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2 Thessalonians 2:1
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1 Now [de] we beseech [erotao] you, [humas] brethren, [adelphos] by [huper] the coming [parousia] of our [hemon] Lord [kurios] Jesus [Iesous] Christ, [Christos] and [kai] by our [hemon] gathering together [episunagoge] unto [epi] him, [autos] KJV-Interlinear
1 Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together to Him, NASB
In the first letter to the Thessalonians, Paul mentioned the Rapture of the believers in our dispensation. A principle of doctrine of which the Thessalonians were already aware.
Remember that the Crucifixion did not occur until approximately 30 A.D. That precise year we do not know.
Paul was not called into the ministry by Christ for approximately another five years, or into the mid to late 30’s A.D.
Paul wrote these first letters in the early fifties A.D. However, that does not mean that teaching and the communication of information from the scriptures, as well as from the teachings from Jesus, were not occurring in the interim, for they most certainly were being taught by the Apostles and others.
The Old Testament scriptures certainly existed, however, there was never any mention of the Rapture, nor of any of the things that Paul is about to reveal later within this letter, in the Old Testament.
These are all new doctrines, could only have come from one source, and that was Jesus Himself when He was present just a few years earlier. Paul also received several revelations from God during the course of his early ministry, and we can presume that others did as well. The most notable would be the information given to John for the Book of Revelation, and that won’t occur for yet another forty years or so.
Anyway, The Thessalonians misunderstood the timing of the Rapture, thinking that it was going to occur at any moment. They were both worried and anxious that their history was coming to an end then and there.
Thus the second letter written by Paul to correct their thinking and to remind them that several things had to occur first, before the Rapture, before the evil one would be revealed, and before the Second Advent of Christ.
And so here is Paul’s request of the Thessalonians, as well as of both you and me, in this matter, regarding both of the expected returns of Christ, of the revelation of the evil one (the man of sin, or the anti-christ), and of our gathering together with Him.
The last one, the gathering together, ‘episunagoge,’ means the complete assembly. This is a general statement which combines the total assembly of believers from the Rapture, from the Tribulation and from the Old Testament.
Remember that our dispensation began with the Feast of Pentecost, which was held fifty days following the Feast of Passover (the crucifixion). This occurred perhaps twenty years earlier.
Most folks back then knew that their loved ones (parents, grand-parents and such) who had died prior to the Cross were not included in the Church Age, but were a part of the dispensation of Israel, which our dispensation interrupted. Therefore, the resurrections of the Church and of the Old Testament believers would occur at different times. Ours at the Rapture, which marks the end of our age, and theirs at the end of the Tribulation (right after the Second Advent), which marks the end of the Age of Israel.
So these events or the uncertainty of their occurrence caused the Thessalonians some distress.
And so the second letter of Paul’s to them, in order to straighten things out.
