IX. Thief in the Night?

I can almost hear you say that we have been taught our entire lives that this whole rapture occasion will be secret, and Jesus will come as a thief in the night, and all the elect that left earth will be strangely missed the next day, etc., etc.  It is never taught in scripture that the coming of Jesus for the rapture will be as a “thief in the night.”  The two places where the “thief in the night” is presented are I Thessalonians 5:2 (I Thessalonians 5:2 For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night.) and II Peter 3:10, (II Peter 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.) and in both instances, it refers to the fact that the “Day of the Lord” will come as a thief in the night.  After the unsaved had just survived the cosmic disturbance and saw the glorious appearing of our Lord and Savior, and as life on earth seemed to be about to return to a semblance of normality, they breathed a sigh of relief.  Then they are hit with the Day of the Lord judgment, Gods’ wrath.   No wonder we are told this time comes upon them as a ‘thief in the night!’  Technically, the rapture, or gathering together, and the day of the Lord will closely follow each other as almost one continuous action, but they are definitely very different actions.  This is why, when you accept pre-tribulation Rapture teaching, you must also accept the erroneous teaching that God’s wrath starts on day one of the seven years of Daniels 70^th week.

We have discussed above at length that the first six seal judgments are not God’s wrath. They are the beginning of the wrath of Satan, the beginning of sorrows, the beginning of birth pangs, with emphasis directed against his hated enemies on earth, the Christians and the Israelites, as he completes his conquering of earth.  Jesus unquestionably teaches that the rapture will take place after Satan’s wrath, after the first 3½ + years, and after the Great Tribulation.  Paul in his first letter to the Thessalonians is very explicit in Chapter 5:1-5 that you yourselves, the Christians, know perfectly that the “Day of the Lord” comes as a thief in the night. (I Thessalonians 5:1-5, 1 But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. 2 For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. 3 For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. 4 But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. 5 You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness.)  He told them the “Day of the Lord” will come upon the unbelievers as a thief in the night and refers to the unbelievers three times as they, them, and they.  Then he told  the believers, the elect of God the Father, that this day will not overtake you as a thief, and refers to them as you and we at least seven times (Read and study it closely.)  Paul must have taught them precisely what we discussed in the preceding paragraphs, what Jesus taught on the Mount of Olives. And when they, the believers, if they were still living (Paul had no idea these end time events would not take place for another two thousand years), saw all of those things happening, they would know “the Day of the Lord” was approaching and it would not surprise them as a thief in the night.

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