by Lloyd T. Anderson Pastor, Bethany Baptist Church West Covina, California it was difficult to distinguish them from the world and the manner in which it faced its losses. The child of God can smile through his tears! He can turn the occasion of grief into an opportunity to demonstrate the efficiency and adequacy of Jesus Christ. The problem of the Thessa lonians was, at least in part, one of facing the loss of loved ones tri umphant in Christ. Paul wrote to instruct them concerning the future of the Christian dead in view of the coming of the Lord. Thus, even be fore the problem is set before us in I Thessalonians 4:13, there is prom ise of real instruction. As we come to I Thessalonians 4: 13, we find the problem beginning to be solved. Paul declared in I Thessa lonians 4:14: “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him.” The word “if” in this sentence has the sense of “since.” The idea is, “since we be lieve that Jesus died.” The two great elements of the gospel message are to be found here as they are in I Cor inthians 15:3 and 4: the voluntary death of Christ on the one hand and the bodily resurrection on the other. Apart from these great truths, there is no gospel for the world to believe. For the believer in Christ, death has been transformed into sleep by or through the Lord Jesus Christ. This simply means that ac cording to Hebrews 2:10-15, death has lost its terror for the believer and all fear is really gone. The com ing of the Lord is announced in I Thessalonians 4:14 in the words “will God bring with Him.” The Thessalonians seemed to need assur ance concerning the future of the departed Christian dead. In reply,
(pADphathc Studies
T he words of the Apostle Paul to the church at Thessalonica were words in season and out of season and had a great deal to say about Biblical prophecy, in the two letters of First and Second Thessalonians. Five times Paul relates the Lord’s return to other great truths. In our English Bibles, each of the five chap ters closes with a reference to that wonderful truth. Across the years, Christians have believed that Jesus Christ would come for His own ransomed Church. In I Thessalonians 4, beginning with verse 13 we have the promise of this glorious truth. Seven times this or similar references are made in the New Testament to this wonderful promise of which the believer is not to be ignorant: Bomans 1:13; 11 :25 ; I Corinthians 10:1; 12:1; II Corin thians 1:8; I Thessalonians 4:13; II Peter 3 :8. Seven is the number of completion—this is the Holy Spirit’s plan of complete instruction. Every thing we need to know is found on the pages of the Word of God. There is no “extra-Biblical” revelation of truth to man. After Paul had given the Thessa lonians the promise that God would take away their spiritual ignorance in chapter 4, verse 13a, he now comes to the problem of the Lord’s coming in the last half of verse 13, “con cerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not even as others which have no hope.” The instruction has to do with the Christian dead (the figure of sleep is used in the New Testament of the death of Christians only). Evidently the Thessalonian be lievers had suffered the loss of loved ones in Christ. Their sorrow was so great and so evident that as one looked upon them in the hour of loss, 32
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