As promised in part 19 of this series on the Good News, we will not look at the second occasion when Jesus speaks about coming as a thief. The placement of that warning is of particular interest to us because it is sandwiched between to prophetic pronouncements of doom. Let us examine it carefully.
“And I saw three unclean inspired expressions that looked like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the wild beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet. They are, in fact, expressions inspired by demons and they perform signs, and they go out to the kings of the entire inhabited earth, to gather them together to the war of the great day of God the Almighty.” (Revelation 16:13, 14)
These frog-like expressions are foul, for they come from demonic sources. Their purpose is to gather the rulers of the world together in opposition to God. A great battle is about to be fought. Verse 16 tells us:
“And they gathered them together to the place that is called in Hebrew Armageddon.” (Revelation 16:16)
Notice that this passage speaks only of a gathering to the place where the great battle will occur. The battle itself—the war of the Great Day of God the Almighty—has not yet begun.
While this demon-inspired gathering of the kings of the earth is still in progress, but before open warfare breaks out, something happens that should deeply concern you and me—Jesus declares that he is coming as a thief.
“Look! I am coming as a thief. Happy is the one who stays awake and keeps his outer garments, so that he may not walk naked and people look upon his shamefulness.” (Revelation 16:15)
So, if you and I remain spiritually awake—like a watchman standing guard upon the battlements of a city—we will not be deceived. We will recognize the approach of the thief in the night and take heed of the warning.
But what does that really mean for us? How are you and I to apply that to our life?
Let’s look at the various elements of the prophecy. Based on what we have just read in Revelation 16:13–16, the second application of Jesus’ coming-as-a-thief analogy must occur before Armageddon. It must precede it if it is to apply to us—because the children of God will no longer be on earth when Armageddon strikes.
In 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18, Paul explains that those who are alive at the presence of the Lord will be taken up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
“...we the living who survive to the presence of the Lord shall in no way precede those who have fallen asleep [in death]. . .” (1 Thessalonians 4:15)
“Afterward we the living who are surviving will, together with them, be caught away in clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and thus we shall always be with [the] Lord. Consequently keep comforting one another with these words.” (1 Thessalonians 4:17, 18)
This event did not happen in the first century. There are no biblical nor secular documents recording the sudden disappearance of all Christians off the face of the earth.
Here is where we have to be very careful. We know that Paul’s letters were written without chapter and verse divisions. So, some read the next verses which talk about peace and security. Apparently, since the peace and security prophecy was fulfilled between 66 CE and 70 CE upon Jerusalem, some of those Thessalonians throught that Jesus was going to return at the same time. This was not the case. Paul was changing the subject as we read, which is possibly why those scholars who chose where to put chapter divisions picked the next verse to start a new thought.
“Now, brothers and sisters, about times and dates we do not need to write to you…” (1 Thessalonians 5:1 NIV)
This is a change of topic, but apparently, some of the Thessalonians missed that nuance. They thought that Christ’s presence would coincide with Jerusalem’s destruction. So, Paul had to clear that up in his next letter. Even today, there are those who promote the idea that everything prophesied in the Christian Scriptures, even Revelation, all happened in the first century. It is called Preterism.
We’ll deal with that question in just a moment, but first, let’s not lose the thread of this discussion which concerns when the thief in the night comes and what we have to do about it.
We’ll begin by acknowledging that when Yehovah God brought judgment upon the wicked, he provided escape for the faithful. For instance, He destroyed the ungodly in the Flood—but first, he prepared a way of escape for his people, Noah and his family. He destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah—but only after Lot and his household were safely outside the danger zone. He brought ruin upon Jerusalem and its temple—but first, he gave his people an opportunity to flee to the mountains.
In each of those cases, God’s faithful ones had to act. They had to build an ark; they had to flee Sodom with only the clothes on their backs; they had to abandon their home and even their unbelieving family members and run into the unknown, to some distant land.
