“…and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come“
who delivers us from the wrath to come
Jesus will deliver Christians “from the wrath to come.” Thessalonian Christians do not have to be delivered from Hell sometime in the future. For them, the deliverance is past (John 5:24). This “wrath” is the wrath of the Tribulation just before the Millennium (Revelation 6:17). Jesus delivers believers from this period of Tribulation.
The word “from” indicates that God keeps the church from “wrath.” The word “from” means away from. This means that the church will not go through the future Tribulation period. The Tribulation deals with Israel, with the evangelization of the nation Israel to establish the promised Millennial Kingdom for Israel.
It is apparent that Paul deals with the Tribulation as the “wrath” in this verse because his reference is to the Rapture. The Thessalonians did not need to prepare for the Tribulation because Jesus would deliver them from it. Just think of those left behind after the Rapture. The church will not be a conscience to society any longer.
First Thessalonians deals with the coming of Christ in every chapter (1 Th 1:10; 2:19; 3:13; 4:13-18; 5:23). Each chapter ends with reference to this event.
Principle:
The role of the believer is to anticipate the Rapture.
Application:
Jesus came to pay for our salvation in His first coming. In the Rapture and Second Coming, He will bring full and final liberation from sin, death, and Hell. An important function of every believer is to anticipate the rapture. We rejoice in it. We celebrate it. We place our hope in it. It becomes an ever-present blessing to our souls.
Looking for the Lord to return at any moment will change our lives. It will transform our way of doing things. It will change the way we deal with temptations. If you knew you were going to die in two years, would you change your priorities? Would you do something about broken relationships?
Many of us carry a great amount of spiritual flab. To deal with this, we must admit that we are out of spiritual shape. “There are a few people to whom I take exception. I am out of phase with them. I don’t talk to them anymore. I resent them. I envy others. Deal with me, Lord.”
Do you have animosity, resentment, or anger toward some other Christian? Have you come to grips with this? You should not allow it to go on and on. If we expect that the Lord may come at any time, we must not allow ourselves to cherish these sins. We must bury the hatchet. We must shake hands with them. We must forget the past.
I enjoyed what you had to say about the pre trib rapture.KJV. a ptr is what the bible teaches. 1. 1 Thess. 1:4 Paul was writing to Christans.2. They were already DELIVERED from the WRATH of HELL. JOHN 3:36. 3. KJV. Notice, Which delivered us, is translated in the past tense, this is incorrect, as the Greek has it in the future tense, it should read as who delievers us or which will delever us. 4. The New american Standard has it wright, Who rescues us from the wrath to come, FUTURE TENSE. 5."The wrath to come," is not in reference to HELL, as they were already delivered from HELL. John 3:36. 6. But rather delivered us from the TRIBULATION PERIOD as ststed in REVELATION 6:17. I enjoyed your last part about forgiving each other, we had a question and answer one day and my paster was asked will we go through the tribulation? His answer was hope for the pre trib but be ready for the post trib, i almost fell out of my seat and i really havent got over it, i know i need to but i havent Friend in Christ Randall