What did the Apostle Paul mean by the expression “peace and safety” before the Day of the Lord in 1 Thessalonians 5? What can we say about its timing? Is it pretribulational?
Now as to the times and the epochs, brethren, you have no need of anything to be written to you. For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. While they are saying, “Peace and safety!” then destruction will come upon them suddenly like birth pangs upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. 1Thess 5:1-3
For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. For as in those days which were before the flood they were eating and drinking, they were marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so shall the coming of the Son of Man be. Mat 24:37-39
As a futuristic posttribulationist I found these passages confusing. If the great Day of the Lord occurs at the end of Daniel’s 70th week, how can people be living in business-as-usual conditions? An attempt to reconcile is to argue that, despite peace being taken away at the 2nd seal of Revelation, a temporary period of quiet brings the “earth dwellers” an illusion of “peace and safety.” I find this explanation arbitrary.
Some say the 4th seal is exclusively directed at Israel and Christians. They assert the world at large will be living under normal conditions, while Jews and believers suffer under “Antichrist’s Great Tribulation.” This premise is used to justify a pre Day-of-the-Lord peace. A plain reading of these passages doesn’t support this.
Another problem is the testimony of the Two Witnesses of Revelation who torment the world for 1,260 days. The three-and-a-half day celebration by the earth dwellers after the death of the Witnesses will be noted. Some will say, “There’s your peace and safety.” However Matt 24:37-39 implies a much wider scope of normalcy if one considers the days of Noah pre-flood model.
The term “Antichrist’s Great Tribulation” is an invention designed to focus on Satan’s autonomy (wrath) rather than God’s sovereignty. Yet 2 Thess 2:8-12 explicitly states that the arrival of the Man of Lawlessness is God’s judgment on the rebellious. Not only will God judge a rebellious world using Satan and the Man of Lawlessness, He will also judge these instruments of His wrath. For an example of this process see Habakkuk chapters 2 & 3.
God is the Sovereign Initiator. Because of the intent and consequences of the delusion, this period qualifies as an “hour of trial.” That there will be believers in this time frame isn’t the point of these passages.
In his Systematic Theology, Robert Culver (who isn’t pretribulational) says this tribulation will be unique in human history and world-wide in scope (page 1131). He adds that the entire living human race suffers its ravages. Moreover Culver connects this Great Tribulation to the hour of trial in Rev 3:10.
…for then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever shall. And unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days shall be cut short. Mat 24:21-22
The basis for the shortening of these days is to spare life. This fits Culver’s position that the tribulation is global and all-inclusive. Instead of the Great Tribulation being shortened to less than the prophesied term so some believers remain alive to be raptured (as is sometimes asserted), this period is terminated at the completion of the intended days so that people remain alive to populate the millennium. Read Tony Garland’s Jacob’s Trouble & the Great Tribulation (note the duration).
So what about the Day of the Lord?
Pretrib scholars like Mayhue and MacArthur place the Day of the Lord at the end of Daniel’s 70th week. They still hold that God’s eschatological wrath occurs before this period although it isn’t classified as the DotL. This still leaves me with the 1Thess 5 suddenness-issue. See also Robert L Thomas’ article on Imminence.
On the other hand the prewrath system places the DotL after the Great Tribulation, after the cosmic signs, and after the alleged Matt 24:31 rapture (hence the rapture cannot cut the tribulation short). PW states that the DotL can only occur after these precursors (Drawing on Joel for example). They argue that God’s wrath is only present within this limited posttrib DotL period. These assumptions determine how they interpret 2 Thess 1 & 2.
Renald Showers proposed both a “Narrow” and “Broad” Day of Lord (Maranatha: Our Lord, Come!). Showers saw DotL language similarities in the 4th seal and OT references to God’s wrath. For example, Ezek 7:3-19 talks about God’s anger, fury and wrath associated with famine, sword and pestilence (v 15) and in context to the Day of the Lord (v 19).
That Showers was on the right track is supported by Paul R. House’s 46 page essay on the Day of the Lord in Central Themes in Biblical Theology. For example House notes Day of the Lord language in Isaiah 2 and draws the connection to Rev 6:16. Yet some insist Rev 6:17 is future – i.e., God’s wrath occurs only after the 7th seal is opened.
While I disagree on some points (I may well be wrong), House shows the high degree of unity in Scripture’s presentation of the Day of the Lord; but also diversity and various uses. The biblical Day of the Lord defies narrow assumptions demanded by certain rapture positions. The DotL is flexible and multifaceted in nature. It even allows for a series of DotL events, within a period of time, which may culminate in a greater DotL event.
There isn’t space to do justice to House’s lengthy presentation. But this statement is worth considering:
In the Bible ‘the Day of the Lord’ is one particular way, but not the only way, of discussing judgment. Every ‘Day of the Lord’ is an instance of judgment although not every depiction of judgment is called a ‘Day of the Lord’.
For a discussion on the timing of the Day of the Lord in 1 Thess 5, see Nicholas James Claxton’s two-part series in Tyndale’s Journal of Dispensational Theology : Part One (p 77) and Part Two (p 53). Without being dogmatic, and while making a fair case for pretribulationism, Claxton discusses many of these themes, including imminence, expectancy, suddenness, the term “thief in the night” and more.
See also Tony Garland’s The Day of the Lord and When Does the Day of the Lord Dawn? Tony’s articles can be read HERE (original source) as well.
Maranatha!
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