A Thief in the Night (film)

A Thief in the Night
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Donald W. Thompson
Produced by Donald W. Thompson
Written by Russell S. Doughten, Jr.
Jim Grant
Donald W. Thompson
Starring Patty Dunning
Mike Niday
Colleen Niday
Maryann Rachford
Thom Rachford
Duane Coller
Russell S. Doughten, Jr.
Clarence Balmer
Cinematography John P. Leiendecker, Jr.
Edited by Wes Phillippi
Release date
 1972 (1972)
Running time
 69 min.
Country United States
Language English
Budget $60,000

A Thief in the Night is a 1972 evangelical Christian film written by Russell S. Doughten, Jr., directed and produced by Donald W. Thompson, and starring Patty Dunning as Patty Meyers, the main character and protaganoist, along with Thom Rachford, Colleen Niday and Mike Niday in supporting roles. It is the first installment in the Thief in the Night series about the Rapture, Tribulation, and Second Coming of Christ. The film is set during the near distant future, focusing on Patty, a young woman who was not raptured and who struggles to decide what to do in the face of the Tribulation.

Plot

In media res, a young woman named Patty Myers awakens one morning to a radio broadcast announcing the disappearance of millions around the world showing that the rapture has occurred. She finds that her family has disappeared and that she has been left behind. The United Nations sets up an emergency government system called the United Nations Imperium of Total Emergency (UNITE) and declare that those who do not receive the Mark identifying them with UNITE will be arrested.

Several flashbacks occur to times in Patty's life before the rapture has happened. The flashbacks also show her two friends and their different approaches to Christianity, one who considers Christ her savior and the other, Diane, who does not take it seriously. Patty considers herself a Christian because she occasionally reads her Bible and goes to church regularly, where the pastor is really an unbeliever. She refuses to believe the warnings of her friends and family that she will go through the tribulation if she does not accept Jesus. One morning, she awakens to find that her family and millions of others have suddenly disappeared.

Patty seems a strange breed of person who both refuses to trust Christ as her Savior and also refuses to take the Mark. Patty desperately tries to avoid the law and the Mark but is captured by UNITE. Patty escapes but, after a chase, is cornered by UNITE on a bridge and falls from the bridge to her death.

Patty then awakens, and the entire film's plot is revealed to have been a dream. She is tremendously relieved; however, her relief is short-lived when the radio announces that millions of people have in fact disappeared. Horrified, Patty frantically searches for her family only to find them missing too. Traumatized and distraught, Patty realizes that the rapture has indeed occurred, and she's been left behind. In the ensuing plot the questions are whether or not she will be caught, as she was in her dream, and whether or not she will she take the mark to escape execution.

Cast

  • Patty Dunning as Patty Myers
  • Mike Niday as Jim Wright
  • Colleen Niday as Jenny
  • Maryann Rachford as Diane Bradford
  • Thom Rachford as Jerry Bradford
  • Duane Coller as Duane
  • Russell Doughten as Rev. Matthew Turner
  • Clarence Balmer as Pastor Balmer

Biblical references

The film's title is taken from 1 Thessalonians 5:2, in which Paul warns his readers that "the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night". And in so doing the film takes the point of view that Day of the Lord means the rapture, though this is much denied by those who hold the pre-tribulation rapture viewpoint espoused by these films.[1]

According to Dean Anderson of Christianity Today, "the film brings to life the dispensational view of Matthew 24:36-44,"[2] part of the Olivet discourse in which Jesus describes people being taken suddenly out of the world while others watch and remain behind. However, Matthew 24 makes no such assertion.[3] A more relevant passage is 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, which describes Christians being "caught up" (Greek: harpagēsometha = Latin rapiemur = "we shall be raptured" = "we shall be caught up," leading to the term "rapture") to meet Christ in the sky.[4][5][6] The film's premillennial dispensationalist[2] interpretation of the Bible's end times prophecies is popular among U.S. evangelicals, but is a minority view among professed Christians globally.[note 1]

In the film, everyone must receive the Mark of the Beast, consisting of three rows of the digits "0110" written on their forehead or hand, or they will not be allowed to use money in any way, even to buy food or water. The number "0110" in binary is six, hence having it repeated three times suggests the biblical number attributed to the end times. The use of the number 666 as a mandatory marking of service to the Antichrist is a common interpretation of Revelation 13:16-18.

Music

This film includes singer/musician Larry Norman's composition "I Wish We'd All Been Ready", one of the earliest Christian rock hits and one of Norman's best-known releases.

Reception

There are no critic reviews displayed on aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes; A Thief in the Night has an audience rating of 58% with an average rating of 3.1/5 out of 130 user reviews.[10]

Legacy

A Thief in the Night is thought to have been seen by an estimated 300 million people worldwide.[2] It was a pioneer in the genre of Christian film, bringing rock music and elements of horror film to a genre then-dominated by family-friendly evangelicalism.[11] [2] A quarter century later, the authors of the broadly successful Left Behind series of books and films have acknowledged their debt to Thief.[2] Indeed, even the title Left Behind echoes the refrain of Norman's theme song for A Thief in the Night, "I Wish We'd All Been Ready," in which he sings, "There's no time to change your mind, the Son has come and you've been left behind."

Sequels

Notes

  1. ↑ Dispensationalism, including the doctrine of the rapture, is generally rejected by Roman Catholics,[7] Orthodox Christians,[8] Lutherans, and Reformed Christians,[9] who together make up a large majority of professed Christians globally.

References

  1. ↑ Dwight Pentecost, Things to Come.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Dean A. Anderson, The original "Left Behind", Christianity Today, Published 7 March 2012, Retrieved 13 March 2012.
  3. ↑ Dwight Pentecost, Things to Come.
  4. ↑ Thomas Ice, Pre-TribResearchCenter, http://www.pre-trib.org/articles/view/a-thief-in-the-night
  5. ↑ Charles Ryrie: Dispensationalism Today
  6. ↑ Dwight Pentecost: Things to Come
  7. ↑ Michael D. Guinan, "Raptured or Not? A Catholic Understanding", Catholic Update, October 2005, http://www.americancatholic.org/Newsletters/CU/ac1005.asp%5Bpermanent+dead+link%5D . Cf. "Catechism of the Catholic Church - The Profession of Faith". Vatican.va. Retrieved 2011-10-21.
  8. ↑ Anthony M. Coniaris, "The Rapture: Why the Orthodox don't preach it," Light & Life Publishing, Life Line, September 12, 2005, Volume 2, Issue 3, available at https://web.archive.org/web/20121109035607/http://www.light-n-life.com/newsletters/09-12-2005.htm ("As already stated, most Christians, Orthodox, Roman Catholics and Protestants do not believe in the Rapture.") (Orthodox commentary), last accessed January 27, 2012.
  9. ↑ Brian M. Schwertley, "Is the Pretribulation Rapture Biblical?", Reformed Online, https://web.archive.org/web/20130311041013/http://reformedonline.com/view/reformedonline/rapture.htm, last accessed January 27, 2012.
  10. ↑ "A Thief in the Night (1972)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved May 12, 2018.
  11. ↑
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