So long as the kingdom was being heralded it was due at any time. They suffered from a delusion which has since misled many a saint, that it, that affliction is an evidence of God's anger, and that if we are pleasing God, everything will be pleasant and agreeable. Later God's pacific attitude was further developed into the great truth of the conciliation, so that, until God alters His mode of administration, in the next economy, even unbelievers are not subject to His indignation. So that, so long as there is no change in dispensation, from conciliation to indignation, the whole world is immune from the divine displeasure. The great difference between affliction and indignation is apparent from the fact that the former comes from men, the latter from God, and thus we are promised affliction while we are preserved from indignation.
Affliction is especially for the saints.
The Thessalonians received the word in much affliction, but they were not suffering from God's indignation. Man's day, mortal misrule, does not cease of itself when the ecclesia is caught away. It does not voluntarily hand over the government of the earth to Messiah. No man has ever been elevated to the height which he will attain. The indignation of God is turned against mankind and its head at the very commencement of Jehovah's day.