NOTES for Th1 5:6

Speaking about the end of time and the day of the Savior's return, Paul, following Jesus Himself, reminds us that no dates can be determined here. At first glance this may seem strange: did God not reveal to the Messiah what is known to Him, especially when the matter concerns such important things, on which the salvation of many depends? Judging by Christ's own words, it turns out that He did not, although His heavenly Father Himself knows the times. Meanwhile, the answer here may be simpler than it seems to many: there simply is no exact date. It shifts depending on the spiritual condition of individual people, the Church, and humanity as a whole.

After all, salvation is a God-human process, and God sees the situation with individual people, with the Church, with other spiritual communities, and with humanity as a whole, acting in accordance with it. It may seem strange: why should God follow people's lead? Yet the matter is the salvation of people who have free will and have already been damaged by the fall. Such people are hard not only to save, but even to persuade to be saved, to convince of the very need for salvation.

Meanwhile, God wants to save, ideally, everyone, and in reality as many people as possible. And He is ready to change His plan if such a change will allow even one more person to be saved, if otherwise that one cannot be saved. But in that case it is impossible in principle to say in advance exactly when the process will be completed, although God undoubtedly sees all possible paths and endings of the process. A particular individual Christian does not need this knowledge at all. Knowing is not required here; what matters is being ready. Understanding the logic of the process by itself in no way guarantees such readiness; here everything depends exclusively on a person's spiritual state.

One can know and understand everything and still turn out to be unready when one has to act, while another can be completely ready for action without knowing any details or particulars of what is happening. This is understandable: in spiritual life everything that happens happens not "in general" and not in a global perspective, but here and now. The action required of a person in a concrete situation is also required here and now, and understanding "the situation in general" will not help him here at all. This is what the apostle reminds the Thessalonian Christians of, although he is sure that everything he has said should already be known to them.