Practical preterism (2) - 3 August 2009 |
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We’ve already looked at three passages in 1 Thessalonians to try to figure out whether or not the context supports a preterist reading. Next on the list is a longer passage, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.
13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. 14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. 15 For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.
Several considerations suggest that Paul is talking here about the final judgment, not AD 70.
- The presenting issue is what will happen to believers who have ‘fallen asleep’ (i.e. died, 4:13-15; cf. 1 Cor 11:30). It’s hard to imagine how a reply about Jesus coming in judgment on the Temple would address this concern.
- Paul answers this concern by drawing a parallel between Jesus’ death and resurrection, on the one hand, and the way in which God will bring with Jesus those believers who have died (4:14), on the other. Just as Jesus died and was raised, the argument runs, so also these brothers and sisters who have died will be raised. Again, this points to the general resurrection.
- The reference to the general resurrection becomes explicit in 4:16: ‘the dead in Christ will rise first’.
So far, so good. But there’s a fly in the ointment. Paul seems to anticipate that he and his hearers will still be alive at ‘the coming of the Lord’ (4:15) about which he has been speaking. ‘We who are alive’, he says twice (4:15, 17); not ‘those who are alive’. How can the text be about the general resurrection if Paul expected to still be alive when the great day came?
Some have attempted to solve this puzzle by suggesting that Paul was mistaken about the time of Jesus final coming. Others (e.g. C. H. Dodd) have argued that Paul changed his mind about the timing of the last day: near the beginning of his ministry (when he wrote 1 Thessalonians) he expected Jesus to return very soon, but later he had decided that the final judgment would be delayed.
I’m not sure how these solutions can be reconciled with an evangelical doctrine of Scripture. It’s one thing to say that Paul’s understanding of the gospel developed during his life – after all, he started out as a gospel denying, church-persecuting Pharisee. But it is quite another to claim that Paul expressed his early misunderstandings in his biblical writings, for this effectively undermines the truthfulness of the Bible.
A much better solution is found by looking closer at the Greek text. It turns out that the phrase ‘we who are alive’ doesn’t necessarily imply that Paul expected the parousia to occur before his death. Following I. H. Marshall and C. E. B. Cranfield, Paul Woodbridge[1] has pointed out that the ‘we’ may be hypothetical (i.e. ‘if we are alive’), or indeed it may ’signify nothing more that a general designation’ (i.e. ‘we, insofar as this will, as events turn out, apply to us’). Paul’s ‘we who are alive’ does not, in itself, indicate that Paul expected the day of resurrection to come before his death.
Taking all this together, it seems overwhelmingly likely that 1 Thess 4:13-18, like 2:19-20; 3:11-13 and 5:23-24, refers not to AD 70 but to the general resurrection.
[1] Paul Woodbridge, ‘Did Paul Change His Mind? An Examination of Some Aspects of Pauline Eschatology,’ Themelios 28.3 (2008), p. 10. Online www.biblicalstudies.org.uk/article_paul_woodbridge.html
Posted by Steve Jeffery · Topics: Bible, Minister's Blog, Theology