Brant Pitre

In my last post (here), I stressed what some conservative biblical scholars call “Exodus theology.” This view holds that the theological framework introduced in Exodus recurs throughout the Old Testament and serves as a central organizing principle for understanding Scripture. Exodus … is not really a story in its own…

Paul’s “rapture passage” (1 Thess 4:13–5:11) does not imply that he envisioned physical bodies flying through the air in his generation. He was addressing a specific concern among the Thessalonians. Would those who lived to see the end of the Mosaic age and subsequent parousia (presence) of Christ in the…

The Thessalonians feared that those who were alive and remained to the parousia—Christ’s presence with his churches in the messianic age—would have some advantage over their dead loved ones (1 Thess 4:15 HCSB). Paul calmed their fears by reinforcing the truth: The dead in Christ will rise first. Then we…

One of my goals in this series of posts on Thessalonians is to show that Paul wrote from the prophetic perspective I call inmillennialism. This prophetic model arises from Jesus’ Olivet Discourse and Paul’s discussion of the kingdom of God in 1 Corinthians 15. I have documented inmillennialism in previous blog…