Words in italic type have been added for clarity. They are not found in the original Hebrew or Aramaic.

I Thessalonians

• About the title: The Gospel went out in that it spread, it did not go out as in to be extinguished.

What should I learn from this chapter?

• The Greek meaning of “Election”
• The connection between Grace and Peace
• Names and verses for the seven year tribulation

Greeting

I Thessalonians 1:¹ Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy

• Paul is the writer, Silvanus and Timothy were with Paul.

To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:

• Note: Verse 1 highlights and recognizes the Deity of Jesus.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

• GRACE: Grace relieves us from guilt. Peace is the result.

• PEACE: Greek: Eirene. The Hebrew word would be Shalom. This is more than an absence of hostility, but wholeness and well-being. Here, likely referring to peace with God.

Their Good Example

I Thessalonians 1:² We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers,

• What were they giving thanks for?
  • Thankful: for their salvation. I Thess 2:13
  • Thankful they are persevering in the faith despite opposition. I Thess (Therefore; persevere in faith,)
  • He prays for them, regularly. I Thess 3:10-13.

I Thessalonians 1:³ remembering without ceasing your work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of our God and Father,

I Thessalonians 1:⁴ knowing, beloved brethren, your election by God.

• Election g1589 Acts 9:15; specifically used of that act of God’s free will by which before the foundation of the world he decreed his blessings to certain persons;
  

I Thessalonians 1:⁵ For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance, as you know what kind of men we were among you for your sake.

A Difference, to be Different, must make a Difference

• To be Holy, means set apart by God to make a difference.
• The gospel comes in Word and Power.

I Thessalonians 1:⁶ And you became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit,

I Thessalonians 1:⁷ so that you became examples to all in Macedonia and Achaia who believe.

I Thessalonians 1:⁸ For from you the word of the Lord has sounded forth, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place. Your faith toward God has gone out, so that we do not need to say anything.

• Their faith has “gone out” but it did not “go out”.

 I Thessalonians 1:⁹ For they themselves declare concerning us what manner of entry we had to you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God,

I Thessalonians 1:¹⁰ and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.

• The wrath to come is the seven year tribulation. Jesus delivers believers from the “Day of Wrath … to come.” It is also known as the Day of Wrath, the Day of the Lord’s Wrath, the Day of the Lord, the day of indignation, the day of sorrows: a birthing term for a woman’s labor pains, the time of Jacob’s troubles, the Day of Grief and desperate Sorrows, the Day of Distress, the Latter Days, The Day of Great Affliction, the Last Kingdom of the Antichrist on Nebuchadnezzar’s statue (the ten toes), Daniel’s 70th week (see the book of Daniel), the book of Revelation, and the Day of Vengeance.

• There is a type of repetitive pattern for Believers being “raptured” (snatched away) immediately before God’s “Day of Wrath” in the prescribed Jewish High Holy Days:
  • Clarification: The High Holy Days are TEN days of Affliction. Between the Feast of Trumpets and Day of Atonement are SEVEN of the TEN days of Affliction. All ten days of affliction are for those who would be “left” on the earth. See the chart below:

PERTINENT VERSES OF NAMES USED FOR THE TIME OF THE TRIBULATION

Tribulation (“Threshing”)

For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. Matt 24:21

Joseph fell upon his father’s face, and wept upon him (Jacob)…and they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond Jordan, and there they mourned with a great and very sore lamentation: and he made a mourning for his father seven days. Genesis 50:1,10 Note: Atad means “a thorn-bush,” (Buckthorn) the rhamnus paliurus of Linnaeus, translated “bramble” in Judges 9:14 (Like a crown of thorns)

For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: The daughter (Jerusalem) of Babylon (idolatry) is like a threshing floor (the Tribulation). When it is time to thresh (beat and separate) her; yet a little while and the time of her harvest will come. (The gleanings: the 3rd order of the 1st resurrection.) Jeremiah 51:33

• The synonym for threshing is “tribulation”.
• Historically and geographically, the threshing floor of Araunah (Mount Moriah) is widely understood to be located on the exact same prominent hill (the Temple Mount) that housed the original Salem of Melchizedek during the time of Abraham, approximately 1,000 years before David purchased it and built the city known as modern-day Jerusalem.
• The verse of Jeremiah 51:33 associates Jerusalem with Babylon, explaining why Jerusalem, as the Harlot on the head of the dragon, has Babylon written on her forehead.
• Notice also how the concept of “harvest” is used as a theme when Jesus compares a literal harvest with God’s harvest of souls, where invasive weeds (symbolic of evil men) are separated from the wheat (symbolic of the righteous).

