Paul, and Silvanus, and Timotheus, unto the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Thessalonians 1:1
Many in the world still laugh about Harold Camping and how he predicted that judgment day would come on May 21, 2011. Camping, an old radio preacher and engineer, came up with his own ‘foolproof’ method of interpreting numbers in the Bible. He used his method to come up with his famous – and eventually infamous – date. He really believed it, too, pouring almost $100 million into an advertising campaign to get the message out. It was such a huge and embarrassing flop that few have been foolish enough to pull such date-setting stunts since. But many did before Camping. The JWs for example showed their true – or should that be false – colours with some end-of-the-world predictions that proved to be nonsense. In Second Thessalonians, Paul is refuting nasty people who told the Christians that the day of the Lord had already come.
The imminent Rapture has been a rich source of hope and comfort for the Lord’s people ever since Paul’s day. That hope and comfort is not available to the post-millennialist crowd who misinterpret the Word of God to claim that the church will go through the great tribulation. So imagine the dismay among the Christians in Thessalonika to hear that they have missed God’s salvation. They were being told that they had believed in vain. How cruel those false teachers were! And how kind of the apostle to set them straight and to restore to them that great source of hope and comfort.
Rightly dividing the Word of Truth will always bring blessings to the saints of God. The New Testament epistles are filled with words of encouragement, comfort, and exhortation to uplift us and to make our Christian pathway joyful. Our gathering today to worship in the remembrance act of the Lord’s supper is part of that great treasure house of joyful blessings.
Let us lift up our hearts in thankfulness that we have missed none of the rich blessings that our Lord has for us – for today and forever. – Jim MacIntosh
Here is the link to the video of this message: https://youtu.be/g3mkCX_Ll9g