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Profile:
Name: Letter to the Thessalonians
Author: Paul
Dating: c. 50 CE
Letter to the Thessalonians:
Paul's two letters to the Thessalonians,
he provides practical advice and teaching to the churches at Thessalonica (in
Macedonia) which he indicated he wanted to provide them in person. They may have been
among the first Christians to experience Roman persecution, and Paul is pleased that
they have maintained their faith in the face of adversity. Two of his primary concerns
are sexual morality and hard work - they first they have to avoid and the second they
have to seek out.
Paul's concern with sexual morality may have been due to his apparent conviction that the end of the world would arrive soon:
For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 15-17) emphasis added
If Paul had believed that the "final generation" were some time in the future, it would have been easy to use the third person. Instead, the passage is written in the first person - Paul is including himself among those who would be alive when Jesus would return.
Also Known As: none
Alternate Spellings: none
Common Misspellings: none
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