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our rescuer comes to SAVE us! | table of contents

In Paul's second letter to the Thessalonians, he details more of the events that occur at Jesus' coming. Here's a sample from 2 Thes. 1:3-10...

    "We ought always to thank God for you, brothers, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love every one of you has for each other is increasing. Therefore, among God's churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring. All this is evidence that God's judgment is right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering. God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you."

Paul's literary style makes this passage sound more complex than it really is. Still, there's a lot going on. Let's break it down:

Jesus will grant believers relief from persecution and trials: One of the VERY FIRST things Paul assures his readers in his second letter to the Thessalonians is that when Jesus comes he will grant believers relief from all the persecutions and trials they endure. The Greek word for 'trials' used here is thlipsis. This is the same word Jesus uses Matthew 24:21 when he speaks of the time of "great distress" or, as is translated in the NKJV, "great tribulation." The word thlipsis appears 45 times in the New Testament, and is translated persecution, distress, trouble, affliction, trials, and anguish. Every time, with two exceptions, the word is used in reference to the suffering and persecution of believers (Note 11).

Paul wants the church to understand, right up front, that Jesus will literally SAVE us from persecution and tribulation! Praise the Lord! When does this relief come?The passage above is very specific. It comes when Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels. Again, as we already saw in the cardinal rapture passage, angels are present with Jesus' at his coming.
While Jesus comes (with his angels) to give relief to believers, he also comes to exercise punishment upon unbelievers. Note that both relief (for believers) and retribution (for unbelievers) occur virtually at the same time. Relief first, then punishment.

When does all this occur? On the Day Jesus appears from heaven.

in summary:

1) When Jesus' is revealed from heaven with his angels, believers will be given relief from great "persecutions and tribulations" (thlipsis - 2 Thes. 1:4). As I see it, that relief is the rapture event. (compare to Matt 24:21-22). How do we know the passage above is speaking of the parousia and rapture? Two things. Jesus' appearing from heaven, and the presense of the angels. Both line up with Paul's description of the parousia in the cardinal rapture passage.

2) After the relief (rapture), Jesus then unleashes punishment upon an unbelieving world.

order of events:

Adding these details to what we have seen before, here is the updated order of events, according to Paul:

1) Believers on earth in the midst of persecution and tribulation
2) The Day of the Lord commences
3) The coming (parousia) of Jesus' in the clouds with his angels
4) The Rapture event - the dead rise, the believers who remain alive are gathered together to meet him in the air. (believers given relief)
5) Jesus executes punishment upon those who remain on earth.

Before moving on, I want to point out something else in 1st Thessalonians. First, turn to 1 Thessalonians 1:10:

"...And to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath."

Jesus rescues us from the wrath to come. The Greek word translated 'rescue' here is rhoumai, which means "to draw to one's self." I cannot help but think of Jesus' promise to his desciples in John 14:3:

"And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me (NKJV = receive you to Myself) that you also may be where I am."

Also, see the commonly quoted 1 Thes. 5:9:

"For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath, but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ..."

Jesus, you see, is our rescuer and deliverer. Not only will he give us relief from persecution and tribulation on that Day, he also removes us far from the wrath and vengeance that he will pour out on an unbelieving world.

next: but first... the 'man of sin' revealed
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