Paul Was Pre-Trib
It’s the only logical explanation for his 2nd letter to the Thessalonians
Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus 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 any one 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. (2 Thes 2:1-3)
The Readers’ Digest Version
By most accounts Paul stayed in Thessalonica for only about 3 weeks and during that time had founded a Church and taught them the doctrines of salvation and sanctification, the Trinity, the nature of man, the assurance of pardon, and the Day of the Lord. When they received a letter after he left announcing that the Day of the Lord had come they reacted with fear and confusion, and immediately sought clarification. From Paul’s response (2 Thes 2:2) it’s clear the letter was a forgery sent by someone pretending to be him and meant to frighten them. And it worked. The Greek words for unsettled and alarmed literally mean to agitate, incite, and frighten. Something in the letter had contradicted their understanding of his teaching and they were upset. Reading 2 Thes 2:1-3 we see that the forgery must have disputed his teaching on events leading up to the Day of the Lord.
All things that were written before were written for our learning … (Rom 15:4)
This passage is no exception, but many have failed to gain the lesson. Think about it. The Day of the Lord is a term always referring to the Tribulation period. Had Paul taught a post-tribulation rapture position would they have been angry with him upon receiving this forgery? (In fact would Paul’s detractors have even sent such a letter?) Belief in a post-trib rapture would actually have caused them to conclude that the 2nd coming was only a few years away and most of them would live to see it. Why would that have made them angry and upset? The only justification for their fear and confusion was that Paul had taught them a pre-trib rapture and now this letter was telling them the Tribulation period had begun. From a pre-trib position the obvious conclusion would have been that the Church in Thessalonica had missed the Rapture, and the obvious conclusion to that would have been that they weren’t saved and therefore all of Paul’s teaching would have been suspect: salvation, sanctification, the assurance of pardon, everything. Now we can see how they would be agitated, angry and afraid. They were suffering intense persecution. Was it all for a false belief?
From these few verses we can construct Paul’s teaching on the chronology of events leading up to the Day of the Lord. Because of the abundance of proof from his own letters we know that Paul believed in the assurance of pardon and eternal security, once saved always saved. Some of the most obvious references are Ephe. 1:13-14 and 2:8-9,
Romans 10:9-10, 2 Cor 1:22 and Titus 3:4-7 but there are many others as well. Paul taught that true believers cannot fall away from faith, but the rebellion spoken of in 2 Thes 2:3 describes people rejecting something they once considered themselves part of or belonging to. The Greek word is
The End Times According To Paul
Following the rapture and the falling away of remaining church members into a world-wide counterfeit religion, the anti-christ will be revealed by proclaiming himself to be god. This doesn’t mean he won’t have previously been known on earth as a great statesman and leader, but that by proclaiming himself to be god, he reveals himself to be Satan’s man for Planet Earth. This revelation kicks off the Great Tribulation and will be accompanied by all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders meant to deceive those who have fallen away into believing they have found the truth. But in reality they will have rejected the truth and embraced a lie. At the end of the Great Tribulation the Lord will return to over throw the anti-christ and destroy him by the splendor of His coming.
(2 Thes 2:3-12)
As it is everywhere else in Scripture the timing of the Rapture is only implied in this passage. For reasons of His own the Lord never clearly states its timing, leaving it for us to figure out for ourselves and actually telling us no one will ever know exactly when it will come. But by carefully studying passages describing it and maintaining the view that the Bible cannot contradict itself, the astute believer can obey the commandment to “know the times and seasons” and construct with some assurance the correct sequence of events. Paul chided the Thessalonians for not figuring this out back then (2 Thes 2:5) and could chide much of the church today for the same reason.
