Interpretation of II Thessalonians 1: 5-9
Bernard Pyron
II Thessalonians 1: 8 is sometimes taken out of this entire context
and interpreted to say that when Christ appears he will take
vengeance on the unbelievers, the heathen.
Verses 5 to 9 say "Which is a manifest token of the righteous
judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of
God, for which ye also suffer:
6. Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense
tribulation to them that trouble you;
7. And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus
shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels,
8. In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and
that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:
9. Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the
presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;"
Verse 6 explains who it is that the Lord is to take vengeance on
when he appears at the end of the Tribulation. "Seeing it is a
righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that
trouble you."
Paul says in I Thessalonians 1: 14-15 that "For ye, brethren, became
followers of the churches of God which in Judaea are in Christ
Jesus: for ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen,
even as they have of the Jews:
15. Who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and
have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all
men:"
At that time, in the First Century, it was the Jews who troubled and
persecuted Christians, not the unbelievers. The Jews were the
religious establishment in Paul's time.
Now in the end times it will be the Christian religious
establishment who trouble and persecute Christians who do not follow
the teachings of that religious establishment.
John 16: 2 says that "They shall put you out of the
synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth
you will think that he doeth God service,"
Aposunagogous here is from Strong's number 656, meaning,
"excommunicated, put out of the synagogue.
Luke 21: 16 says: "And ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and
brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and some of you shall they
cause to be put to death." "Some" has been added to the King James
English in Luke 21: 16, because the Greek word "tis", or "men",
meaning some is not in the Greek Textus Receptus, from which the KJV
is translated.
"And when they bring you unto the synagogues, and unto magistrates,
and powers, take ye no thought how or what thing ye shall answer, or
what ye shall say:" Luke 12: 11
The reference to synagogues is not limited to Jewish synagogues.
Synagogues is Strong's number 4864, meaning "an assemblage of
persons,
a Jewish synagogue, by analogy, a Christian church, assembly,
congregation, synagogue." Sunagoge in the Greek, or synagogue,
can mean a Christian church.
Persecution of the Multitude that come out of false doctrines in the
Church will be done by the Church, the religious establishment, and
will not be initiated mainly by unbelievers. It appears that it is
those who persecute the Christian Multitude that Christ will take
vengeance on when he returns as Paul says in II Thessalonians 1: 5-9.
The Tribulation is mainly about God's judgment on the entire Church
which has then drifted off of Christ's doctrine. I won't deny that
it is possible that some physical changes to the earth during that
period will also affect the unbelievers. The unbelievers are not
judged during the Tribulation, but those who say they are Christians
and don't follow Christ's doctrine are judged. That one third in
Zechariah 13: 8-9 who the Lord puts through a fire and they then
call on him and he accepts them are judged but this is not a final
judgment as happens to the other two thirds who claim to be God's
people but are not in the truth and do not have a love for it (II
Thessalonians 2: 10-12).
The unbelievers are judged in the Great White Throne judgment after
the millennium (Revelation 20: 11-15. Bernard
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