What he suffered, his followers would suffer. Trials, hardship, persecution were inevitable for Christians. It is destined. Maybe I did not see them because I did not want to see them. But they are there. That teaching is seriously wrong and dangerously misleading.
My second concern is how little I suffer for my faith. If trials, persecutions, and hardship are inevitable, why are my difficulties so light? It is a good question for all of us to ask. The second reality made clear in these verses is that every Christian needs strengthening and encouragement.
We can do anything through Christ who gives us strength. Put simplistically these statements are wrong, and that last phrase is a misleading, out-of-context translation of a verse in Philippians 4. One is that God is always with us, always helping, always strengthening. No matter how great any time of suffering, God has never deserted us nor become uncaring about us.
He does not lift us out of every trouble, but he is always with us in the hardship. And he gives us strength. He is not passive. God is always actively at work for our good. Would people really stand up for what they believe in? We live with very little to worry about in comparison with other countries. Also as unfortunate as it is, I agree with P. Long about the Church here facing persecution economically or physically; the Churches would drastically decrease.
I agree with Dave that it is unfair to just pick on the young people of the Church as many would leave the Church, specifically those who value their possessions; I do see where your point is being made though P. Long about many youth i. I have to agree with P. Right now, I know a number of people as I am sure all of you do who have left the church for one personal reason or another.
Why are people forsaking the church today? Is it because our world is more corrupt I doubt it, look at Sodom and Gomorrah , or is it because the church is so tepid and faithless? We as believers in America and everywhere , need not the passion of emotions, but we are gravely in need of a deep and meaningful passion and purpose for the work of God — maybe a little persecution would develop this in our lives as it did in the lives of those in the church at Thessalonica.
Considering that a good majority of people who attend church today attend for a social status, I would say that church attendance would drop more than dramatically if it were to cause a lower social status. Unfortunately, people who attend church are doing so simply so that others around them will see them as good people.
The majority of college students do not attend church. The reason why however, is the church itself, or even more so, the youth programs in America. They simply are failing to do anything that is preparing students for the test that college will bring to students faith. Let us not count out adults in this conversation too. A good amount of adults do not attend church either. Or if they do attend church, it is only because, like I said earlier, they simply attend so others see that they are attending.
Thus, this leads them to raise children who are not authentic either. And so the circle begins and goes and goes…. Many people are interested in Chrisitanity because they think it is easy.
So, if they could not go to church unscathed, many would not go. People do not want to make sacrifices when it comes to their personal happiness. People are getting purpose in life through pursuits of personal happiness through material gain. Take away that ability to gain material possesions freely or ask people to sacrifice that pursuit of happiness and they will quickly flee from wahtever it is that is costing them that.
Whether that is family, faith, or farmville. I have to admit that your last comment about young people in church caught me off guard. I would like to say that I am able to disagree with what was said but I am not sure that I can. For my entire life I was someone who was going to church every Sunday, but the older I have gotten the more that I have not gone.
Things such as work and sports have taken priority in my life, which is something that I need to change. I believe that the power of the Holy Spirit would turn people into having their own private services or reading through the Bible as a family. The power of God is always able to shine through. Look at China, there are a select number of Churches allowed by the government, but the underground Church community is vibrant.
Was the Thessalonian church composed primarily of gentiles or Jewish believers? This is a topic of conversation within New Testament scholarship, with figures such as John Polhill arguing for the majority of the population being of gentile ethnicity.
However, as Long notes, it could be seen as problematic since the book of Acts states that the congregation itself was founded after the preaching of the gospel in the synagogue. Presumably, the majority of the members found in the synagogue would be Jewish. Meanwhile, Paul continued on his trip down to Corinth Acts The second letter was written only a few months after the first. By comparing Acts 18 and 1 Th.
This means that his letters were written not long after the church in Thessalonica had been established. It also means that 1 and 2 Thessalonians are the earliest or next-to-the earliest letters of Paul to be written. The two letters may have been written about 50 A. Paul also writes that he was persecuted by enemies in Thessalonica.
The return of Christ always means much during time of persecution, because it means rescue. And so you become a model to all the believers. Paul instructs about the second coming and encourages holy living. When will Christ return? View topics. Learn more. Many people have many different ideas. Just a good man who lived and died? A charismatic man whose followers stretched the truth? A holy man with some connection to the divine?
A prophet like Mohammed? Who is Jesus? Learn the meaning of the Scripture readings in church,. Learn how to pray. The arguments are many, and accumulate to a conclusive case:.
Paul never talks about God's wrath as having come, but as coming only at the future judgment see: Romans , , Paul was dead by the time the "wrath had come upon them to the uttermost" the destruction of the Jewish nation and temple in 70 A.
Birger A. Pearson 1 Thessalonians A Deutero-Pauline Interpolation and Daryl Schmidt 1 Thess Linguistic Evidence for an Interpolation provide some of the detailed evidence and arguments for the passage being an interpolation.
Therefore, the purported sufferings of the Thessalonians are parallels to the trials and sufferings of the Jewish Christians in Judea in the latter part of the first century. The redactor is saying that the Thessalonian Christians suffered discrimination and persecution from the pagan Thessalonians just as the Jewish Christians were to suffer in Judea.
Acts of the Apostles With no concrete evidence of the afflictions elsewhere in Paul's two epistles to the Thessalonians, I now turn to Acts of the Apostles for an insight into these things. Acts talks of a riot among the Jews of Thessalonica, resulting from Paul's visit to the local synagogue. Paul was taken into protective custody and allowed to leave for Berea, where the Thessalonian Jews pursued him and once again he had to escape. Dennis E. Smith and Joseph B. Tyson find this unconvincing.
In Acts and Christian Beginnings , page , they ask how Paul could have overlooked saying something about these events in his letter to the Thessalonians.
Smith and Tyson are convinced that the riot never really happened, saying ibid , p "there is nothing in this Acts segment that qualifies as historical data to supplement what we know from Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians.
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