There are really three levels of communication operating here:
1. Paul to the Thessalonian church
2. Paul to us today
3. God to us today
I Thessalonians 5:1: “But” is either (a) referring back to the previous paragraph concerning the “rapture” or (b) introducing a new subject (see 4:9,13; 5:12) that certainly includes the Judgment and perhaps other events of the end times. The Thessalonians were worried abut the fate of the dead believers. Now they have asked about when the Judgment will come so that they can be prepared. That was the wrong question to ask.
The word translated “time” in this verse is chronoi, which has the meaning of duration, quantity, elapsed time, or a longer time frame.
By contrast, “seasons” is kairoi, a word which may denote the features, critical epochs or periods marking the events, at what point of time, the nature of events, or a shorter time period.
Look at Titus 1:2-3 for the distinction between the two.
The last part of verse 1 can be translated in one of two ways:
1. you already know it (see 4:9)
2. you already know that you can't know it
I Thessalonians 5:2: They knew because of Christ's words which Paul had probably shared with them (Matthew 24:36-51; Acts 1:6-7). In the Book of Revelation, Christ twice says he is coming as a thief.
The concept of the Day of the Lord first appears in Amos 5:18 where he warns the people that the event may not be a pleasant one for them. Paul, in this case, is reassuring the believers that they do not need to fear the event.
I Thessalonians 5:3: Jewish literature talked about the “birth pangs of the Messiah.” The positive image of a baby's birth is balanced by the negative idea of a thief breaking in. The same event will be perceived as positive or negative. Only four times in Paul's writings does he use the emphatic form of the negative: “There will be no escape.”
I Thessalonians 5:4: Now Paul begins to describe what the proper attitude should be towards the Second Coming. How are we guarded against surprise as believers? Hal Lindsey felt that this could be accomplished by our becoming alert to the prophetic signs so that we can recognize when the times and seasons have arrived. Comments?
I Thessalonians 5:4-8a: Being awake and sober is the same as Jesus' advice to “watch.” Being watchful, however, does not imply paying attention to roadsigns on the way to the Last Days, but to be temperate, careful in attitude and beliefs, wary of spiritual dangers, self-controlled – in other words, not careless. Read I Corinthians 16:13 and Luke 21:34-36.
I Thessalonians 5:8b: We encounter the familiar trinity: faith, hope and love. And the greatest of these is...?
An armor metaphor is used here as in Ephesians 6, but the symbolism is slightly different. Important points to note are (1) the armor is to protect the head and heart and (2) protection is not knowledge, as per Hal Lindsey's interpretation of this passage.
I Thessalonians 5:9-10: Wrath appears to apply to judgment wrath, not tribulation wrath. Even if it did apply to the Tribulation, it only implies that we will be ultimately protected, not necessarily removed from the scene entirely.
Up to this time, salvation has been expressed in terms of who we are. Now it is based on God and His actions through the Son.
“Wake or sleep” in this case means physically alive or dead. It harkens back to the usage in Chapter 4.
I Thessalonians 5:11: The concluding verse of I Thessalonians 4 ended with comforting those who had lost loved ones. This same verb is used here with the idea to “encourage those who are worried.” How are we to encourage? See I Thessalonians 4:18: “with these words.”
John Stott says, “The true pastor is always a good theologian and what makes a pastoral counselor 'Christian' is his or her skilled application of the Word of God.” But it is not just a pastor's duty; “one another” shows it is mutual comforting and encouraging.
“Build up” extends the idea of encouraging. It shows we are not just to hold the line, but are also called to grow in Christ.
Date Setting
Before discussing this subject related to the Thessalonians' concerns, I think it is a good idea to be reminded of Jesus' admonition found in Matthew 10:16 to be “wise as serpents and innocent as doves.”
I must admit that I tend to fall on the serpent side of the equation. I am generally very suspicious of any new teaching I hear unless it can be firmly proved. But regarding the Second Coming, this attitude can soon devolve into mere cynicism, as Peter warns in 2 Peter 3:3-4: “First of all you must understand this, that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and indulging their own lusts and saying, 'Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since our ancestors died, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation!'”
On the other hand, many Christians I know lean too far on the dove side and thus are prone to be gullible when they are presented with claims regarding the timing of Christ's Second Coming. Since those who do not learn the mistakes of history are doomed to repeat them, it is good to briefly review the history of Christian date setting throughout the ages to demonstrate that it is not at all a new phenomenon.
11th century: Eschatological hopes helped fuel the First Crusade. The feeling was that the Emperor would lead the faithful to Jerusalem to await the Second Coming.
1150-1202: Abbott Joachim of Fiore divided the epochs into three ages. Hitler used this idea in formulating his Third Reich.
1250: The Emperor Frederick Barbarossa died. Predictions of his rise from the dead in the Last Days circulated for hundreds of years later.
1348: Petrarch stated, “The end of the world is at hand.” This was based on the dire circumstances of the day – the plague and a severely divided church.
1358: The Jacquerie Revolt and the later Peasant Revolt (1381) were seen as signs of the Second Coming.
1492: Colombus – “God made me the messenger of the new heaven and the new earth...and He showed me the spot where to find it.” Part of the impetus for his journey was to spread the gospel so as to usher in the Second Coming. He took a Hebrew translator along with him on the voyage in order to communicate with the lost tribes of Israel.
