The Great Ribulation

48 THE GREAT TRIBULATION
birth pangs upon a woman with child; and they
shall not escape. But you, brethren, are not in
darkness, that the day should overtake you like
a thiefi for you are all sons of light and sons of
day. . . . For God has not destined us for
wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our
Lord Jesus Christ (I Thessalonians 5:1-5, 9).
St. Paul expanded upon this in his second letter
to the same church:
For after all it is a righteous thing for God
to repay with tribulation those who trouble
you, and to give relief to you who are troubled
and to us as well when the Lord Jesus shall be
revealed from heaven with His mighty angels,
in flaming fire dealing out vengeance to those
who do not know God and to those who do not
obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. These
shall be punished with everlasting destruction,
away from the presence of the Lord and from
the glory of His power, when He comes to be
glorified in His saints on that day, and to be
marveled at among all who have believed (II
Thessalonians 1:6-10).
Clearly, St. Paul is not talking about Christ’s
final coming at the end of the world, for the coming
“tribulation” and %engeance” were specifically aimed
at those who were persecuting the Thessalonian
Christians of the first generation. The coming day of
judgment was not something thousands of years