Author’s note: We continue with the series first posted in 2007.
We’ve seen that Jesus warned that the time of His coming again to planet earth will be “as it was in the days of Noah.” That is, the characteristics of the end-time generation will be like they were in the days presented in Genesis chapter 6. When we look at that chapter, we conclude that it was surely a terrifying time. This must have been true especially for Noah and his seven family members while the time just before the Flood surrounded them. But the whole generation of earth-dwellers lived under threat of violence; violence filled the whole earth, God’s Word reports (Genesis 6: 11, 13). Even though business was moving along at a good, even accelerated pace, violence–terroristic activity—filled the earth.
Does this sound familiar? What did the president call the war declared upon an almost unidentifiable enemy following the 9/11 attacks? That’s correct, he called it “the war on terrorism.” And now the whole international community is uptight about the possibility of ramifications of the terror–the violence—that threatens to ignite war in the Middle East.
Every time such sparks begin to fly, members of the media begin to contact Todd and me, as well as others who have studied and expounded upon Armageddon and the “end of days,” as media like to frame the end time. Violence of the deadliest sort fills the world with terror, and the cry for peace and safety from media and government diplomatic types proves it.
Jesus also said in His Luke 17 prophecies that things of society and economy would be pretty much business as usual at the time of His return at the end of days. People will be eating and drinking. Men and women will be marrying and divorcing, just like nothing fearful was going on in their world. Daniel the prophet said that great progress would be made in technology, travel, and communications at the time of the end (Daniel 12).
Again, does any of this sound familiar? As we can see from the strength of the American economy, things are booming, despite that we are now a debtor nation at an unprecedented level. The United States is inarguably the most materially blessed nation-state in the history of the world. The greatest king of Bible times lived nowhere near the level of luxury and comfort even lower middle-class Americans do today.
So, in that sense, business is going along, in this country at least, better than merely business as usual. It is just at such time as described that Jesus will step out on the clouds of glory and shout “Come up hither!”
Bible prophecy tells us that the day of the Lord will come (will begin) as a thief in the night. A thief suddenly breaks in. He doesn’t say, “Hey! I’m coming to break in!” That’s how we can know that the thief-in-the-night analogy is for another coming, not for the Second Advent–the time when Jesus’ foot will touch down on the Mount of Olives, which will then cleave in half and create a rift all the way to the Mediterranean. Nearly two-thirds of the world’s population will have perished in God’s full-blown wrath by the time of that Revelation 19:11 return to earth. Everyone on the planet still alive will see Christ coming.
The coming as a thief reference is to the Rapture. It will be sudden, it will be stunning, and it will be catastrophic.
Let’s look at the potential calamitous things that will likely immediately follow the twinkling-of-an-eye intervention into this humanistic, last-days world of earth-dwellers.
In the United States, a young mother pregnant with her second child and with a small daughter riding in the basket, will be walking down an aisle in a supermarket.
A truck driver will be steering a semi-tractor/trailer rig onto a superhighway to merge with the heavy traffic flow.
A 757 captain will push the throttles to full power, headed down a runway at JFK in New York.
A surgeon at a major hospital in Minnesota will begin to make the initial scalpel cut that will open a heart patient’s chest for a bypass procedure.
A funeral director will straighten the collar of a starched white shirt worn by a corpse, whose funeral is next on the services schedule.
In less than the time it takes for a neuroelectric synapse firing in the brain to take place, the young mother’s womb is empty. She sees her little girl vanish as she, herself, starts her fall to the floor from the shock of the physiological changes taking place in her body.
The 18-wheeler is careening into the traffic, driverless, out of control, crushing and demolishing vehicles and their passengers while raging ahead in its ungoverned course.
The 757 on the JFK runway is at full take-off speed, but the pilot and copilot are not at the controls, while the right wingtip dips toward the runway and catastrophe.
The surgeon in Minnesota finds the scalpel cutting air, rather than flesh, because the patient is gone.
The funeral director staggers backwards, astonished because the burial apparel he has been making just right for presentation has collapsed, and the corpse is no longer in the casket.
We will have to leave, until next time, those scenario snippets as still-frame snapshots of the paradigm-changing dynamics of the Rapture. Those will geometrically burgeon from the instant this stunning event takes place. It will be the most powerful occurrence of human history since Christ’s First Advent intervened into the affairs of humankind.
Terry James Prophecy Line 
I take it that you are, perhaps, not aware of the real interpretation of the Hebraic idiom ‘a thief in the night’ and what it actually means? Or did you feel it not necessary to bring an explanation?