1532: Luther – “The last day is at hand. My calendar has run out.”
1534: Melchoir Hofman and the Anabaptists captured Munster with the sword as a sign of the Last Days. This resulted in a reign of tyranny under so-called prophets.
1533-1603: Queen Elizabeth I referred to “these last and worst days of the world.”
1630's: Due to social unrest in England, the Puritans detected the beginnings of the Millennium.
1642-1660: The Great Rebellion in England gave rise to the Fifth Monarchy Men, as a fulfillment of prophecies in Daniel 2.
17th Century: Mathematician John Napier used logarithms to calculate that the Second Coming would occur in the period 1688-1700. Sir Isaac Newton made similar calculations during that time.
1776: An adviser to George Washington felt that the American Revolution was “the pouring out of one vial,” referring to the Book of Revelation.
1802: Elias Boudinot predicted the end of the world to occur within 50 years based on the rise of Napoleon.
1843: New York farmer William Miller gathered approximately 100,000 followers when he predicted the end of the world would occur in 1844. When that date came and went, he explained it by changing his theology. His successors became the Seventh Day Adventists.
1870's: There was a rash of prophecy conferences held throughout America. Although they generally refrained from setting any exact dates, it was widely felt that the end would come within their lifetime due to widespread apostasy that they witnessed.
1880-1884: The Russian Mennonites made the great trek to Siberia as part of their belief in the imminent Second Coming.
1914: This date was predicted by Charles Russell to represent the Second (and invisible) Coming of Christ. This movement led to formation of the Jehovah Witnesses.
1930's: Leonard Sale-Harrison predicted 1940-1941 as the beginning of the Day of the Lord based on the rise of Mussolini.
1970: Hal Lindsey published The Late Great Planet Earth, which began another flurry of date setting in America. In his subsequent book The Terminal Generation, he predicted that Christ would come “before the year 2000.”
1988: Space engineer Edgar Whisenant wriote On Borrowed Time with 3.2 million copies sold. He calculated that Christ would come 40 years after the founding of the modern State of Israel. He calculated that it would happen on September 11-13 of that year. When that didn't materialize, he recalculated the date to be October 3 or “in a few weeks.”
1994: Harold Camping gained a following when he predicted that the end would occur “before September is over.” Even when that prophecy failed, many of his followers continued to regard him as a true prophet.
Lessons to Learn
A. The Prophets: Let's look at what we can learn by concentrating on the “prophets” first. It is intriguing to note that almost all of them predicted that the date would be within their lifetime. Discuss why that might be?
We can't always discern the exact motives behind these various individuals, but here are some possibilities:
1. Sincere Conviction: There is always the wish to save as many people as possible before it is too late, and a time frame helps to get their attention.
2. Elevation of human knowledge over the intended word of God.
a. There have been a number of scientists, engineers and mathematicians involved in date setting. Those more mathematically and literally minded are tempted to force their mindset on a very non-mathematical book like the Bible.
b. There is the egotism of the present which says that today is a more special time in history than any other time. Hal Lindsey famously said that we should take the daily newspaper in one hand and the Bible in the other to check off events as they happen. The problem is: which one interprets the other? Too often, people use the newspaper to interpret the Bible instead of vice versa.
3. Selfish Motives:
a. Prophecy sells. Just look at the most popular Christian books (fiction and non-fiction) and movies. I don't think it is a coincidence that many of the books predict, directly or indirectly, an end date that is usually (1) far enough away in time that the author can be guaranteed of good sales before they are proven wrong but (2) close enough in time that they will get people excited enough to read them.
b. Prophecy gives power. We can see this from the story of the Anabaptists all the way down to David Koresh.
B. Their Followers: Why do people fall for these false predictions over and over again?
1. Escapism: Millennial movements almost always arise when times are bad. We want to escape our circumstances. But there is also the desire to escape our responsibilities. Back in the 1970's, I witnessed two examples of this desire. One lady told my wife that she was buying on credit all the things she had always wanted to own and the best thing about it was that she would never have to pay them off since Jesus would come before then.
I witnessed an even sadder example in our own Sunday school class when a lady said that she used to be worried about the Christian education of her children and whether they would grow up in the faith. However, she was no longer worried since Christ would come before they ever reached the age of accountability. Those children would now be close to 50 years old.
2. Gnosticism: This early Christian heresy defined belief in terms of mastering secret knowledge that put them into an elevated category compared to the rest of the unenlightened world. Sometimes there seems to be a special glee attached to Christians showing the rest of the world how superior we are to them. This can be seen in a popular painting that you may have seen portraying the “rapture” with cars, buses and planes crashing and killing people everywhere while we sail above it all.
What is the legacy of these date-setters?
History shows that it has led to bloodshed, tyranny, and the formation of cults still with us today. And another type of fallout that we sometimes don't consider is the effect it has had on followers who were led to believe that the prophecies were based on a firm interpretation of Scripture. Those people can easily become disillusioned with God's Word as well as with the “prophet.” I hate to pick on Hal Lindsey again since there are much worse examples around in the past and today. However, he was once interviewed in Christianity Today magazine and asked the question, “What if you are wrong?” He replied that he would be considered as either a hero or a goat depending on subsequent events in history. My first reaction to reading this was that he seemed to be solely concerned about his own reputation and not at all with the effect that a false prophecy might have on the many who had read his books and almost placed them on a par with Scripture itself.
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