Epistles to the Thessalonians
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reminded them of his own labors among them, and their acceptance of
the word, turning away from idols “to serve the living and true God,
and to wait for his Son from Heaven, whom he raised from the dead,
even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.”
He further referred to his work and that of his fellow-laborers
among them, reminding them of the boldness with which they had
preached the gospel unto them, in the midst of opposition, abuse,
and discouragement, “not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our
hearts.”
Paul then endeavored to inform his Thessalonian brethren concern-
ing the true state of the dead. He speaks of them as asleep,—in a state
of unconsciousness: “I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren,
concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others
which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again,
even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.... For
the Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the
voice of the archangel, and with 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.”
The friends of the righteous dead should not sorrow as those who
lose their loved ones and have no hope in Jesus Christ, and who
are not cheered by the immortal future beyond the resurrection of
the just. Paul addressed the Thessalonians as those who had turned
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from the practices of heathen idolatry to the service of Christ. Vague
heathen ideas concerning the state of the dead were more or less
mingled with the new faith. But those who clearly saw the truth
of the resurrection from the dead, in the doctrine preached by Paul,
were greatly comforted. The cheering hope which they thus received,
that the righteous dead would rise from their graves to a holy, happy
immortal life, was in marked contrast with their former pagan ideas of
death. For they had believed that there was no future life, no happy
meeting with those whom they had loved and lost on earth.
The Thessalonians had eagerly grasped the idea that Christ was
coming to change the faithful who were alive, and take them to himself.
They had carefully guarded the lives of their friends, lest they should
die, and lose the blessing which they anticipated at the coming of their