The Thessalonian letters of the Apostle Paul were written to a young church that was situated in an extremely dangerous world. Within twenty years of their writing, the whole of the ancient East was convulsed in warfare and rebellion. In 70 A. D., the armies of Titus surrounded the city of Jerusalem. Following a bloody siege, the city was overrun, the temple destroyed, and the Jews taken captive. The movements that culminated in these events had already begun when this first letter was written. Thus it is clear that the Thessalonian Christians were facing extremely perilous times.

Last week I was in Southern California, meeting with some thirty pastors from large churches all over the country. A new phenomenon in the church in America is the rise of the mega-church. A congregation of two or three thousand members is today regarded as just a moderate-sized body, although when I was a boy, a church of that size was considered enormous. Today, however, there are dozens of them. Among the churches that were represented were some that had congregations of ten thousand or more every Sunday. One had 3,500 people coming on Wednesday evening, most of them untouched pagans. It was exciting to learn how God is working in that church. There were many differences of temperament represented among the thirty pastors attending. There were old and young men, outgoing and retiring personalities. But one thing that came through clearly was that all of them had a deep concern for people. These men were real pastors and shepherds. Peter Drucker, an expert on business and management, offered some comments on approaches and organization. But the main emphasis of our discussions was how to minister to people.

What a week this has been! On top of Christmas shopping and through the kindness of some friends, I had the delightful experience last week of flying by private jet to Kalispell, Montana, and speaking to a Christmas party of both Christians and non-Christians on the theme of the Babe of Bethlehem. In the news things are pretty much the same. Once again Congress failed to bail us out so the United States went broke last night, as we always seem to do at this time of the year. But the highlight of the week, of course, was the second coming of Gary Hart! As we draw near the end of 1987, we reflect upon the many unpredictable changes that have occurred in the past year. Yet what warms my heart is to know that, in the midst of all this flux and change, one thing remains absolutely unchangeable -- and that is the word of the Living God! The message of the Bible never alters. It is always up-to-date, and always speaks to the issues of our time. The Bible is like a solid rock in the midst of a desert of shifting sand. It is the most precious object on the earth today.

Real father love is in short supply in our world today. What we see is a frightening increase of child abuse, of fathers actually attacking their own children. A simple little song, "Dear Mister Jesus," the tale of a child who remembers the abuse she suffered at her father's hand, is being played on radio stations all over the country. Some time ago I read the sad story of a four-year-old boy who was beaten to death by his stepfather because he boy had wet his pants. When his body was dug up, a tiny cross was found clutched in his hand. It tears one's heart to think of fathers treating their children in that way, but it points up the need we have today for father and mother love.

I must say that 1987 was one of the most depressing years that I have lived through. Looking back, it seems the headlines continually spoke of disasters, murders and scandals. As I reflected upon the year, I wondered if there was not some way to eliminate, or at least cut back, all this evil. I thought of one thing which would certainly reduce crime, bring an end to the divorce scandal, eliminate teenage pregnancies, reduce the prison population, stop the sale of pornography, and decrease poverty. If we could come up with a drug that would remove pleasure from the act of sex, because that is why everybody indulges in sexual misbehavior, we could change the whole moral climate of our country. But I realized we also would lose much color from life. We would forfeit the companionship and fellowship which the sexes have in one another. Life would become very drab and dreary indeed. Since we obviously cannot make that drastic change, the only thing left to us is to learn how to handle our sexuality properly.

No one knows what circumstances he is going to face tomorrow. That is characteristic of the future. But there is something that comes before tomorrow. It is called today, and that is where we must live. We cannot live in tomorrow, but we can live today. This issue was troubling the Thessalonian Christians. They were looking toward tomorrow, but wondering what to do today. The Apostle Paul's advice to them in his first Thessalonian letter is, as usual, very practical. We have it in Chapter 4, beginning with Verse 9:

Having just returned from the Middle East where I was able personally to observe many of the turbulent currents that are challenging the peace of the world in that area, I realize afresh why people are concerned about the fate of the earth. This title is borrowed from a book by the same name by Jonathan Schell. The book, which was published in 1982, describes in chilling detail what would happen if this country went through a nuclear war. It is a very grim and pessimistic account that offers little hope if such a holocaust should occur. President Jimmy Carter's remarks in his farewell address capture the essence of it: "The survivors, if any, would live in despair amid the poisoned ruins of a civilization that had committed suicide."

I heard a man say, "The most important thing in learning to relate to others is personal honesty. Once you learn to fake that," he added, "everything else is easy!" Many people, unfortunately, seem to follow that philosophy. Perhaps one of the most discouraging aspects of modern-day living is not so much the moral collapse of leaders, such as we have seen many examples of recently, but the low level of ethical behavior on the part of many Christians.

I am greatly encouraged that the Apostle Paul had to write a second letter to the Thessalonians to explain his first letter to them. I have had to do that on occasion. Some of my writing is not always as clear as it could be and I have had to write a second letter. The apostle's second letter was written within a few months of the first, and in it he seeks to make clear what was still unclear to the Thessalonians.

We come to a passage now where we must confront the question of whether the church will go through the great tribulation. Does the Lord come for his church before the great time of trouble that is coming; does he come in the middle of it; or does the church in fact go through the tribulation and Jesus comes at the end. That is a much debated and controversial question. The Scriptures are at times hard to understand concerning these issues; that is why there are differences of opinion among believers regarding them. All evangelicals agree, however, that only these three possibilities exist: a pre, mid, or post tribulational coming.

As a boy, growing up in the State of Montana, I loved to read stories of the Wild West. These tales convinced me that those days were perilous times. There were hostile Indian bands roaming around, seeking someone to torture and scalp; lawless gunmen waited in saloons, ready to shoot down anyone who caused them displeasure; and entire towns could be wiped out overnight by terrible plagues. The 19th century, it seemed to me, was a time when life seemed cheap and fraught with great danger.