Someone attempted to deceive the young believers in Thessalonica. What they were doing was so grievous to Paul that he wrote a second letter to the brothers to alert them of the danger of even casually listening to their lies.

It seems these liars started a rumor that Paul's teaching concerning the Rapture was true. What a minute! That's not a lie; shouldn't Paul have commended them for their help? No, for they perverted the truth of his teaching and led the people to believe they had missed his coming and were in the period known to Jews as the Time of Jacob's Trouble, what we call the Tribulation.

As controversial as some make Pauls' teaching, he believed it with all his heart and taught it everywhere he went. But Luke also wrote in Acts 1:11 that the angels who saw Jesus ascend into heaven from earth told those standing around, "This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back the same way you have seen him do into heaven." Evidently many apostles held the Rapture "theory" to be a fact.

What was the danger of leading people to believe they missed the Rapture? To understand that, you need to understand the difference between one day before the event and one day afterwards. The period we call the Church, or Ecclesiastical Age, is the time when God's grace is afforded anyone who comes by faith to receive the Holy Spirit.

By contrast, the day after the Rapture begins a seven-year period of judgment designed to finish God's work with the Jewish nation. The church is in the clouds with the Lord, and on earth, tragedy will prevail. Grace still abounds and people will be saved, but for the next few years, many will either be persecuted and lose their life for their faith or be drawn into the world system and lose hope of being saved.

Now you know the fear of the Thessalonians. But the real fear comes with losing your ability to tell truth from lie. Paul told of the delusion that people had during the Tribulation and it gives the idea that rejection of the Gospel before the Rapture denotes the inability to change your mind afterwards. Mind you, that's a popular belief of evangelicals but no one knows but God; we can only speculate based on knowing God's word.

I hope you're not basing your eternity on speculation. Today, you can hear the truth and you can know the Truth; his Name is Jesus and if Paul were here, he'd likely tell you this may be the last day for you to receive Him; tomorrow may be one day too late.

1 Developed from Read the Bible Thru ( Jr. 23:21-25:38 2 Th. 2:1-17 Ps. 84:1-12 Pr. 25:15 )
2. Scripture comes from the Holy Bible, New International Version; (c)1978 by New York International Bible Society

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