YOU CAN’T KNOW THE DAY OR HOUR! – OH REALLY?
Greetings Watchers!
I have been receiving a lot of
questions like this one lately:
Brother Sal,
Thank you for the effort you put forth in spreading Paul's teachings. They have been a blessing to me because of those efforts. You and your ministry are in my prayers.
I have a question though regarding the "can't know the day or hour" line in scripture.
How can we count down the 40 days after the dead in Christ rise at Firstfruits until the rapture without making this verse wrong? It seems we will be able to at least know the day.
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Well, I think that we have enough new Watchers to republish this in answer to that question. I hope everyone that secretly thinks about this will find comfort in this knowledge.
Remember folks that there are lots of teachings at the Watchers study site. The key word there is study. You should browse through the teaching, a lot of effort was put into them for you. www.chn-net.com/watcher/teachings/ book mark this page for easy return.
MATTHEW 24:36 ~ MARK 13:32
But of that DAY knoweth no (man), no ,not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.
Which day is, that DAY? What DAY are these passages referring to?
Forever I’ve heard that, “we can’t know the day or the hour of the rapture, because it says so in Matthew 24:36/Mark 13:32”.
Before we even explore which day this might be referring to, we should first examine the true meaning of, knoweth no (man), no, not the . . ..
WORDS AND THEIR MEANINGS
The Greeks had eight words to express the various uses of the verb “to know”. Two of these forms ~ “ginosko” and “oida” are used by Jesus, sometimes in the same sentence in Matthew 24, 25 Mark 13 and throughout the New Testament. The word “ginosko,” according to Strong’s Concordance, #1097, and The Companion Bible, appendix 132, means: to understand, to be sure of, and to have unconditional and objective knowledge.
The use of this form of the verb means that the information can be obtained and understood; you can have complete knowledge. In essence, the information or knowledge is either available and understandable, or it is not.
Had Jesus used this form of the verb, there would have been no doubt that no one could know “of that time, not even the angels, or Jesus.” However, Jesus did not use “ginosko,” He used “oida.”
The word “oida” (spelled “eida” in Strong’s Concordance #1492 and “oida” in both The Companion Bible and Young’s Analytical Concordance) is similar to “ginosko” in that it means “to understand, to have knowledge, etc,” but only when used in certain past tenses.
When used in other tenses, as done by Jesus in Matthew 24, 25 and Mark 13, its meaning is obtained from “optomai”. This word, according to Strong’s Concordance #3700, means: to understand intuitively – knowledge obtained without effort.
Usage of “oida” in other than certain past tenses refers only to how knowledge is obtained, not the degree of understanding as with “ginosko.”
The positive use of “oida – to know” means that the information or knowledge is understood intuitively, being obvious to the observer.
The negative use of “oida – cannot know” does not mean that the information or knowledge is not obvious, easily seen, or understood by intuition. The negative use of “oida” in no way implies that the information or knowledge is unknowable or unattainable; it does mean that it takes an effort, investigation, or study in order to uncover and understand it.
In other words, the knowledge is there to obtain.
It can be seen in the following verses that Jesus made a clear distinction between “knowing” the signs of the return, and “knowing” when He is to return:
Matt: 24:32 (ginosko) . . .Know that summer is near
Matt: 24:33 (ginosko) . . .Know that it is near
Matt: 24:43 (ginosko) . . .Know this, if the good man
Mark 13:28 (ginosko) . . .Know that summer is near
Mark 13:28 (ginosko) . . .You will know the time is near
Matt: 24:36 (oida) . . .Of that day and hour knoweth no man
Matt: 24:42 (oida) . . .You won’t know when your Lord will return
Matt: 24:43 (oida) . . If the good man had known
Matt: 25:13 (oida) . . You know neither the day nor the hour when he comes
Mark 13:32 (oida) . . .Of that day and hour knoweth no man
Mark 13:33 (oida) . . .You don’t know when the time is
Mark 13:35 (oida) . . .You don’t know when the master of the house is coming
When Jesus used the “ginosko” form of “to know” in the verses above, He was indicating that the knowledge would be available and that they would have complete understanding. In the other verses where Jesus used “oida,” He was indicating that the knowledge would not come instinctively, but would require some effort to perceive and understand it.
Using “oida” in Matthew 24:36 and Mark 13:32, as in the Greek manuscripts, the texts would, in essence, read, But of that day and hour, no man knoweth intuitively, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. Jesus didn’t say that the time was unknowable, but only that it wasn’t obvious and that it would take effort to understand it. The Father is the only one who knew it intuitively; everyone else had to put forth and effort to find it out.
Now, with this effort put forth, and with that light shinning on it, we can now understand that we can know and understand the subject of those referenced verses, no matter what those subjects may be.
