NOTE: Once again, I forgot to unmute my microphone, so the audio for the sermon itself is not as good as it should be...
Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians is the earliest of the NT books written, with Galatians being a close second (though there is some debate that Galatians was written first). Since the book was written in 49 or 50 CE, it was composed barely 20 years after the time of Jesus and about 20 years before any of the Gospels were written. Notably, it was written about 45 years before the Gospel of John with its high theology about Jesus, and about 300 years before the doctrine of the Trinity was established.
These observations tell us something about what Paul's Gospel message was about . . . and what it wasn't about. The Thessalonians who responded positively to Paul's message were and are considered followers of Jesus, but Rev Derwyn would argue that they became so without the knowledge typically emphasized within Christian doctrine today.