Hello. I just searched a vast array of Christian and Jewish literature (30k) volumes and their is no Hebraic idiom associated with that phrase in my results. So enlighten us, please. And make sure you reference your source.
The rapture is an event that will take place sometime in the near future. Jesus will come in the air, catch up the Church from the earth, and then return to heaven with the Church. The Apostle Paul gave a clear description of the rapture event in his letters to the Thessalonians and Corinthians.”For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.” (1 Thess, 4:16-18).
“Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal [must] put on immortality” (1 Cor. 15:51-53).
The timing of the rapture is not known. From the Word of God and from sound reasoning–something Jesus used quite frequently–I hope to prove the reality of the pretribulation rapture.
The word “rapture” comes from Paul’s “caught up” remark in verse 17. The words “caught up” are translated from the Greek word harpazo, which means “to carry off,” “snatch up,” or “grasp hastily.” The translation from harpazo to “rapture” involved two steps: first, harpazo became the Latin word raptus; second, raptus became the English word “rapture.”
Scriptural Evidence for the Pretribulation Rapture
The Unknown Hour
When we search the Scriptures and read the passages describing the Lord Jesus’ return, we find verses that tell us we won’t know the day and hour of that event. Matthew 25:13 says Jesus will return at an unknown time, while Revelation 12:6 indicates that the Jews will have to wait on the Lord 1,260 days, starting when the Antichrist stands in the Temple of God and declares himself to be God (2 Thes 2:4). This event will take place at the mid-point of the seven-year tribulation (Dan 9:27). Note that some people only see a three-and-a-half-year tribulation. In a way, they are correct because the first half of the tribulation will be relatively peaceful compared to the second half. Nonetheless, peaceful or not, there still remains a seven-year period called the tribulation. When the Jews flee into the wilderness, they know that all they have to do is wait out those 1,260 days (Mat 24:16). There is no way to apply the phrase “neither the day nor the hour” to this situation. The only way for these two viewpoints to be true is to separate the two distinct events transpiring here: 1) the rapture of the Church, which comes before the tribulation; and 2) the return of Jesus to the earth, which takes place roughly seven years later.
The Marriage Supper of the Lamb
In Luke 12:36, the Word states that when Christ returns, He will be returning from a wedding. In Revelation 19:7-8, we read about the marriage itself. The marriage supper takes place before the marriage. According to Jewish custom, the marriage contract, which often includes a dowry, is drawn up first. The contract parallels the act of faith we use when we trust Jesus to be our Savior. The dowry is His life, which was used to purchase us. When it’s time for the wedding, the groom goes to the bride’s house unannounced. She comes out to meet him, and then he takes her to his father’s house. This precisely correlates with the events according to the pre-trib scenario. Jesus, the Groom, comes down from heaven and calls up the Church, His Bride. After meeting in the air, He and His Bride return to His Father’s house, heaven. The marriage supper itself will take place there, while down here on earth the final events of the tribulation will be playing out. After the marriage supper of Jewish tradition, the bride and groom are presented to the world as man and wife. This corresponds to the time when Jesus returns to earth accompanied by an army “clothed in fine linen, white and clean” (Rev 19:14).
What They Didn’t Teach You in History Class
Many groups try to discredit the pre-trib rapture by saying most of the end-time events in the Bible have already taken place. A group of people called preterists claims that the Book of Revelation was mostly fulfilled by 70 AD. If the events described in the Book of Revelation took place in the past, I’m at a loss to explain some of the current situations I see around us: the rebirth of Israel, the reunification of Europe, the number of global wars that have occurred, and the development of nuclear weapons. During history class, I must have slept through the part where the teacher talked about the time when a third of the trees were burned up, 100-pound hailstones fell from the sky, and the sea turned into blood (Rev 8:7-8, 16:21). I think several people would have to question their opposition to the pre-trib rapture doctrine if they knew that the evidence provided to them was based on the understanding that most tribulation prophecies have already occurred.
The People of the Millennium
If Christ were to come back after the tribulation, rapture all the saints, and slay all the ungodly, who would be left to populate the earth during the millennium? Only the pre-trib viewpoint can account for this post-trib problem. The Church is raptured before the tribulation, a vast number of souls are saved during this seven-year time frame, and those who make it through the tribulation go into the millennium while the unsaved are cast into hell.
