"For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape." (1 Thessalonians 5:2-3)

Whenever there is a war, or a great calamity, or a great time of suffering, there almost inevitably follows an upsurge of interest in biblical prophecy with many predictions of the immediate return of Christ.

According to our text however (which immediately follows the glorious description of the "rapture" of all believers into the air to meet the returning Savior), His coming may not be in a time of war and danger, but in one of "peace and safety!" It may well be in a period when "they"--that is, the ungodly world and all its cohorts--will be proudly boasting of their new world order where they have established worldwide security from further strife and peril. But this system will be built, not on a biblical foundation acknowledging God as Creator and Redeemer, but on a false foundation of evolutionary humanism and an attempted amalgamation of all world religions.

The euphoria accompanying such false security will even lull many Christians into a sense of complacency. In speaking of His return, therefore, Jesus warned: "Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not" (Luke 12:40). His coming will be as a thief comes in the night, when even those who should be alert and watchful may have fallen asleep. "Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is" (Mark 13:33).

Watchfulness, however, does not mean idleness. "Occupy till I come," He said (Luke 19:13). "Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing" (Luke 12:43). HMM