Two Thieves in the Night?

by Jimmy Crum on January 2022

I hate bumper stickers. Because they are distractions to drivers? Yes, though that’s not the only reason. The main reason is that they lead some to believe some extremely complicated problems have simple solutions.

Some issues do have simple explanations and are perfect for bumper stickers. Consider these two for instance, “The CLOSER you get, the SLOWER I drive” or “FREE Brake Test For Tailgaters.” (Is one of my pet peeves coming through?)

But many issues, especially those concerning Christianity and the Bible, require involved and sometimes complicated analysis. For example, this was a popular bumper sticker years ago: God is my Copilot. What does that mean?  I get the gist. But a copilot is second in command and normally can’t override the decision of the pilot. Is He a copilot? Or is He riding shotgun? So, this idea can be better explained in a book, a sermon, or, at minimum, an article.

In my book, Day of the Lord: The Key to Understanding Bible Prophecy, I addressed some of the controversies relating to Bible prophecy. The book has 202 pages and took me a long time to write. If these issues could be settled with one-liners or bumper sticker slogans, then I wasted a lot of time.

Yet, some people take a bumper sticker approach in explaining these complicated ideas. The coined term Rapture is a prophetic event (probably the most complicated one to explain) that many Christians characterize with bumper sticker explanations. You might have seen bumper stickers similar to these two: “WARNING: In case of rapture this car will be unmanned” and “I’m outta here on the first load.”

If I had to create a bumper sticker to explain an aspect of Bible prophecy, I would tackle this question: How many times will Jesus return? Unbelievably, in Bible prophecy parlance, this question is unsettled. This is the slogan I would use on the bumper sticker: Two thieves in the night? This one-liner wouldn’t necessarily explain how many times Jesus will return. Rather,  it would serve as a thought experiment to provoke the reader to settle the question: Does the frequent metaphor in the New Testament, thief in the night, refer to one thief or multiple thieves? The correct answer to this question will settle the controversy because the answer will determine the number of times Jesus will return. One thief will signify one return while more than one thief in the night will mean Jesus will return multiple times.

The synonymous metaphors like a thief and like a thief in the night are New Testament comparisons that indicate the unannounced surprise of an event.  One of those events is the Rapture. The Rapture inherently entails the Lord returning (1 Thessalonians 4:13–18). Jesus used the aforementioned metaphor to emphasize the concealment of when this event will take place.

He stated:

Behold, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake, keeping his garments on, that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed!

Revelation 16:15

He also said:

Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you.

Revelation 3:3

Jesus reinforced the surprise nature of the Rapture when He said:

But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.

Matthew 24:36

He also used parables to illustrate how the Rapture will be unannounced just like the break-in of a thief (Matthew 25:1–30).

The other prophetic event described as arriving like a thief is the Day of the Lord. Peter described the event like this:

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.

2 Peter 3:10

Likewise, Paul said:

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.

1 Thessalonians 5:2–4

What is this Day of the Lord that Peter and Paul described as having a stealthy arrival exactly like the Rapture? Unlike the Rapture, which is not referred to explicitly in the Old Testament, the Day of the Lord is categorically named and defined many times. Peter took his quote about the Day of the Lord in the book of Acts (Acts 2:14–21) directly from Joel, an Old Testament prophet (Joel 2:28–32).

Joel, other prophets, and Jesus explained that the Day of the Lord will be the day when the Lord, accompanied by angels, will come from heaven, wreak havoc on earth’s geology, and destroy sinners (Isaiah 13:9–11; Ezekiel 32:6–8; Joel 2:10–11). Jesus situated the Day of the Lord’s occurence immediately after the coined Great Tribulation when He described the unmistakable atmospheric and geological disturbance that will signal when the Day of the Lord will begin:

Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

Matthew 24:29–31

Below is a list of references describing this unprecedented phenomenon:

• Isaiah 13:9–11

• Ezekiel 32:6–8

• Joel 2:9–11

• Joel 2:31

• Joel 3:14–16

• Matthew 24:28–30

• Luke 21:25–26

• Revelation 6:12–17

There are two prophetic events that the Bible characterizes as arriving like a thief. They are the Rapture and the Day of the Lord. And, just as apparent, the Lord will return from heaven in both of these events. So the original question evoked by the bumper sticker remains: Do the references to “like a thief” refer to one event, meaning Jesus will return once, or multiple events thus implying that Jesus will return multiple times?

The answer is one event because the Rapture and the Day of the Lord are one and the same and are aspects of the same event—the return of our Lord. Paul clearly illustrated this in his first letter to the Thessalonians (1 Thessalonians 4:13–5:11). He eloquently intertwined the Rapture and the Day of the Lord and illustrated how the singular return of Jesus like a thief will initiate both of these prophetic events. God is not full of surprises, but He will have one in-store to culminate the end of this age when our Lord returns.

©2022 Jimmy Crum All rights reserved.

All Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.