The Saint U-Turn
In the pre-trib scenario, after we rise to meet the Lord in the air, we will go to heaven and abide there seven years. At the end of that period, Christ will come down to earth, defeat the Antichrist, and cleanse the temple. In a post-trib rapture, we would rise in the air to meet the Lord, then do a 180-degree U-turn and come back down to earth. Revelation 1:7 states that Christ will appear out of the clouds and come down to earth. Zechariah 14:4 says that His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives. If He’s already headed our way, why would we need to be caught up to meet Him?
“Come Up Hither”
Many pre-trib writers cite Revelation 4:1, which says, “come up hither,” as a prophetic reference to the rapture of the Church, leaving Revelation chapters 1 through 3 as a description of the Church Age. After the shout to “come up hither,” the Church is not mentioned in Scripture at all. The attention of Scripture switches from the Church to the Jews living in Israel.
Armies in Fine Linen
When Jesus returns (Rev. 19:18), an army follows Him. The army’s members are riding on white horses, and they are clothed in fine linen that is white and clean. In Revelation 19:8, we are told that the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints. If the saints of God are returning with Christ to wage war on the Antichrist, then it is not possible to have a post-trib rapture without us running into ourselves as we are coming and going.
The Time of Jacob’s Trouble
In several passages, the Bible refers to the tribulation as a time of trouble for the Jews. The phrase “Jacob’s trouble” pertains to the descendants of Jacob. Jeremiah 30:7 says that this time of trouble will come just before the Lord returns to save His people. The final week of Daniel’s 70th week is yet to take place. An angel told Daniel that, “70 weeks are determined unto thy people” (Dan 9:24). Scripture never mentions that the tribulation is meant to be a time of testing for Christians. However, some post-tribbers try to claim that they are the ones being tested during the tribulation. To make this so, they need to spiritualize the 144,000 Jewish believers in Revelation 7:2-8 who receive God’s protective seal. Placing the Church dispensation into the same time frame as the seven-year Jewish dispensation, as the post-tribbers do, raises one good question: Can two dispensations transpire at the same time? In the past, God has only dealt with one at a time. Having both present during the tribulation would have to be an exception.
“He” That is Taken Out of the Way
Before the Antichrist can be revealed, Paul said a certain “He” must be taken out of the way. According to 2 Thessalonians 2:7, the “He” that must be removed is widely thought to be the Holy Spirit. It has been promised that the Holy Spirit would never leave the Church, and without the working of the Holy Spirit remaining on earth, no one could be saved during the tribulation. The removal of the Church, which is indwelt by the Holy Ghost, would seem the best explanation for this dilemma. The working of the Holy Spirit could go on during the tribulation, but His influence would be diminished because of the missing Church.
War or Rapture
(Rev 19:19-21) When Jesus returns at the end of the tribulation, He will be coming for battle. For those who believe in a post-trib rapture, it would be strange to meet your Lord and Savior just as He’s rushing into battle. The idea that war and rapture could occur together is difficult to imagine, especially since they transpire at the same moment.
The Five Foolish Virgins
The wedding story that Jesus gave in Matthew 25:2-13, I believe, is a parable of the rapture of the Church. It explains how some will not be ready. Jesus clearly states that a group of people will miss out on an event, and will cry out to God to let them into the place where He resides, heaven. Although some try to put this parable in a post-trib context, it doesn’t fit very well. The ones left behind in a post-trib rapture will not need to seek the Lord because they’ll immediately be confronted by Him and His army of angels.
God Hath Not Appointed Us to Wrath
In 1 Thessalonians 5:9, Paul assures us that God has not appointed His people to wrath. This wrath is plainly God’s anger that will be poured out during the tribulation. Pre-trib believers interpret this as meaning that Christians will be removed from the earth. Post-trib believers tell a different story. They describe this as meaning that God will protect Christians during the tribulation and pour this wrath out on the unbelievers only. This idea runs against the statement made in Revelation 13:7, in which the Antichrist is given power to make war with the saints and to overcome them. A post-trib view would make God’s promise of protection from wrath into a lie. In years past, it was possible to think of being protected from the guns and swords of that day. Today, when any major war would involve nuclear and chemical weapons, it’s impossible to expect that same kind of protection. When Nagasaki, Japan was bombed during World War II, the bomb exploded over a Catholic church. Everyone who was in the center of the explosion died–both Christians and non-Christians. The only way to validly interpret God’s promise of protection from wrath is by viewing 1 Thessalonians 5:9 as the bodily removal of the Church from this world.
