1 Thessalonians 5:1-The Thessalonians Were Well Instructed Concerning the Prophetic Events of the Seventieth Week and Second Advent
First Thessalonians Chapter Five • Sermon • Submitted • 1:05:30
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1 Thessalonians 5:1 Now on the topic of times and seasons, brothers and sisters, you have no need for anything to be written to you. (NET)
1 Thessalonians 5:1 marks a transition in this epistle which means that it marks a transition from the statements in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 to the statements which appear in 1 Thessalonians 5:2-11.
The former addresses the subject of the rapture or resurrection of the church.
In this pericope, Paul reassures the Christian community in Thessalonica that the dead in Christ would be raised immediately before those Christians who are left alive on the earth when the Lord Jesus Christ returns for His bride, the church at the rapture or resurrection of the church.
The latter addresses the subject of the day of the Lord.
This passage makes clear that Paul wanted to reassure the Thessalonians that they would not experience the prophetic events related to the day of the Lord.
In particular, they would not experience the events predicted to take place during the seventieth week of Daniel and the Second Advent of Jesus Christ.
Specifically, they would not experience the Lord’s wrath or righteous indignation which He will exercise against every unrepentant, unregenerate human being on the earth during the seventieth week of Daniel and Second Advent of Jesus Christ.
Paul asserts that they were delivered from God’s wrath.
The implication of this pericope is that each member of the Thessalonian Christian community must live a godly life in contrast to unregenerate humanity in light of the fact that they are delivered from the Lord’s wrath which He will exercise against each unrepentant unregenerate human being on the earth during the seventieth week of Daniel and His Second Advent.
In 1 Thessalonians 5:1, the apostle Paul employs the vocative form of the noun adelphos, “brothers and sisters” to address each member of the Thessalonian Christian community.
It is functioning as a vocative of emphatic emotional personal address expressing the fact that 1 Thessalonians 5:1 is an emphatic emotional and personal statement from Paul, Silvanus and Timothy to each member of the Thessalonian Christian community.
In this verse, Paul asserts that each and every member of the Thessalonian Christian community possessed absolutely no need whatsoever for he, Silvanus and Timothy to write to any one of them concerning those particular distinguishable periods of time, yes, specifically, those particular distinguishable prophetic events.
The articular plural form of the noun chronos means “those particular distinguishable periods of time” since the word is referring to the Lord exercising His wrath or righteous indignation against unrepentant, unregenerate human being on the earth during the seventieth week of Daniel and His Second Advent.
This is further indicated by the articular construction of this word which is abstract, which means that the article particularizes the general quality of this noun and defines it more closely distinguishing it from other notions.
Therefore, it would be distinguishing the seventieth week of Daniel and the Second Advent of Jesus Christ from those dispensations which came before them and would come after them.
This interpretation is indicated by the contents of 1 Thessalonians 5:2-11 which indicate that Paul is addressing the prophetic subject of the day of the Lord.
In particular, he is addressing the periods of time in which the Lord will exercise His wrath or righteous indignation against unrepentant, unregenerate human being who is alive on earth during the seventieth week of Daniel and His Second Advent.
Thus, the articular construction of this word is emphasizing the particular character of these two dispensations and distinguishes their character from other dispensations before them and after them rather simply distinguishing these dispensations before them and after them.
In 1 Thessalonians 5:1, the noun kairos is also in the plural and means “those particular distinguishable prophetic events” since the word pertains to points of time consisting of particular events during a particular period of time or times.
Here it refers to the prophetic “events” which will take place in the future during the day of the Lord.
Specifically, it refers to all the prophetic “events” which will take place in the future during the seventieth week of Daniel and Second Advent of Jesus Christ.
Like the articular construction of chronos, the articular construction of this word kairos could be interpreted as either a generic or abstract.
Again, the former distinguishes a particular object belonging to a larger class and distinguishes one class from another.
