"TO WAIT FOR HIS SON FROM HEAVEN"
Background:
Paul commends the Thessalonians for their open reception of the gospel. He tells them that the news of their faith in Christ had gone throughout Macedonia and Achaia and beyond. Paul accounts how they quickly turned from idols and now diligently serve the living God, and eagerly await His Son from heaven. They are doing both: serving and waiting!
Paul commends the Thessalonians for their open reception of the gospel. He tells them that the news of their faith in Christ had gone throughout Macedonia and Achaia and beyond. Paul accounts how they quickly turned from idols and now diligently serve the living God, and eagerly await His Son from heaven. They are doing both: serving and waiting!
Free Greek Translation:
You absolutely turned from idols to presently be serving a living a true (real) God, and to presently be eagerly waiting for His Son from the heavens, whom [God] absolutely raised from the dead ones, who [will be] DRAGGING, RESCUING us [to Himself] from the Wrath which is coming!
1 Thessalonians 1:10
TO WAIT. (anameno) "To up abide, remain." "To specifically be waiting." Used only here in the New Testament. It is a Present Infinitive. This parallels "to be serving" in verse 9. Serving (douleuein} is a Present Infinitive and could be translated "To be continually enslaved, serving as a servant."
The ana of the anameno intensifies the word which can be translated "to eagerly be presently waiting."
Even Covenant theologian and amillennial guy, William Hendriksen, sees this as a rapture passage, in that Christ could come at any time for His own. He writes:
The force of the verb to wait must not be lost sight of. It means to look forward to with patience and confidence. It implies (both in Greek and in English) being ready for His return. The thought of His coming does not spell terror for the believer, … for it is this Jesus who rescues (is rescuing) us from the wrath to come.
JESUS, WHO DELIVERS US FROM THE WRATH COMING. Paul is here introducing the rapture concept and he will develop it out further in 4:13-18.
Delivers (ruomenon) is in the Present Active Participial form (deponent). According to Arndt & Gingrich it means "to deliver, rescue, save." Several contexts where the word is used are interesting: "saved from the jaws of the lion" (2 Tim. 4:14); "delivered from the power of darkness" (Col. 1:13).
Alford believes the participle (ruomenon, used here) could act as a descriptive of Christ's office. "Our Deliverer". Or, "The word may be used of a substantive, "Jesus, our Deliverer." (Pulpit Commentary) Robert Thomas well notes:
Jesus [is the One] who will return as Rescuer ("who rescues", is a timeless substantive denoting one of His characteristics) of living Christians from the period of divine wrath at the close of the world's present age of grace. Used technically, as it so frequently is in the NT, "wrath" (orgas) is a title for the period just before Messiah's kingdom on earth, when God will afflict earth's inhabitants with an unparalleled series of physical torments because of their rejection of His will (Matt. 3:7; 24:21; Luke 21:23; Rev. 6:16). (The Expositor's Bible Commentary)
Coming back to the word deliver (ruomai)—it is from the classical Greek word eruo. In Koine Greek the e is dropped. In classical Greek the word is translated as "drag away," implying force. "To drag away the body of a slain hero." "Drag away, rescue friends." Vincent translates the word with the force of the Middle Voice, i.e. "To draw to oneself." "With the specification [from] evil or danger." The Coming Wrath is an evil. It is not the final Great White Throne Judgment or of Christ coming to earth to judge the nations at the beginning of His Millennial reign! This Present Participle could also have the force of a Prophetic Future: "The One who will drag us [to Himself]."
THE WRATH. (tas orgas) Coupled with the descriptive "The One Coming." The Coming One is a Present Active Participle (deponent) of erochomai. With the article: "The Wrath (absolutely)." (Vincent) "The Wrath absolutely Coming!" Or, the Wrath "which is already coming." (Ellicott) Ellicott further writes: "The Wrath is on its way to the world, to appear" as the seven-year tribulation!
CONCLUSION. This is a rapture passage because it speaks of a right now waiting. The Thessalonians were eagerly waiting as intently as they are presently serving. The dragging away speaks of the rapture. When Christ comes, as the Son of Man to reign, He takes up His kingly role in Jerusalem. Believers in the church age are dragged away from an impending disaster, i.e. the seven-year tribulation period. The church does not go through the seven-year period of horror! No where in 1 or 2 Thessalonians does Paul used orge to describe the present suffering of the believers of the church age.
The word ek (out from) is interesting. It is used to describe the fact that Christ comes "out from heaven," "out from the dead (the dead ones)," and He delivers us "out from the Wrath that is Coming." That is, away from it!
