Paul wrote a second letter to the church of the Thessalonians in which he continued his teaching concerning the coming of the Lord, the Day of Christ.

It appears that the saints in Thessalonica were suffering persecution.

Notice carefully the kind of deliverance that Paul holds out to these afflicted saints. It is not a hope they will disappear. It is not a hope they will be removed from the earth so Antichrist can do as he will with the less fortunate.

Rather, the Apostle Paul presents to them the true scriptural hope of deliverance—the hope presented in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. It is the hope that Christ will appear and put an immediate end to Antichrist and his ungodly world system.

This is the hope of the Christian saints, and also the hope of the Jews who in that Day will be surrounded by the armies of Antichrist (Zechariah 14:1-5).

Some have suggested that we have to "read between the lines" because Paul had taught the Thessalonians previously of the secret disappearing and was assuming they knew this and would interpret his words accordingly.

Those who advance the "read between the lines" hypothesis are confirming that a secret disappearing does not appear in the text and that it must be assumed that the saints knew of it apart from Paul's two epistles.

Any competent student of the Scriptures can perceive instantly what a dangerous approach the "read between the lines" hypothesis is to biblical interpretation. What a dangerous precedent is set when we maintain that the readers knew of some fact not mentioned and would interpret the available text in the light of information not found in the text.

If we can apply such an unsound procedure to the doctrine of the second coming of Christ, why not to the other major doctrines of the Scriptures? Why should we not then assume that the first-century readers knew of truths of which we do not and proceed to interject any favorite beliefs of our own into Christian theology?

Surely the Holy Spirit of God would not treat one of the fundamental truths of the new covenant, the doctrine of the resurrection from the dead, in such a careless manner. This is not the way of the Spirit of God. Scholars would not permit this approach to the interpretation of any other passage of Scripture.

Those of us who have not been "let in on this secret" are at a disadvantage when it comes to ascertaining from the Scriptures the truth concerning the coming of Christ.

Notice carefully the Word of God concerning God's plan for relieving the sufferings of Gentile converts to Christianity, as well as the sufferings of the Jews:

Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, (II Thessalonians 1:6,7)

It seems Paul is teaching that the return of Christ with His powerful angels will bring relief to the suffering of the saints in Thessalonica.

We see no evidence whatever that these saints will disappear from sight, and then seven years later, or three and one-half years later, the Lord will exercise vengeance on Antichrist.

If the saints are to disappear, as so many teach, why doesn't Paul state they are going to disappear? Why does he hold them over to the coming of the Lord?

To be continued.