"Peace and Security!"

Paul continued his discussion about Christ’s arrival by addressing what will occur on the Day of the Lord – 1 Thessalonians 5:1-3.

The Apostle Paul discusses the “arrival” or ‘Parousia’ of Jesus and the Day of the Lord in chapters 4 and 5 of 1 Thessalonians. In Chapter 4, he declares that both dead and living Christians will be gathered to meet the Lord as he descends from Heaven. In Chapter 5, Paul links that and related events to “the Day of the Lord,” and he explains how that day will affect the godly and the ungodly.

Men and women who do not belong to “the sons of light” will suffer the consequences of their disobedience when the Day of the Lord arrives. It will overtake them with devastating and unexpected destruction, “like a thief in the night,” and they will not escape the judgment of God. Those who reject the Gospel are “appointed to wrath” because they chose not to hear and obey the message of Jesus Christ. On that day, their boasts of “peace and security” will prove hollow.

[Toy Soldiers - Photo by Jemima Whyles (Chelmsford, Essex) on Unsplash]

Paul also connects the arrival of Jesus with the Day of the Lord in his Second Letter to the Thessalonians:

• “Now, we implore you, brothers, concerning the arrival [‘Parousia’] of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together to him, to the end, you are not quickly shaken from your mind nor yet troubled, either by spirit, or by word, or by letter as from us, that the Day of the Lord is at hand” – (2 Thessalonians 2:1-2).

In Chapter 5, the Apostle begins by addressing the question of that day’s timing (“concerning the times and seasons”). He does not list any recognizable signs that will precede the Day of the Lord. Instead, Paul stresses the suddenness of the day’s arrival, which will end in wrath and destruction for the unprepared.

• (1 Thessalonians 5:1-3) – “But concerning the times and seasons, brethren, you have no need for anything to be written to you, for you yourselves know perfectly well that the day of the Lord is coming like a thief in the night. As soon as they begin to say, ‘Peace and Security!’, then suddenly, destruction comes upon them just as the birth-throes to her that is with child, and they certainly will not escape.”

For Paul and the Thessalonians, there is no point in discussing the “times and seasons” since the Lord will arrive like a thief in the night. The homeowner may know that a thief will plunder his house sooner or later, but he cannot know the timing of the home invasion.

Only God knows when Jesus will return. “But of that day or that hour no man knows, not even the angels in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father alone” - (Matthew 24:42-45, Mark 13:32).

The phrase “times and seasons” with both nouns in the plural number alludes to the words of Jesus just before his ascent to Heaven, reaffirming that only his Father knows the timing of his return and the end of the age. “It is not for you to know times and seasons” - (Acts 1:7-9).

Paul has no need to write about the “times and seasons” because “you yourselves know accurately” that the Day of the Lord is “coming like a thief in the night,” not because the Thessalonians understand all the signs and chronologies that will precede that day.

The Apostle uses the emphatic Greek pronoun for “you yourselves” to stress that his readers already know this fact. Their knowledge is “accurate” (‘akribōs’). They understand that Jesus will arrive unexpectedly, “like a thief in the night.”

SUDDEN DESTRUCTION

When Paul explains that the Day of the Lord will arrive suddenly, bringing with it destruction on the unprepared, he is echoing the word of Jesus as recorded in the Gospel of Luke:

• “Be on guard that your hearts may not be weighted down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of life, and that day come on you unexpectedly like a trap; for it will come upon all those who dwell on the face of all the earth. But keep on the alert, praying so that you may have the strength to escape all these things that are about to take place” - (Luke 21:34-36).

Rather than “like a trap,” Paul states that this day will arrive “like birth pains.” Jesus spoke the Aramaic language, which had a word that could mean either “trap” or “birth pain” (hebel). The Gospel of Luke translates it with the Greek word for “trap,” but Paul here renders it “birth pains.”

The analogy is that of a woman in labor. No one is surprised when a pregnant woman goes into labor, and no one doubts the result. Labor pains point to something inevitable, and in the present passage, this will be the destruction of the unprepared.

The picture of the thief emphasizes the unexpectedness of the Day of the Lord, and the woman in labor points to the inevitability of destruction for the ungodly. “Unexpected destruction” will overtake the sons of darkness.

The phrase “they will certainly not escape” is emphatic in the Greek sentence, which employs the double negative, ‘ou mé’, or “no, not.” The Book of Revelation portrays this aspect of the Day of the Lord quite graphically when describing the Sixth Seal:

• “They say to the mountains and to the rocks, fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the Throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the Great Day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?” – (Revelation 6:16).

On the Day of the Lord, the only men who will avoid wrath and find themselves standing before the Divine Throne will be “the sons of light” who watch and remain sober, and “put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet, the hope of salvation,” every man “who has washed his robes in the blood of the Lamb” – (1 Thessalonians 5:4-8):

• “After these things I saw, and behold, a great multitude that no man could number, out of every nation and of all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, arrayed in white robes, and palms in their hands” - (Revelation 7:9).

When the Apostle Paul states that men will declare “Peace and Security” to ease their fears and anxieties, he is not referring to complacency on the part of the unprepared, but to their boast of prosperity and stability despite the onrushing time of destruction.

All men are mortal, and every human life will end in death, followed by judgement, sooner or later. The empires and kingdoms of this age may appear to provide prosperity and stability for a time, but the only enduring peace is found in the Kingdom of God.

Behind the phrase is the propaganda of the Roman Empire, the claim and slogan of ‘Pax Romana’, the supposed peace and prosperity established by imperial rule since the reign of Augustus Caesar in 27 B.C.

The Greek phrase used by Paul, ‘eiréné asphaleis’, is the equivalent of the Latin, ‘Pax et Securitas’, and the Thessalonians certainly would have recognized this. Such claims by the World Empire in all of its incarnations over the centuries will be exposed as the falsehoods they are when Jesus appears on the Day of the Lord.

Rather than lasting peace, prosperity, and stability, men and women who reject Christ will experience “sudden destruction.” The Greek noun translated as “destruction” (‘olethros’) is the same term used by Paul in his Second Letter to the Thessalonians, where he declares that the persecutors of the Church will undergo “everlasting destruction [(‘olethros’] from the presence of the Lord” when Jesus is “revealed from Heaven” – (2 Thessalonians 1:9).

For the unprepared, the ‘Parousia’ of Jesus will be an unexpected event with dire consequences. To avoid the terrible fate of the ungodly, we must remain prepared for his sudden arrival because we do not know when he will come. As Jesus warned, we must “watch always, for you know not the day or the hour!” - (Matthew 25:13).

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SEE ALSO:

• The Storm - (The New Testament warns of an apostasy before the Day of the Lord caused by the Son of Destruction, the Man of Lawlessness)

• Gathering His Elect - (The saints will be assembled before Jesus on the Last Day, and the wicked will be collected for judgment and cast from his presence)

• The Decisive Day - (The arrival of Jesus will be an event of great victory and finality that will result in the resurrection and the New Creation)

• “Paix et Sécurité!” - (Paul a poursuivi sa discussion sur l'arrivée de Christ en abordant ce qui se passera au jour du Seigneur – 1 Thessaloniciens 5: 1-3)