2 Thessalonians - Introduction

A brief return to the New Testament. 2 Thessalonians is a fairly short book. It clearly states that it was written by Paul. However, there are those who doubt that he actually wrote it. Their grounds for doing so are extremely tenuous at best. For instance, there are about ten words in this letter which are not used elsewhere by Paul. In my opinion this just demonstrates how desperate some people are to avoid admitting the truth and having to submit to God's word. Then its style is said to be different. Some also say it gives a different view of the last days than 1 Thessalonians. According to this argument 1 Thessalonians is expecting the imminent return of Christ where as 2 Thessalonians goes against this idea. This too is nonsense. 1 Thessalonians does not say that Christ was bound to return soon. Moreover, we are always to be expecting the return of Christ, looking forward to it, but equally being prepared for the long haul. A further argument is that the "man of lawlessness" is not taught elsewhere. Well, first the fact that something is taught in only one place does not mean a great deal. More importantly, the ideas behind this seem consistent with Revelation. So in short we can be confident that this letter was written by the apostle Paul.

Why go on about these matters? Most of us most of the time just accept the Bible as the word of God and get on with seeking to understand it, to be strengthened by it, and to apply it to our lives. And this is what we should be doing, it is also what Biblical scholars should be doing most of the time. However, the world does attack the reliability of the Bible and it is useful for all of us to at least be aware that there are very good reasons for believing the Bible. We do not believe despite the facts, rather the facts actually support our faith.

There are two main themes. One is eschatology, ie the return of Christ and events surrounding that, and the other is practical day to day living, in particular warnings against laziness. It is interesting that these two themes occur together and teaches us a valuable lesson. Any sensible and Biblical teaching on the last days will lead to practical action today. Teaching on the last days which is purely speculative is more than likely wrong and is more than likely a complete waste of time.