Announcement 1 — Oops!
McGahan Publishing House made my book, Inmillennialism: Redefining the Last Days, available for purchase on August 18. Some of the first copies may have had print defects. If your copy does, and you ordered through Amazon, Books-A-Million, or Barnes&Noble, please contact Caleb Poston at info@MPHBooks.com for replacement options. (Caleb plans to contact everyone who pre-ordered on the MPH website.) We apologize for this inconvenience and thank you for your patience.
Announcement 2 — PDF version
On Friday (August 28), McGahan Publishing House will offer a PDF edition of my book on their website. It will have the same page numbers as the hard copy editions. The download file will cost $10.
Introduction to 1 Thessalonians
Election is a hot-button topic in many Christian circles. Some Christ-followers believe God chose them before the foundation of the world (cf. Eph 1:4) and wrote their names in the Lamb’s book of life (cf. Rev 13:8; 17:8). Other sincere Christians think this idea would make God a respecter of persons contrary to Scripture (cf. Acts 10:34). This doctrine has generated endless debates that continue today.
How could Paul—after spending a short time in Thessalonica (Acts 17:1–8)—later write a letter to them in which he assumes they understood this doctrine? He matter-of-factly says, “We give thanks to God always for you all … knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God” (1 Thess 1:2, 4; cp. 2 Thess 2:13). He does not explain this statement; he assumes they know his meaning.
But election is not the only “advanced” doctrine Paul taught the Thessalonians1 during the “three sabbath days [he] reasoned with them out of the scriptures” (Acts 17:2). He also taught them eschatology—the study of last things. In his letters—written within a few months of his departure—he refers to the return of Christ (1 Thess 1:10), God’s kingdom and glory (1 Thess 2:12; 2 Thess 1:5), the wrath coming on apostate Israel (1 Thess 2:16), the parousia (presence) of Christ (1 Thess 2:19; 3:13; 5:23), the soon-coming tribulation (1 Thess 3:4 YLT), the gathering of the saints to Christ (2 Thess 2:1), the day of the Lord (1 Thess 5:1; cp. 2 Thess 2:2), the destruction of the Man of Sin (2 Thess 2:8), and other prophetic topics. Sure, these disciples had misunderstood certain implications of Paul’s teaching (e.g., 1 Thess 4:13–18), but he could correct these errors based on the Thessalonians’ perfect knowledge of God’s overall prophetic plan (e.g., 1 Thess 5:2).
How can these things be? Were the Thessalonians “super learners,” able to grasp quickly such deep and complicated doctrines? Did the Holy Spirit anoint Paul’s preaching miraculously such that these new believers understood things that modern Christians sometimes require years to understand?
Without denying the possibility of either of these options, I suggest there is another factor that accounts for their quick doctrinal uptake—they were familiar with the Old Testament Scriptures. The Lord used Paul to build the church around a core of Jewish converts. Luke the physician-historian says, “They came to Thessalonica, where was a synagogue of the Jews: and Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures” (Acts 17:1–2). These believers—natural Jews and Jewish proselytes—were prepared for Paul to preach the gospel to them. They were like Lydia, whom Paul had met a few weeks before going to Thessalonica. Luke tells us about her: “And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us: whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul” (Acts 16:14). When the Lord opened the Thessalonians’ hearts, they, too, were ready to receive Paul’s explanation because they knew Israel’s story from the Old Testament Scriptures.
As we begin our study of Paul’s letters to the Thessalonians, we recognize that this was Paul’s modus operandi; his preaching and teaching were often Spirit-anointed explanations of the Old Testament. He witnessed “both to small and great, saying none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come” (Acts 26:22). For us moderns to understand his letters, we must understand that he explained how God was fulfilling his promises to Israel through Christ.
N. T. Wright makes some important points about this key to interpreting Paul’s words:
Paul remained a deeply Jewish theologian who had rethought and reworked every aspect of his native Jewish theology in the light of the Messiah and the spirit, resulting in his own vocational self-understanding as the apostle to the pagans.… The three categories are monotheism, election and eschatology: one God, one people of God, one future for God’s world.2
After the Holy Spirit taught Paul how to rework these Jewish categories through Christ, he went into the synagog at Thessalonica and taught his fellow Jews how to understand them and, as a result, many became Christians.
These categories are of vital importance, for as Wright says, they show the fundamental nature of things:
The creator God has found a way of restoring his world: he has chosen a people through whom he will act. Monotheism and election, together with the eschatology which they entail, form the fundamental structure of Jewish “basic belief.”… They are a vital part of the grid through which all experience of the world is perceived, mediated and brought into coherence.3
I look forward to upcoming posts in which we will explore the mechanisms Paul used to show the new church at Thessalonica what he had learned and how the Old Testament helped them understand election, eschatology, and the Trinity. I believe that the inmillennial prophetic model will help us understand how they became quick learners.
May the Spirit enable us to understand what Paul wrote so we can perceive the world accurately and coherently. And may we do so in short order.
Footnotes
- The image in this post is the seal of the City of Thessaloniki.
- N. T. Wright, Paul and the Faithfulness of God, vol. 4 of Christian Origins and the Question of God (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2013), 46 (emphasis added).
- N. T. Wright, The New Testament and the People of God, vol. 1 of Christian Origins and the Question of God (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1992), 260 (emphasis added).
