IT IS possible to know when Jesus is coming back!

This question was asked at Got Questions.org

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I differ with the author of this article in how he used Matthew 24:36.

Answer: Matthew 24:36-44 declares, “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father…Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come…So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect Him.” At first glance, these verses would seem to provide a clear and explicit answer to the question. No, no one can know when Jesus is coming back.

Notice that verse 36 is isolated from its context and tied with verse 44. The assumption the reader would make is that verse 36 and verse 44 teach the same thing. However it is context that determines the meaning of the text.

In the study of Matthew 24 we find that Jesus' teaching begins in verse 4 and ends at verse 31. Jesus beings a new teaching at verse 32 "Now learn this lesson from the fig tree..." and ends at verse 36 "No one knows about that day or hour..."
The New International Version, the New King James Version and New American Standard put a paragraph break between verse 35 and verse 36. Even John MacArthur divides these verses:

3. The parable of the fig tree (24:32–35)

4. The lesson of Noah (24:36–44) - John MacArthur

This interrupts the flow of what Jesus is teaching.

When we keep the context of verses 32 to 36 together...we then understand what Jesus means when He said "No one knows about that day or hour..." When we go back to verse 32 Jesus tells us what we are to learn about from the lesson of the fig tree "As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near." During the winter the fig tree goes dormant. The tree has shed it leaves in the fall and during winter it sleeps. When Spring comes...the tree wakes up...the sap starts to flow and the buds appear on its twigs...then leaves appear. Before summer...fig blossoms become figs.

What is Jesus teaching through this lesson about the fig tree? The fig tree is symbolic of Israel. The nation was unaware that their year of grace was over (see Luke 13:6-9). Jesus had symbolically pronounced judgment against Israel when He rode up to a fig tree outside of Jerusalem and cursed it (Matthew 21:18-22 and Mark 11:12-26). From Jesus' death on the cross to Israel's destruction in 70 A.D. was the nations
season of fall. The leaves began to fall off as winter approached. From 70 A.D. to 1948 was Israel's season of winter. Then on the "day and hour" of May 1948...Israel revived and the nation's spring began. Since 1948 to the present we know that summer...symbolic of judgment...is near.

The reason Jesus said "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." ...is that these events were not revealed by the Father in the Old Testament. Jesus did not know because He depended on what was revealed in the Old Testament or from direct revelation from His Father. The revival of the fig tree was a secret kept by the Father. But now we do know "the day and hour" is May 1948 is because this is when Israel, as a nation, revived. This is a sign that Jesus' coming is near and we need to be watchful.

So back to the title of my article "IT IS possible to know when Jesus is coming back!" Why would I say something contrary to what is currently being taught.

Jesus told those who are "watching" (Matthew 24:44)that when they see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel (Matthew 24:15) to look of their redemption (Luke 21:28). In Daniel it says it will be 3.5 years (Daniel 9:27) or between 1,260 days(Revelation 12:6) to 1,290 days (Daniel 12:11) or 42 months (Revelation 11:2) from the abomination that the Lord will return. Jesus never taught that His second coming is unknown...because He knew the O.T. gave the signs and timing that believer's of Israel can count on for hope in the midst of persecution. So the timing of the second coming is knowable...contrary to what is currently taught. Here is several example:

(P)eople who will be alive during the seven-year Tribulation, after the church has been taken out, people being redeemed and then, of course, there's a vast population of unredeemed people, even the people living during that time who can see the first seal and the second seal and the third and the fourth and the fifth will not know the exact time, they will not know the exact time when the sixth seal will be opened. They will not know the day, they will not know the hour, they will not know the specifics of that judgment. It is not given unto us to know precisely when that is going to happen. In fact, in verse 36 of Matthew 24 Jesus says of that day and hour, no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son but the Father alone. That is a secret event known only to God. We don't know the exact moment. -John MacArthur

In this passage Jesus is referred to as " the Son." When the New Testament uses terms like " the Son," or " the Son of Man," as occurs in the next verse, it stresses His humanity and the incarnation. This passage does not say, " that no man will ever know. This He did not say." [1] I agree with most commentators that this passage is saying that in His incarnation as the Son of Man it was not given to Him (or revealed to Him) the time of His return. I am sure that He knows the day and the hour upon His return to heaven. John MacArthur notes the following:

Therefore, even on this last day before His arrest, the Son did not know the precise day and hour He would return to earth at His second coming. During Christ' s incarnation, the Father alone exercised unrestricted divine omniscience.[2]

Ed Glasscock echoes this understanding: " The Lord did not attempt to display His deity but rather, in contrast, emphasized His humanity. As an obedient servant in His humanity, Jesus did not know the day or the hour of His return." [3]

Jesus is saying that in essence He was not telling them at that time when He was returning. However, this does not mean that those at a future time would not be able to know when He was returning. Yeager says: " The thought of the context is that at the time that Jesus spoke this to His disciples, and even yet now, at the current writing, nobody knows the day and the hour." [4] It is not until after the rapture, when one is in the tribulation that God' s prophetic clock will resume ticking. For believers living during that time they will be able to know at least the day when Christ will return to planet earth. -Thomas Ice

This is why context is so important. Matthew 24:32-36 concerns Israel's revical in the days before Israel's seventy-sevens. Matthew 24:37-25:13 concerns watchfulness for Jesus' return during Israel's seventy-sevens.