parousia70 said in post 47:
Except that Scripture never teaches that Christ's comes "as a thief" multiple times.
That's right, with regard to Christ coming physically "as a thief" multiple times.
parousia70 said in post 47:
1. 1 Thessalonians 5:2 For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night.
2. 1 Thessalonians 5:4 But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief.
The day of the Lord/Christ (2 Thessalonians 2:2) will begin at the Lord Jesus Christ's physical second coming (1 Corinthians 1:7-8; 2 Thessalonians 2:1-8; 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10), which won't occur until Revelation 19:7 to 20:6, "immediately after" the future tribulation of Revelation chapters 6 to 18 and Matthew 24 (Matthew 24:29-31; 2 Thessalonians 2:1-8).
parousia70 said in post 47:
2 Peter 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.
Regarding 2 Peter 3:10-13, in the day of the Lord will occur the destruction of heaven (the first heaven: the sky, the atmosphere) and the earth (the surface of the earth) at the great white throne judgment (Revelation 20:11, Revelation 21:1). And this will be followed by the creation of a new atmosphere and surface for the earth (2 Peter 3:13, Revelation 21:1) onto which New Jerusalem, the Father's house (John 14:2, Revelation 21:2-3), will descend from the third heaven (Revelation 21:2-3). But the day of the Lord won't immediately bring the destruction of earth's atmosphere and surface. For the day of the Lord will begin at Jesus' physical second coming (1 Corinthians 1:7-8) as a thief (2 Peter 3:10a, Revelation 16:15). And after his physical second coming, he will establish his kingdom physically on the earth with the bodily resurrected church for a thousand years (Revelation 19:7 to 20:6, Revelation 5:10, Revelation 2:26-29, Psalms 66:3-4, Psalms 72:8-11, Zechariah 14:3-21).
And after the thousand years, the Gog and Magog rebellion will occur (Revelation 20:7-10, Ezekiel chapters 38-39). And after its defeat, at least seven more years will occur (Ezekiel 39:9b), before the earth's atmosphere and surface are destroyed at the great white throne judgment (Revelation 20:11). All these events, from Jesus' physical second coming to the great white throne judgment, will be part of the day of the Lord. For it's not a 24-hour day, but to God is like a thousand-year "day" (2 Peter 3:8).
parousia70 said in post 47:
Revelation 16:15 Behold, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame.
In Revelation 16:15, Jesus is encouraging and warning those in the church who will still be alive on the earth at the time of the 6th vial (Revelation 16:12, near the end of the future tribulation), still waiting for his physical coming as a thief, to hang on just a little longer until his physical 2nd coming in Revelation 19:7 to 20:3, right after the destruction of Revelation's symbolic "Babylon" at the 7th vial (Revelation 16:17,19, Revelation 19:2 to 20:3). Revelation 16:15 could be the same blessing as Daniel 12:11-12.
Daniel 12:11-12 and Revelation 16:15 could mean that 1,335 literal days after the abomination of desolation (possibly a standing, android image of the Antichrist) is set up in the holy place (the inner sanctum) of a 3rd Jewish temple in Jerusalem (Matthew 24:15, Daniel 11:31), Jesus' physical 2nd coming will occur, and blessed are those believers who wait and remain obedient until that day. If the literal 1,260 days of the Antichrist's worldwide reign (Revelation 13:5-8, Revelation 12:6) will begin when the abomination of desolation is set up, and if the 7 vials of God's wrath will begin on the day after the 1,260 days of the Antichrist's worldwide reign (Revelation 11:15,19, Revelation 15:5 to 16:1), and if the first 6 vials will be poured out over 30 days, then the 6th vial could be poured out on the 1,290th day after the abomination of desolation is set up (Daniel 12:11).
It's on this 1,290th day that the blessing of Daniel 12:12 and Revelation 16:15 could be given, after the 6th vial has been poured out (Revelation 16:12), encouraging those in the church who will still be alive on the earth at that time to keep holding on just 45 more days until Jesus' physical 2nd coming on the 1,335th day. The 45 days could be taken up by the gathering together of the world's armies to Armageddon (Revelation 16:14,16) (Har Megiddo: Mount Megiddo in northern Israel) and then their moving south to pillage Jerusalem, right before Jesus' physical 2nd coming and their total defeat (Zechariah 14:2-21, Revelation 19:19-21).
parousia70 said in post 47:
This same thief-in-the-night coming was also promised to come upon the enemies of the Thessalonians; yet it would not violently overtake the Thessalonians themselves (1 Thess 5:2-9). For the early Thessalonian Church, the Day of the Lord brought about the much-expected glorification of Christ in His Church (2 Thess 1:10), the cessation of their contemporary persecution (2 Thess 1:6-7), and the continuation of their lampstand (presumably, from Rev 2:5).
Some Thessalonian Christians could still be alive at both the (as yet unfulfilled) falling away (apostasy) (2 Thessalonians 2:3) and the subsequent physical second coming of Jesus (2 Thessalonians 1:7), for today many Christians are still living in Thessalonica, a major city in Greece.
Even though Jesus' physical second coming hasn't happened yet, and the persecution of Christians on the earth hasn't ended yet, 2 Thessalonians 1:6 was fulfilled by any suffering which God brought on the first century AD Thessalonians' persecutors while they were still alive, and was and still is being fulfilled by their suffering after they died, in the ongoing torment of Hades (Luke 16:23), if they never repented and got saved.
