Today I want to talk about 1 Thessalonians chapter 3.
Now when it comes to Bible prophecy, 1 Thessalonians 4 and 5 are pretty famous, but most people
don't know much about chapter 3.
If you just back up one chapter from the famous rapture passage, the Bible reads in 1 Thessalonians
3 beginning in verse 2, And said to Mothius our brother and minister of God, and our fellow
laborer in the gospel of Christ, to establish you and to comfort you concerning your faith,
that no man should be moved by these afflictions.
For yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto.
For verily when we were with you, we told you before that we should suffer tribulation,
even as it came to pass, and ye know.
Now what's interesting about this is that there's a verse in 1 Thessalonians chapter
5 that's very famous that's often quoted by those who believe in the pre-trib rapture
where the Bible says, For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our
Lord Jesus Christ.
And people will point to that and say, see right there, we're not going to go through
the tribulation because we are not appointed to wrath.
Now in previous videos I've already demonstrated beyond a shadow of a doubt that the tribulation
and God's wrath are two separate things that have nothing to do with one another, but it's
interesting that he uses the exact same wording in 1 Thessalonians 3 when he says, For yourselves
know that we are appointed thereunto, for verily when we were with you, we told you
before that we should suffer tribulation, even as it came to pass, and ye know.
So in 1 Thessalonians 3 the Bible very clearly says, we are appointed to tribulation.
We are appointed to affliction.
We are appointed to suffering.
But then in chapter 5 he says, we're not appointed to wrath.
You see, we are appointed to affliction, we are appointed to tribulation, we are appointed
to suffering.
The Bible says, For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ not only to believe on
him, but also to suffer for his sake.
And so we've been appointed to afflictions and we've been appointed to tribulation, but
we've not been appointed to God's wrath.
It's very simple to understand once you realize that the tribulation is not God's wrath, the
tribulation is never called God's wrath, God's wrath comes after the sun and moon have been
darkened, the tribulation comes before the sun and moon have been darkened.
Read Matthew 24.
So they can't be the same thing.
We are not appointed to wrath, but we are appointed to tribulation according to 1 Thessalonians
3 verses 3 and 4.