World History, Chapter 15: Edited 12/7/23.
“No Man Knows the Day or Hour.”
This generation can look back in history and understand much better God’s prophesies; prophesies that have for centuries been hid in God and not understood by us, that is, not until this generation. Prophesies are declarations that have come from God concerning the future of nations and people. And when these prophesies are fulfilled, as written, they give and continue to give convincing evidence that God is. The mind of man must be informed of this relationship and what lies ahead for him. Peter wrote,
2 Peter 1:19, “You do well that you take heed.”
Let’s discuss the following two verses in detail.
Matthew 24:36; Mark 13:32, “But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.” Now Jesus is going to answer the following questions. Acts 1:3, “Tell us, when shall these things be: and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?”
“What will be the sign of thy coming and the end of the world?” Jesus answered this when he told his apostles, before I return, there will arise false Christs, and false prophets. The Jews will witness the abomination of desolation standing in God’s holy place atop Mt. Moriah, where Islam’s Dome of the Rock now sits, and where the antichrist will establish his Temple. The Jews will go into the tribulation, they will witness the sun and moon giving no light. When all these things come to pass, the generation that was born in Israel in 1948 until this day, “Will not pass, until all these things be fulfilled.”
I also believe it will be the Father who will judge the devil and then cast him into the lake of fire and brimstone, and who will judge all those found in Revelation 20:12-15. Jude 9, “The Lord rebuke (judge) thee.”
Now let’s take a look at the word “knoweth” or to “know.” Most every commentator I have read believes what Jesus was saying, “No one has or will ever have that information not even the Son, but the Father only.”
I disagree with this assessment. The present tense of the verb “knows” in Matthew 24:36 and Mark 13:32 expresses the state of understanding and the knowledge of men, angels and the Son of God at the time Jesus spoke these words, “knows, or knoweth is in the present tense, not future tense.
In Matthew there appears to be a discrepancy between verse 34 and 36, “This generation shall not pass, till all these things are fulfilled.”
What generation was Jesus speaking of? Was Jesus in the context of Matthew 24 speaking of His generation, or was He making reference to a future generation? Of course, it has to be this generation, the generation we are living in.” It’s the generation that has returned to their land in May 1948 as promised by the Lord that is to witness these events.
When Jesus was manifest in the flesh, Philippians 2:7, He had “Made himself of no reputation and (He) took upon himself the form (meaning nature) of a servant and was made (appeared to us) in the likeness of a man; (he) humbled himself and became obedient (to the will of the Father) to death.”
When Jesus took on the form and likeness of a man, he emptied himself of his glory. Some may ask, how would Jesus have appeared to us if he had appeared in all his glory? Matthew 17:2, “His face (would) shine as the sun, and his raiment (clothes) would be as white as the light.”
So He took on the nature of a servant, and because of the mind that was in him, He humbled himself and made himself lower than the angels.
And what was the Lord’s purpose for coming?
John 5:30, Jesus said, “I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which has sent me.” Also;
Matthew 18:11, “For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost.”
Matthew 15:24, Jesus said, “I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
After His resurrection and assentation, He sat at the right hand of the Father on High in all His glory. All that the Father has are his; He is Lord and King of heaven and earth; He rules with the word of his mouth; and the devil and his angels are obedient to his every word.
So who was/is Jesus? Revelation 1:8, Jesus said, “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, — which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.”
The Almighty” is a title given only to the Creator.
Now let’s get back to the subject; did Jesus mean that no man then or in the future would know the day or the hour; or were his words only for that present moment?
Now Jesus promised that after His assent into heaven, he would send His Holy Spirit.
John 16:13, Jesus said, “When he, the Spirit (Holy Spirit) of truth, is come, he will guide you into ALL truth: for he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come. Verse 15, “All things that the Father has are mine:”
To guide means to lead: to show or declare, meaning to make known, to tell: and as a transitive verb it would express an action that passes from the agent (Holy Spirit) to us; and that information can be counted as absolute.
And because Jesus is Omniscient and knows all things, he can now reveal these once hidden truths of God to His Holy Spirit, because now the time is right. Why, because we are now in the generation that Jesus was speaking of.
1 Corinthians 13:12, Paul wrote to the early church, “Now (present tense) we (Christians back then) see through a glass (mirror), darkly (dimly) but then (is a word of time that speaks of the future) face to face:”
The revelations that had once been hid in Scripture had to wait for history to unfold, and when it did, the Holy Spirit has given believers the understanding of these once hidden prophesies. All declarations revealed are to agree fully with scripture; and have to give to us a clear understanding of the words given the prophets.
The Holy Spirit has universal knowledge; knowledge that extends to all persons, times, places and things,
Hebrews 4:13, “Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.”
Therefore I have to conclude that the mystery of Jesus second coming had been written and hid in Scripture for two thousand plus years; things once unknown but now understood. Daniel spoke of things thousands of years in the future and wrote;
Daniel 12:9, “I heard, but I understood not: then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things? And he (one of the men standing on the water) said, “Go your way Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.”
Time here is Daniel in the Hebrew is, “a-thath.” or “attah. The word as a noun masculine singular means time, season or the appointed time. Examples follow:
Ecclesiastes 3:2, “A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted.”
Ecclesiastes 9:12, “For man also knoweth not his time: as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare; so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falls suddenly upon them.”
Let me conclude with this; I have always felt because our Lord is all knowing, the reason for the words, “But of that day and that hour knows no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father” is because Daniel 2 is a narrative of future empires and events. And because history is a systematic narrative of past events relating to particular people, countries, periods of time, etc., the history book had to be written first and then laid open for us to view.
2 Thessalonians 2:7, “For the mystery of iniquity doth already work:” So we are told that anti-Christianity was already at work in Paul’s day.”
In Matthew 24:33-34-35, Jesus said, “When ye shall see all these things (all the end time events He spoke of in Matthew 24,) know that it (the time) is near, even at the door.” — “This generation (those living at the time who witness these things, they), shall NOT pass till all these things be fulfilled.”
So there are men and women in this end time generation who will witness the events described in Matthew 24, and some shall be alive when they end. —- Jesus goes on to say, “But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.”
Here’s my question, is there any N.T. scripture written after Jesus spoke the above words that states, the Father would never reveal these things future generations?
When Jesus was asked the question, no-one knew, was he correct? Answer, yes! But no-where in Scripture does it say the Father would never reveal the time to someone in the future. Daniel’s prophecies have come down to the empires of “miry clay.” The time of the end has been hidden in Daniel’s prophecies now for 2600 years, but now are being revealed. All that need to be done is to study his words carefully, and the secrets that have been hid will be revealed.
Phil LaSpino www.seekfirstwisdom.com