“Therefore, we ourselves boast about you among God’s churches — about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and afflictions that you are enduring. It is clear evidence of God’s righteous judgment that you will be counted worthy of God’s kingdom, for which you also are suffering, since it is just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you and to give relief to you who are afflicted, along with us. This will take place at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with his powerful angels, when he takes vengeance with flaming fire on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will pay the penalty of eternal destruction from the Lord’s presence and from his glorious strength on that day when he comes to be glorified by his saints and to be marveled at by all those who have believed, because our testimony among you was believed” (2 Thessalonians 1:4-10, CSB).
This passage does not refer to the rapture of the body of Christ, but rather it is a reference to Christ’s second appearance/coming at the end of Israel’s seventieth-week/seven-year Tribulation Period. I thought I would add this Scripture to this chapter and comment on it, because this passage is rich in essential information in the believers ever-growing knowledge of God.
Paul had written this letter from Corinth, as he did his first letter to the Thessalonian believers. Second Thessalonians was sent about six months after he sent First Thessalonians, AD 51-52. Both letters were written and sent during his second missionary expedition, AD 50-52 (Acts 15:40-18:23). It is addressed to the Thessalonian church from Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy (1:1), as was the first letter. Paul writes that he, Silvanus, and Timothy, ought always to thank God for them because the Thessalonian believers love for one another had been increasing (1:3)—this increasing love for each other is an indication of their love for God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ (the measure of a Christian’s love for God is revealed in his measure of love for the church of God – 1 John 4:20-21).
As both letters reveal, the Thessalonian church had been persecuted and suffered many trials (1 Thess. 1:6; 2:14; 3:2-5; 2 Thess. 1:4-5; Acts 17:5-9). The apostles boasted about these believers among the other churches for their faith and persistence in all the suffering and persecutions that they were living through (1:4). Paul remarked, that the suffering Thessalonian believers will be judged worthy of God’s kingdom because of all the persecutions and affliction they had experienced (1:5b). This is proof that God’s righteous judgment is just and good (1:5a). God will execute divine retribution upon anyone that troubles his church (1:6). His vengeance will happen during the Tribulation and culminate at Christ’s second appearance/coming, when he and his mighty angels will come to execute judgement on the fallen angels, the kings of the earth, and their mighty men, et cetera (1:7b; Matt. 24:30; 25:31; Mk. 13:26; Rev. 19:11-21). Jesus will strike down the nations by his words (Rev. 19:15a). The beast and the false prophet will be cast into the lake of fire (Rev. 19:20). At the rapture of the body of Christ (1 Thess. 4:16-17) there is no battle like the one that will occur at his second appearance. The Lord does not execute his divine judgment at the rapture but during and at the end of the Tribulation Period. From what Scripture reveals, Jesus is quite calm when the church is called up into the eternal realm. His anger towards the fallen angels, and the kings of the earth, seem to stay in check until his second appearance.
The Scripture says that the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven on that day (1:7b), meaning as he comes out of the eternal realm into the earthly realm his majesty, glory, power, and strength will be revealed to the unbelieving world—he will be revealed to the church in his majesty and glory at the rapture of the body of Christ (1 Cor. 1:7). Some English versions say that Jesus will be revealed from heaven with his angels in blazing or flaming fire in verse seven, but some other English versions say that in flaming fire he takes define retribution on the unbelieving world in verse eight. So there is no confusion or misunderstanding, it is written in the book of Revelation that when he comes out of heaven at his second appearance to execute judgement his eyes will be like a flame of fire, or fiery flame, or like a blazing fire (Rev. 19:12a)—different translations have various elucidations of certain texts that usually do not contradict the original meaning.
When the Lord comes out of heaven to judge and make war on the fallen ones, and the kings of the earth, the Scripture says the armies of heaven follow him (Rev. 19:14a). This typically refers to the body of Christ who will receive glorified bodies once the rapture occurs, by the fact this army will be wearing garments made of fine white linen which represents the righteousness of the body of Christ (Rev. 19:8, 14b)—the church will be in the eternal realm with Jesus for at least the whole seven-year Tribulation when this divine onslaught occurs. This army will also include the holy angels, by the fact the Scripture mentions an angel standing in the sun announcing an invite for all flying birds to take part in the supper of God (Rev. 19:17-18). And, I personally believe, that it will be the mighty holy angels that throw the beast and the false prophet into the lake of fire, by the fact that the passage of explanation indicates that the mighty angels help Jesus execute his divine judgment (1:6-9). Also, the apostle John saw an angel that will seize Satan and cast him into the Abyss, then lock and seal it up (Rev. 20:1-3). He saw this holy angel coming out of the eternal realm. The Scripture does not make it clear, but my guess is he comes out of heaven with the armies of heaven, and when the beast and the false prophet are captured and thrown into the lake of fire Satan will be seized at the same time.