THE OBJECT OF MATTHEW 24
Open you Bibles to Matthew 24. I use the authorized King James Version, and it begins on page 39, if you happen to have a Bible like mine.
Now chapter 24 begins with the word And, which means that it’s just a continuation of what was going on in the previous chapter, which would be chapter 23. which begins with Then, indicating that 23 came after what was recorded before.
Chapter 23 says, “Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to His disciples, saying . . .” In these verses, Jesus is speaking to all mankind; the multitude and the Jews, and when he was finished, (Chapter 24) And Jesus went out, and departed from the Temple and his disciples came to him. . . and Jesus said unto them; the Jews alone.
Again in verse 4, Jesus answered and said unto them – the disciples, who were Jews. Speaking to the Jews. And in every verse, it’s, “that no man deceive YOU . . .”; “deliver YOU up to be . . .”; “when YE see the abomination . . .”. Only the Jews are being addressed.
None of this is directed at the Church!
How could it be? Jesus is still alive when He said it, and the Gentile Christian Church doesn’t begin until it’s revealed to Paul by God years later. The Jews were never promised heaven, only God’s Kingdom on Earth.
Had the Jews accepted the sacrifice as atonement for the world, the Word would have been fulfilled and the Kingdom on earth could have begun sometime then in the first century.
But as we know happened, they rejected the sacrifice, and made necessary the revealing to Paul of the “fail safe” plan, that had been a mystery, hidden in the mind of God. This is when the Church is born, the substitutes, the new creature in Christ, and their reward for accepting by Faith, what the Jews received in the flesh, was to be Heaven and rulership in God’s Kingdom on Earth.
And Paul taught that all the promises of the Spring Feasts of the Jews, which brought them the Messiah, were passed to the substitutes as shadows of things to come, so that at the appropriate time, scheduled to be when the prophecy of Daniel was unsealed, the word could be fulfilled in them (the substitutes) at last.
Since we know and understand from the Apostle Paul that a mystery is something that is hidden in the mind of God, and that if you searched forever you would never find it, we can be sure that Jesus was not speaking to the Church when he was saying the things that were said in Matthew 24.
The understanding we need to grasp is that because the Christians are a grafted on branch to the tree of the root of Abraham, there is a separation in what is spoken to the Jews and the Church.
This is clearly illustrated in the Feasts of the Jews. The Spring Feasts, fulfilled by the coming of the Messiah, are the only feasts passed along to the Church as shadows of things to come, while the fall Feasts are yet to be fulfilled. They will be fulfilled during the second coming of the Messiah.
Those feasts, Trumpets, Atonement and Tabernacles have nothing to do with the Church, because the Spring feasts reflect the death, resurrection, ascension and offering of the Messiah to the Jews at Pentecost, that fulfills the Word. Hidden within those feasts is the provision for the substitutes reward which is part of the “fail safe” plan. Hidden because it wasn’t meant for the Jews. Revealed to the Church in the time when the events of the last days of Daniel’s prophecy were spilling out onto the stage of history.
Then, with the Church gone, raptured on Ascension day, the 40th day after the warning sign of many dead in Christ rising and being seen in Jerusalem, Jesus will once again be offered by anointed witnesses as Messiah to the Jews; the new offering required by the feast of Pentecost.
Now will be the time for the Fall Feasts of Harvests, Atonement and Tabernacles to be fulfilled for the Jews by Jesus. He will have His harvest of them, They will accept His atonement, and He will rule their Kingdom on earth during the Millennium along with those new creatures that return with Him.
The Church would have already received the harvesting that was promised by First Fruits, and fulfilled on Ascension. The Church accepted the atoning work of Christ (thus the reward), and the Church will rule during the Millennial Kingdom on Earth as part of the body of Christ.
SO WHAT DAY IS IT?
Well, we can be sure it’s not the Rapture! The Rapture is the way the substitutes receive their reward for their Faith and they hadn’t even been revealed by God at the time when Jesus is speaking these words. There was no need at the time.
It could be referring to His second coming. For sure it’s at a time when Jesus is returning, and with Him He has called all of His elect that are already in Heaven, which identifies the generation that will see this. Then He sets the time frame in verse 32. The fig tree is Israel, and while she is yet tender and puteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is night. That is to say that while Israel is yet a young Nation and growing, you will know the time is near, but verse 33 seems to be the key.
Vs. 33 So likewise ye (Jews), when ye shall see (in the future, when the Nation is young and growing) all these things (spoken of before this in our chat) know that it is near, even at the door.
