1 Thessalonians 1:10, Dispensationalism, and the “Wrath of God”
The following is from my forthcoming exposition of Paul’s Thessalonian Letters, “When the Lord Jesus Is Revealed from Heaven” which will be made available as a free download for those who complete season two of the Blessed Hope Podcast.
Paul’s contention in 1 Thessalonians 1:10 that the day of God’s wrath (and the final judgment) occurs when Jesus returns on the last day, raises insurmountable difficulties for all forms of premillennialism. Premillennarians contend that Jesus returns to establish a millennial kingdom on the earth, usually thought to be structured upon the theocratic nation of Israel, with Jesus physically ruling over the earth from David’s throne in Jerusalem. At the end of the millennial age, supposedly, Satan is released from the Abyss and organizes the nations who collectively revolt against Christ and his church (Revelation 20:7-10). In response to this last outbreak of evil, when God casts Satan and his minions into the lake of fire, only then does the final judgment take place, fully one thousand years after Jesus Christ returns to deliver his people from the coming wrath of God.
In light of the premillennial misinterpretation of the scene in Revelation 20:1-10–supposedly occurring after our Lord’s return, instead of seeing John as referring to the interadvental period and its consummation when Jesus returns–premillenarians (including dispensationalists) must assert that God’s eschatological wrath is not manifest until the thousand year millennial age comes to an end. Both camps affirm they hold this view based upon what they claim to be a literal reading of an apocalyptic text. But the impossibility of the premillennial view becomes all-too clear when Paul, in an epistle written to answer specific questions about the Lord’s return, informs the Thessalonians that God’s eschatological wrath occurs when Christ returns to deliver them (2 Thessalonians 1:7-10), not one thousand years later. This leaves no room for a millennial age after our Lord’s return. None at all.
The irony here is that those who attempt to read apocalyptic literature literally (which is not how such literature ought to be read) are forced to insert gaps (a quite non-literal thing to do) so as to separate Christ’s return by a thousand years from the final judgment. Paul tells us plainly in 1 Thessalonians 1:10 that we are delivered from the wrath of God when Jesus returns at the end of the age, not a thousand years later. What is the justification for inserting the thousand year gap? Especially when you claim to read prophetic texts literally?
All dispensationalists are premillennial, but not all premillenarians are dispensationalists. A key difference between the two is the dispensationalist notion of God’s people being spared from a future seven-year tribulation period–a time of unprecedented trouble for Israel and the persecution of those left behind by the end-times antichrist. The tribulation, supposedly, begins with the rapture and ends when Jesus returns to destroy the Antichrist during the final battle of Armageddon.
The embrace of a supposed seven year tribulation period also gives rise to the question and a once-heated source of debate (now relatively quiet), about whether or not someone is “pre” or “post trib.” When I am asked about this, my answer is that the question itself is based upon a number of incorrect assumptions about the timing of the tribulation and the nature of the Lord’s return. My view (Reformed amillenialism) is technically “post-trib,” but is framed very differently from the in-house debate among evangelicals, since I believe the “great tribulation” will encompass the entire interadvental period and not merely seven-years of “tribulation” immediately before the Lord’s return.
Our dispensational brethren contend that the wrath spoken of here by Paul is temporal (i.e., physical and economic persecution from the Antichrist and those who do his bidding) and is therefore limited to the so-called “seven-year tribulation,” supposedly predicted by the prophet Daniel (cf. Daniel 9:24-27). Based upon Jesus’s promise to the church of Philadelphia in Revelation 3:10 (“because you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell on the earth”), when Paul then speaks of the wrath to come in 1 Thessalonians 1:10 dispensationalists assert that he’s referring to the wrath that the world experiences after the church has been removed from the earth (the “rapture”) brought about by the Antichrist and the various judgments of God upon the earth during this time.[1]
It is important to point out the hermeneutical “chasing of one’s tail” practiced by dispensationalists arises from the unsubstantiated premise upon which the entire dispensational contention is grounded–God’s people avoid God’s temporal wrath during a future seven-year tribulation. Dispensationalists believe that Daniel 9:24-27, particularly v. 25, is speaking of a future seventieth week of Daniel which commences at (or about) the time of the rapture. Believing Jews and Gentiles are removed from earth during this time of temporal wrath.
Rather, I take Daniel 9 to be a messianic prophecy fulfilled by the coming of Christ at his first advent.[2] Daniel says nothing about a future seven-year tribulation, since he’s referring to Christ’s messianic mission—events associated with his first advent. 1 Thessalonians 1:10 clearly points to eternal wrath of God (cf. 2 Thessalonians 1:5-10) which fits well within Paul’s two-age eschatology, the end of time, and the dawn of eternity. Paul instructs the Thessalonians, and us, to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.
One of the dispensationialist stalwarts from the prior generation, J. Dwight Pentecost, argues that this text (1 Thessalonians 1:9-10) is proof that the “rapture” occurs before the beginning of the seventieth week of Daniel. He writes, “Paul clearly indicates that our expectation is not wrath, but the revelation of `his Son from heaven.’ This could not be unless the Son were revealed before the wrath of the seventieth week falls on the earth.”[3] This view collapses under the weight of Paul’s assertion that eschatological wrath occurs when Jesus returns, not a full one thousand years later. Ironically, in one sense, Pentecost is absolutely right. God’s people are spared from the wrath to come. But Paul is not talking about temporal wrath from an end-times Antichrist during a future seven-year tribulation. Rather, he’s speaking of the final eschatological wrath on judgment day.
When dispensationalists, like Pentecost, limit God’s wrath here to some sort of temporal wrath, and contend that God did not appoint believers to experience such things, a number of obvious questions arise–those nasty unintended consequences. What does this say about those Christians who fell to Roman persecution in Paul’s day? Was that not some sort of temporal wrath? If so, why were Christians not delivered from it? What about the countless martyrs who have fought various satanic beasts, false prophets, and antichrists throughout the long centuries past? Are we really to believe that if the saints and martyrs were not removed before facing such wrath, then they should have lived at the time of the rapture when Christians will be spared from such things?
Dispensationalism has long created much confusion about eschatological matters, all with the best of intentions–defending the “literal” reading of the Bible. But this is a claim they cannot keep when they insert a one thousand year gap between Christ’s second advent and the final judgment, especially when it is painfully obvious (or least should be) that Paul is speaking of eschatological wrath (final judgment) from which Jesus delivers us through his redemptive work and not temporal wrath Christians will supposedly face in a future seven year tribulation.
The Christian believer, on the other hand, has the glorious hope that Christ’s return does not mean God’s wrath will fall upon them, because of his death at Calvary, Jesus has already delivered his people from the wrath of God and the fear of eternal punishment faced by those who reject the gospel and who dare to stand before God on judgment day clothed only in the rags of their own righteousness. Paul’s doctrine of the return of Christ is intended to give comfort and hope to believers, not provide material for dispensational end-times prognosticators.
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[1] John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue, Christ’s Prophetic Plans: A Futuristic Premillennial Primer (Chicago: Moody Press, 2012), 94-95).
[2] Meredith G. Kline, “The Covenant of the Seventieth Week” in The Law and the Prophets: Old Testament Studies in Honor of Oswald T. Allis, ed. by J.H. Skilton (Nutley, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1974), 452-469.
[3] J. Dwight Pentecost, Things to Come (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1978), 217.