2 Thess 1:4-10 - In this passage, St. Paul asserts that the persecution of the Thessalonians, as found at Acts 17:1-11, would be ended via Christ's coming. Christ did not fail to fulfill the promise pledged to them through the inspired apostle:

After all, it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you and to give relief to you...when the Lord Jesus will be revealed (2 Thessalonians 1:6-7)

Are the Thessalonians still suffering this affliction? Of course not. Christ's varied judgments at the end of the Old Testamental era relieved their suffering, as promised in the passage. The Day of the Lord as a thief in the night overtook the contemporary enemies of the Thessalonican congregation, as St. Paul had foretold:

Destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief. (1 Thess 5:3-4)

The first-century expectation Paul offers cannot be overlooked. The Day of the Lord as a thief in the night (1 Thess 5:2/Matt 24:43/Rev 3:1-3) was promised to bring relief to the Thessalonian congregation by overcoming their enemies. It is helpful here to note that Jesus also offers a "thief-in-the-night" coming to the first-century Church of Sardis (Rev 3:1-3). In fact, the relief promised to the Thessalonian congregation fits a similar pattern of relief promised to many first-century Christian congregations. This is not unexpected, for the firstfruits christians worldwide were suffering persecution (1 Pet 4:7,12-13; 5:9), and the apostles prophesied that relief would come to them via the Parousia. Compare the relief promised to the Church at Thessalonica with the relief promised to the other first-century churches:

Christ's Coming to First-Century Thyatira
promise given at: Rev 2:18-25
result: the false prophetess and her followers at the Thyatira church were killed off via Christ's coming. The Church was granted Christ's authority.

Christ's Coming to First-Century Pergamum
promise given at: Rev 2:12-16
result: the heretical first-century Nicolaitan sect was put down at Christ's coming to Pergamum. The false leaders that were causing them to break the decree of the Council of Jerusalem were put down (cf Rev 2:14; Acts 15:28-29).

Christ's Coming to First-Century Sardis
promise given at: Rev 3:1-5
result: Christ's "thief-in-the-night" coming came upon the Sardis church. They had not been faithfully expecting and it overtook them, in keeping with Matt 24:43/1 Thess 5:2-5. However, a few in Sardis were found worthy and had not soiled their garments. At His coming to them they walked in white, for they were "worthy" (Rev 3:4-5).

Christ's Coming to First-Century Philadelphia
promise given at: Rev 3:7-13
result: Christ put down the then-contemporary Jewish persecution against Philadelphia (Rev 3:9). He preserved the Church at Philadelphia through that period of testing which came upon the whole empire (Rev 3:10). God made his faithful ones "pillars" in the temple of God.

Christ's Coming to First-Century Laodicea
promise given at: Rev 3:14-21
result: Christ knocked "at the door," as foretold in Matt 24:33 (cf also James 5:9). If the Laodiceans didn't repent, it they were annihilated; repentent and obedient followers became partakers of Christ's heavenly authority.

As we read in the passages, all these first century congregations, like the Thessalonians, were pledged relief and rewards (or judgments) via a contemporary visitation from Christ. Not only, but it is Christ himself that made the pledge to them (through St. John), and he could not have failed to deliver.

To those who wish to make 2 Thess 1:4-10 a yet future event, we respond that a "relief from persecution" granted thousands of years into the future of those to whom the promise is made is no relief at all. Telling a cancer sufferer that he or she will receive relief from cancer thousands of years into the future would be an act of mockery. Those wishing to place this passage's fulfillment into the future likewise depict St. Paul as a cruel mocker of the sufferings of the 1st century church at Thessalonica.

2 Thess 2:3-8 -- In this passage, St. Paul foretells the takeover of the second temple by a messianic leader whose revolt is underway at the time of his writing:

"Let no one in any way deceive you, for it [the Day of Christ] will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as god. Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things? And you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he will be revealed. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way. Then that lawless one will be revealed" (2 Thess 2:3-8).

It is clear from the passage itself that St. Paul is referencing an event taking place in his day. The following six points demonstrate that this passage was fulfilled by the temple takeover in Jerusalem during the Great Revolt of AD 66-70:

(1) St. Paul states that this false messianic person was already at work and that the Thessalonians knew firsthand what was keeping him from his eventual takeover of the temple of God. This necessarily places the passage's context and fulfillment in the first century.

(2) The passage is a reference to Matthew 24:15-16: "Therefore when you see the abomination of desolation which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains." It is important to recognize that St. Luke and the greatest Christian commentators down the centuries assign Matthew 24:15-16 to AD 66-70 (Cf. Luke 21:20-23 to Matt 24:15-20). Therefore, 2 Thess 2:3-8 also speaks of that messianic takeover of the Jerusalem Temple, which occurred during the Great Revolt of AD 66-70, just prior to the destruction of Jerusalem.

(3) According to St. Augustine, many early Christians believed St. Paul was making reference to the Emperor-god Nero: "What means the declaration, that the mystery of iniquity already works?...Some suppose this to be spoken of the Roman emperor, and therefore Paul did not speak in plain words, because he would not incur the charge of calumny for having spoken evil of the Roman emperor: although he always expected that what he had said would be understood as applying to Nero." The fact that early Christians were identifying Nero as the possible man of sin shows that they presupposed a fulfillment no later than Nero's death in AD 68, during the great tribulation.

(4) History records that the Jewish rebellion against Rome and apostasy from the faith was already underway in the early 60s AD, and reached its climax in the Jewish-Roman War of AD 66-70. Paul's "man of sin" was, most likely, a person who set himself up in the Temple that was standing when Paul was writing. He could have been Nero, a Zealot false Jewish messiah like Menahem, or the corrupt chief high priest.

5. The "falling away" of 2 Thess 2:3, the other key sign to be reckoned in tandem with this temple takeover, undoubtedly took place within one decade of St. Paul's writing. See: Book of Jude (all); 1 Jn 2:18-19/4:1-3; Acts 20:28-30; 2 Tim 1:15, 4:16; Heb 6:4-6/10:38-39. Scripture lists certain prominent apostates by name: Phygelus (2 Tim 1:15); Hermogenes (2 Tim 1:15); Demas (2 Tim 4:10); Alexander (2 Tim 4:14-16); Hymenaeus (2 Tim 2:17-18); Philetus (2 Tim 2:17-18); Diotrephes (3 Jn 1:9-11).

(6) St. Paul calls this temple the "Temple of God". The Second Temple was indeed the temple of God, as Jesus and the apostles all demonstrate by their example and teaching. In Matthew 24:15, Jesus calls this same event an abomination of desolation standing in the Holy Place. It is crucial to note that, after the destruction of the Temple at AD 70, no earthly stone temple can be considered the Temple of God. The proposition that there will be a future rebuilt "Temple of God" in Jerusalem is nowhere stated in the New Testament or anywhere else in scripture. In fact, such a future stone "Temple of God" with animal sacrifices and a pretender priesthood is made impossible by the entire teaching of the New Testament. New Covenant doctrine fully prohibits such a regression in redemptive history back to the Old Testament types and shadows. The destruction of Jersusalem at AD 70 caused the entire Temple economy of the Mosaic Covenant to become extinct from history.