For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.
Many here have heard of, read, or seen the Left Behind and Thief in the Night series of books and movies. There are several editions. The movie was recently updated with Nicolas Cage as its big-name actor. I remember seeing the earlier series in the later 1970’s. The concept of the rapture being the fulfilment of Jesus’ return being like a thief was around well before my lifetime. Its roots go back to the 1830’s, but it wasn’t discovered in the Bible, it was imposed upon the Bible and added to an already doubtful theological system devised a bit earlier. They belief system was soon imported to the United States and then widely popularized by footnotes in the Scofield Study Bible, a widely used commentary bible since the early 1900’s. Over time, dispensationalism, and especially the added rapture teaching spread across denominational lines due to an outward appearance of superior understanding of many prophetic parts of the Bible.
But this superior understanding is an illusion that depends upon a false framework of how God works salvation over history. It nurtures a view of the Jewish faith and people that violates the clear words of the Old and New Testaments and makes the Jewish people, and not the cross of Jesus, the central work of God in salvation. It depends upon adding meaning to multiple Bible verses and teachings that are not in the verses themselves. It frequently uses the shadows of the Old Testament to interpret the clear revelation of the New, rather than the other way around. It also gravely misreads and misapplies the cyclic visions of Revelation and makes the book linear in time as well as only important to Christians in the very last days and not to believers in all ages. Thankfully, most who hold this belief system still accept the saving truths of Jesus and other major teachings. Sound doctrine is diminished, but the saving message of Jesus remains sufficient to convert souls to faith. I have posted multiple articles on our congregation website blog if you wish to look deeper.
1 Thessalonians 5:2 For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. The bible uses this terminology for Jesus’ return at least six times. Jesus describes his return as a thief in Matthew and Luke. Paul twice in 1 Thessalonians and John three times in Revelation. In 2 Peter 3, we find a very close concept for a possible seventh time. All these are written under the direct and certain inspiration of God. Jesus repeatedly reminds us that His return will be unexpected and sudden to unbelievers, because after all, they really don’t think he will return anyway. While Christians cannot know the day or hour of our Savior’s return, we won’t be caught by surprise because as we live in faith, we are always prepared. This is also the main point of Paul’s words here. Those who live in sin and unbelief will be unpleasantly surprised. Faithful disciples will be joyously surprised.
Contrary to popular views of end time prophecy, none of the references to our Lord returning like a thief in the night has anything to do with a special, secret return of Jesus to collect, or rapture only those Christians ready for him and then leave everyone else on earth to enter the final seven years of God’s wrath and tyrannical human evil. Now, the lack of a rapture does not mean that the time near the end of the age will not be filled with warfare, human tyranny, economic and political control, and persecution. I suggest that it just won’t happen quite like these churches predict. It means that when Jesus comes as a thief in the night, he will do so at the very, absolute end of this age. No rapture. No two or three-stage return. And it will be on the “Day of the Lord,”, not on one of two or three “Days of the Lord.”
We find the phrase “Day of the Lord” connected to the concept of the thief, so a closer look is wise. The term is used 19x in the OT and 2x in the New, with 2 additional verses similarly worded. These 23 uses display 3 basic definitions. 1) to predict a nearby, approaching major judgment of God, such as the victory of the Assyrian army over Babylon; 2) to predict the end of the age and the final judgment of God over all the earth; or 3) a mixture of both, as found in today’s reading from Zephaniah. The common thread is that the term “Day of the Lord” points to specific events when God actively affects human history in a terrifying and profound manner that will take its ultimate form at the end of the age. Nowhere does this term point to a so-called rapture although some Christians attempt to attach that meaning to 2 Thessalonians 5:2 and others. In terms of logic, this is a case of special pleading. Simply defined, special pleading is when one must say something like: “Although this word or phrase never means this anywhere else in the Bible, this verse means this even though the verse itself doesn’t say so. This is a frequent dynamic found in popularized end time teachings. Extra biblical meaning is imposed upon words and passages that do not themselves contain such meaning. But when you are taught all your life that certain verses mean certain things, you tend to be certain they say what you have been taught to see in them.
The clear teaching of the Bible and the overwhelming belief of the Christian church for 2,000 years is that Jesus came once as a man born of a virgin and he will return only once as the ascended, glorious Lord of creation. We find this in the Apostles’ and Nicene creeds, which many churches rarely recite, “and he will come again in glory to judge both the living and the dead.” It is also clearly written in Hebrews 9:27-28. “But as it is, he as appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.” While some churches try to make this second time the rapture, and therefore have Jesus come to earth three times, the clear context of our verse is two-fold. First, it is appointed for man to die once, then judgment. In a similar way, Jesus died once, and his second appearance is our salvation, and of course, judgment to unbelievers. One return. No rapture.
Now, if you are acquainted with popular prophetic teachings, you may remember how some verses such as in Matthew 24:36-42 are used to teach a rapture and then attach that meaning to Jesus’ words in Matthew 24:43 about coming as a thief in the night. After all, these verses are connected. Well yes, they are connected, but they don’t teach a rapture. The concept of a rapture must be forced onto them, not read out of them. Let’s look at them quickly.
Matthew 24:40-42 Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left. Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. This is supposedly a reference to Jesus coming in secret and taking his people out of this world before the final seven-year of terrible troubles, commonly called the Great Tribulation, begins. The ones taken away by Jesus are blessed. The ones left behind will then suffer terribly and almost certainly die horribly. However, the verses do not identify the nature of the separation, nor do they say that it is Jesus who does the taking and leaving. But some churches teach these and other interpretations as if the verses did.
The verses about Noah’s flood and Jesus’ return are interpreted in the same way. Matthew 24:37-39 For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying, and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. And these two verses are shortly followed by verse 43. But know this, that if the master of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have left his house to be broken into. You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”
Taken or left behind in the fields. Swept away or left by the flood. Blessed or not blessed depending. And these verses end with Jesus’ words that he will return as a thief in the night. Therefore, we are told, the thief in the night teaching is about the rapture taking the faithful away before the 7-year tribulation on earth begins. But there’s a huge problem. The blessed and unblessed of these verses are exactly opposite as what would be true in a so-called rapture. Notice, in the wide context, Jesus speaks of persecution and judgment. He expects his hearers to immediately understand his teachings. There is only one similar event common in Israel in Jesus’ day that fits. When Roman soldiers came to punish Israelites, the ones taken away were jailed or even executed. The ones left behind remained free and survived. The meaning is more obvious with Noah’s flood. The ones taken away by the flood died in unbelief and would be judged guilty. The ones left behind in the ark were preserved from death and blessed by God. This reversal holds true also in Luke’s gospel. It takes brazen verbal gymnastics to impose the concept of a rapture on these verses and on the term, “a thief in the night,” let alone equate them with “the Day of the Lord.” In theology, we call this eisegesis. It means to read meaning into a verse that is not found in the verse. We might want to believe it, but it isn’t what God says. He simply reminds us to always live in faith and avoid sin so that our Savior’s return will be a welcome event and not the day of our eternal destruction.
Let’s close by hearing today’s epistle reading and letting God’s word encourage our hearts, lives, and faith. No matter what this world may do to us, our eternal life is secure in the Savior.
Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.
0 Comments