ABC:1 Thessalonians 5

Verse 1, When's the End?

Patheos' Bob Seidensticker claims there is a contradiction here and makes the following comments (italicized):

“ When is the End?

A 2013 poll found that 41 percent of U.S. adults think that we’re now living in the end times. But ask for the precise date, and the standard response is to point to this verse:

Matthew 24:36 But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.

Harold Camping was hilariously wrong about his prediction of the Rapture® on May 21, 2011 (here, here), and fellow Christians pointed to that verse. But Brother Camping had a comeback with this passage:

1 Thessalonians 5:1-5 ¶ But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. 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. 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.

Some people won't know, the children of darkness. But the enlightened ones will know. (Or not, if Jesus was correctly quoted.) ”

1 Thessalonians 5:1-5 simply reiterates what Matthew 24:36 said, that the "day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night;" in other words without warning. Paul says that Christians should not have the day overtake them as a thief because they are children of light, not darkness. In contrast to the assumptions of the critic, Paul is not saying that Christians can know when Jesus' return will be; indeed Jesus said that not even He knows, only God the Father, when that day will be. (Mark 13:32)

Rather, Paul is saying that Christians should live righteously at all times in preparations for Christ's return, as Jesus told them they should. (cp. Matthew 24:42-51; Romans 13:11-13; Revelation 16:15, Revelation 3:3; Luke 21:36) Had the critic read the verses remotely in context this should have been obvious, since in the following verses Paul urges Christians to soberly watch for Christ's return, encouraging and edifying one another while living righteously. (1 Thessalonians 5:9-23)