2 Thessalonians 1:9

[dwilkins]

What is your usual answer for how 2nd Thessalonians 1 is supposed to be fulfilled? How do you explain Paul promising relief to real people under real persecution in a historical situation that doesn't exist anymore without that promise turning into a false promise embedded in inspired scripture?

I had said "I don't have a usual answer on this passage...". I should have realized this earlier, but could not the futurist hold the opinion that both the promised "relief" and the "flaming fire" are indeed for the people who were alive in the 1st century, but still have the opinion that the relief or destruction did not occur in the 1st century? That is to say, Paul is informing the 1st century believers that they can be assured that they will receive relief, and see their enemies judged with the flaming fire of hell. This would take place at the final judgement, in a post mortem state, and more than two thousand years later. Besides the failure to utilize OT imagery, are there any other Preterist objections to this view?

I don't think that would work as an interpretation because there is nothing in the passage that would indicate to the audience that your proposal is in view. It seems to me that any interpretation would have to make sense to the original audience. Your proposal could make sense given the whole Biblical perspective (though I'd still object for some more technical reasons), but it can't be right because the original audience wouldn't have come up with it. If you were under pressure and someone promised you relief if you hung on a little longer, I doubt you'd think that they meant that you would actually succumb to the abuse but God would get them in the end. We may want this to be the way to interpret the passage, but if that's the point Paul was trying to make I think it would have been easy for him to make the point clearly. John does make such a statement in Revelation where he quotes Jesus as telling the believers to remain faithful to death and he will allow them to reign in the kingdom.

Doug