Daily Devotions

“As to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we beg you, brothers and sisters, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as though from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord is already here. Let no one deceive you in any way; for that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first and the lawless one is revealed, the one destined for destruction. He opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, declaring himself to be God. Do you not remember that I told you these things when I was still with you?”  2 Thessalonians 2:1-5

Evidently – whether Paul wrote this second letter himself or whether someone else was writing in Paul’s name – the people in the Thessalonian church were quite in a tizzy about the end of time and the final appearing of Jesus.  In both letters the issue is raised although in quite different ways.

In 1 Thessalonians 4:13-5:11, the point seems to be a word of encouragement to those afraid that they had already missed the boat, or that those among them who had already died would be left behind.  Here, in 2 Thessalonians, the “end” is pictured in the language of a cosmic battle rather than a “thief in the night.”  In both readings, Jesus is the one in charge and people do well to put their trust in him.

Each time I hear this language in scripture it takes me back to the summer after 6^th grade, to Inspiration Point Bible Camp, to the movie they showed on Wednesday night entitled, “The Thief In The Night.”  It was a second coming movie about a woman left behind after the rapture because she refused to join her husband in coming to faith.  The movie ends with her jumping off a bridge to evade the stormtroopers of the anti-christ because she refused to be stamped with the identifying “666.”  She jumps…then suddenly wakes up in bed and realizes that the whole nightmare had been a dream…until she hears the same radio report that she heard in her dream…and the movie ends.

After the movie was over, and I was thoroughly and absolutely terrified (remember, this was shown to a bunch of 6^th and 7^th graders), the camp director asked all of the Christians, those who KNEW and were ABSOLUTELY SURE that if Jesus came back today he would DEFINITELY take you to heaven, to leave the room.  But those who were in the LEAST LITTLE BIT UNCERTAIN or who had not ACCEPTED JESUS AS THEIR SAVIOR AND LORD were to stay behind in the room with him.

I left the room.  I was a little heathen, not the least bit ABSOLUTELY SURE, but I WAS absolutely sure that I wasn’t going to admit it.  I ACCEPTED Jesus later that night and every other time I was invited to do so since that day but I’m still not sure that the scars of that night will ever completely leave.

And now that I’m older, I can just hear that camp director reporting to a board meeting all the “decisions for Christ” that were made that summer!   No wonder!  It would have hardly been less manipulating to use old fashioned turn or burn corporal punishment.

So there we have it.  Fear is certainly a motivator.  Doubt is sown much easier in a person’s life than faith.  Selfishness and wanting to be included is certainly an easier sell than selfless service and stepping back to allow someone else to go ahead of you.  Maybe both are legitimate ways of sharing the faith….but I don’t think so.  And, it seems, by the end of his career and his final letter to the Romans, neither did Paul.

Let us pray:  Dear Jesus, many people have been deeply wounded and manipulated by people who frightened them into everything from selling their property to wait for you on a hill to buying indulgences to pretending to believe something just to fit in.  Give us hearts of simple trust, lives of servant faith, and help us trust more deeply in you than in the doubts which assail us.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

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