A.D 50 If Galatians was not the rst to be written, as many hold, then the Thessalonian letters were Paul’s rst inspired writings The mid-tribulation view sees the rapture in the middle of the Tribulation period; the posttribulation view sees it at the end of the Tribulation Before Calvary, the spirits of deceased believers went to the blessed of the two regions of Sheol, that part reserved only for God’s people After Calvary, only Sheol’s other region, the place of torment (new name “Hades”), remained, since thereafter the spirits of believers at death would go to paradise (Cf Luke 23:43.) Outside sources include Bible dictionaries, encyclopedias, handbooks, and books with the subject titles F F Bruce, “1 Thessalonians,” in The New Bible Commentary, p 1159 10 R H Walker, “The Second Epistle of Paul to the Thessalonians,” in The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, 5:2968 11 Adapted from J Dwight Pentecost, Things to Come, pp 206-7 12 “by … report or letter supposed to have come from us, saying that the day of the Lord has already come” (2:2, NIV) 13 Summary paraphrase of 2:1-12 14 C F Hogg and W E Vine, The Epistles to the Thessalonians, p 245 18The Pastoral Epistles and Philemon Timothy: Godliness and Pastoral Care Titus: Adorning the Doctrine of God Timothy: Endurance and Separation in the Ministry Philemon: Appeal for Forgiveness Paul wrote about half the New Testament’s twenty-seven books The last three that he wrote were Timothy, Titus, and Timothy, in that order The letters have since been called pastorals, for reasons to be given below The very fact that these letters were written toward the end of such an outstanding career is a promise of much spiritual insight and inspiration to all who would study the letters About a year before writing Timothy, Paul wrote a short letter to Philemon This letter appears last in the canonical list of Paul’s writings, hence it is the last to be studied in this survey series The pastoral epistles and Philemon are messages from one heart to another Here we can learn much about individual Christians: Paul and Timothy and Titus; Philemon and Onesimus; and the members of churches in Ephesus and Crete and Colossae And because human nature does not change from generation to generation, we can easily see why these letters are so contemporary in their message to us I PREPARATION FOR STUDY It will help you to prepare for your study of each of the pastoral epistles by rst viewing them as a group ... from us, saying that the day of the Lord has already come” (2:2, NIV) 13 Summary paraphrase of 2:1-12 14 C F Hogg and W E Vine, The Epistles to the Thessalonians, p 245 1 8The Pastoral Epistles... Titus: Adorning the Doctrine of God Timothy: Endurance and Separation in the Ministry Philemon: Appeal for Forgiveness Paul wrote about half the New Testament? ??s twenty-seven books The last three... order The letters have since been called pastorals, for reasons to be given below The very fact that these letters were written toward the end of such an outstanding career is a promise of much