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No.2.
1: 10 - 2: 5.
pp. 145 - 149
After describing the apocalypse of the Lord from heaven to the earth with His
mighty angels, a stupendous event which is referred to in Luke 9: 26, ". . . . . when
He shall come in His own glory, and in His Father's, and of the holy angels", and also
Matt. 24: 29-31, 25: 31, the Apostle Paul refers to it as `rest' for the believer, who
belongs to the company of the saved of the Acts period, and age-long destruction or
deprivation from the face of the Lord for those who know not God and obey not the
gospel (II Thess. 1: 9). Professor F. F. Bruce's note here is "Everlasting destruction, i.e.
the destruction of the age to come, with decisive implication of finality. It consists of
exclusion from the presence of the Lord, with whom alone is `the fountain of life'."
The next two verses are better given in the R.V.:
". . . . . when He shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be marveled at in all
them that believed (because our testimony unto you was believed) in that day. To which
end we also pray always for you, that our God may count you worthy of your calling, and
fulfil every desire of goodness and every work of faith, with power; that the Name of our
Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and ye in Him, according to the grace of our God and
the Lord Jesus Christ."
The glorifying and exalting of the Lord Jesus is the subject of this section. Paul longs
that the Name of the Saviour shall be glorified in the present experience of these
Thessalonian believers and not only this, but he directs their minds forward to His
Second Advent when He shall be more fully glorified in them and marveled at by each
one as they see Him at last in all His wonder and majesty returning as King of kings and
Lord of lords to take control and be vindicated and exalted in the earth that once rejected
Him. These words describe an overwhelming experience, as the realization of the hope
of every calling of God's people must surely do, and it was sufficient to enable these
sufferings saints to hold fast and endure to the end and so practically exhibit the fact that
they had been counted worthy of their calling and of the Kingdom of God for which they
were suffering (verses 5 and 11).
In chapter 2: the Apostle comes closer to the difficulties that were troubling some of
them, causing them to have a wrong conception of their hope and the events leading up to
the Lord's Second Advent:
"Now we beseech you, brethren, touching the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and
our gathering together unto Him: to the end that ye be not quickly shaken from your
mind, nor yet be troubled, either by spirit, or by word, or by epistle as from us, as that the
day of the Lord is now present" (II Thess. 2: 1, 2 R.V.).
Paul's subject is still the Lord's Coming, not `by the Coming' as the A.V. but
`touching the Coming' as the R.V. translates. Here he uses the word parousia instead of
apocalupsis of 1: 7, showing that these words describe the same glorious event. By the
overruling of the Spirit of God both these words are kept to the Gospels and the Acts and