“Now we beseech you, brethren, by the COMING (Parousia) of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto Him” (2 Thess. 2:1).
 
The Apostle Paul penned 2 Thessalonians not long after he had written 1 Thessalonians. It is believed that the First Epistle to Thessalonica was written in late 52 A.D. and followed, shortly afterwards, with the Second Epistle in early 53 A.D. The context of both epistles is set forth in 1 Thessalonians 5:2 as, “For yourselves know perfectly that the Day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.” Here, we realize that the Day of the Lord is associated with the Coming (the Parousia) of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The title suggests that there is a disagreement between the Bride and the Body. The two titles have reference to “The Bride of Christ” and “The Body of Christ.” This study researches the Scriptures concerning the two.
 
The expression, “the Bride of Christ,” is not a term that can be found in the Bible. It does not occur one time in the Word of Truth. However, Bible commentators, for centuries, have made reference to the “Bride” and the “Body of Christ” as being the same. Even though generations have been accustomed to referring to the two as being the same, this does not make them the same. As a matter of fact, all that it does is to assume that tradition, and what is taken for granted, is TRUTH. The Bible says, “Thy Word is Truth.” Repetition of doctrine does not make it TRUTH. The age of doctrine does not make it TRUTH. It makes it TRADITION! We ought to treasure the Word of God more than we treasure the most cherished teaching if it is proved to be untrue by the Word.

The top of the mind awareness about the Pharisees is that they insisted they were “Abraham’s seed” (John 8:33). To this, the Lord Jesus agreed, saying; “I know that ye are Abraham’s seed; but ye seek to kill Me, BECAUSE MY WORD HATH NO PLACE IN YOU” (John 8:37). When the Lord Jesus said that they did the deeds of their father, the Devil (John 8:44), the Pharisees became infuriated. They said to Him that they were not born as a result of fornication. But rather, they said, “WE HAVE ONE FATHER EVEN GOD” (John 8:41). Notice, they self-righteously insisted that God was their Father. They professed to belong to God; they claimed to belong to the family of God. They were so persuasive that most of the children of Israel thought the Pharisees were “sons of God.” The Pharisee’s outward “devoutness” and their strict adherence to “the Tradition of the Elders” [the Oral Law] reinforced their claim to be “sons of God.”

All of the teachings in Israel at the time of Christ were rigidly controlled by the Pharisees. No-one dared teach without the approval or authority by the Pharisees. It did not matter how ridiculous or unfair their teaching became; no-one dared to question, or criticize.  By the same token, whatever the Pharisees compelled others to do, no-one insisted that the Pharisees be bound by the same rules.

Our last study concluded by remarking on the part of the Satire/Irony story the Lord Jesus was telling in which He said, in His own words, that the rich man died, and was buried; and in hell he was being tormented, so he lifted up his eyes …
 
“And [the rich man] seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.” These were the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, BUT He told the story as it would have been told by the Pharisees. The story was according to the doctrine of their “Oral Law.”