Sunday, August 11, 2013

Was Israel already set aside in 1 Thessalonians 2:16 because their sins were filled up and "wrath is come upon them to the uttermost"?

So far as the wrath of God to the uttermost is concerned., this is seen by Mid Acts as an indirect reference to the national casting aside of Israel. But the word, "uttermost," does not imply that God had set Israel aside.  Just because God's wrath was on them to the uttermost does not mean they had already been cast aside, but Mid Acts thinks it does. What do the Scriptures say?

First up every text has a context. In what way can Mid Acts claim the dealings with Israel are past, when the very hope of Thessalonians is the Day of the Lord, Christ returning to deal with the lawless one in Israel's temple, and Christ coming back to reign on the holy hill of ZION?

The Trumpets of Paul's writings during Acts is the Feast of Trumpets, this is a step in Israel's national deliverance. Joshua (Jesus) lead Israel across the Jordan and into the promised land and Jericho fell at the last Trumpet. If Israel had been cast aside because God's wrath was upon them to the uttermost, then Trumpets would have been postponed because Trumpets is when Israel enters the Kingdom on earth.
Thessalonians is the hope of ISRAEL. The faithful in Israel blessed, the disobedient in Israel to experience wrath.

All the talk about a glass full only means that God's wrath was full against them, this does not mean He had changed his plans by casting them aside. The gifts and calling of God were without change of mind, Roms.11, and that was written many years after Thessalonians.
If the wrath of God was to the uttermost, then what was the wrath TO COME in 1Thess.1:10?

Yes the glass was full, but it had not been poured out yet. Look also at 1Thess.5 thus;
1Th 5:1  But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you.
1Th 5:2  For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.
1Th 5:3  For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.  (not escape what? the wrath that is coming).
1Th 5:4  But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.
1Th 5:5  Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
1Th 5:6  Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.
1Th 5:7  For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.
1Th 5:8  But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.
1Th 5:9  For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,
1Th 5:10  Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. When He returns to them at Trumpets.

Thessalonians is full of OT references. Look at just a few in the above passage which I have highlighted.
The very theme of the 2nd to Thessalonians is to allay their fears that the Day of the Lord was upon them. The Day when the Lord pours out his wrath. The wrath upon unrepentant Israel brought the destroying fire, (as it did in the OT) not any casting aside of them or any change in dispensation.
2Th 1:4  So that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure:
2Th 1:5  Which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer:
2Th 1:6  Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you;
2Th 1:7  And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels,
2Th 1:8  In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:
2Th 1:9  Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;
2Th 1:10  When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day.

Yes, Israel's sins were full, and as a consequence, the wrath was upon them, and this wrath was to be poured out at the Feast of Trumpets. No national setting aside, no change in dispensation.
When we ignore contexts we can make any verse say anything.
I have some audios; number s21 and 37 might be helpful:  http://bibleunderstanding.com/ptaudios.htm
Wrath on Israel means it was coming on Israel, it does not mean they had been set aside. The very use of the word in the context of the Lord's return at Trumpets means Israel were still God's people and He was going to deal with them as He said He would.

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