Likewise, the holy ones of today who survive until the coming of the Lord will also be required to take some form of decisive action. You see, there is a judgment that precedes Armageddon. Peter speaks of this:
“For the time has come for judgment, and it must begin with God’s household. And if judgment begins with us, what terrible fate awaits those who have never obeyed God’s Good News?” (1 Peter 4:17 NLT)
God’s household is also His temple where he resides. It is no longer a physical structure, but we are that temple.
“Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.” —1 Corinthians 3:16–17 (ESV)
This is an issue of the greatest importance, for it concerns nothing less than eternal life or eternal death.
So now we come to Paul’s second letter in which he disabuses his fellow Christians in Thessalonica of the mistaken belief that Christ would have to return in their day.
“However, brothers, respecting the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we request of YOU not to be quickly shaken from YOUR reason nor to be excited either through an inspired expression or through a verbal message or through a letter as though from us, to the effect that the day of Jehovah is here.” (2 Thessalonians 2:1, 2 NWT)
If only we, as former Jehovah’s Witnesses, had paid attention to that warning we would not have been quicky shaken from our reason. It is as if those words were written with us in mind. You see, J. F. Rutherford—who claimed to receive revelations from angels—taught that Christ’s invisible presence began in 1914. It did not, and we now know that. But so many of us lost precious years of life believing what the Watchtower asserted while ignoring the divine counsel we have just read.
From Paul’s words to the Thessalonians, it is evident that Jehovah’s Day—Armageddon—is directly connected to Christ’s kingly presence. Let’s continue to listen carefully to the point Paul is making:
“Let no one seduce YOU in any manner, because it will not come unless the apostasy comes first and the man of lawlessness gets revealed, the son of destruction. He is set in opposition and lifts himself up over everyone who is called “god” or an object of reverence, so that he sits down in the temple of The God, publicly showing himself to be a god. Do YOU not remember that, while I was yet with YOU, I used to tell YOU these things?” (2 Thessalonians 2:3-5 NWT)
Before the Great Day of God, the Almighty, there will be apostasy, a man of lawlessness will get revealed, one who sits down in the temple of The God. As we read earlier in 1 Corinthians, God’s temple is the entire Christian congregation. This man of lawlessness will lift himself up over everyone else and show himself to be a god who sits down to rule in God’s temple.
Many assume this figure represents a single individual who will appear at the end of days, but the context of Paul’s words to the Thessalonians makes such an interpretation impossible to sustain as we’ll see next:
“And so now YOU know the thing that acts as a restraint, with a view to his being revealed in his own due time. True, the mystery of this lawlessness is already at work; but only till he who is right now acting as a restraint gets to be out of the way. Then, indeed, the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will do away with by the spirit of his mouth and bring to nothing by the manifestation of his presence.” (2 Thessalonians 2:6-8)
Paul explains that the operation of this lawless one was already at work within the Christian congregation as early as 50 CE, when he wrote this letter. Yet there was something—or someone—acting as a restraint. What or who was he referring to?
This has long been one of the more hotly debated questions in the Pauline writings. The Organization teaches that Paul was referring to the apostles as the restraining force, but in my view, the explanation that best fits the evidence is that the restraining power was Rome.
In verse 5 he writes, “Do YOU not remember that, while I was yet with YOU, I used to tell YOU these things?” The Thessalonians already knew what he meant because he had explained it to them in person. But why avoid restating it in his letter? If the remaining apostles were acting as a restraint, why not just say so? But if it were Rome that he was referring to… We must remember that, in those days, letters were carried by private couriers or friends, and could easily be intercepted or confiscated at Roman checkpoints. To name Rome directly during times of persecution would have been unwise.
How is it that Rome could act as the restrainer? Because Rome maintained political stability and civil order. It suppressed the kind of chaos and anarchy in which the man of lawlessness could thrive. This lawless one—identified elsewhere as the antichrist—would require immense influence to exalt himself within the temple of God. Only when the power of Rome declined would such a figure be free to act. When “the restraint is taken out of the way,” the man of lawlessness would finally have his day.
