To Brandon: "But of that day and hour"
Greetings all,
In Matthew 24, Jesus spoke of "that day and hour". I have always understood this to be referring to that day and hour which He had just referenced; i.e., "heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away....." see:
Matthew 24:33 So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.34Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.35Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.36But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.37 But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
Jesus was responding to the questions of the deciples about "the end", for they had asked,
Matthew 24:3 And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?
WHEN SHALL THESE THINGS BE? He said we would know when these things would be because of the sign of the fig tree, that we would know it was"near", when we "begin to see these things" (Luke 21:25), we would know our redemption was near. "these things" refer to judgment, both at the destruction of the temple in 70 A.D., and the judgment at the end of the age. Two "generations" will see "all these things".....WHAT SHALL BE THE SIGN OF THY COMING? He said it would be like the days of Noah. Noah knew the signs of the coming of the flood. No-one else did. The state of the world being like the days of Noah would be an indication that HIS COMING was near. This is for us, who are watching for HIS COMING.
"AND OF THE END OF THE WORLD?" He said that the end of the world (ages) would come when heaven and earth would pass away. BUT OF THAT DAY AND HOUR (the day and hour when heaven and earth would pass away, to WHICH HE HAD JUST REFERRED IN HIS PREVIOUS SENTENCE) ....only the FATHER KNEW - NO MAN COULD KNOW, NO ANGEL COULD KNOW, ONLY THE FATHER. He was saying that there would be an end to the age of grace, accompanied by signs of coming judgment such as the fig tree, the other trees, etc. and the days of Noah, would be an indication of "His coming",,,, But He took them out further and showed that there would be also a time when heaven and earth would "pass away". (In His teaching, to show them that a very big "end" was also coming. Peter referred to this time when all the earth and its works would be burned up. This is further developed in the book of Revelation, where the current earth and heavens passes into eternity, Christ delivers all back to His Father, and we go into eternity, living in the New Jerusalem which descends from heaven. THAT DAY, only the Father knows, and we told ABOUT that day and that it will come, but we cannot know THE DAY AND HOUR. It's way too big for our feeble minds to comprehend. Only the Father knows that day and hour. People often speak of "the end of the world", without knowing in the least what that is all about. What Jesus was doing for the deciples (and us), is breaking it down into its sequence which would occur at the end of this age of grace with the signs of judgment and signs for the Noah's to prepare for salvation, and then the real biggie "end", which only the Fahter knew the day and hour of; thus we shouldn't concern ourselves with that.
Many times we are told to wait and watch, or we will miss out on the day and hour of our redemption, and the beginning of the judgment of the end of THIS age of grace. We are told by Paul, that we will see "that day" approaching. The church is told if it doesn't watch, they won't know the "hour". Yes, we can concern ourselves with watching for that day and hour, for our Lord told us to do just that, and there are "stripes" to be given to those who do not.
As soon as we speak of the rapture, someone invariably throws that caustic remark in our face "But we can't know the day and hour".....A good answer to this is, as our Lord intended by His teaching, "yeah, that day / hour is some 1000 years + in the future".
Our blessed hope is that we can expect Him soon, very soon, and we scan the horizon for "signs" of His coming............If we keep this up, that day will come, and we can finally say "hey we were right - here He is!" A broken clock is right twice in 24 hours..............Wow what a day that will be! Love to all and grace and peace in abundance...........your sister, Arlene