He doesn't abandon that Subject after v.1.
PAUL is the one BRINGING that Subject to bear on the problem, or false claim, being disclosed in verse 2--which verse is basically saying, don't let anyone persuade you into believing "that
the day of the Lord is already here [perfect indicative]"...
not the claim "that
the rapture has already taken place," and
not the claim "that
Jesus Himself has already come," and
not the claim "that His Kingdom age has already started"--the false claim he's pointing out in verse 2 wasn't any of
those ideas;
...the false claim he's
actually pointing out and covering (v.2) is the false claim "that
the day of the Lord is already here [perfect indicative]"
...which Subject we
already know from his first epistle to them, that the Thessalonians "KNOW PERFECTLY" that "the
day of the Lord ARRIVES" LIKE the INITIAL "birth PANG" that COMES UPON a woman... but doesn't consist of merely one birth pang... that's just the START of it (i.e. its ARRIVAL)... just like Jesus had already talked covered in His Olivet Discourse, to refer to the START of something ("the BEGINNING of birth pangs" cover a lot of ground/time, and they are just the BEGINNING of them, not the
totality of them, and certainly not the END of them, i.e. both Jesus and Paul refer to this as covering
a duration of time... IOW, Paul in 1Th5:2-3, when referring to the term "the DOTL" and its ARRIVAL is
not referring to Christ's return to the earth at Rev19, as many suppose, but rather a point
well-prior to that.)
So... the false claim, or false conveyors purporting a false claim in v.2, were not claiming "the rapture" already occurred. The text does not state that that is the Subject of the false claim... you are incorrectly
supposing that to be what it entailed.
PAUL is the one bringing the Subject of our Rapture (v.1) to bear on the problem expressed in v.2, "that
the day of the Lord is already here [
perfect indicative--'ACTION COMPLETED at a SPECIFIC POINT of TIME in PAST (●) with results CONTINUING into the PRESENT (▬►). In certain contexts the results are PERMANENT."--note: Caps original in the quote I just copied & pasted directly from Grk grammar site). The "day of the Lord" kicks-off with the "JUDGMENTs" aspect, before summing up with the "BLESSINGs" aspect... both transpiring OVER TIME (first the "IN THE NIGHT"/"DARK"/"DARKNESS" aspect [aka what we call the "7-yr Trib" aka "70th Week"]; then the "SUN of righteousness ARISE" and "reign GLORIOUSLY" aspect [aka the "BLESSINGs" aspect we call the "MK age"--His 1000-yr reign]).
The false claim entails that this is what is already here, having already ARRIVED, and 1Th5:2-3 tells the MANNER of its ARRIVAL that the Thessalonians
already "KNOW PERFECTLY," according to that context (1Th5:1-3). Note: I do not say that they "know perfectly" it HAS ARRIVED, in 1Th5:1-3, which
@randyk mistakenly assumed was my point, in another post. That
hadn't been the point I was making there.
The reason that Paul refers to the Subject of
our rapture event in verse 1, and the Subject of the false claim in verse 2 (having to do with a
distinct Subject--the false claim "that
the day of the Lord is already here [perfect indicative]"--an
earthly-located
time-period) is because in v.3 he is then going to make the point regarding how the one fits in relation, time-wise/sequence-wise, to the other.
He is
not at all abandoning the Subject of v.1 (Rapture), as you suggest would be the case according to my view; it only
seems so to you because you are mis-defining the Subject of the false claim spoken of in v.2, and are therefore mislabeling what v.3a is starting off with. If we can separate v.3 into 3 parts, for the purpose of properly identifying each part (which you are not properly identifying or properly connecting), then this can be more easily seen... which I may make a post on again, later, for this post is already so long I'm pretty sure you won't even want to read what all I've put here
already, let alone any
more... lol
Paul, in these 3 verses, is telling how the one Subject (v.1's) fits in relation,
time-/sequence-wise, to the
other Subject (v.2's false claim "that
the day of the Lord is already here [perfect indicative]" i.e. the "JUDGMENTs" aspect [unfolding upon the earth over a duration of time] that "the DOTL's ARRIVAL" and "IN THE NIGHT" section
consists of...).
Paul is not in any way abandoning the Subject of "rapture" after v.1... but showing why "the day of the Lord is already here [perfect indicative]" (v.2) cannot be true; he does so in v.3 where he refers to both of those Subjects and declaring the correct SEQUENCE of those two items.
The problem enters when people mis-label v.2's Subject and
therefore mis-label v.
3a's Subject (which is the same)... and the veering off the track of what Paul is
actually conveying turns into a major misstep in interpreting this passage that is difficult to rectify in ppl's minds... so that they suggest things such as
you have, that I'm saying something I'm NOT saying: that Paul abandons talking about "rapture" after v.1... but I've never made such a point. You only
think I have because of your not grasping what v.2 (and therefore v.3a) are communicating, which is NOT as you suggest it is... (IOW, the false claim Paul brings up in v.2 is NOT that the rapture already occurred--the actual words in that verse do not convey such an idea... You are
reading that idea INTO the text of verse 2, the Subject of the false claim... )
