A Christian’s Attitude Regarding the Return of Christ:

I have told you this before, but there were no chapter divisions when the Bible was written. Chapter 5 continues what Paul began in Chapter 4 as Paul concludes Chapter 4 by talking about the Rapture.

1 Thessalonians 4:16–17 “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”

In Chapter 5, Paul tells the true Christian in the true church how he or she is to live in the last days of the Church Age leading to the Rapture. Actually, what Paul describes should be the Christian’s attitude if the return of Christ for the is 1,000 years away.

1. Knowing the date or the times of the Tribulation is irrelevant information.

In Chapter 5, Paul is describing the Tribulation and not the Rapture that he was describing in the last part of Chapter 4. You really have to be careful reading these verses watching for punctuation and rules of grammar. If you do not, you will change these verses into talking about something the verses are not talking about.

Let me show you how I know Chapter 5 is talking about the Tribulation.

1 Thessalonians 5:1–2 “But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.”

There is a very important phrase that indicates to us that Paul is writing concerning the Tribulation and not the Rapture, and that phrase is, “THE DAY OF THE LORD.”

Throughout the Bible, that phrase, the Day of the Lord, refers to Israel and to the Tribulation.

Remember my rule number 2 concerning being able to understand prophecy.

Rule #2 according to Doct. Clendenin: “You must be able to distinguish between Israel and the church.”

By the way Rule #1 is that all prophecy will eventually completely reveal the Lord Jesus Christ in His glory to the entire world.

Paul wrote this letter to the Church of the Thessalonians and not to the Jews.

There may have been some saved Jews in the church, but Paul was not writing to Jews. He was writing this letter to the Christians of Thessalonica who were being severely persecuted.

To those Christians, Paul says that Christians in the church, meaning those Christians in that church and Christians throughout the Church Age, have no need to know the date or the season of the Day of the Lord, the tribulation period. It is another indication, to me, for a Pre-tribulation Rapture.

Christians are never told to look for signs because signs are for Jews. Why would a Christian who has the indwelling Holy Spirit need a sign?

To you and me, the Day of the Lord is inconsequential because, if you are truly saved, you will not be on earth when it happens. Paul says that Christians in the Church Age have no need to know the times and the seasons of the Day of the Lord.

Now, here is you a very important key to consider when reading these two verses.

Paul uses the phrase “times and seasons.”

Nowhere in the Bible is the phrase times and seasons associated with the church. There are never any signs or dates associated with the church.

Throughout the Bible, times and seasons refer to Israel and the events preceding the Lord’s coming to establish His earthly Kingdom.

Let me offer this as proof for the reason you must be able to distinguish between Israel and the church in prophecy.

The phrase times and seasons appears two other times in the Bible.

Daniel 2:19–22 KJV 1900

Then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven. Daniel answered and said, Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever: For wisdom and might are his: And he changeth the times and the seasons: He removeth kings, and setteth up kings: He giveth wisdom unto the wise, And knowledge to them that know understanding: He revealeth the deep and secret things: He knoweth what is in the darkness, And the light dwelleth with him.

In this passage, times and seasons refers to God’s dealing with the nations of the earth as the result of how those nations treat Israel. It is God who changes rulers as He wills. If a nation repents as in the case of Nineveh, who repented when Jonah preached, God will postpone judgment, but judgment still comes.

God had pronounced judgment on Nineveh.

Jonah 1:2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.”

Jonah 3:4 “And Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.”

God had decided that Nineveh was worthy of judgment, but Nineveh repented, and God temporarily paused His judgment, but judgment still came.

If you read Nahum Chapter 3, you will see what happened to Nineveh. It was God’s prerogative to determine the time and season for what He already said was going to happen to Nineveh.

The second time this phrase appears is in the Book of Acts.

Acts 1:6–8 “When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?

And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you:

and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”

The followers of Christ just before His Ascension asked Him about the restoration of what? The Kingdom of Israel

Well, it won’t be restoration when Christ comes to earth. It will be a coronation. Jesus tells His followers who were about to be baptized by the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ in 10 short days that they had no need to know when the Kingdom was going to be established. To His followers of the Church Age, the Day of the Lord and the establishment of the Messianic Kingdom is irrelevant.

Nothing could more plainly stated as it is stated in these passages.

The Day of the Lord, and the times and seasons are for Israel. Our business in the church is not to know when the Day of the Lord will begin. Our business is to preach the gospel until that day comes.

We are to go from person-to-person and from nation-to-nation proclaiming the gospel until everyone hears, and we have opportunities through different social media platforms and other media outlets that we never had before.

Paul had no need to write to the Thessalonians regarding the Day of Lord because the Day of the Lord cannot begin while the church is still on the earth.

