Return of Jesus

[Guest]

Here are some thoughts I have never heard up until recently:

Paul assures his readers that the dead have not been abandoned by God, since at the time of Jesus' retern, they too will be raised to new life and will join those still alive in unending fellowship with Jesus in the new age. Being caught up in clouds and meeting Jese "in the air" communicated far more to the original readers than we are likely to see there. Clouds were a regular accompaniment of the divine presence in both OT and Christian tradition (e.g., Exod. 19:9; Mark 9:7). So there presence here gurantees God's presence at this event. In the Greco-Roman worldview the "air" was the region between the earth and the moon that was inhabited by evil spirits, who fomented evil and harm on earth and south to hinder the souls of the dead from ascending to the moon, where their evil deeds could be purged by the winds so the souls could retern eventually to the eighth heaven. Thus, the point here is not that in some rapturous event, gravity will be overcome and Christians will fly among the clouds. Rather, Paul reports a tradition that speaks of GOd's presence with the rewly resurrected to protect them from harmful spirits inhabiting the region of the air, so that nothing can separate them from the divine presence. So complete is the transformation of reality when Jesus returns that even the abode of evil closest to the human sphere has been purged of its ability to harm those now joined with Christ.

One cannot discern the exact timetable of these events, however much one might covet such information. Paul tells his readers (5:1-11) that such information is unavailable, as they well know. Rather than trying to discern which events are the harbingers of such a transformation of reality, Christians are better employed in being ready for Jesus' return at any time, since it will come without warning, like the theif who dows not announce his break-in prior to its occurrence (5:2), an analogy that also finds a place in a saying of Jesus (Matt 24:43-44). Using the figures of night as a time for innattention, sleep, and drunkenness, and day as a time of activity, alertness, and sobriety, Paul urges his readers to be children of the day rather of the night (5:5-8a). Changing the figure, Paul urges his readers to put on the armor appropriate for the battle Christians must fight against the forces of evil pressing in on them. He repeats here the three characteristics of Christian life mentioned at the outset of the letter (1:3): faith love and hope (5:8 ). With that armor, Christians will not despair when evil presses in on them. Rather, they will be confident in the salvation won for them by Jesus Christ, and will in that confidence encourage one another (5:9-11).

Introducing the New Testament
Its literature and theology
by Paul J. Achtemeier, Joel B. Green, Marianne Meye Thompson

Paul's letters to the Thessalonian Christians
18.1 pg. 435

[Guest]

We will meet Jesus in the clouds to accompany him back to earth after the wicked are taken and the earth burned up IMO.

Hmmmm.... I don't understand how Jesus and we would return to earth after it's burned up.

It may only be the people who are burned up. But it seems there will be some buring when Jesus comes back (2 Thes 1:8). While it's hard to pin-point the events exactly. I take the burning up to take place at the judgement (as seen in Matthew 25:31)

The burning up is like the flood. The flood was to remove evil people, so the "saved" would have a "new heavens and earth" to dwell on (3 Peter 3:5-7).

[Guest]

Hmmmm.... I don't understand how Jesus and we would return to earth after it's burned up.


Isn't he either going to create a renewed or restored heavens and earth to return to after the old is burned up?
And the same word used for meet "apatesis" as in "to meet the Lord in the air" 1 Thes 4.17 on the three other occasions it's used in scripture means "meeting and returning with."
Matt 25.6 meeting the bridegroom and returned to the house with him
John 12.13 Meeting Jesus coming into Jerusalem and returned back to Jerusalem with him
Acts 28.15 they meet Paul and returned back to Rome with him

[Guest]

steve7150 wrote:

Isn't he either going to create a renewed or restored heavens and earth to return to after the old is burned up?

that's what i always thought, but i have a sneaking suspicion someone here will have a different interpretation of that.

TK