Day of the Lord and the Thief.

1 Thess 5:2 For you yourselves know well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.

2 Peter 3:10

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and the works that are upon it will be burned up.

The stealing of the Bride!

In the jewish wedding story. The Bride was stolen in the sense that the groom would come unanounced in the middle of the night and seize her from her bed along with the handmaids. It may have been as long as 2 years ago since she has seen the groom.

The Bridegroom therefore comes "like a thief in the night." For Christians it will be the same on the Day of the Lord when the Thief cometh.

"But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief." 1 Thessalonian 5:4

Understanding the Day of the Lord opens the floodgates of knowledge

Thanks @Omegatime. This is a needful topic to understand.

written to the Elect (Christians):
1 Thessalonians 1:1-4
Paul, and Silvanus, and Timotheus, unto the church of the Thessalonians which is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers; Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father; Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God.

The sudden destruction comes upon them (unbelievers and those who are deceived by the Antichrist), and they shall not escape. To them, the Day of the Lord (the Second Coming of Jesus Christ) comes as a thief in the night:
1 Thessalonians 5:2-3
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.

to the Elect:
1 Thessalonians 5:4-6
But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.

—Selah

Wail, for the day of the Lord is near;
as destruction from the Almighty it will come!
7 Therefore all hands will be feeble,
and every man’s heart will melt,
8 and they will be dismayed.
Pangs and agony will seize them;
they will be in anguish like a woman in travail.-------- Mat 24 8 all this is but the beginning of the birth-pangs.
They will look aghast at one another;
their faces will be aflame.

9 Behold, the day of the Lord comes,
cruel, with wrath and fierce anger,
to make the earth a desolation
and to destroy its sinners from it.
10 For the stars of the heavens and their constellations
will not give their light;
the sun will be dark at its rising
and the moon will not shed its light.
11 I will punish the world for its evil,
and the wicked for their iniquity;
I will put an end to the pride of the arrogant,
and lay low the haughtiness of the ruthless.
12 I will make men more rare than fine gold,
and mankind than the gold of Ophir.
13 Therefore I will make the heavens tremble,
and the earth will be shaken out of its place,
at the wrath of the Lord of hosts
in the day of his fierce anger.

Isaiah 13

Joel 2: 31 The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes.

Acts 2:20 The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the great and glorious day of the Lord comes.

Both--------------------Great and Terrible and Great and Glorious

Great and terrible for the unbelievers and those deceived by the Antichrist.
Matthew 24:4-5 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.

Great and glorious for those who overcome.
Revelation 3:12 Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.

Yes Selah. and this Day cannot happen till after the middle of the 7 (years) or 1260 days into the Tribulation.

2 Thess 2 Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our assembling to meet him, we beg you, brethren, 2 not to be quickly shaken in mind or excited, either by spirit or by word, or by letter purporting to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. 3 Let no one deceive you in any way; for that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness[a] is revealed, the son of perdition, 4 who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.

14 Behold, a day of the Lord is coming, when the spoil taken from you will be divided in the midst of you. 2 For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall be taken and the houses plundered and the women ravished; half of the city shall go into exile, but the rest of the people shall not be cut off from the city. 3 Then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations as when he fights on a day of battle. 4 On that day his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives which lies before Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley; so that one half of the Mount shall withdraw northward, and the other half southward. 5 And the valley of my mountains shall be stopped up, for the valley of the mountains shall touch the side of it; and you shall flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzzi′ah king of Judah. Then the Lord your God will come, and all the holy ones with him.



The Beast and Its Armies Defeated
17 Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and with a loud voice he called to all the birds that fly in midheaven, “Come, gather for the great supper of God, 18 to eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all men, both free and slave, both small and great.” 19 And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies gathered to make war against him who sits upon the horse and against his army. 20 And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who in its presence had worked the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped its image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulphur. 21 And the rest were slain by the sword of him who sits upon the horse, the sword that issues from his mouth; and all the birds were gorged with their flesh.

Do you Understand ??

One may think in post 9 that the scriptures are saying the Day of the Lord happens at end of the Tribulation. The bottom line what is happening in post 9 it is only one event inside the Day of the Lord. Day of the Lord is talking about the 1000 year reign.

But the Day of the Lord begins about 3.2 years before this at Rev 14.

In scripture, the Day of the Lord refers to either the 1000 years (as a whole) or the first day of that 1000 years. Which it is in scripture is determined by context. It is always one or the other - it is never anything else...

The return of Christ at the 7th trump is called the Lord’s Day (the Millennium) and it will not happen until Satan (the Antichrist) first comes at the 6th trump claiming to be Christ.

Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.

- 2 Thessalonians 2:1-4 (KJV)

Selah-How can that be. the antichrist doesn't take his seat till half way thru the Tribulation. Yes the Lord comes at end of the 7th trump. Satan and his angels are thrown down from heaven after the antichrist begins to reign.

There is another 3 1/2 years to go after the antichrist takes his seat

Nah. The Antichrist IS Satan, and he comes at the 6th trump.

Saying Satan is the antichrist we will disagree. The man who will be the antichrist will be a jew from the tribe of Dan.

Rev 19:2020 And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who in its presence had worked the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped its image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulphur.

Rev20 Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain. 2 And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, 3 and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years were ended. After that he must be loosed for a little while.

Lake of Fire and the Pit are different places

Why can‘t it be after the 1000 years? That was the position of the Church throughout much of church history

... behold a cry "the Bridegroom cometh with His bride" [ancient texts] the maids had time to trim their lamps.

as opposed to a cry "the thief cometh with his swagbag"

Paul makes no mention of loud bangs and melting away of the elements. Jesus spoke in terms of child birth, so did Paul, Paul spoke of the creation being set free.

Only Paul understood the Rapture ... The 2nd coming for the Jews was the end of the world.

yeh the loud bangs and fervent eat is after the mill ...