While they are saying: Peace and Safety:
This prophecy in 1 Thessalonians 5:3, goes on to tell us: then, sudden destruction will come upon them.
So we need to find out who are those who will say; ‘At last we have peace and safety’, and who the sudden destruction will fall upon.
We can be sure this is about the latter days, as it refers to Jesus prophecy in Matthew 24:8 All these things are the birth pangs of the new age.
We also know that it will happen before Jesus Returns, as Paul tells us in 1Thessalonians 4:16 The Lord will come from heaven with a shout; the voice of an archangel and the trumpet of God.
Plus, anyone with a Bible can know that Jesus will Return 1260 days after the Anti-Christ sits in the Temple. Revelation 13:5-8
Whereas at this sudden destruction, before the Return, He will come unexpectedly.
This event is obviously the multi prophesied Day of the Lord’s fiery wrath; the Sixth Seal worldwide disaster. The Lord will not be seen on that Day. Amos 1, Psalms 11:4-6
The focal point of God’s Plan on earth, is the holy Land, the place His eyes are fixed upon. Deuteronomy 11:11-12
The situation there has been extremely volatile for many years, but just recently there has been a change, with the United Arab Emirates normalizing relations with the Jewish State of Israel. Also many other Middle East nations are overtly [instead of covertly] in diplomatic and trade discussions with Israel.
This considerable improvement toward stability and peace in the region, has resulted in many comments of optimism and hope for peace and safety at last for Israel and the Islamic peoples. Those diplomats and commentators are the first ‘they’.
EXCEPT for Iran and their proxies. Their Shi-ite version of Islam remains committed to the destruction of the Jewish people and the removal of Israel from the Middle East.
We see many prophecies which say how the Lord will destroy His enemies, Psalms 83, Micah 4:11-12 and Revelation 6:12-17, are the most specific. They all say that the Lord will take action when an attack upon Israel is commenced. He will not allow nukes to explode in His holy Land.
Therefore, ‘them’, are the peoples who hate Israel and attempt to wipe them off the map.
It WILL happen, God’s Word prophesies it and Satan is the force behind Islam, plus the leaders of Iran are facing revolution for their mismanagement and incompetence. They must act to retain power by diverting attention from themselves.
The old covenant has gone forever, with it abolished blood-sacrifice system, center in Jerusalem, and racial favor of natural Israel. The new covenant has arrived with its new and better conditions. There is nowhere in the New Testament that teaches that "the focal point of God’s Plan on earth, is the holy Land." The holy land is where you find the redeemed today. They are the temple of God. They are true Israel.
As the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod report puts it:
“the land of Israel prefigures Christ and ultimately the new heavens and earth. Just as the New Testament transcends the ethnic and political aspects of Israel, so it also transcends the geographical limitations of the Promised Land” (The End Times - A Study on Eschatology and Millennialism).
1 Thessalonians 4:14-5:9 declares:
“if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming [Gr. parousia] 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’ [Gr. harpazō] together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words. But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ.”
The “wrath” of God is here linked with the “sudden destruction” that befalls those that are in the dark when Jesus comes. Significantly the whole context of this reading is the destruction of those who abide in darkness and the rescue of those who are in light. There is no third group that is half enlightened. Despite the destruction that hits all left behind the writers reassures the believer that they will escape this awful fate.
How you can separate these two parallel passages by 1,000 yrs+ shows again how you are doing injury to the reading. These mirror each other. I Thessalonians 5:2-7 confirms that it isn’t just Christ’s coming that is sudden but also the destruction that accompanies. Likening Christ’s return to “a thief in the night” capably serves to impress the surprising nature of this Coming for the lost. It shows that the wicked are caught abruptly in their folly at the apocalypse. The “sudden destruction” is so impactful that
none escape. That is explicit in the narrative. Furthermore, we learn that the speed that the pain of childbirth hits a woman will be like the destruction of the wicked. It is not saying that 'the whole child-birth experience is like the coming of the Lord' which would be needed to allow for the Premil understanding. After all, they have to stretch the judgment out over centuries, but it is not found in this text. In doing this they diminish the sudden nature of the destruction.
The coming of Christ is here (as 2 Peter 3) likened to the appearance of “
a thief in the night.” Moreover, the narrative demonstrates that the judgment that accompanies this climactic event is instantaneous and that it involves “sudden destruction.” Its focus is directed fully and entirely upon the sum-total of the wicked, not merely a percentage of them. This group that is referred to as
“they” who
“shall not escape” relates to the aggregate Christ-rejecting community alive at His return. They are later described as those who are
“of the night” and
“of darkness.” It is they alone that experience immediate and “sudden destruction” which “cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child”; and “
they shall [assuredly]
not escape.” This climactic event pulls down the curtain on time and concludes the affairs of this life.
The sixth seal totally demolishers the Premillennial scheme. It shows the conflagration and the destruction of all the wicked. This relays the Amil position. Let us look at the text in Revelation 6:12-17, says,
“And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; and the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?”
This is the time of God's final wrath upon the earth. The wicked are so afraid of their impending doom that they want the mountains and rocks to fall on them. Think about this: being crushed by mountains and rocks appeals more to them than facing God's wrath. No wicked will survive this.
Once again, this text finishes with a rhetorical question. The obvious answer (to those who do not have their own theological agenda) is that no one will survive this climatic event.
Revelation 6:12-17 depicts the conflagration that accompanies the return of Christ. It sees the regeneration of this earth and the destruction of all the wicked. This agrees with multiple Scripture.
· The sun became black
· The moon became as blood
· The stars of heaven fell unto the earth,
· The heaven departs like a scroll
· Every mountain and island are moved out of their places
This is talking about the topography of the physical earth and starry host being totally transformed. This occurs at the climactic return of Christ.
Scripture shows Jesus one and only coming to be totally climactic. When Jesus comes that is it - caught up or caught on, saved or lost, eternal bliss or eternal torment. It is the end. No one survives (see above).
