Posted by Ross on 2/15/2009, 6:00 am, in reply to "Re: His Appearing and His Coming"
211.29.54.174
Hi There folks
If we squeeze our thinking in their time not our own we will understand. So now place yourself there forget Calvin, Presbyterians, Baptists, as these were not there so we don’t need them. Forget even the time you are standing in now they have no bearing on what is being said, and travel back to the time of the Thessalonians. The times were simple times no complex pragmatic minds like today, yes was yes and no was no. So here we are sitting in the congregation of Thessalonians none of us have bibles (the KJV is still 1600 years away but we don’t know it) most of us cant read and we are poor to boot and we have never seen let alone imagined a automible the fastest thing on the planet is war chariot. We have back most 20 centuries to hear the words of Paul we are excited to get this epistle it has taken months to get to us it was not deliver by fed x and was not there by ten the next morning. So we learn that he likes us were are doing well this is good and he wants us to be ready for the lords coming he does not want us to be thinking of much else and he confirms our faith that things are moving in that direction but as to when it will all happen he does not tell us as he did not know. So Paul has us to focus on the lord coming in order to establish the kingdom of Elohim i.e God.
Now about 3- 5 (some think even as much as ten) years latter we get the next Epistle but there is a gap between them that gap is context local time context egnore it at your peril and reap confusion. So if we put it like this, if we were sitting back there today in 2009 and had just read the first epistle most of us wont get the next installment till around 2012 or so and it too is not coming by fed x. So now a little older some have fallen away some have stood firm we receive the second epistle and some nasty individual has sent a forgery of Paul’s writing to stir us up to destabilize us but none the less Pauls secind eoistle arrives. Again he is happy with us spends much time telling us how he likes us and now the crucial piece he tells us that this looks like some time is going to elapse as the man of sin must be first revealed and there is something constraining him but he does no what it is, if he does he is not saying.
When this that constrainth is removed then and only then is the man of sin revealed, he told us this before but we forgot.
We now know the constraining factor is the dispensation of grace but he did not know that then, as Israel was still being called to repent and we gentiles would share with them and be blessed through them. But we now know different as more info has come through our apostle he tells us of the secret the mystery (secret in Greek) of Christ not as to gentile calling, well known it was no secret. But gentile standing and sipensational management as joint heirs and this then at our readin of Pauls two epistles. The fall of Israel had not yet come in full and the wall of partition is still up Jew first then the Greek. The eschatology or the end of our hope as member of His body has the same pattern as Thessalonians, dead rise first followed by living believers, the pattern is not new but the timing is different.
The dispensation of grace constrains the man of sin so he is not revealed and it is certain that when the body of the dispensation of grace that now constrains him is taken up in the out resurrection and heavenward call he will be revealed. Premill translation (rapture) is asured to the body as we contrain the Man of sin. The lesson of Thessalonians is to the pattern the lesson of Philippians is to the timing of when on account of the dispensation of grace that constrains him.
Remember context not the verse above or below or the chapter either side or the meaning of words remember the time context when it was said to who and by whom and at what time in the dispensation early or late and what dispensation it was stated.But above al brethren rembember the secret and its timing its lord and its hope.
Lesson learned: The words are not a big help to us we need the time contex tand the Holy Spirit to enlighten us as to the scret hiden now revealed
Warm regards
RJ
