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No bare intellectual calculation will ever discover the "day of the Lord."ģ.

The biblical arithmetic of our modern prophets is always proving itself at fault. Science, philosophy, ordinary signs of the times, give no hint of it to the unspiritual. It bursts suddenly upon a world slumbering in darkness. No lurid twilight betokens the tempestuous morning. No signs are given to the world of the dawning of this dread day. Worldly people do not contemplate death.Ģ. The world does not think of the great judgment-day. What did the heathen fellow-citizens of the Thessalonians know, or think, or care about the glorious advent of Christ, with its angel-summons and its trumpet-blast for which the Christians were watching so eagerly? The Jews did not expect the coming of the Son of man in the destruction of Jerusalem. THE DAY OF THE LOUD WILL COME UPON THE BENIGHTED AS A THIEF.ġ. But the general use of the expression in the Old Testament justifies us in applying the warning concerning it to various forms of the parousia. Paul regards it as the day of Christ's second advent. There it is a dreadful occasion of Divine manifestation for judgment, to be hailed with gladness when the judgment falls on the enemies of Israel and brings the chosen people deliverance, but to be regarded with terror by sinful Israelites ( Amos 5:18). The "day of the Lord" which is to come thus suddenly is often referred to in the Old Testament. So will it be on "the day of the Lord." The idea is derived from the teaching of Christ, in which it is more fully expanded (see Matthew 24:43, 44).

The thief succeeds in making his entrance when he is least expected. The one idea to be impressed upon us by this striking image is that of unexpectedness. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night.