I appreciate the comment, but you didn’t finish reading the passage. Verse 4ff reads:

“But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief; for you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night or darkness; so then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober. For those who sleep do their sleeping at night, and those who get drunk get drunk at night. But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation.”

My response to Dan is based on verse 4. I added verses 5-8 because it is true that we are to live as if He was coming back this afternoon.

While I’m not a prophecy guru, I believe that Jesus was speaking about the Jews in Mark 13 because the church was still a mystery.

By the way, my translation is the NASB.

As for my own history, raised in church but converted at age 40, I’ve never bought in to the date of Christ’s return predictions, simply because He stated so categorically that we could not know.(I’m a pretty literal minded person and that statement couldn’t be clearer.) That does not mean, however, that I’ve not fallen for any other number of falsehoods. I live in California, and well remember the so-called prophecy that a great earthquake would come during the time of the 1984 Olympic games and create a great disaster if we did not all repent. I was a bit nervous. Well, I guess there must have been a mass revival that skipped right over me. Because that never came to pass and there was no accompanying revival. I’ve also accepted personal “prophecies” that turned out to be either entirely false, or what seemed more like cruel jokes from a trickster god. A long series of these sorts of experiences and the absence of clear and consistent preaching of the pure and unadulterated gospel (I was involved in the Word of Faith movement) drove me from church for many years.

I think reason #1 people buy into this is that folks tend to have their own agenda when they come to Scripture. Rather than looking to meet God and learn what He has to say to them about Himself, they are looking for ways to get the kind of lives they are looking for, or for at least a bit of control over their futures. When they find Scripture unsatisfactory in it’s straightforward meaning they look for more esoteric uses for it. If they don’t like it’s direct answer, they dig around for an answer they like better. In short, they want the Bible to be something it’s not – a crystal ball.

This, I think, and mind you I’m mining my own motivations for this there could be more and different reasons, comes from our desire for control, our desire to “be like God”. We cannot accept that the future is not ours to control or even predict. We are not the masters of our destiny we would like to think we are. (I’m not discounting personal accountability here. I think you understand.) This is such a common human trait that we see it in heathens of all ages and professing and real Christians as well. I think this accounts for all manner of occultism and devotion to esoteric wisdom (under which category I would even include an inordinate interest in conspiracy theories, involvement in secret societies, etc.). We’ve all heard the assertion, “knowledge is power”. We want to be the ones with the deep understanding and wisdom. We want to be in the know. We want to feel powerful.

The ones I am familiar with render 1 Thessalonians 5:2 saying: “for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night” (emphasis mine). The rest of the passage doesn’t say that we will know the day; it simply advises us to be alert, self-controlled … ready, so that we won’t be surprised.

Followers of Christ know the day is coming.

For the most part, the non-believing world has no inkling of it – and no belief in it.