The Salt of the Earth
Jesus said, “Ye are the salt of the earth” (Matthew 5:13). When the believers are supenly removed, the earth will be plunged into spiritual darkness. When this happens, the Antichrist will then be free to control the world.
God Takes an Inventory
In Revelation 7:3, an angel descends to earth and seals the servants of God. Two bits of information about this sealing highly disclaim a post-trib viewpoint. The first item is the number of people sealed: 144,000. The second one is that all those who are sealed are from the 12 tribes of Israel. For the events in Revelation 7:3-8 to be true in a post-trib interpretation, either the Church has turned against God or God has turned against the Church. A post-tribber could write a thousand-word commentary about why the Church doesn’t need to be sealed. Instead of trying to argue about why the Church is not mentioned or sealed, a pre-trib proponent could just say, “We’re already in heaven.”
Noah and Lot as Examples
The tribulation period is compared to the times of Noah and Lot by Jesus in Luke 17:28. Most people argue over whether the time frame Jesus was talking about in that passage was pre-trib or post-trib. In doing so, they miss an important point. The two circumstances that the Noah and Lot situations have in common are the removal of the righteous and the judgment of the unbelievers. From these two accounts, we see that God prefers to remove His own when danger is involved.Common-Sense Reasons for Believing in the Pretribulation Rapture
The World Test
One way to check the soundness of a doctrine is to see how the world reacts to it. One company put out a questionnaire that was used to screen prospective employees. One of the questions was, “Do you believe in the rapture?” If you answered “yes,” your chances of getting hired would not be good. Some internet sites do not allow the topics of Rapture or Second Coming. They do allow topics such as sex, gays, and drugs. The only time the news media mentions the rapture is when someone sets a date and is proven to be wrong.
That Old-Time Religion
It used to be a rule of thumb that when one was visiting a church or listening to a preacher, one could assume the preacher believed in repentance, prayer, and the baptism of the Holy Ghost if he taught the rapture doctrine. It was also true that the churches on fire for God worshipped out of storefronts. Today, many of those storefront churches have moved into marble palaces and have strayed from their principal doctrines.
Birds of a Feather Flock Together
Whenever I look at all the groups that teach false doctrine and are highly focused on end-time events, I cannot find any that support the rapture theory. Some organizations, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, for example, teach a false gospel and are heavily into Bible prophecy. Why, then, don’t Jehovah’s Witnesses teach a false doctrine that would be right up their alley? Could it be that the demonic forces that influence these groups know something that Christians opposed to the rapture don’t know? The list of prophetically minded cults that reject the idea of a rapture goes on and on. Here are some more: the Mormons, the Worldwide Church of God and the Moonies, as well as leaders like Jim Jones and David Koresh.
The Church Would Rebuke the Antichrist
If the Antichrist came to power with the Church still here, I do not see how he could operate. When Hitler was fighting to take over England, a number of Christians were praying for victory. Hitler made mistake after mistake, and England outperformed its enemy at every stage of the conflict. It is difficult to measure the impact of intercessory prayer in physical warfare. Little is known of how great a role praying saints played in the defeat of Nazi Germany. If the Church were to reside on earth during the tribulation, I am sure she would give the Antichrist fits. In Revelation 11:3, the two witnesses alone give the Antichrist enough headaches. Millions of Christians who know their Bibles well would recognize the man of sin and pray fire down on his head. The post-trib view would have to plan on the Church just rolling over and playing dead the whole seven years.
We should all remember one thing: Knowing the Antichrist’s mother’s maiden name isn’t the primary goal. Knowing Jesus Christ as your personal Savior and having your name written in the Lamb’s Book of Life should be your number-one priority. The jailer asked Paul, “What must I do to be saved?” The answer was, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:30-31).
— Todd Strandberg
Chris… don’t get “Madder”.. get it right … 🙂
2 Timothy 2:15
Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
What is the origin of the phrase “like a thief in the night”?
The phrase “like a thief in the night” originates from Hebrew and dates all the way back to the Christian Bible, more specifically in the New Testament, 1 Thessalonians 5:2. It states “For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.” This means that its arrival of the Lord will be sudden and unexpected, similar to how a thief might enter a house without warning, unseen, unheard, and completely unnoticed or undetected.
The chapter features the words of the apostle Paul, who was talking about the return of Jesus Christ, also known as the Second Coming, and it encourages believers to live a life of watchfulness, sobriety, and righteous conduct while waiting for His return.
