by Terry 53 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Jonathan Drake I currently doubt that Paul wrote the second letter to the church of Thessalonica, because it contradicts the first one, and as the priest Raymond Brown has noticed, the author tried to copy just exactly the same structure of the first letter.
Could you you point out the contradiction so I can check it out?
Dear J Drake,
Check out 1 Thess. 4 v13-18, and 5 v 1-11 , and compare these with2 Thess. 2 v 1-12 and 1v 5-10.
See the difference in eschatology ?
In 1 Thess. the parousia is imminent, in 2 Thess. lots of things must happen first. I Thess says calculating the time of the Parousia is wrong, 2 Thess. tells us how to do it, by all these events occurring first.
There are many other reasons to suppose the authors of the two letters to be different people, just one is that there are 17 expressions found in 2 Thess not found anywhere else in the N.T
It is thought by a good number of scholars that 2 Thess. was probably written very late, toward the end of the 1st century, which would explain its concentrating on the delay of the parousia.
@Phizzy yes I see what your talking about. Very interesting.
i wonder about this because, if I may, I'd like to share a theory I have developed while writing about various subjects in my journal.
Check out revelation chapter 20. Bear in mind this is only a theory, so I'm not saying thisnis how it is or something. In chapter 20, the order of events is that at the START of christs thousand year reign the devil is abyssed and the elect are raised in the first resurrection. It specifically says that the rest of the dead are not raised until the end of the thousand years. It goes on to say that after the thousand years the devil is released, he gathers the nations together for the war (which I contend is harmeggedon), he loses and then (again this is AFTER the thousand year reign of Christ) he is thrown into the fire and death is no more and the rest of the dead (who aren't of the elect) are raised to be judged.
this chronology seems to match what is found in 1 Cor 15:23-27, where Christ is raises first, then the elect, then the end when he hands over the kingdom only after he has abolished authority rule and power. After this, death is abolished as the last enemy.
I theorize, based on these scriotures, that they believed in the first century Christ really was coming right back. That the perusia happened something before or around 100 (according to the bible) and that within a few hundred years from that the devil was already abyssed for 1000 years. The let loose prior to the war of Armageddon not for some post paradise test. I've held this theory for some time, and I would submit that this contradiction in the Thessalonian letters supports that theory. So that in the first he was talking about the Perusia which they believed was immanent, but that in the second he was addressing those not of the elect who would remain on earth as citizens of the kingdom over which they(the elect) rule as saints. For this reason he warns them, not of what must come before the perusia, but what must come before the final destruction of all evil and satanic influence of creation.
what do you think?
What was going on was that dozens of Christologies developed, many tales were traded orally, some written down, some claiming Jesus was a man, was never a man, a god, an angel, a god become man, the Son of Man, the Son of God, and and two different spirits, that he was raised, never raised, never died, etc.
It was a madhouse of ideas and stories.
