He says, but of the times and seasons,
brethren, you have no need that I write unto you,
for yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord
so cometh as a thief in the night.
Now this is interesting.
And I'm gonna kind of chase a rabbit here,
but it's interesting, okay?
It's good food for thought.
The epistles are some of the first books
that are written in the New Testament, okay?
And the gospels are actually letters,
or excuse me, they're letters in a sense,
but they're written long after the epistles are written.
And if you look at the timeline of one of the books
of the New Testament are written,
they're not in sequential order as we see them to be
in the New Testament, okay?
And the reason I make that point is because of the fact that
the epistles are the writings of the Apostle Paul.
Well, the book of Acts highlights the adventures
of the Apostle Paul, along with his writings.
So that would mean that you have the book of Luke
being written, then you have the book of Acts,
which is the one that comes after the book of Luke,
because he's writing to Theophilus,
which would mean that these epistles are written
during that time.
And none of the epistles, the book of Acts,
none of them mention any or quote the gospels at all.
You say, why make that point, Pastor Mejia?
I'll tell you why.
Because of the fact that it adds more credibility
to the inspiration of the Bible,
the fact that it's written by God,
because Paul the Apostle is saying that he comes
as a thief in the night, and that is wording that we see
in Matthew 24, Mark 13, Luke 21, but they're not written
when the Apostle Paul is writing to the Thessalonians.
So this shows us that God is divinely inspiring
the Apostle Paul to use this specific wording
that Christians will read later on in the gospels
when they are written.
And in fact, the book of Revelation is not even written yet
when this epistle is written.
And we see thief in the night in Revelation chapter 16
and Revelation chapter three.
So the reason that's important to make is because
of the fact that the Apostle Paul's not studying
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
He's not studying the book of Revelation
and just kind of using that terminology
to describe the rapture.
So how does he know?
Because he's being divinely inspired by God.
So he uses the term as a thief in the night,
even though he doesn't have Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John
to work off of, he's just being inspired by God
because holy men of God spake
as they're removed by the Holy Ghost.
Does that make sense to everyone?
So he's writing this and he's saying,
coming to the thief in the night,
maybe later on he's like, oh, would you look at that?
That's the same wording that was in Matthew 24.
I guess I was inspired by God.
Of course he knew he was inspired by God.
It works in conjunction and there's nothing
that the Apostle Paul says that contradicts the gospels.
I don't care what any hyper dipstick says.
Oh, it's a different gospel.
Oh, you know, he contradicts.
No, they don't contradict each other.
All scripture is given by inspiration of God.
Okay?
And so he says there, the thief in the night,
even though they didn't have the book of Matthew,
especially specifically chapter 24, to work off of.
The Holy Spirit gave him that utterance, you understand?
But I also want you to notice that
because he didn't have the book of Matthew to work off of,
God was obviously inspiring him to write this,
but he also inspired him to preach this
prior to this letter being written.
Because he says, you yourselves know perfectly
that the day of the Lord so cometh
as a thief in the night.
Well, how do they know that?
Well, because the Apostle Paul taught him this
prior to him writing this epistle.
And you read 1 and 2 Thessalonians,
you read multiple accounts where he's saying,
oh, you guys know this already.
Well, how do they know that?
Because he preached this unto them
prior to the letter being written to them, okay?
And so it's pretty interesting.
Good food for thought, amen?