, have proposed
that “the rebellion” (ἀποστασία) in 2 Thessalonians 2:3 means departure,
and that it refers to the rapture itself. If English and Wuest are correct,
this would place the rapture prior to the unveiling of the Antichrist. This
would serve to squeeze the concept of a pretribulation rapture into 2
Thessalonians 2:1-12.
Robert Gundry, in his book The Church and the Tribulation: A Biblical
Examination of Post-Tribulationism, argues ably against this
understanding of ἀποστασία.[15] Is Gundry
the only scholar who rejects this understanding of ἀποστασία? The fact is: the majority of scholars, both Reformed and
Dispensational, believe that ἀποστασία means a religious apostasy
in 2 Thessalonians 2:3. According to Gundry, “NT Lexicons uniformly give ἀποστασία the special senses of religious apostasy and political rebellion – BAG,
Kittel, Cremer, Abbott-Smith, Thayer, and others. No wonder also that scholarly
commentators on 2 Thessalonians interpret ἀποστασία as bearing this meaning – Alford, Ellicott, Moffatt, F. F. Bruce, Frame,
Milligan, Morris, and others.”[16]
Charles A.
Wanamaker, in his commentary The Epistles
to the Thessalonians, rejects the understanding that ἀποστασία means a departure or rapture:
“Although ἀποστασία, signifying
the state of apostasy or rebellion, was used in both a political and religious
sense, the latter dominates in the Greek Bible (cf. LXX Jos. 22:22, 2 Ch.
29:19; 33:19; Je. 2:19; 1 Macc. 2:15; and in the NT see Acts 21:21; see also
the use of the cognate verb ἀφίστανται in Lk. 8:13;
1 Tim. 4:1; Heb. 3:12). In the apocalyptic context of 2 Thessalonians 2, the
rebellion referred to is a religious one directed against God.”[17]
In either
case, whether ἀποστασία refers to a political or religious rebellion, it cannot be made to denote
a pretribulation rapture. The Theological
Dictionary of the New Testament agrees with the understanding that ἀποστασία refers to a religious apostasy in 2 Thessalonians 2:3:
“In 2 Th. 2:3 ἀποστασία is used in
the absol. sense as an event of the last days alongside or prior to (?) the
appearance of the ἄνθρωπος τῆς ἀνομίας. Here a Jewish tradition is adopted which speaks of complete
apostasy from God and His Torah shortly before the appearance of the Messiah.
This is applied to the apostasy of Christians from their faith to error and
unrighteousness (v. 11f.) in the last days (Mt. 24:11 f.).”[18]
The reader
might be curious to know whether Dallas Theological Seminary, the bulwark of
dispensationalism and pretribulationism, understands the word ἀποστασία as referring to the rapture. Professor Thomas Constable of Dallas Theological
Seminary, in the popular The Bible Knowledge Commentary, observes:
“Some interpreters have taken this
“departure” as a reference to the Rapture of the church (e.g., E. Schuyler
English, Rethinking the Rapture, New York
Therefore, both dispensational and non-dispensational
exegetes understand the word ἀποστασία as referring to a religious
apostasy prior to the unveiling of the Antichrist. According to Paul’s epistle,
the parousia (παρουσία) of Christ
follows two prominent events in history – the apostasy and the appearance of
the Antichrist. Our Lord’s second coming is most certainly not any-moment or
imminent. It apparently requires much
more than some tenuous exegetical gymnastics to overcome the insurmountable
barrier of a posttribulational understanding in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12.
References
[1] D. Michael Martin, 1, 2 Thessalonians: The New American Commentary (Nashville,
Tennessee: Broadman Press, 1995), 206.
[2] Robert H. Gundry, The Church and the
Tribulation: A Biblical Examination of Post-Tribulationism (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1973), 113.
[3] Charles A. Wanamaker, The Epistles to the Thessalonians: The New International Greek
Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co,
1990), 225.
[4] Martin, 1, 2 Thessalonians, 209.
[5] Wanamaker, The Epistles to the Thessalonians, 225-226.
[6] Gundry, The Church and the Tribulation, 158. Chapter 13 of Gundry’s book gives a
concise discussion of the terms “revelation,” “appearing,”, and
“parousia.”
[7] Vern S. Poythress, “2 Thessalonians 1 Supports
Amillennialism,” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
37, no. 4 (1994): 532. In his excellent paper, Poythress elucidates that 2
Thessalonians chapter 1 is in tension with both Premillennialism and
Postmillennialism.
[8] Leon Morris, The First and Second Epistles to the Thessalonians: New International
Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans
Publishing Co, 1991), 213.
[9] Gundry, The Church and the Tribulation, 113-114.
[10] Morris, The
First and Second Epistles to the Thessalonians, 216.
[11] Martin, 1, 2 Thessalonians, 227.
[12] See Oswald T. Allis, Prophecy and the
Church (Philipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1969; reprint, Eugene,
OR: Wipf and Stock, 2001), 189. Some dispensationalists have attempted to
distinguish between “the day of Christ” and the “day of the Lord.” Oswald Allis
writes: “Scofield has attempted to draw a distinction between the “day of
Christ” and the “day of the Lord,” making the one refer to the rapture, the
other to the revelation. But the words used by Paul to refer to it seem to
indicate quite clearly that no such difference exists. Paul would hardly put the
two words together, “day of our Lord Jesus (Christ)” as he does in 1 Cor. i. 8,
2 Cor. i. 14 (cf. 1 Cor. v 5), if there were an important difference between
the “day of the Lord” and “the day of Christ” (Phil. i. 10, ii. 16) or “of
Jesus Christ” (Phil. i. 6). Darby apparently drew no distinction between the
two. If there were an important difference, the words “as ye see the day
approaching” (Heb. x. 25) would be dangerously ambiguous. They clearly suggest
that there will be signs of its approach. Yet the writer does not say “the day
of the Lord” or “the day of Christ” but simply “the day,” as if there were only
one day which could be called “the day.’”
[13] Jeffrey Khoo, 1 Thessalonians: A Verse-by-Verse Commentary (Singapore : Far Eastern Bible College
[14] George Eldon Ladd, The
Blessed Hope: A Biblical Study of the Second Advent and the Rapture (Grand
Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co, 1956), 74-75.
[15] See Gundry, The Church and the
Tribulation, 114-118.
[16] Ibid.,
115-116.
[17] Wanamaker, The Epistles to the Thessalonians, 244.
[18] Gerhard Kittel & Gerhard Friedrich,
eds., Theological Dictionary of the New
Testament, vol. 1, trans. Geoffrey W. Bromiley (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans,
1964), 513.
[19] Thomas L. Constable, “2 Thessalonians” in The
Bible Knowledge Commentary : An Exposition of the Scriptures by Dallas
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