1 Thessalonians 5:1

The first and second verses of chapter 5 stand in very direct contrast to 1 Thess. 4:13, 15. About the coming of the Lord Jesus for His saints — what people usually call "the rapture" — they knew nothing. That left them in needless difficulty and sorrow, so the Apostle wrote to them "by the word of the Lord" to teach them. But about "the times and the seasons" they were not ignorant at all, and Paul had no need to write to them on that subject.

The times and seasons have to do with the earth and not heaven, as Genesis 1:14 shows us. In Thessalonians the term does not mean the divisions of earth's history that the sun and stars mark out. It means the larger divisions, each with its own special features, which God's moral government of the earth marks out. In the past, great events have opened a fresh season: the flood, the rescue of Israel from Egypt and the giving of the law, the fall of David's line of kings and the passing of rule into the hands of the nations. Another season is still to come. The Lord Jesus will open it when He takes up His great power to reign. That will be "the day of the Lord."

So the apostle, when he speaks of the day of the Lord, refers to it as already too well known to need fresh words about it. The Thessalonians did not need teaching about that. But this makes very plain the difference between how God will deal with the saints and how He will deal with the rest of mankind. When Paul takes up the Lord's coming, they need teaching; when he speaks about the day of the Lord, they do not.

The Thessalonians had no difficulty with these times and seasons. They knew all they needed to know about them. Yet no one had taught them properly about what will happen at the resurrection and rapture of the saints. It is obvious then that Paul — and therefore the Spirit — did not count the resurrection and rapture as part of the times and seasons. Those belong to the day of the Lord and the kingdom on earth.

In the previous chapters Paul had not pointed out any period of time in connection with the Lord's coming. Here he takes up the question of "times and seasons." But the moment he touches this point, he stops saying "we." He says "they" and "them" — those who are outside. He takes great care to mark the saints off from them. When he speaks to the saints again, he calls them "But you, brothers."

Times and seasons do not directly concern the Church. They look on to the times and conditions in which God will carry out His ways with the earth, as the prophetic Scriptures foretell. The Lord had said to His disciples, "It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by His own authority" (Acts 1:7). So it is useless to try to work out the date of the Lord's coming from Daniel's prophecies or any other Scripture. It is worse than useless. It tries to find out what the Lord says is not for us to know.

Scripture has foretold two events, and one must happen before the other: the rapture of the saints comes before the day of the Lord, when He returns with His saints. Christians are expected to know this order... Still, we are not to know when either will happen. We are to be ready for the rapture at all times.