Spiritual Gifts
xiii
and the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we
which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in
the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the
Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.” Here he again
uses the word, we, but the events mentioned did not occur in Paul’s
day. He and his brethren at Thessalonica were not translated to heaven
without seeing death. The chapter closes with the above quotation,
and the next opens with the continuation of the same subject.
Chapter 5:1-4
. “But of the times and seasons, brethren, ye have
no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the
day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. 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. But ye,
brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a
thief.” The day of the Lord is the day of “sudden destruction.” It is
the day of wrath which is in the
Old and New Testaments associated
[19]
with the second advent of Christ. This day is not in the past, hence the
language is not applicable to the Christians of past generations. The
Christians of the last generation—the very men and women who are
to be living on the earth when the day of the Lord comes—are here
addressed. Hence all true Adventists will regard themselves as the
“brethren” Paul addresses, and his language especially applicable to
the present time. He continues in this chapter without change, setting
forth practical duties applicable to those who are watching for the
approach of the day of the Lord, and in
verses 19-21
, says, “Quench
not the Spirit. Despise not prophesyings. Prove all things; hold fast
that which is good.” Here are three very important injunctions.
1. “Quench not the Spirit.” We quench fire with water. And
prominent among the means of quenching the Spirit of God is unbelief.
Jesus, in His own country, did not many mighty works because of their
unbelief. There is at the present time almost a universal state of
unbelief in regard to the operations of the Holy Spirit, especially in
the manifestation of the gifts. Unbelief shuts the Spirit of God away
from the mind. It quenches the Spirit, and leaves the masses exposed
to the delusions of these last days.
Again, those who by unbelief quench the Spirit in these last days
will be illy prepared to share in the great blessings which God promises
by the prophet Joel, quoted by Peter,
Acts 2:17, 18
. “And it shall come