Will that not be how it will happen? While the kings of the earth, their generals, and mighty men (whom I believe will either be genetically modified creatures or authentic Nāp̄îl (Nephilim, sons of fallen angels), or both, are being terminated, the mighty holy angels will seize Satan, the beast, and false prophet all at once in a strategic military-like-operation. The Scripture does say that Satan and his angels will be cast out of the heavenly realms and cast down to the earthly realm sometime during the seventieth-week of Israel (Rev. 12:7-9, 12-17). What this means is that even after Satan and the fallen angels rebelled against God, they still have access into the heavenly realms at this time (Job 1:6-7; 2:1-2), but sometime after the church is raptured, and during the Tribulation Period, there will be a war in the heavenly realms between Michael and his angels and Satan and his angels. But Satan and his angels will lose this battle and be cast down to the earthly realm and not be allowed access to the heavenly realms ever again—the people that are not raptured with the church will be left on the earth to witness and suffer Lucifer’s fury (Rev. 12:17).
Any unbelieving person that does not suffer God’s physical retribution at the second coming of Christ will stand before him at the great white throne judgment and ultimately be thrown into the lake of fire where the Antichrist and false prophet will be cast into (Rev. 20:11-15). But the people that do suffer the physical wrath of the Lamb at his second coming are in a sense stand-ins for all those that have afflicted the people that have put their faith in Jesus Christ during the church-age. This is why Paul could prophesy that those who afflicted the Thessalonian church will suffer retribution. It bears repeating: Every individual that takes part in making war against Jesus Christ and the armies of heaven at the end of the seventieth-week of Israel (Rev. 19:19) will by divine proxy represent every world leader, every religious zealot, every wicked and unbelieving person throughout the church-age that has ever afflicted a child of God.
So, when Jesus is revealed to the unbelieving world at his second coming, he will punish all those that do not know or obey God (1:8). They will eventually be punished with eternal destruction, shut out from the presence of the Lord and the glory and majesty of his power (1:9)—this verse is referring to the unbeliever’s appearance at the great white throne judgment. Their divine court date and sentence will happen sometime after Christ’s millennial reign (Rev. 20:4-6), and after Satan is stopped from deceiving the nations again once he is released from his incarceration after the millennial reign (Rev. 20:7-10). The Scripture does not say how long that future time of deception will be.
Some people get confused with verse ten (1:10) because they cannot discern whether Paul is referring to the rapture or the second coming? They cannot figure out if “his saints” and “those who have believed” are referring to Christians or not. So, I will clarify. Since this passage refers to the second appearance of Yeshua Hamashiach and not the rapture of the body of Christ as I briefly explained in the third paragraph, the noun phrase, “ἁγίοις αὐτοῦ (agíois aftoú) his saints,” refers to the remnant Jews that will anoint Yeshua as their Messiah King at the end of Israel’s seventieth-week (Dan. 9:24; Isa. 49:3; 60:15-22; Eze. 37:21-28; Dan. 12:1; Rom. 11:5, 25-27). And “those who have believed” refer to both the Jews who will be redeemed that day and the Christians that will come with Jesus from heaven wearing garments made of fine white linen, when he will judge and make war on the fallen ones, and the kings of the earth (Rev. 19:14). On that day, Yeshua will be ἐνδοξασθῆναι (endoxasthínai) glorified, by the Jews that make it through to the end (Matt. 24:13), because this group will for the first time realize that Yeshua, the son of Mary and Joseph from Nazareth, is their Messiah (I figure they most likely will be those devoutly adhering to Torah Judaism[1] going into the seventieth-week of Israel; but of course, I hypothesize). They will glorify him by anointing him (Dan. 9:24g), and by putting their faith in him—there have been a countless number of Jews that have put their faith in Jesus of Nazareth throughout the church-age, but this final group will be the remaining Jews on planet Earth who will be the recipients of God’s grace (Isa. 12:1-2; 45:17; Jer. 23:5-6; 31:31-34; Eze. 37:24-28). At this point, all Israel will be saved (Rom. 11:25-27). The Christians that come with Jesus will θαυμασθῆνα (thavmasthína) admire, him, as he executes divine retribution upon all those that have afflicted the church throughout the church-age—some Greek documents use the Greek word θαυμάζω, the transliteration is thavmázo, and it sounds like thou-mad'-zo. Thavmázo usually translates as the verb, marvel, many more times in English versions of the Bible than the verb, admire. This is why you might see some English versions use the verb marvel more than the verb admire. The Greek document that I used to get the Greek verb thavmasthína (admire), is taken from, The Online Greek Bible.[2] Thavmázo (marvel) is taken from, Strong's Greek Dictionary.[3]
As I said above, these people that suffer the physical wrath of the Lamb at his second appearance will by divine proxy represent all those that have harmed the church in anyway throughout the entirety of the time of the church. The Thessalonian believers from the apostle Paul’s day who suffered persecution will also witness Jesus Christ judge and make war on the fallen ones, and the kings of the earth, because they had believed the word of the Lord through the apostles and will be present with the church on that day (1:10c)—they will be among the armies of heaven that descend from heaven with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Picture: The Triumph of Christianity Over Paganism -- Gustave Dore
[2] The Online Greek Bible
