5:2 thief in the night; pretribulationists use this phrase to teach that Messiah's second coming will be,  a surprise, and 2) at any moment.  This is probably true for dispensationalitsts who reject Torah, but neither should be true of Yahweh's people who hold to His covenant.  

They use other texts to try to show this also, but every one is taken out of context and misunderstood because they do not understand the times and seasons of Torah.   These times are Sabbaths, annual holy days, also called Sabbaths, like Passover, Shavuot (Pentecost), Teruah (Blowing trumpets), Yom Kippurim (Day of Atonements), and Tabernacles, new moons, and the seven year sabbatical cycle, and the Jubilee year after seven sabbatical periods.

Here, I will deal with this text.  The day of Yahweh will overstake the wicked and those who are not watching like a thief.   In vs. 4 Paul says to the Thessalonians, "But you, brothers, are not in darkness, that the day should overtake you like a thief;"  Why is that?  Because in vs. 1 Paul says, "Now as to the times and the epochs, brothers, you have no need of anything to be written to you."  The times and seasons are the previously mentioned holy days.

   Now, I said, Messiah's coming would not be at any moment.   This does not necessarily mean that the opposite is true, that one would know for certain when it is either, nor that it would be totally unsurprising.   There is actually a middle position between the extremes of total ignorance and claiming to know for sure.  It is based on the times and seasons of Torah, which in anything is "watching" them, they will get a pretty good clue as to the possible times for the Second Coming.   I say "watching", because Yeshua commanded us to be ready and "watch".   How does one watch?  Is this watching for something that can happen at any moment, or watching at certain seasons by being in the will of Yahweh, and obeying his commandments for the moment?

  I'll give you a clue.  It's the latter.  When Yeshua used the word "watch" he was using a Hebrew word based on the root שָמַר, shamar,  meaning to "watch", "guard" or "keep".   "Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws" (Gen. 26:5), or "Therefore, thou shalt love Yahweh your Almighty, and keep his charge, and his statues, and his judgments, and his commandments all the days" (Deut. 11:1).  "Keep his charge" in Hebrew is, שמרת משמרתו, i.e. "keepeth ye his watch,"; 

The Salkinson-Ginsburg Hebrew New Testament translates Mathew 24:42 as:

 

לָכֵן הִתְיַצְּבוּ עַל־מִשְׁמַרְתְּכֶם כִּי אֵינְכֶם יֹדְעִים שָׁעָה בּוֹא אֲדֹנֵיכֶם׃

 

So to "watch" means to "watch" and expect Yahweh to fullfil His promises at certain seasons that are cyclical in nature.