The Long Haul
Then we who are alive, who remain, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 1 Thessalonians 4:17 NASB
We – Two thousand years after Paul wrote this letter, we are forced to read it as if he were writing to some future audience. After all, Yeshua didn’t return in Paul’s lifetime, so “we” can’t mean “those of us who are alive at this writing.” “We” must mean us, you know, the ones who are alive at this reading. Rather than admit that Paul was mistaken, we make Paul’s words proleptic. They anticipate something in the future, but not something in close proximity.
In this way theology avoids the obvious conclusion that Paul was wrong. How could Paul be wrong? He was inspired! God was the real, hidden, author of the text and God cannot be wrong. Therefore, Paul’s words were not really written for the Thessalonians. They were written for us! You know, the ones living in the end times. Just don’t forget that every generation since Paul’s letter writing has believed that they were in the end times. It’s much more likely that Paul meant “me and my associates,” and that he simply got it wrong. It’s just a letter, right?
Interpreting Paul’s letter as the eternal, sacred, inerrant, inspired word has caused a lot of stress in believers’ lives. Maybe Paul was right—and we missed it. That’s one possibility. Not likely, and not very comfortable. The usual stress over his words looks something like this: “We have all waited so long, for thousands of years, and nothing has happened. Nothing we’ve done or didn’t do has made any difference. So, why keep going? What’s the point? It will happen (or maybe not) when God gets around to it and in the meanwhile there’s little or no point to doing anything about it.”
My rabbi friend said to me, “You know, I get frustrated. I know the Messiah will come, but do you think it really makes any difference to his coming if I miss one of the daily prayers? Do you think if I skip one day it will really delay his coming. What I mean is that we all think he’s coming when things get really bad, but he didn’t come after the Holocaust, so why would we think he’ll come now. It was much worse then. Or during the thousand years that the Church persecuted us. Why didn’t he come then? I mean, even now things can still get worse. Is God waiting until there’s not a shred of hope left?”
I wonder what Paul thought about all this when he was dying? Was he like my grandmother who claimed she had a vision from God that “Jesus” would return before she died? That was fifty years ago. She was wrong. Does that mean God didn’t speak to her? She was absolutely convinced. It sounds to me like Paul and my grandmother had the same commitment. He just died two thousand years before she did. Now what do we do? Oh, we can repress our investigative tendencies and read something like this (Christ’s Imminent Return).
Topical Index: Messiah’s return, end times, 1 Thessalonians 4:17
To be honest, I am right there with your rabbi friend. Has humanity not suffered enough? History shows that for mankind, this world often seems more like hell than a garden. In hope or despair or faith or anger, we cry out to God, how much longer? Where are you? where is the messiah? For the sake of those you do love, won’t you please stop the madness? And the heavens are silent. In all this angst, I feel compelled by something, and I do not know what it is, to try to keep searching, keep going, keep hoping. Lord, it has been so long. We’re dying down here. What are you waiting for?
Y
Skip, you stated: “Maybe Paul was right—and we missed it. That’s one possibility. Not likely, and not very comfortable.” Indeed, it is a possibility that all these “end time” events happened just as promised by Yeshua and the Apostles, including Paul. I remember a few years ago one of your readers, I can’t recall who, (though I wish I could because I owe him an apology for excoriating and mocking his beliefs), presented in your comment section an ideaI which I was encountering for the first time which he called Preterism… and I called foolishness and heresy.
“Preterism is the view that the biblical prophecies concerning the “end times” have already been fulfilled—in the past (i e 70 AD). Preterism is directly opposed to futurism, which sees the end-times prophecies as having a still-future fulfillment.” After much study and investigation
I now embrace a form of that “heresy,” a particular brand of Preterism called partial or mild Preterism. I suggest your readers do a similar investigation and see if they do not come to a similar, though “not very comfortable” conclusion. Brian Godawa, a well know author and screenwriter is a popular presenter of this particular form of doctrine, as well as on the teachings of a literal reading of Genesis 6:1-4 regarding the Sons of God and the Nephillim ( which beliefs I also hold) in what many consider to be the real events that caused the “fall” of man (not Eve eating a forbidden fruit). His series “Chronicles of the Nephillim” on Audible are quite entertaining and “educational” ( if, the reader, like me, is a novice in Biblical Studies and can never hope to attain to the heights of your scholastic accomplishment, authority and accountability)!