Now CUT THAT OUT!
You’re only the 5,239th person in my life who’s misused those two verses.
You err in that you stop too soon, and so mistakenly think the passage (addressed to Christians, as it is), is saying that The Church will all just be totally taken by surprise at Jesus’ coming.
I say to you with utmost emphasis: NO, SHE WILL NOT.
Read on...
4 But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.
5 Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
6 Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.
The passage makes a stark contrast between believers and unbelievers as regards awareness of the coming of the Day of The LORD. Those for whom that day comes “as a thief in the night” are referred to in v. 3 as “they”; that is in contrast to “ye” — the church, to whom the epistle is addressed.
3 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.
Now comes v. 4 to draw the sharp contrast
4 But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.
THEY — the unbelieving — are caught completely unaware.
YE — the believers — are awake, in the light, watching.
PLEASE, do not any longer use just vv 1 and 2 to try and portray that God is even keeping believers totally in the fog about the coming of the end; that is absolutely untrue.
I will not be taken by surprise when the moment arrives.
For I have been taught all the signs.
But to the day and the hour they will occur.....
Mat 24:36 ¶ But of that day and hour knoweth no [man], no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.
Any man who claims to be able to name the date and time is a liar.
Jesus said so.