“Now as to the times and the epochs, brethren, you have no need of anything to be written to you. 2. For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. 3. While they are saying, ‘Peace and safety!’, then destruction will come upon them suddenly like birth pangs upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. 4. But you, brethren are not in darkness, that the day should overtake you like a thief;” 1 Thessalonians 5:1-4
There is a lot to unpack in these four verses. Paul summarizes what is going to happen with regard to 1) the Church and the rapture, 2) those who do not know the Lord at the time of the rapture and 3) the beginning of the tribulation.
First, what is Paul referring to in verse 1? To find out, all you do is go back to the preceding verses. 5:1 is referring to when the rapture will take place. Look at 4:16-18. Here Paul describes what is going to happen at the rapture, how things are going to happen and the sequence of things.
In 5:1 he tells the Thessalonicans that they have no need of him writing anything to them about the timing of what he just talked about in 4:16-18. Paul has most certainly explained everything in extensive detail when he was with them in person (1 Thess. 2:1; 2 Thess. 2:5).
So, in 5:1 he is referring to the rapture. In verse 2 he says it will come like a thief in the night. The ‘Day of the Lord’ is the rapture, but it is also much more.
The ‘Day of the Lord’ is an idiom. It means the time when the judgment of Yahweh is going to come to earth. It is referring to the 70th week of Daniel, or the 7-year tribulation that precedes the physical return of the Son of David to earth. It is a term that represents the beginning day (rapture – thief in the night), all the events of judgment and wrath throughout the period of the tribulation and the very day that Jesus sets foot on the Mount of Olives.
It is signaled by the rapture, however, and that is what Paul is specifically referring to in 5:2. The rapture will happen like a thief in the night. No one knows when the thief will come. But when He does, it is the beginning period of what will become the most terrible ever on earth. 5:3 describes what happens next.
Peace and Safety
“While they are saying, ‘Peace and safety!’, then destruction will come upon them suddenly like birth pangs upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.”
The first thing we need to determine is who are ‘they’? To find the antecedent we must go back to 4:5. In the context, Paul is talking about the Gentiles who do not know God. You can’t really say he is talking about ‘outsiders’ in 4:12 because the Greek word there essentially means ‘whoever’.
So, unbelievers would be the general definition of ‘they’ in 5:2. They will be saying that the world has finally achieved peace and safety. We know that when the Church is evacuated the Holy Spirit will be removed and the antichrist will be revealed (see my posts on the Restrainer).
When the Holy Spirit is removed and perhaps as many as a billion people disappear, then literally all hell will break loose on earth. It will undoubtedly be a time of chaos and economic collapse on a scale the world has never seen. But it is NOT the tribulation – yet.
This is the stage that the antichrist will step up on and the events that will allow him to ascend to total world power. In 2 Thess. 2:8-10 Paul says he will come with ‘all power, signs and wonders and every deception of wickedness’. The antichrist will ‘miraculously’ stabilize all the upheaval, violence and economic chaos. He is going to usher in a golden age and he will be viewed as the savior of the world. How long this ‘golden age’ of peace and prosperity lasts, we don’t know.
So, the world will be dwelling in peace and safety (physical and economic) such as never before. This is what Paul is saying in 5:3. Then the tribulation will begin.
Suddenly like birth pangs
It sounds like an oxymoron or paradox – suddenly but gradually. But this describes exactly what Jesus said in Matthew 24. The tribulation comes on like birth pangs. The judgments or wrath of God will be poured out in increasing intensity and frequency over the 7-year period. It is the first pang that comes suddenly and surprisingly.
This is the first seal in Rev. 6:1. This will happen after the antichrist has facilitated some grand treaty with Israel, which will be the technical beginning of the 7 years (Daniel 9:27). When the first seal is opened the peace on earth will end. And it only gets worse from there.
Remember ‘they’? Well, Paul says they will not escape. Why? Because there is no rescue for those who are not raptured. The Church escapes. That’s what the word ‘delivers’ (Greek – ruomai) means in 1Thess. 1:10.
“(We) wait for His Son from the heavens, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who DELIVERS us from the wrath to come.”
The word ‘ruomai’ literally means to be rescued by physically dragging someone out of the way.
Every believer that is alive when the Thief in the night comes will be ‘dragged’ up to meet Him in the sky. But the remaining earth-dwellers will not escape.
The Thief is coming.