“And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be 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: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe.”
This most certainly does not sound like Paul believed Christ would return to some great utopian society brought about by man. It goes along more with Jesus’ prophetic question concerning His second Advent, during His earthly ministry. “Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?”
These early believers at Thessalonica were suffering persecution from a world that had no knowledge of God, and furthermore didn’t want to know. This is evident by their refusal to obey the gospel. When he comes, Paul teaches, there will be no harmonious co-existence. As in every age, dispensation, period of time, or whatever name you give it, the Bible ended in apostasy. And so it will be with ours.
The old warhorses advice to all who are troubled about world conditions and religious persecution is to, “Rest with [him].” And how does one obtain this calm? By looking forward to the Second Coming of Christ, when He will set everything that is wrong, right! And what’s more important, He will have us enter into His eternal rest, when He shall be glorified and adored by all.
There will be no Peace on Earth until the return of the Prince of Peace.
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