Paul must correct inaccurate eschatological expectations in his second letter to the Thessalonian churches. He writes:1 As to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we beg you, brothers and sisters, 2 not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as though from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord is already here. 3 Let no one deceive you in any way; for that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first and the lawless one is revealed, the one destined for destruction.Apparently some believers in Thessalonika believed Christ "had already come." Paul assures them, however, that certain events must take place. Ultimately Christ must destroy the church's persecutors, comfort and gather his people, and defeat the man of lawlessness for all the world to see.It appears then that certain members of these churches had a radically different idea of what it meant for "the day of the Lord" to come. For them it was an event that might be (and was) missed by believers and the nations.But what exactly was this deviant conception? How does the correction given by Paul in 2 Thessalonians 1-2 provide a window into their eschatological outlook? Why did they stop working and instead become "busybodies"? (2 Thess 3).
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