ANOTHER ARTICLE READS :
Historical Pattern
The phrase, thief in the night, is yet another Hebrew idiom! This idiom refers to a practice mentioned in Leviticus 6:8-13 which states that the priest in charge must wear linen clothing and must keep the fires of the altar burning: “The burnt offering is to remain on the altar hearth throughout the night, till morning, and the fire must be kept burning on the altar. The priest shall then put on his linen clothes, with linen undergarments next to his body, . . . The fire must be kept burning on the altar continuously; it must not go out.”
The priests assigned to constantly watch over the altar fire and over the Menorah were never to fall asleep during their night of service. In order to insure that the priest(s) stayed awake, the High Priest (or the Captain Of The Guards) would walk around the Temple looking for the priest(s). If a priest was found sleeping during a surprise visit, the High Priest (or Captain) would take hot coals from the altar fire, place some of the hot coals in a fire pan and take them over to the sleeping priest. He would then gently place the pan and hot coals under the sleeping priest’s clothing.
The priest’s linen clothing would soon be ignited in flames – clothing in those days did not have flame retardant chemicals imbedded into the cloth as do modern clothes. The guilty priest would have no choice but to leave his burning clothes and run burnt, naked, and ashamed back home. Quite a lesson not to fall asleep on the job or to be un-alert! It was this practice of surprise visits that according to Jewish tradition got the High Priest (or the Captain) nicknamed the “Thief In The Night”!
Modern and Future Patterns
As individuals and as a church body, today’s people are not to fall asleep:
In Matthew 24:42-44, Yeshau says: “Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.”
The word translated keep awake, gregoreo [G1127]; is an active verb meaning: to be awake, to watch, to be alert, to keep watch, to keep watching, to be keeping alert, to stay on the alert, and to stay awake. It expects active and concentrated behavior, to be continuously seeking. This is repeated in the phrase “Therefore . . . must be ready”: houtos hetoimos [G3778 G2092]; which means: to be especially prepared, ready. Twice in one paragraph Yeshua commands us to be on the alert and ready, to know when the time is near, for he – our High Priest – may come upon us unexpectedly, exactly has did the High Priest in earlier times.
Mark 13:33-36 puts it this way: “Take heed, keep on the alert; for you do not know when the appointed time will come. It is like a man away on a journey, who upon leaving his house and putting his slaves in charge, assigning to each one his task, also commanded the doorkeeper to stay on the alert. Therefore, be on the alert—for you do not know when the master of the house is coming, whether in the evening, at midnight, or when the rooster crows in the morning – in case he should come suddenly and find you asleep. What I say to you I say to all, ‘Be on the alert’!” Three times in one paragraph Yeshua commands us to be on the alert and ready, to know when the time is near.
1 Thess. 5:1-11 –“ But you are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief.”
Paul clearly says that the followers of Yeshua who live like children of the day and of the light will not be surprised by this surprise visit. The living Church will know when Yeshua will come, even if she knows neither the day nor the hour! She won’t be surprised because she is always watching. Today’s Church people are not to allow their hearts to be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and the cares of this life which would allow that Day to come upon them unexpectedly.
Only those who are the members of the dead Church will be surprised. Yeshua confirms this in his letter to the sleeping Church in Sardis: “I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you.” (Revelation 3:3). We are to pray that we will escape the consequences of falling asleep and be worthy to stand before Yeshua (Luke 21:36).
The Tribulation Thief
Revelation 16:15 – “Behold, I am coming as a thief. Blessed are all who are watching for me and who keep their robes, not having to go about naked and exposed to shame.”
Falling asleep is equivalent to wearing linen clothing and having hot coals placed upon those clothes. And this is what Yeshua means to emphasize in the time of Great Tribulation when he warns that he will come like the “Thief In The Night”, burning up any clothing and causing sleeping individuals to walk naked and ashamed.
Conclusions
Revelation 3:3 – “If you do not wake up, I will come like a thief . . . ”
The phrase “Thief In The Night” was a known Hebrew idiom during the first coming of Yeshua – it was a title applied to the High Priest or Captain of the Guards. The consequence of falling asleep on the job always applied to the slothful, sleeping, and unprepared individual, not to an individual who was watching, waiting, obedient and prepared. The consequences for being asleep were, and still are, severe – that individual is left burnt, naked, and ashamed. The alert individual, however, is found worthy to stand before Yeshua, clothed in righteousness. I hope you are alert, awake, and prepared.
Great series makes my day