The Day of the Lord occurs after the Rapture through the Millennium actually which also includes the 2nd Coming. Israel has so longed for the Day of the Lord because of the anticipation of the Messianic Kingdom, but before that Kingdom is established, hell will be unleashed on earth to prepare Israel for that Kingdom.

Let me share just a few passages with you to show you that the Day of the Lord is for Israel and not the church.

Amos 5:18–20 “Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord! To what end is it for you? The day of the Lord is darkness, and not light.

As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; Or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him.

Shall not the day of the Lord be darkness, and not light? Even very dark, and no brightness in it?”

Zephaniah 1:14–15 “The great day of the Lord is near, It is near, and hasteth greatly, Even the voice of the day of the Lord: The mighty man shall cry there bitterly.

That day is a day of wrath, A day of trouble and distress, A day of wasteness and desolation, A day of darkness and gloominess, A day of clouds and thick darkness,”

Joel 2:1–3 “Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: For the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand;

A day of darkness and of gloominess, A day of clouds and of thick darkness, As the morning spread upon the mountains:

A great people and a strong; There hath not been ever the like, Neither shall be any more after it, Even to the years of many generations.

A fire devoureth before them; And behind them a flame burneth: The land is as the garden of Eden before them, And behind them a desolate wilderness; Yea, and nothing shall escape them.”

Malachi 4:1–2 “For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; And all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: And the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts,

That it shall leave them neither root nor branch. But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise With healing in his wings; And ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.”

In these passages, written way before the church came into existence, it is clearly pointed out that the Day of the Lord is for Israel. Knowing the times and seasons of it was not important for the Thessalonians to know, but it does indicate that the Thessalonians had a deep knowledge of God’s written word.

They would have had access to some of the Old Testament writings, and they knew the details of the Day of the Lord and had obviously asked Paul about when it was going to happen. Paul reassured them by saying that they had no need to know when it was going to happen.

The Thessalonian Church had more important business to handle than to worry about the Day of the Lord. The Church, today as the Thessalonians, are to be sharing the gospel and living like Christ in our daily lives.

The world continues to sleep while the Age of Grace is in full swing. The gospel is available for everyone in this Age of Grace, but some day the age of grace will be over, and the gospel, as preached now, will be silenced.

Now, this might astound you, but the disappearance of the church will not affect the world as you might imagine as many church members will be left behind continuing church as if nothing happened.

One will come upon the scene claiming peace and safety, but the Day of the Lord will be the totally opposite.

1 Thessalonians 5:3 “For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.”

Revelation 6:2 “And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.”

The one to come will come on a white horse. He will have a bow but no arrows indicating his coming in peace, but shortly after 1/4 of the world dies from warfare.

Those entering the Day of the Lord will not escape, and Paul compares the Day of the Lord to the labor pains a woman experiences during childbirth, and I do not know of many ladies that would describe childbirth as a time of peace and safety.

2. A word of comfort for true Christians in the Church Age

1 Thessalonians 5:4–8 “But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.

Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.

But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.”

As Christians, we are to be awake and sober. Many times in the New Testament, Christians are commanded to be sober. It does not mean to be sober in context of alcohol. It means to be clear-minded with a sharp focus. It means to be unstoppable in working for Christ on planet earth.

We are to be expecting the Lord’s return.

We once were children of darkness, but, now, we are children of the day.

1 John 1:5–7 “This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.”

John 1:4 “In him was life; and the life was the light of men.”

While the world sleeps, because we are in the light, we should be awake, alert, ever-seeking to serve the Lord.

These are some terrible statistics I am about to share with you.

In 2023, 34% of all SBC churches baptized between 1 and 5 people total. 43% of all SBC churches had no baptisms.

Somebody is asleep. If we were expecting the Lord’s return, we would not want anyone to go through the Day of the Lord.

I am not going to mentions spiritual gifts and works anymore. Oh wait, yes, I am!!!

Ephesians 2:10 “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”

Romans 12:4–6a “For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office:

So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us…..

God has given us the gifts to bring others to Christ. We should be using those gifts because we do not have time to be spiritually asleep.

The church today is too content. The church today is too lazy. The church today is too carefree. The Day of the Lord is coming, and the world needs to hear about Jesus.

Even with all that, Paul concludes this section with an incredible word of comfort.

1 Thessalonians 5:9–10 “For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,

Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.”

A Christian born-again during the Church Age is not appointed to wrath. A born-again Christian is appointed to obtain salvation.

Ephesians 4:30 “And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.”

A Christian born-again during the Church Age is sealed by the Holy Spirit until the Day of Redemption which happens at the Rapture.

Read 1 Corinthians 15:51-58 to see what happens.

At that very moment as described by Paul, you and I will realize our redemption, and we will not experience the wrath of the Day of the Lord.