The Day of Wrath

But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, Romans 2:5

For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?” Revelation 6:17

“Then the king (Antichrist) shall do according to his own will: he shall exalt and magnify himself above every god, shall speak blasphemies against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the wrath has been accomplished; for what has been determined shall be done. Daniel 11:36

The Day of the Lord’s Wrath

Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the Lord’s wrath; But the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of His jealousy, for He will make speedy riddance of all those who dwell in the land. Zephaniah 1:18

‘They will throw their silver into the streets, and their gold will be like refuse (trash); Their silver and their gold will not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord; They will not satisfy their souls, nor fill their stomachs, because it became their stumbling block of iniquity. Ezekiel 7:19

The Day of the Lord

[The Day of the Lord] Behold, the day of the Lord is coming, And your spoil will be divided in your midst. For I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem; The city shall be taken, the houses rifled, and the women ravished (raped). Half of the city shall go into captivity, but the remnant of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations, as He fights in the day of battle.
Zech 14: 1-2

• Half of the people in Jerusalem will be taken captive, and the rest will not be cut off from the city.

The Day of Indignation

“Son of man, say to her: ‘You are a land that is not cleansed (showered upon, purified) or rained on in the day of indignation.’
Ezekiel 22:24

Who can stand before His indignation? Affliction will not rise up a second time.
Nahum1:6, 9

A Faithful Remnant – “Therefore wait for Me,” says the Lord, “Until the day I rise up for plunder; My determination is to gather the nations To My assembly of kingdoms, To pour on them My indignation, All My fierce anger; All the earth shall be devoured With the fire of My jealousy. Zephaniah 3:8

(At the return of the Lord on Yom Kippur, at the end of the seven year tribulation) In indignation You (The Lord) marched through the earth; In anger You trampled the nations. Hab 3:12

For the indignation of the LORD is against all nations Isaiah 34:2

“The LORD will cause His glorious voice to be heard, And show the descent of His arm (His Son), With the indignation of His anger And the flame of a devouring fire, With scattering, tempest, and hailstones.
Isaiah 30:30

The Day of Sorrows

And they will be afraid. Pangs and sorrows will take hold of them; They will be in pain as a woman in childbirth; They will be amazed at one another; Their faces will be like flames. Isaiah 13:8

For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows. Mark 13:8

• Suffering is often compared to a woman giving birth, a time of sorrows.

The Time of Jacob’s Trouble

Alas! For that day is great, So that none is like it; And it is the time of Jacob’s trouble, But he shall be saved out of it. (Note: there was a seven year famine in Jacob’s time. Likewise there will be a seven year famine during the tribulation but it will be a famine of God’s word.) Jeremiah 30:7

“Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord God, “That I will send a famine on the land, Not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, But of hearing the words of the Lord. Amos 8:11

• `Note: “Jacob’s Trouble” specifically means the Jewish nation; “Israel’s Trouble”.
• Genesis 32:28 And He (God) said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed.”

The Day of Grief and Desperate Sorrows

Isaiah 17:11 In the day you will make your plant to grow (Israel is blooming), and in the morning you will make your seed to flourish, but the harvest will be a heap of ruins in the day of grief and desperate sorrow.

• Note: The word “Sorrows” refers to pain comparable to a woman in labor. “Desperate Sorrow,” one can only imagine, especially since the horrors of the Holocaust.
  • “Affliction, such as was not from the beginning of the creation which God created unto this time, neither shall be. Matthew 24:19
  • And there shall be a time of trouble, Such as never was since there was a nation, Daniel 12:1

The Day of Distress

(Joseph and his brothers) Then they said to one another, “We are truly guilty concerning our brother, for we saw the anguish of his soul when he pleaded with us, and we would not hear; therefore this distress has come upon us.” Gen 42:21

You should not have stood at the crossroads to cut off those among them who escaped; Nor should you have delivered up those among them who remained (the remnant) In the day of distress. Obadiah 1:14

• Saying: Jesus was on the cross so that men who are at their own crossroads have the option to choose between eternal “death” (being “cut off”), or eternal “life” regarding both the flesh and the spirit, especially in the Last Days.

