CHAPTER FOUR
ALTERNATIVE USES OF THE TERM “THE DAY OF THE LORD”
Feinberg puts it, "The day of the Lord will overtake the unbelievers as a thief in the night because of their general moral state, which is spoken of as night, or darkness. Believers, on the other hand, will not be surprised as they are of light and the day." In addition, the contrast between the "you" of verses 1-2, 4-5, and the "they" of verse 3 ("they shall not escape") strongly implies that it is the church which would escape, and that is one reason Paul had no need to discuss the "times and epochs" of the rapture (v. 1). These contrasts are followed in verses 6-8 with exhortations to be alert and sober living in faith, love, and a confidence in salvation (cf. Rom. 13:12-13). Drunkenness and sleep characterize behavior in the night, but alertness and soberness are typical for daytime (cf. 1 Pet. 5:8).23 Then in 1 Thessalonians 5:9 Paul reaffirmed the fact that God has not destined believers to suffer this eschatological wrath, but he affirmed that they have been appointed to obtain salvation through Christ. This salvation is further defined in verse 10 as including an eternal "living together" with Christ, thus showing that it is parallel to the "rescue" of 1:10 and the "catching up" (rapture) of 4:17 ("thus we shall always be with the Lord").
Having concluded our study about Luke's approach to the Gentiles and the Gentile mission, a brief comparison with Paul will serve to emphasize some of the distinctive elements in Luke.
One of the most noticeable characteristics of Luke's portrait of Paul is that he spends as much if not more, of his time preaching to the Jews as to the Gentiles. At each point in his itineraries Paul begins his work in the synagogues (9 20, 13 5, 14, 14 1, 17 1- 2, 10, 1 7, 18 4, 19, 19 8) and, though frequently frustrated his efforts continue up to the very end of Acts (28 23f) While he is the Gentile missionary 'par excellence ' , he also does more than any other figures in the early Church to promote the mission to the Jews. The historical reliability of this portrait has been radically questioned by Schmithals, but others defend it. Schmithals' view is based on a total mistrust of the historical reliability of Acts, the evidence of Paul's epistles, and practical considerations as to Paul's most 'natural' missionary methods However, while Acts must be handled with care, we cannot reject its evidence out of hand. It is true that many of Paul's extant epistles are addressed to predominantly Gentile Churches and that Paul designates himself as the apostle to the Gentiles (Rom 11 13, 15 16,18, Gal 1 16, 2 2,9, I.Thess2 16), but one cannot ignore passages like I Cor 9 20 and I Cor 11 24, which imply that Paul did, at least early in his ministry, preach to Jews as well as Gentiles It is nowhere said in the epistles that he did not approach Jews, for although Rom 9-11 say that Paul's method of reaching the Jews was through the Gentiles, these are the ideas of a man reflecting on something like twenty-five years of missionary experience and not the notions which inspired him when he set out on his endeavors Schmithals rejects as 'unthinkable' Haenchen's claim that the synagogues were the natural starting places for Paul's work.
But it is only ' unthinkable' that Paul preached an antinomian gospel to both Jews and Gentiles But since there is no evidence that Paul did encourage Jews to abandon the Law, Schmithals' objection has little force. The synagogues, with their numbers of God-fearing Gentiles who accepted the basic tenets of the Jewish faith, would have been the ideal place for Paul to begin his missionary work Certainly, Luke's account is stylized and follows a rigid pattern which does not always do Justice to the complexity of the true events, but its essential reliability is not to be doubted.