THE HOPE OF ISRAEL - The Preterist Archive

194 The Hope of Israel: What Is It?
Again we see, as from Peter's description of that
coming "day of the Lord's vengeance" (Isa. 34:8),
that it is impossible that those events could be preceded
by a millennium during which the earth was
populated by none but worshippers of God. So this
passage in 2 Thessalonians also makes pos-millennialism
(of the sort commonly held) an utter impossibility.
Between the teaching of Paul and that of modern
pre-millennialists there is this immense difference:
According to the former, all who obey not the gospel
of Christ are to be punished, when He comes again,
with everlasting destruction from His presence; but
according to the latter, the Jewish rejecters of the gospel
(and others a little later) are to be blessed with
a thousand years of undiluted happiness and prosperity
in His presence. Is it possible to imagine a greater
difference than that?
In the endeavor to harmonize this passage (2 Thess.
1:7-10) with the usual pre-millennial teaching, it is
sometimes said that the passage refers to a "second
stage" of Christ's coming. For according to one of
the recent refinements of the doctrine, the one "coming"
of our Lord is divided into several "stages," and
certain passages are assigned to the first stage, and
others, that cannot be made to
agree with the interpretation
placed upon the first group of Scriptures, to
the second stage; it being usual to place "the great
tribulation" which we are told is to last three-anda-half
years between the two "stages." But, apart
from the fact that there is not the slightest warrant
for this arbitrary arrangement of passages, which all
refer to one and the same coming of the Lord from
heaven, the difficulty referred to above is not in the