2 THESSALONIANS (Letter 53, Larry Crabb’s 66 Love Letters)

LET THEN INTERPRET NOW

We will never think clearly about what’s happening now and how we want to live today until we are thinking clearly about what will happen when God’s Son returns.

If we don’t live now with then in view we will move through life with a self-focused demand to have things go our way, to find relief from a misery we cannot escape.

Over the doorway into hell, Dante correctly envisioned this greeting: ” Abandoned hope, all you enter here.” Isolation- the unending absence of everything God created people to enjoy of everything He provided in His Son – that is the destiny so many have chosen.

The gospel of a toothless love, which fails to center on the forgiving grace that alone makes possible a perfect life later, is now in vogue in too many churches. It is a false gospel that focuses on a better life now.

The mystery of the lawlessness continues to have its way, held back only for a little longer until the moral structure of society completely breaks down (it’s happening now) and the church that claims to know God becomes nauseatingly lukewarm (that’s happening too). Then the devil will reveal his man, the man of lawlessness who with impressive displays of power will persuade many that he is the messiah who can restore society to its entitled comfort.

On the Great Judgment, God’s Son will blow away His counterfeit.
With the hope that evil will be destroyed, wait eagerly and actively for the day of the Great Gathering.
Celebrate and preach the good news of forgiveness that centers us on the cross and fills us with hope for His Son’s return.

2 THESSALONIANS: From Ray Stedman

Click here for entire Bible Summary from Ray Stedman

to be completed

2 THESSALONIANS – David Jeremiah (Understanding the 66 Books of the Bible)

Key thought: The return of Christ is a future event that will be swift, certain, and glorious.

Key Verse: Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and our God and Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting consolation and good hope by grace, comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and work. 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17

Key Action: The Second Coming shouldn’t provoke idleness among believers, but action; not speculation, but sanctification.