Vs. 34 Verily I say unto you, this generation (the one that’s in the young growing Nation) shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled. Vs. 35 Heaven and earth shall pass away but my word shall not pass away. Vs. 36 But of that day and hour (from vs. 35, the day and hour that Heaven and earth shall pass away) knoweth no man intuitively, no, not the Angeles of heaven, but my Father only.
Verse 36 is clearly in reference to the timing in verse 35, because Jesus is citing an example of the longevity of His word.
Because it didn’t end in the first century, it obviously wasn’t the generation that He was speaking to that this message applies to. The reason it didn’t end then is because the Jews refused the sacrifice and a substitute had to be found to allow the Word to come back fulfilled.
So, it’s all pushed up in time into the generation of Jews that does see all of the events that ends with the abomination of desolation from Daniel’s prophecy, confirmed out of the mouth of Jesus at verse 15.
If you study the timing of it, you will see that the Rapture of the Church happens somewhere between the 7th and 8th verses of Matthew 24, and Zechariah 14 happens around verse 15.
THE IT’S HAPPENING NOW GENERATION
Folks, the Jews have reached that generation that will see all these things come to pass. They are a reborn young Nation that is growing. Their circumstance is exactly in nature the same as it was when they were thrown off the land in A.D. 70.
They are back in the land, they are with out a temple and are in need of a treaty with the present day rulers of the land that was once ruled by Rome at the time they were evicted.
All of the pieces are in place. The rise of the little horn has been well documented in the 21 years that we have been watching him. The meeting of the ten kings from the land that was once ruled by Rome, required by Daniel’s prophecy, has taken place, with the exact results; all for peace with 3 dissenters.
The battle for position in Israel rages on, with peace reduced to a mere glimmer, yet the leaders still reach for peace. For a year under the growing pressure of the Intafada they still want peace. But it seemed that it was not to be, until September 11, 2001 that is. Wonder of wonders, as horrible as it was, it was the cataclysmic event that turned the world down the road to the final days.
Now the talk is WAR! But not in Israel. Peace is the order of the day’s talk there. The war is to end terrorism, and terrorisms sponsors. Now the talk is to “topple and replace” governments who sponsor terrorism. That’s the same thing the prophecy calls “uprooting”, and lo and behold, the same three that are the dissenters to the peace are who they are after to “topple and replace”. My, My!
But friends we must remember that we will never see that happen! Paul says The Rapture of all those who are in Christ will happen before the peace is made and confirmed, and that the “uprooting” comes after the peace!
And, Paul tells us that we will see the dead that rise on First Fruits if we are watching for them. And when we do, we will know that there are 40 days left from the day they rise until the age of the Church is completed at the Rapture. That’s why God commands us to WATCH, so that when we, the people of the light see it coming, which is now unmistakable, we can warn the people of the dark who are asleep and rejoice together in our joy of knowing.
The events of the past few days in Washington concerning Jordan are probably going unnoticed as anything prophetic by most of the world. But, from my vantage point I see them as the opening salvo of the peace.
The congress of the United States passed a free trade agreement with Jordan, and the President signed it into law today. That makes Jordan only the 4th Nation to have free trade with the US. Canada, Mexico, Israel and now Jordan. Watch the stature of the Kings (little horn) grow from this point on in the drama. (new note: Well this came true and his stature is growing still – he’s the darling of the free World right now.)
Microsoft is presently bringing Jordan into the near future techno-wise to make her the center of communication.
I see the Free Trade agreement as the down payment for the part The King must play in the peace in Israel and among the Arab brotherhood. Somehow part of Jordan has to go to the Palestinians for a homeland and he has to confirm that the Temple Mount be shared. He has the say over the Mount, so he has to deliver the Arabs on this, and since the Palestinians now living in Jordan almost outnumber the Jordanians they could take over the government by vote, without firing a shot. So, the King is being forced into the move, but handsomely paid. The payoff for both Nations comes when the Hashemites become the client regime in Iraq after the “topple and replace” moves that the unified sane world is making at present. (new note: Boy were we right on here!)
Some form of that scenario is what brings about a forced peace that festers for three and a half years and grows into the final conflagration of the great tribulation. Whether we like it or not, Osama bin Laden is the instrument by which a wedge is being driven between Islam and the West. The showdown has been launched. The gunfight at the OK Corral isn’t far off, but Peace comes first.
How close we are to the Rapture is blurred by how close it is. Could it be this Spring? We will have to watch and see if we see the dead rise then. If not, then another year, but still so close that it’s blurred and hard to see. The key is watching the peace as I’ve always said. We’ve turned the corner, the only event left is the peace, and we won’t see that come to pass. So we are someplace between the corner and the peace right now with Spring just two months away.
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Thank you and God bless.
Humbly,
Your brother in Christ,
Brother Sal