By the fourth century, the once-persecuted Christian congregation had become powerful, ruling with imperial authority. It transformed from a suffering victim into a cruel persecutor of Christ’s true disciples. In this way, the man of lawlessness was revealed as the clergy class—seated in the temple—the congregation— of God, exalting itself above every object of reverence, ruling over the flock, and demanding submission and honour—and absolute obedience.
That man of lawlessness has ruled over the flock for some sixteen centuries. Whether we speak of the Catholic clergy with its bishops, cardinals, and pope, or the Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses, we are witnessing the same lawless spirit at work.
Notice that Christ does away with the man of lawlessness “by the spirit of his mouth”. Literally, by the breath of this mouth. He doesn’t war with the leaders of Christendom directly as he will with the kings of the earth at Armageddon. No, he uses the breath of his mouth to do away with those wicked religious leaders. As he did to destroy Israel, so he will do again. He will use worldly forces. He will breathe the thought into their minds and hearts to carry out his will.
“…the ten horns that you saw, and the wild beast, these will hate the harlot and will make her devastated and naked, and will eat up her fleshy parts and will completely burn her with fire. For God put [it] into their hearts to carry out his thought, even to carry out [their] one thought by giving their kingdom to the wild beast, until the words of God will have been accomplished. And the woman whom you saw means the great city that has a kingdom over the kings of the earth.” (Revelation 17:16-18)
There is your thief-in-the-night analogy at work. Christendom—which I’m afraid dear JWs includes you—will be destroyed by the Governments of the world because the thought is put into their minds to do so. They will not realize they are doing God’s bidding. Thus, there will be nor warning. This will happen suddenly and unexpectedly. To show just how quickly her judgment will come upon her, we read:
And a strong angel lifted up a stone like a great millstone and hurled it into the sea, saying: “Thus with a swift pitch will Babylon the great city be hurled down, and she will never be found again.” (Revelation 18:21)
After, the kings, travelling merchants and sea captains all say the same thing: That the great city, Babylon the Great, was destroyed in just one hour. (Revelation 18:10, 17, 19)
They still won’t realize that the thief has come and gone. Jesus caused them to act under God’s command.
But we must remain vigilant so as not to be caught sleeping when the thief comes. What must we do?
“And I heard another voice out of heaven say: “Get out of her, my people, if YOU do not want to share with her in her sins, and if YOU do not want to receive part of her plagues.” (Revelation 18:4)
If you were one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, as I was, what happens when you “get out of her”? You suffer persecution, don’t you? Just as Jesus said you would. What Noah did, what Lot did, and what the first century Christian in Jerusalem did was not easy. It was hard. But it was a necessary display of faith that resulted in their salvation.
So here’s the question: Do you love the truth—God’s truth? How much? None of us possesses all truth; we continue to learn day by day. But knowledge doesn’t motive. Love motivates. The lawless one isn’t destroyed because he doesn’t have the truth. He’s destroyed because he doesn’t love it.
“But the lawless one’s presence is according to the operation of Satan with every powerful work and lying signs and portents and with every unrighteous deception for those who are perishing, as a retribution because they did not accept the love of the truth that they might be saved. So that is why God lets an operation of error go to them, that they may get to believing the lie, in order that they all may be judged because they did not believe the truth but took pleasure in unrighteousness.” (2 Thessalonians 2:9-12)
“Get out of her, MY PEOPLE.” God’s people are in Christendom, just as Jewish Christians in the first century were in Jerusalem in 66 CE, so the true disciples of Jesus Christ are mixed in among the weeds of Christians in name only. And just as those Jewish Christians had to flee to escape the retribution from God for the sins of the nation of Israel, so God’s people will have to escape from Christendom before the day when she will have to pay for all her sins, going back through the centuries. So let us heed the warning. Let us escape while there still is time to do so. This requires courage, and faith, and a real love for truth. For how knows the day when the thief will come.
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