2 Thessalonians 1:7 also was true even though the physical second coming hasn't happened yet, and the persecution of Christians hasn't ended yet. For 2 Thessalonians 1:7 meant that if the Thessalonian Christians didn't die before the physical second coming, at that time they would rest from being persecuted. Regarding the first century AD Thessalonian Christians whom Paul was originally addressing, 2 Thessalonians 1:7 didn't mean that none of them, or even not all of them, would die before the physical second coming. For they all did die, without the physical second coming happening, and without the persecution of Christians ending. The physical second coming didn't happen in 70 AD, just as the persecution of Christians in Thessalonica and elsewhere in the world didn't end in 70 AD.
The physical second coming will happen, and the persecution of Christians will end, only when Jesus is physically "revealed from heaven with his mighty angels" (2 Thessalonians 1:7) and is seen by everyone (Matthew 24:30-31, Revelation 1:7), and he descends bodily from heaven on a white horse and brings temporal judgment against the people throughout the world alive at that time (Revelation 19:11-21) "that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Thessalonians 1:8). The returned Jesus will then reign physically on the earth with the bodily resurrected church for a thousand years (Revelation 20:4-6, Revelation 5:10, Revelation 2:26-29).
If the first century AD Thessalonian Christians whom Paul was originally addressing had believed the mistaken idea that 2 Thessalonians 1:7 meant that none of them would die before the physical second coming, this could have led to a rank superstition among them, exemplified in the (not historical) story of:
THE MAGIC TALISMAN
On the night that Paul's letter was first read to the Thessalonian Christians, they took special delight in what 2 Thessalonians 1:7 said, mistakenly thinking that it meant that none of them would die before Jesus' physical second coming. But later that same night, in the wee hours, a very aged member of the congregation died in his sleep. As word of this spread the next day, it caused a great uproar within the congregation: "How can this be? How can Old Tychicus have died after we received Paul's promise that none of us would die?"
The church was called together that night to discuss the issue. The bishop stood up and said: "Let us lift up our voices to God and ask him in prayer how this can have happened". But before they could pray, a young man stood up in the back and said: "I know how it happened. Old Tychicus' house is the farthest away from this church building, in which we're keeping Paul's letter. So Old Tychicus must have been just outside the range of the magical power of the promise written in Paul's letter. What we need to do, to make sure that none of us suffers Old Tychicus' fate, is to copy Paul's promise onto little pieces of parchment and hang them around our necks, so that the magical power of the written promise can be with us at all times, no matter where we are. Then none of us can die before Jesus' physical second coming".
The congregation agreed to this idea. But, because it was already late, the congregation was unable that night to purchase blank parchment to make the little talismans with. So everyone went home. (That same night, it so happened that a woman in the congregation named Anna conceived twins within her womb.) The next day, the parchment was purchased, the talismans were made, and everyone received one that night in church. But then, only two weeks later, someone else in the congregation died, and then another died only a month after that, and then another died a couple of months after that. But after each of these people died, the congregation was able to come up with an explanation for how his or her death wasn't because of a failure of the talisman, but because of a failure by the person who died. For example, it was said that one of them died because she took off the talisman to bathe, and another must have died because he didn't have enough faith in the power of the talisman.
Later, some nine months after Paul's letter was first read to the congregation, Anna gave birth to beautiful twin girls. A few days later, she brought them to church to receive their talismans, just as other infants had been brought who had been born after Paul's letter was first read to the congregation. But when she asked for the talismans, she was refused: "We're sorry, dear, but we can't give talismans to your girls. The midwives assure us that your girls were most likely conceived two days after Paul's letter was first read to the congregation. And the promise in Paul's letter applies only to those in the congregation who were alive at the exact moment that the promise was first read to the congregation".
"What are you talking about?", said Anna. "That letter has been read again many times to us since then. Why, it was read again to us just last week."
"We're sorry, dear. It doesn't work like that. The promise applies to only those alive the first time it's read."
"But then my babies are unprotected! They can die before Jesus' physical second coming! Oh, my precious little babies are going to die!"
Anna began sobbing uncontrollably, and as people gathered around her to commiserate with her over her unprotected babies, a wise old man named Apollos stood up and addressed the entire congregation with a firm voice: "I realize now what a gross, paganish superstition we have all fallen into. Surely Paul's promise applies to these precious little ones no less than it applies to any of us. And if it can apply to these, conceived two days after the promise was first read to us, then it can apply to those conceived two years after, or two thousand years after. The length of time doesn't matter. And it's the same with regard to our dying. If Old Tychicus and the others could die after the promise was first read to us, then any of us, even all of us alive today, could die before Jesus' physical second coming. Clearly, we have misunderstood the promise. It must simply mean that if we are still alive at his physical second coming -- and by 'we' I include not only us alive today, but any Thessalonian Christians born in the future -- if we as individuals are still alive at his physical second coming, at that time we will rest from being persecuted".
The people in the congregation were dumbstruck when they heard this, and they all felt ashamed. As Apollos took the talisman off his neck, one by one so did all the rest of the congregation. They put all the talismans in a little box which contained Paul's letter. And then they all kneeled down and prayed together for God to forgive them for their paganish error, which he did. And after that, they lived full lives and had many children, who grew up and had children, who grew up and had children, and so on, so that there are still Thessalonian Christians alive today, in the city of Thessalonica in Greece. And they're still waiting patiently for Jesus' physical second coming (2 Peter 3:8-9) and the end of the persecution of Christians (2 Timothy 3:12).