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 Christian end times film produced by Russell S. Doughten. It is the first and best known film in Doughten's four-part series on the Rapture and Second Coming of Christ. The films together are often referred to collectively as the "Thief" or "Rapture" series.

The film's title is taken from First Thessalonians , in which Paul warns his readers that "the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night".

According to Christianity Today, "the film brings to life the dispensational view of Matthew ," part of the Olivet discourse in which Jesus describes people being taken suddenly out of the world while others watch and remain behind. Another relevant passage is 1 Thessalonians , which describes Christians being "caught up" (Greek: harpagēsometha = Latin rapiemur, leading to the term "Rapture") to meet Christ in the sky. The film's premillennial dispensationalist interpretation of the Bible's end times prophecies is popular among U.S. evangelicals, but is a minority view among Christians globally.

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 (though concatenating the "mark" into the single number 011001100110 yields 666 in hexadecimal or binary-code-decimal, the decimal-number that yields is 1,638). The use of the number 666 as a mandatory marking of service to the Antichrist is a common interpretation of Revelation .