1.  From the beginning, there have been people teaching all sorts of doctrines about the second coming and the time of the end. Yes, there were and are false teachers but most of the confusion is either jumping to conclusions about certain signs or overly excited imaginations or just different readings of Scripture. Why else would we have pre/post/a millennial and pre/post tribulation interpretations of end times. No one knows for sure but everyone has an opinion or a feeling. That was true for the church at Thessalonika. There were people teaching that the only explanation for their suffering and hardship was the end times had begun. Others were teaching…

1.  Paul writes at a time when the whole age was suffering from “the failure of nerve.” Men were longing for some defense against the “advancing chaos of the world.” We want to use Christ as they used religion as a means of making our world a better or safer place. We want to find something that will calm the volatility and uncertainty. In times of instability, then and now, people attach themselves to easy answers, sure things, strong leaders, institutions that promise security, heresies, novelties, cults, movements, extreme beliefs or no beliefs at all. This was the world the church was in when Paul is writing. People were unsure…