Thus, it would distinguish the events of the seventieth week of Daniel and the Second Advent of Jesus Christ from the events of the dispensations before them and the ones which will proceed after them.
The latter particularizes the general quality of this noun and defines it more closely distinguishing it from other notions.
Therefore, it would be distinguishing the character of the events of the seventieth week of Daniel and the Second Advent of Jesus Christ from the character of the events of those dispensations which came before them and would come after them.
This interpretation is further indicated by the contents of 1 Thessalonians 5:2-11, which indicate that Paul is addressing the prophetic subject of the day of the Lord and in particular those events in which He will exercise His wrath or righteous indignation against unrepentant, unregenerate human beings.
Thus, the articular construction of this word is emphasizing the particular character of the events of these two dispensations.
It distinguishes the particular character of these events from the character of the events of other dispensations before them and after them rather simply distinguishing the events of these dispensations before them and after them.
Paul is employing in 1 Thessalonians 5:1 the figure of hendiadys, which means that the conjunction kai is used to connect together the nouns chronos and kairos in order to form the figure of hendiadys.
This indicates that these nouns are not referring to two different concepts but rather one since both of these words speak of the seventieth week of Daniel and the Second Advent of Jesus Christ when the Lord will exercise His wrath or righteous indignation against every unrepentant, unregenerate human being.
However, the former refers to two periods of time called the seventieth week of Daniel and Second Advent of Jesus Christ in which the Lord will exercise His wrath or righteous indignation against every unrepentant, unregenerate human being on the earth.
On the other hand, the latter refers to the prophetic “events” which will take place in the future during the seventieth week of Daniel and Second Advent of Jesus Christ.
Therefore, this figure is expressing the idea that Paul is now addressing a new topic pertaining to those particular distinguishable prophetic periods of time, yes, specifically, pertaining to those particular distinguishable prophetic events.
These two words appear in the plural in only one other place in the Greek New Testament, namely Acts 1:7.
Acts 1:6 So when they had gathered together, they began to ask him, “Lord, is this the time when you are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” 1:7 He told them, “You are not permitted to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. (NET)
Now, notice, that in Acts 1:7, the Lord Jesus Christ employs the plural form of these two words together in relation to the nation of Israel and in particular restoring the kingdom of Israel.
These two words are used in Acts 1:7 in relation to the prophetic events of the seventieth week of Daniel and the Second Advent of Jesus Christ.
This is indicated by the fact that 1 Thessalonians 5:2-11 uses them in relation to the events of the seventieth week and Second Advent.
Secondly, Acts 1:7 uses them with reference to the restoration of the kingdom of Israel, which speaks of the millennial kingdom, which will be established through the prophetic events of the seventieth week of Daniel and Second Advent of Jesus Christ.
The latter terminates the former.
Now, we noted that the apostle Paul asserts in 1 Thessalonians 5:1 that each and every member of the Thessalonian Christian community possessed absolutely no need whatsoever for he, Silvanus and Timothy to write to any one of them concerning the prophetic events of the seventieth week and Second Advent.
This indicates that they were well instructed with regards to these events or in other words, they were very familiar with the events of the seventieth week of Daniel and the Second Advent of Jesus Christ because they were well instructed by the apostle Paul, Silvanus and Timothy with regards to these events.
Therefore, he is not writing to them with regards to the seventieth week and Second Advent which compose the day of the Lord eschatologically in order to correct some misunderstanding but rather, he is reminding them of the implication of the events of the seventieth week and Second Advent.
The implication is that they were to live their lives in a godly manner in contrast to the unregenerate in light of these prophetic events, which composed the eschatological day of the Lord.
The unregenerate were totally ignorant that they were about to experience the wrath or righteous indignation of the Lord Jesus Christ during the seventieth week and His subsequent Second Advent.
He is also reminding them that they were delivered from His wrath or righteous indignation which He will exercise against every unrepentant, unregenerate human being who is alive during the seventieth week of Daniel and His Second Advent (cf. 1 Thess. 5:9).