A Sudden and Unexpected Coming

Reprinted from the Loveland PRC newsletter. If the “rapture” is not secret, why do we read of Christ’s coming as sudden and unexpected (I Thess.5:1-9)? He comes, Scripture says, as a thief in the night (Matt. 24:34; II Pet. 3:10; Rev. 3:3; 16:15). What could be more secret or unexpected than that? The truth is that Christ comes as a unexpected thief only in relation to the ungodly and unbelieving. I Thessalonians 5:1-9 makes this abundantly clear. There Paul speaks of “them,” the ungodly, in...