“I will bring distress upon men, And they shall walk like blind men, Because they have sinned against the LORD; Their blood shall be poured out like dust, And their flesh like refuse (trash).” Zep 1:17

• “Wine and Bread” (Blood and Flesh) were served at the Lord’s Last Supper, marking the end of Daniel’s prophetic 69 weeks when the Messiah is “cut off” (killed).
  “Blood and Flesh” will also be served at the end of Daniel’s prophetic 70th week at Armageddon.
• The word for “red wine” is the same word for “red blood”, the Hebrew word, “dam”.
• The entire week is the Seven-Year Tribulation (“The Day of Distress”), the last “week” of Daniel’s 70 weeks, when Jesus, as the Manna of the Exodus, comes down from heaven.
• The Last Supper completes 69 weeks of Daniel; likewise, Armageddon completes Daniel’s 70th week. Seventy weeks of Daniel totals 490 prophetic days, but 490 literal years.
• 490 is God’s number for forgiveness. At the end of the Tribulation, the sins of Israel (God’s people) are forgiven.

The Latter Days

For I know that after my (Moses’) death you will become utterly corrupt, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you. And evil will befall you in the latter days, because you will do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger through the work of your hands.” Deut 31:29

When you are in distress, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, when you turn to the LORD your God and obey His voice (for the LORD your God is a merciful God), He will not forsake you nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which He swore to them. Deut 4:30-31

The Day of Great Affliction

For in those days shall be affliction, such as was not from the beginning of the creation which God created unto this time, neither shall be. Matthew 24:19

“For thus says the Lord:‘ Your affliction is incurable, your wound is severe. 13 There is no one to plead your cause, that you may be bound up. You have no healing medicines. 14 All your lovers have forgotten you; They do not seek you for I have wounded you with the wound of an enemy, with the chastisement of a cruel one, for the multitude of your iniquities, because your sins have increased. 15 Why do you cry about your affliction? Your sorrow is incurable. Because of the multitude of your iniquities, because your sins have increased, I have done these things to you. Jeremiah 30:12-15

• Sin, and the consequences of Sin, are something to be taken exceedingly seriously. Jesus died to save men from their sins, but He did not die to save men from the consequences of those sins.

“Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.” Isaiah 48:10

• Note: The Day of “Great Affliction” is the last three and a half years of the Seven-Year Tribulation, also called the “Great Tribulation”.

THE TEN HORNS, THE TEN TOES, The Last Kingdom on Nebuchadnezzar’s Statue,
(The Kingdom of the Antichrist – the Ten Toes of iron and Clay).

“The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority for one hour as kings with the beast. These are of one mind, and they will give their power and authority to the beast. Rev 17:12-13

And the ten horns which you saw on the beast, these will hate the harlot (Jerusalem), make her desolate and naked, eat her flesh and burn her with (military) fire. For God has put it into their hearts to fulfill His purpose, to be of one mind, and to give their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God are fulfilled. Rev 17:17 

Whereas you saw the feet and (ten) toes, partly of potter’s (H6353) clay (H2635) and partly of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; yet the strength of the iron shall be in it, just as you saw the iron mixed with ceramic (H2917)  clay. Dan 2:41

• Note: Are the ten horns of the dragon/ ie: 10 toes of Nebuchadnezzar’s statue the ten divisions of the world ascribed to by the Club of Rome? No, rather the ten toes are Muslim (and/or Anti-Semitic) tribes by reasoning of the following:
  • Esau is called “Edom”, the translation of “Man who is made from red Clay”, like Adam.
  • In every list of prophetic wars to attack Jerusalem in the “last/latter” days are ten Mideast “tribes”; the Battle of Psalm 83, and the battle of Ezekiel’s Gog and Magog.
• However! The Battle of Armageddon is described as the battle where ALL NATIONS come against Jerusalem.

The Day of Vengeance

The days of vengeance – And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. Luke 21:22

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