A Thief in the Night

 " The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy."

John 10:10

Jesus coming as a thief is not about the rapture (the catching up of) the church.  Though the thief reference does signify an element of surprise, which some would argue supports the any-moment-view of the rapture, it is not the rapture that is primarily in view, and the coming as thief signifies loss as in destruction.   Both the coming of Christ and the day of the Lord are said to come as a thief, and the unsaved will be unprepared and suffer loss.  I believe the Day of the Lord and the coming of Christ are the same event.  I believe the rapture is at the coming of Christ at the end of the great tribulation, and therefore, it isn't at any-moment. 

"Behold, I am coming as a thief."

Revelation 16:15

"For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. 3 For when they say, "Peace and safety!" then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape."

1 Thessalonians 5:2-3

'... scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, 4 and saying, "Where is the promise of His coming? ... The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night..."

2 Peter 3:3-4; 2 Peter 3:9-10

"Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, so that the way of the kings from the east might be prepared. 13 And I saw ... spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.

15 "Behold, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame."

16 And they gathered them together to the place called in Hebrew, Armageddon."

Revelation 16:12-16

"Behold, the day of the LORD comes,

Cruel, with both wrath and fierce anger,

To lay the land desolate;

And He will destroy its sinners from it.

10 For the stars of heaven and their constellations

Will not give their light;

The sun will be darkened in its going forth,

And the moon will not cause its light to shine.

11 "I will punish the world for its evil,

And the wicked for their iniquity;

I will halt the arrogance of the proud,

And will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.

12 I will make a mortal more rare than fine gold,

A man more than the golden wedge of Ophir.

13 Therefore I will shake the heavens,

And the earth will move out of her place,

In the wrath of the LORD of hosts

And in the day of His fierce anger."

Isaiah 13:9-13

12 "Let the nations be wakened, and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat;

For there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations.

13 Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe.

Come, go down;

For the winepress is full,

The vats overflow—

For their wickedness is great."

14 Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision!

For the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.

15 The sun and moon will grow dark,

And the stars will diminish their brightness."

Joel 3:12-15

18 "And another angel came ... saying, "Thrust in your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, for her grapes are fully ripe." 19 So the angel thrust his sickle into the earth and gathered the vine of the earth and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. 20 And the winepress was trampled outside the city, and blood came out of the winepress, up to the horses' bridles, for one thousand six hundred furlongs."

Revelation 14:18-20

"I looked when He opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood. 13 And the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind. 14 Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place. 15 And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, 16 and said to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! 17 For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?"

Revelation 6:12-17

"Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 30 Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, 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. 31 And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. "

Matthew 24:29-31

"...it is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you, 7 and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, 8 in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ."

2 Thessalonians 1:6-8

"But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 38 For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39 and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. ... But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. 44 Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect."

Matthew 24:37-44

" The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy."

John 10:10

"Behold, I am coming as a thief."

Revelation 16:15