The DAY of the Lord will come like a thief in the night

[tonychanyt]

1 Thessalonians 5:

1 Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you. 2 For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.

What is the day of the Lord?

Meyer offered three possibilities:

By the ἡμέρα κυρίου,
[1] Hammond, Schoettgen, and Harduin arbitrarily understand the time of the destruction of Jerusalem;

[2] Nicolas de Lyra, Bloomfield, and others, the day of each man’s death;

[3] Oecumenius, Theophylact, and Zwingli, the death of the individual and the end of everything earthly, ἡμέρα κυρίου can only be another expression for παρουσία τοῦ κυρίου, 1 Thessalonians 4:15, and denotes, as everywhere else, the near impending period, when the present order of the world will come to an end, and Christ in His glory will return to the earth for the resurrection of the dead, the general judgment, and the completion of the kingdom of God;

Pulpit was more definite:

. "The day of the Lord" is a common Old Testament expression, denoting the coming of the Divine judgments (Joel 1:15; Joel 2:1); and by the phrase here is meant, not the destruction of Jerusalem, nor the day of one's death, but the day of the Lord's advent, when Christ shall descend from heaven in glory for the resurrection of the dead and the judgment of the world. The idea of judgment is contained in the term "day." So cometh as a thief in the night. The same comparison is used by our Lord himself (Matthew 24:43; Luke 12:39), and the very words are employed by Peter (2 Peter 3:10).

2 Peter 3:

10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.

The day of the Lord here refers to the parousia. The evidence is strong.