1-2 Thessalonians Revisited: Expecting the Parousia*

Deeper Reflection
OUT OF THE EIGHT CHAPTERS IN 1 AND 2 THESSALONIANS, the Second Coming of Christ is mentioned in seven.⁴⁵ This strong eschatological emphasis is a discipleship call to eschatological living with eschatological consciousness.We can construct the order of the significant eschatological events from the two letters. Since Paul’s time until today “the mystery of lawlessness” has been “at work” (2 Thess 2:7). Behind this visible “mystery of lawlessness” is the yet to appear invisible “man of lawlessness” – the antichrist (2 Thess 2:3). The end-times is marked by “lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold” (Matt 24:12), and the activities of “many false prophets”, behind which is “the spirit of the antichrist” (1 Jn 4:1, 3). Then comes “the apostasy” (2 Thess 2:3a) – the falling away from the faith, as “the Spirit explicitly says” will happen “in the later times” (1 Tim 4:1). And “the man of lawlessness” will appear and come into the church and try to take control of the church by carrying out further deception in it that will lead many to fall away from the faith.⁴⁶ Then eventually “the coming of the Lord”, when Christ will “descend from heaven”, and “the dead in Christ will rise first”, “to meet the Lord” together with the alive believers who will be raptured and “we will always be with the Lord” (1 Thess 4:15-17).What is eschatologically most critical is that we do not fall away from the faith. We must then diligently know the truth, live faithfully by the truth and cling steadfastly to the truth. “Your Word is truth” (Jn 17:17).

---

⁴⁴ Parousia: Greek for “coming”, and it is used as a theological term for Christ’s Second Coming (see Matt 24:3, 27, 37, 39) ⁴⁵ 1 Thessalonians 1:10; 2:19; 3:13; 4:13-18; 5:1-11, 23; 2 Thessalonians 1:5-10; 2:1-11 ⁴⁶ G. K. Beale, 210