He Came as a Thief in the Night
The Lord did not simply promise to come "as a thief in the night" but also came "as a thief in the night" (Revelation 16:15, Matthew 24:43, 1 Thessalonians 5:2); and He might as easily have said "When the Son of Man comes, will there be faith on Earth?" of the First Coming as of the Second (Luke 18:8). For in either case, and in any such case, the Lord comes quite specifically in the nick of time to a situation wherein the Church has degenerated to such a point as to compare to an absence of faith and an absence of charity within it, so that a new bottle and a new vintage must be prepared (HH119, Mark 2:22).
It is written, "I was sought by those who did not ask for Me. I was found by those who did not seek Me. I said, 'Here I am, here I am' to a nation that was not called by My name" (Isaiah 65:1).
In this connexion, note the way that the Gospel was not spread by Pharisees and Sadducees in <<Acts>> but by Christians instead; this is because some people become, so to speak, entrapped in the dying of a coal, sucked under in the sinking of a ship, rendered stupefied by the very death of a Church which was previously a salvific vehicle; for there arrives the situation described in Revelation 6:12, where it says, "The sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood".
Note: the sun does not actually become "black as sackcloth of hair"; the moon does not actually "become like blood" (HH119). Neither, in the Olivet Discourse, do the "stars" actually "fall from Heaven" (AR51:2). Stars are humongous! None of these things regard astronomical phenomena or presage a nuclear winter; but rather they concern a specific spiritual event which requires the decisive intervention of the Lord, that "new wine" may be put into "new bottles" (AR27, Mark 2:22).
Therefore, He came as a "thief in the night" rather than the Earthly warlord which both Jews and Christians expected prior to the 1st and 2nd Comings (Revelation 16:15, Matthew 24:43, 1 Thessalonians 5:2). Now, the Lord has defined the term "thief" for us, in John 10:1, as "one who doesn't enter the door into the sheepfold, but climbs up some other way", which Rev. John Clowes explains in terms of someone's "seek[ing] to establish his own merit", this being the inner meaning of the verse (New Christian Bible Study).
In addition to this inner meaning, however, one may also note that Jesus and His disciples, as well as nascent Christianity as a whole, were regarded by the ancient world in much the same way as we moderns would regard a cult; for the Jews who came to Pilate and requested a guard to be placed before Jesus' tomb referred to Him as "that deceiver"; or in other words considered Him to be roughly what we would call a cult leader (Matthew 27:63). A further instance of this would be Gamaliel's mention of "Theudas" and "Judas the Galilean" in Acts 5:36-37.
In other words, the "new bottle" into which which the Lord poured that "new wine" took the form of a 'new religious movement', as the modern term goes; and in much the same way that these are typically regarded, that new bottle encountered dismissal as just-another-cult. Indeed, we even have the example of an apparent game of Chinese whispers in Acts 21:38, where mention is made of an "Egyptian" who "led a revolt"; another instance like that of Gamaliel. In much the same manner do modern people conceive of the New Church into which the Lord has poured the Correspondences of His Coming "like a thief in the night".
It is written, "I was sought by those who did not ask for Me. I was found by those who did not seek Me. I said, 'Here I am, here I am' to a nation that was not called by My name" (Isaiah 65:1).
In this connexion, note the way that the Gospel was not spread by Pharisees and Sadducees in <<Acts>> but by Christians instead; this is because some people become, so to speak, entrapped in the dying of a coal, sucked under in the sinking of a ship, rendered stupefied by the very death of a Church which was previously a salvific vehicle; for there arrives the situation described in Revelation 6:12, where it says, "The sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood".
Note: the sun does not actually become "black as sackcloth of hair"; the moon does not actually "become like blood" (HH119). Neither, in the Olivet Discourse, do the "stars" actually "fall from Heaven" (AR51:2). Stars are humongous! None of these things regard astronomical phenomena or presage a nuclear winter; but rather they concern a specific spiritual event which requires the decisive intervention of the Lord, that "new wine" may be put into "new bottles" (AR27, Mark 2:22).
Therefore, He came as a "thief in the night" rather than the Earthly warlord which both Jews and Christians expected prior to the 1st and 2nd Comings (Revelation 16:15, Matthew 24:43, 1 Thessalonians 5:2). Now, the Lord has defined the term "thief" for us, in John 10:1, as "one who doesn't enter the door into the sheepfold, but climbs up some other way", which Rev. John Clowes explains in terms of someone's "seek[ing] to establish his own merit", this being the inner meaning of the verse (New Christian Bible Study).
In addition to this inner meaning, however, one may also note that Jesus and His disciples, as well as nascent Christianity as a whole, were regarded by the ancient world in much the same way as we moderns would regard a cult; for the Jews who came to Pilate and requested a guard to be placed before Jesus' tomb referred to Him as "that deceiver"; or in other words considered Him to be roughly what we would call a cult leader (Matthew 27:63). A further instance of this would be Gamaliel's mention of "Theudas" and "Judas the Galilean" in Acts 5:36-37.
In other words, the "new bottle" into which which the Lord poured that "new wine" took the form of a 'new religious movement', as the modern term goes; and in much the same way that these are typically regarded, that new bottle encountered dismissal as just-another-cult. Indeed, we even have the example of an apparent game of Chinese whispers in Acts 21:38, where mention is made of an "Egyptian" who "led a revolt"; another instance like that of Gamaliel. In much the same manner do modern people conceive of the New Church into which the Lord has poured the Correspondences of His Coming "like a thief in the night".
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