Second Book of Thessalonians

Click here for the First Book of Thessalonians.

CHAPTER 1

This is another disputed letter.  Many Biblical scholars don’t think that Paul wrote it, either.  It’s also a really short letter – just 47 verses over three chapters.

Reading it myself, it seems like an angrier Paul than normal.  Maybe that’s the wrong way of putting it.  Paul always has his anger, but usually his targets are people who disagree with his theology.  In this letter, the theology itself seems angry.  Paul’s God is mostly a God of uplift, a redeemer and savoir.  The God here is more of a punisher.  Oh sure, there is plenty of happy talk along the way, but the whole worldview is darker.

For example, midway through the first chapter, our letter writer (Paul or whoever else) ells us of “Jesus in heaven with his mighty angels, in blazing fire, inflicting punishment on those who do not acknowledge God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.  These will pay the penalty of eternal ruin.”

Yeah, Paul’s image of divine justice really didn’t focus on people being punished by God.  Paul was more about how God will help those who believe in him.  As near as I can tell, when Jesus returns, the good will be saved, and the good who are dead will rise from the grave and be reunited with Christ.  Paul never really cared about what will happen to the other side.  They’ll be dead, and that’s about it.  None of this “eternal ruin” stuff from him.

CHAPTER 2

In this chapter, Paul warns against people spending too much time trying to figure out exactly when Christ will return.  Ah, so Paul wouldn’t support William Miller, a 19^th century American preacher who predicted the exact day Christ would return to earth and the world as we know it would end.  It didn’t happen, earning that day the nickname The Great Disappointment.

And again, the worldview here is dark and angry.  For example, verse 9 talks of Satan (who Paul rarely brings up). Verse 10 tells us of the wicked who are perishing.  Verse 11 says God will send a “deceiving power” to those who believe lies.  You can’t go a half-sentence without finding something gloomy.

Strangely, while the worldview is angrier, the letter itself is more dispassionate.  It’s all theoretical and rhetorical, without much personal emotion.  This flips around Paul entirely.  He is typically a passionate, angry letter writer telling people of a wonderful God.  This letter is a dispassionate letter writer telling of an angry God. 

CHAPTER 3

The letter concludes with the favorite quote of the current US Republican Party: “if anyone was unwilling to work, neither should that one eat.”  This was used by an actual Congresscritter last year to justify slashing social welfare funs.  Apparently, the only people who get that money are people who refuse to work.  That’s the only reason why anyone is poor.

It’s an all-time great moment in selective reading.  You can find dozens if not hundreds of quotes and lines in the Bible exhorting people to be more giving and be charitable to those on bottom of society.  But the one quote from Paul (and possibly an imitation Paul) is the one brought up to justify the opposite approach.  At the very least, I think the Bible calls on us to have a very tolerant standard of judging who is/not refusing to work, and giving people the benefit of the doubt on that matter.

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

Well, it’s distinctive.  I’ll give it that.  It’s also a very negative one.  Mark Twain had an old joke – the God of the New Testament is the God of the Old Testament after he gets religion.  Twain’s point was that the often wrath-filled God of the early books became much sunnier in the Christ-era.  Well, call Thessalonians II a throwback Bible book then.  This is a much less inspiring letter. 

I sure hope Paul isn’t the real author.  He comes off a lot more likable than this typically.

Click here for the next book, Timothy I.