I have commented to my friends that Matthew 24:36 has been misapplied to the Rapture (New Testament truth revealed to Paul by the ascended and glorified Jesus)...and even to the Second Coming...(Old Testament prophecy, the Gospel's and Revelation of Jesus Christ). I can detect some annoyance with me for mentionings this from my friends. I am going against popular seniments and maybe I am making a mountain of a molehill. Even those who visit my blog may dismiss my posts as an overkill on this subject. Yet the issue must be understood in the light of how we correctly handle God's word, or rightly divide it (2 Timothy 2:15). If Harold Camping is open to criticism for how he handled God's word...we who are the critics need to make sure we are accurate in how we handle God's word. It is a two way street.
Those who quoted Matthew 24:36 on this billboard chose the wrong verse. Verse 42 and 44 has to do with Jesus' return.
Verse 36 has nothing to do with the Rapture...the text is for Israel and before the cross and resurrection...i.e. Old Testament. The
rapture is after the cross and resurrection, New Testament, imminent and a mystery (1 Corinthians 15:50-54).
The text has to do with Jesus' second coming...only in regards to how Israel will be a nation again after their winter of dispersion has ended. The teaching about Israel's seventy sevens and Jesus' coming...this teaching ended at verse 31...and taken up again concerning watching from verses 37 through chapter 25.
The text has everything to do with the lesson of the fig tree that starts in verse 32 (compare with Mark 13:28-32).
Jesus did not know when the nation He had judged and cursed to death after the period of grace had passed Luke 13:1-9 and Matthew 21:18-22)...would revive because there was not Old Testament prophecy He could cite, nor did the Father reveal it to Him, the angels, nor to His prophets.
We do know the day and hour of when the fig tree revived...May 1948. Israel's winter has ended, spring has arrived...and summer is near...the time of judgment.
Notice verse 42 only mentions the "hour" is not known. Daniel and Revelation reveal that the Messiah will return 3.5 years, forty-two months (30 days each) or 1,260 days from the time of the abomination that causes desolation to the end. Daniel 12:11 & 12 adds 30 days or 1,290 days...plus 45 days...1,335 days. Jesus and the believing Jews can count the days from the abmoination...but the hour of His arrival is still unknown.
Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back--whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn. Mark 13:35
For the wicked, evil sevants and foolish virgins...the day and hour will be unknown to them:
But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; And shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken; The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, Matthew 24:48-50
Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not. Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh. Matthew 24:11-13
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