2 Thessalonians
Author: Paul
Paul always started off his epistles with his name.
Confirmed by Eusebius in Book 3, Chapter 25, Verse 2, of Ecclesiastical History.
Date: Possibly 51 A.D. (1)
Language: Greek
Place: Writing from Corinth
Purpose: Some people thought Christ's Second Coming was imminent, thus they quit their occupations. Paul tells them to carry on with work.
What kind of book?: Epistle, (a letter to a group), regarding a particular occasion.
Reflection: "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father" (Matthew 24:36 NIV).
This statement by Jesus is as clear as can be, but there is consistently someone who gets notoriety for stating the event will definitely be in the specific year which they calculate and pinpoint. This is a sin!
Now we are in the "last days." The "end times," which will involve a final tribulation, will begin after the first stage of the Second Coming of Christ.
Yes, I think the ripeness of the fig tree was evident with the Holocaust. Six million people were murdered, a horror beyond human comprehension.
Yet remember that a thousand years is like a day for God, thus it is terribly wrong to attempt to pinpoint the time of His Second Coming.
Hunter Irvine
(1) J.B. Phillips, Letters To Young Churches (New York: The Macmillian Company, 1947).
