Timing of the Day of the Lord in 1 Thess 5

I recently posted an article on Zeteo 3:16 on the topic of the Timing of Day of the Lord in 1 Thess 5. You can read it HERE. This is a controversial topic which I've been thinking about for a while. Can the eschatological Day of the Lord really be restricted to narrowly defined parameters, or is it more flexible than some insist? The more I study this topic the more I'm persuaded that it's the latter.

I was prompted to briefly comment after reading Nicholas Claxton's two interesting articles at Tyndale, and Paul R. House's lengthy Day of the Lord discussion in Central Themes in Biblical Theology.

In the Bible 'the Day of the Lord' is one particular way, but not the only way, of discussing judgment. Every 'Day of the Lord' is an instance of judgment although not every depiction of judgment is called a 'Day of the Lord'. ~ House

Passages such as Joel 2:30-31 indicate that cosmic signs occur before the Day of the Lord. Yet House and others connect passages such as Isaiah 2 with the DotL and the 6th seal. In his commentary on Revelation, Buist Fanning notes this too, as well as noting several Old Testament DotL motifs in the 4th seal (see his chapter on Rev 6:1-17).

From my Zeteo 316 article:

For a discussion on the timing of the Day of the Lord in 1 Thess 5, see Nicholas James Claxton's two-part series in Tyndale's Journal of Dispensational Theology : Part One (p 77) and Part Two (p 53). Without being dogmatic, and while making a fair case for pretribulationism, Claxton discusses many of these themes including imminence, expectancy, suddenness, the term "thief in the night" etc. 

For more read Tony Garland's The Day of the Lord and When Does the Day of the Lord Dawn? and also Jacob's Trouble and the Great Tribulation. Tony's articles can be accessed HERE (original source) as well.

See also Robert Culver: Israel, Church & the Rapture.