“But as to the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves know well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. When people say, "There is peace and security," then sudden destruction will come upon them as travail comes upon a woman with child, and there will be no escape. But you are not in darkness, brethren, for that day to surprise you like a thief. For you are all sons of light and sons of the day; we are not of the night or of darkness. So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober.” 1 Thessalonians 5:1-6 RSV
To
say that the image you see above took me by surprise would be an understatement
to say the least. As I thought about it,
however, I had to ask myself “why”? The
truth is, the more I thought about it, the more disappointed in myself I
became. After all, God did tell us if we watch we would not be surprised, so
why was I? I have decided to console
myself by differentiating between what we could call ”general” signs, and “specific”
signs, and my failure to anticipate just how obvious God intends those "specific" signs to be. If this picture, and the
fact we were told by Paul exactly what to look for, doesn’t convince you we are
living in the very time the Church has been looking forward to I don’t know
what will.
Now,
with all that in mind, I thought we could spend some time considering our
responsibilities in regards to watching, and what the Father expects from
us. As I have often said, and I am sure
you already understand, whenever you see a verse that begins with the word
“but”, look to see what came before. The
reason for this is that any verse which begins that way is always a
continuation of the subject which the preceding verses were discussing. If we use that idea and look at the verses at
the end of chapter four we read this;
"For the Lord Himself will descend
from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet
of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive [and]
remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in
the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Then we who are alive [and]
remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in
the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord." 1
Thessalonians 4:16-18 NKJV
So
now we see the subject Paul is discussing is the rapture of the Church, and it
is here we find that Paul makes a very interesting statement when he tells us
that as “children of light, and children of the day,” we will not be
surprised when Jesus returns and takes us away to be with Him. As I thought about this passage, one of the
first things that I began to consider was why Paul uses the difference between
day and night to show us why we will not be surprised. As I began to think more about this, there
were a couple of things that seemed obvious, but possibly overlooked, that I
had not really considered before.
The first and probably the most
obvious is that in the daylight it is much easier to not only see what
surrounds us, but also to see what in fact, is right in front of us. Now if that seems to be an oversimplification
simply try walking down a strange hallway in the dark when a few chairs have
been scattered about. Yet turn on a
light and it’s a very simple exercise to avoid bumping into any of them. So in truth, what Paul is telling us about the rapture of the Church is that
those of us who are believers and have accepted the salvation offered to us by
the death of Jesus on the cross will not be surprised by the rapture because we will see it coming!
Now
if that sounds a little strange to you, consider how Paul also uses the
illustration of a thief in the night to explain why believers won’t be surprised. A thief loves to use the cover of darkness
simply because it makes it harder for people to see him, and therefore allows
him to come and steal without you knowing he has been there. So it comes as a surprise to awaken and see
what has happened under the cover of darkness.
If the thief tried to break into your house in the middle of the day
while you were awake and at home, how far would he get before you recognized
what was happening and called the police?
If you were watching and knew what to look for, I think you would have
probably called the police when you very first saw and recognized what he was,
and long before he approached your door.
I believe what Paul is telling us
here is that in the very same way, believers will not be surprised at the
rapture because we will recognize “the times and the seasons”. How is that possible you ask? The answer to that is found in the phrase
Paul uses in verse two where he says that we “know perfectly”. In my mind, when I examined the
meaning of this phrase in the Greek, I immediately thought back to the
illustration of the chairs in the hallway.
As I see it, the advantage to
walking down the hall with the light on is that you can see with both
perception and recognition. To my way of
thinking, perception is seeing and knowing what is in front of me while
recognition is the understanding of how to carefully deal with what I see. So I was surprised to find that the
definitions of these two words seem to say that very thing. The word “know”, eido, means…to see, to perceive with the
eyes, to perceive with any of the senses, to perceive, notice, discern,
discover. The word “perfectly”, akribos, means…exactly, accurately,
diligently, from the root word akribes…exactly,
carefully.
So in essence Paul is telling us that when it comes to the “times and seasons” of the rapture of the Church, believers, as children of the day, will not be surprised because we will “know perfectly” or perceive and recognize that our blessed hope is near. When I first graduated from college my intent was to pursue a career as a coach. One of my first experiences was learning how to scout the next opponent of our team, and I was paired up with a coach who had more than forty years of experience doing just that. His method of teaching me was to constantly ask me what I was looking at and what I saw. I quickly learned from him, and knew I had learned well when I began to watch and see the same things he did.
There is no doubt in my mind, based on what I see that the rapture of the Church could happen at any moment. I am willing to say that anyone else who believes that is definitely a member of the “children of light, and children of the day,” that Paul speaks of. When Paul called us children of the light, he meant we’ve been given the knowledge to understand what’s coming. Is the end in sight? When so many in the body say they see the same thing, don’t you believe it’s a reasonable conclusion? As one very prominent Christian speaker has said, the more you know about the subject of Christ’s return, the more you recognize how close it is.
Keep watching.
So in essence Paul is telling us that when it comes to the “times and seasons” of the rapture of the Church, believers, as children of the day, will not be surprised because we will “know perfectly” or perceive and recognize that our blessed hope is near. When I first graduated from college my intent was to pursue a career as a coach. One of my first experiences was learning how to scout the next opponent of our team, and I was paired up with a coach who had more than forty years of experience doing just that. His method of teaching me was to constantly ask me what I was looking at and what I saw. I quickly learned from him, and knew I had learned well when I began to watch and see the same things he did.
There is no doubt in my mind, based on what I see that the rapture of the Church could happen at any moment. I am willing to say that anyone else who believes that is definitely a member of the “children of light, and children of the day,” that Paul speaks of. When Paul called us children of the light, he meant we’ve been given the knowledge to understand what’s coming. Is the end in sight? When so many in the body say they see the same thing, don’t you believe it’s a reasonable conclusion? As one very prominent Christian speaker has said, the more you know about the subject of Christ’s return, the more you recognize how close it is.
Keep watching.
