The Day of the Lord (Part 1)

By Marvin Rosenthal

Unfound Fears
1 Thessalonians 5 begins abruptly with these words: “Now as to the periods and times, brothers and sisters, you have no need of anything to be written to you” (v. 1).

The word “now” which begins the chapter connects its content both grammatically and logically with what Paul had stated earlier in 4:13-18.

While Paul was with the Thessalonian believers, he taught them that Jesus was coming again, and that they should live with the expectation of that coming. However, when some of their loved ones died before Christ’s return, they mistakenly thought these loved ones had missed out on the blessing of the coming messianic kingdom.

As a direct result of their misconception, they were sorrowing like the unsaved who have “no hope” beyond the grave (1 Thessalonians 4:13).

To alleviate their unfounded fears, Paul informed them that at the Lord’s coming, all those who had died as believers throughout the ages would be resurrected, and all believers still living would be raptured – that both the resurrected and the raptured would meet the Lord in the air (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17).

In other words, their loved ones who had died had not missed out on the messianic kingdom of blessing as they had thought. Therefore Paul admonished them to “comfort one another with these words” (1 Thessalonians 4:18).

For the Thessalonians, the issue now became one of timing. When would the Lord return? Would it be in a day, a month, a year? Would they experience death before His coming, as had some of their loved ones? Or might they live until He returned and be raptured without dying? And how were they to live until His coming?

The Times and Seasons
Paul continued his instruction in Chapter 5 with these words: “Now as to the periods and times, brothers and sisters, you have no need of anything to be written to you” (1 Thessalonians 5:1).

The distinction between the words “periods” and “times” is important. The Greek word translated “times” (chronos), is the root from which we get our English word “chronology.” Chronology denotes time as a sequence. When someone speaks of 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, 24 hours in a day, 365 days in a year, 100 years in a century, and 10 centuries in a millennium, he is speaking of time sequentially.

The Greek word translated “periods” (kairos), however, conveys a different concept. It speaks of the suitableness of the time for the purpose in mind. Its emphasis is more on the “event” than the “duration of time” involved.

In the context of 1 Thessalonians 5, Paul uses the words “periods” and “times” in the sense of both the “duration of time” (how long until Christ’s return) and the suitableness of the time (the events associated with Christ’s return).

If men and women are not to know the “periods” or the “times,” this, of course, means that any attempt to set dates for the Lord’s return is an exercise in futility and in direct conflict with biblical teaching. There is, however, one caveat to the above statement, which will be explained later.

Paul commended the Thessalonian believers for their understanding of the significance of the “periods” and “times,” so much so that he told them that on that subject, “you have no need of anything to be written to you” (1 Thessalonians 5:1). The rationale for Paul’s confidence in them is then stated: “For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord is coming just like a thief in the night” (1 Thessalonians 5:2).

The contrast Paul makes is important and should not be overlooked. He had written earlier: “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who are asleep” (1 Thessalonians 4:13). The Thessalonian believers were uninformed (thinking wrongly) concerning the status of those who had died before Christ’s return.

Therefore, Paul had to instruct them in that matter. But, in sharp contrast, they understood perfectly the significance of the “periods” and “times” in relationship to Christ’s coming and the “Day of the Lord.” Therefore, they needed no instruction in this important matter.

Like a Thief in the Night
What they understood perfectly was that no one knows when the Lord Jesus Christ will return or when the Day of the Lord will begin, because Christ’s coming and the Day of the Lord will break upon the scene of history “like a thief in the night” (1 Thessalonians 5:2).

Someone has insightfully suggested that there is a touch of irony in what Paul is saying. He is telling the Thessalonians that they know perfectly that no one knows at all when Christ is going to return.

The expression “like a thief in the night” is not emphasizing “suddenness,” as is often suggested. What Paul is teaching is that the Lord’s coming will be totally “unanticipated.” Something can be expected or anticipated and then suddenly occur.

What Paul is teaching is that the Lord’s coming will not be anticipated or expected. The unsaved world will be caught off-guard and totally unprepared for the Lord’s coming, not simply because it will come upon them suddenly, but because they will not even be anticipating it.

The Lord Jesus himself taught precisely the same truth in His Olivet Discourse (Matthew 24-25). He said to His disciples:

For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah.
For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking,
marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered
the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took
them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be (Matthew 24:37-39).

In the days immediately prior to the flood, people were “eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage” up to the very day Noah entered the ark. The point is, they were going about the most natural of life’s activities totally oblivious to the fact that God was about to destroy the world by flood. They “did not understand until the flood came and took them all away” (Matthew 24:39).

The emphasis is not on the “suddenness” of the judgment, but on the fact that the Noahic flood was totally “unanticipated” by the world of that day.

The Lord then made this application in connection with His second coming and a still-future judgment of the Earth during the Day of the Lord. He taught, “so will the coming of the Son of Man be” (Matthew 24:39).

The unsaved were caught totally by surprise when the flood came, even though Noah – a preacher of righteousness – warned that judgment was coming. They discounted his message of warning, and had no thought of an impending cataclysmic destruction of the world.

If they had, it would not have been life as usual. They would not have been eating and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage. They would have made a beeline to the ark when Noah began to load the animals onto the craft.

In precisely the same way, unsaved humanity will not anticipate the second coming of Christ. If they believe the message, they will flee to the One who is the Rock of Ages and Ark of Safety to experience deliverance by rapture before the earth his purged by fire during the Day of the Lord (2 Peter 3:7).

God promised Noah that He would never again destroy the world by flood. He put the rainbow in the sky as a token of that promise (Genesis 9:11-15).

God also promised that a time would come when He will destroy the world by fire. The apostle Peter wrote: “But by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly people” (2 Peter 3:7).

How tragic that in spite of all humanity’s wondrous technological advances, it will be completely oblivious to impending divine judgment. So lifted up by pride and its own achievement, humanity will foolishly believe that it alone is the captain of its ship – the master of its fate. Men and women will be ignorant of the fact that if their Creator withheld their ability to breathe for a few minutes, they would be prone on their faces, dead.

Paul interprets the significance of Christ’s coming as a “thief in the night” in the verse that follows.

This study on the Day of the Lord continues in Part 2.

Marv Rosenthal, founder and President of Zion’s Hope, was an acclaimed international Bible teacher for almost 6 decades.