One of the big questions in the back of people’s minds is, “If Jesus is going to come, why hasn’t He?” In Peter’s second epistle, after he reminds us that the holy prophets and he and the other Apostles have spoken of these things, he writes this:

“…Knowing this first, that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they werefrom the beginning of creation’” (2 Peter 3:3-4).

Scoffers would speak of this in derision and denial, but it is not an unreasonable question for the honest inquirer. We are encouraged to search the Scriptures for the hidden treasures that are there. And God says to all, “And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all yourheart” (Jeremiah 29:13).

The intensity of that position God takes on, opening Himself up to mankind, is magnified in how Jesus cautioned His disciples and later followers: “Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces” (Matthew 7:6).  Sincere seeks for truth are not snuffed out and shuffled to the sideline, as Jesus’ attitude in Isaiah 42:3 and Matthew 12:20 assures us:

“A bruised reed He will not break, and smoking flax He will not quench; He will bring forth justice for truth.”

Surely thoughtful prophecy students have recognized that if Jesus had come in A.D. 1325, for example, what would have happened to the promises God had made which had not yet come to pass? A prime example of that is the promise given to Israel that while they had been scattered among the nations of the world, they would one day be restored to their promised land. That did not happen until May 14, 1948.

Once that event happened, end time events began to fall into place, and the subject of prophecy began to gain new intensity. Of course, this seeming delay in the coming again of Jesus fits in real well for the doctrine of the Preterists who maintain that the end-time prophecies were fulfilled in the first century, at the crucifixion of Jesus and the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in A.D. 70. (Some have looked upon those positions and observed that “denial” is not a river in Egypt in this case.)

The springboard Scripture seems to be Luke 21:28, where Jesus declares this:

“Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near.”

And He goes right into what is called the “parable of the fig tree” that describes new life and a new era:

“Look at the fig tree, and all the trees. When they are already budding, you see and know for yourselves that summer is now near. So you also, when you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near” (Luke 21:29-31).

The connecting phrases are, in v. 28, “your redemption draws near,” and in vv. 29-31, “know that the kingdom of God is near.” Israel is called  “God’s timepiece” in spite of the continuous onslaught against that small nation as being of no consequence in world matters. But without question it is the focal point of international attention, even as a subtle presence when problems of radical Islamic terrorism erupt in any of the Middle Eastern nations.

An incident not yet having occurred is spoken of in Daniel 9:25-27, a prophecy that touches on the place of the “fig tree” in future events:

“Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandto restore and build Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; the street shall be built again, and the wall,even in troublesome times.

“And after the sixty-two weeks, Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself; and the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end of it shall be with a flood, and till the end of the war desolations are determined.

“Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week, but in the middle of the week he shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate, even until the consummation, which is determined, is poured out on the desolate.”

Now let’s think through these three verses:

·         The count for the seventy weeks in Daniel’s prophecy began with the commandment to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem in the times of Ezra and Nehemiah;

·         It would be a total of 69 weeks of years until the Messiah would come, the first Advent of Christ. A meticulous tracking of this time, in terms of years, is done by a British researcher, Sir Robert Anderson. [1]

·         The Messiah would be “cut off,” that is, crucified for the sins of mankind, not for Himself.

·         Then, the people from whom a later “prince” would arise, would conquer the city of Jerusalem and destroy it and its sanctuary (temple).

·         This was in A.D. 70 when the Roman legions under Titus stormed the city, destroying it and the temple. This reference and that of Jesus in Matthew 24:1-2 do not elaborate on any kind of spiritual blasphemy by Titus and the Romans. Titus did not take a position of deity in the temple, proclaiming himself as God. Jesus described how that glitter of gold between the stones of the temple buildings lured the Romans to take it apart, stone by stone, just as Jesus predicted.

·         From A.D. 70 until A.D. 136 the Jews resisted a flood of  warring legions intent on fulfilling, though without awareness, God’s promise to scatter the Jews throughout the whole earth.

·         The resulting desolation lasted some eighteen hundred years, until May 14, 1948, when Israel again reclaimed its kingdom and its deserts began to bloom like a rose;

·         Yet to come about is the content of v. 27, where “he” of the people who destroyed the city and the sanctuary will confirm a covenant with many, apparently for Israel’s benefit, for a period of seven years—one week, to make up that total of 70 weeks of years in Daniel’s vision.

·         Why is it for Israel? Half way through the week—three and one-half years—that “prince” will void the agreement and enter the temple and declare himself God, thus bringing abomination into the holy place.

·         This means that in that first half of the week a new temple will have been constructed and religious services will have been carried out by the Jews therein (Revelation 11:1-2).

None of this latter part has come to pass, but preparations for temple service have been extensive and pinpointing the exact location of the new temple is being refined.

The keynote issue is the confirmation of a covenant that Daniel foresaw. The recent Paris Agreement on Climate Change where 196 or so nations came together in an agreement may illustrate how this covenant will come about, that the United Nations will be the “many” who will join that rising personage who aspires to be king of the world and settle the dust of Israeli-Islamic confirmation for at least seven years.

Mentally lay this seven-year period down beside the seven years of “the time of Jacob’s trouble” (Jeremiah 30:7) and figure out where the hallway point is in Revelation 6 to 19. The continuity from the covenant confirmation to the man on the white horse riding onstage with a bow but no arrows, yet “conquering and to conquer” is a natural follow-up for that confirmation (Revelation 6).

It looks like the mid-point is at the beginning of chapter 13, and in chapter 17 we see where that “prince” of Roman heritage and also the confirmer of the covenant assumes total control and declares himself God as the eighth head of the beast.

However, other things must happen before that point in time. Paul writes of that lawless one assuming the place of God in the temple—which has not been rebuilt—and speaks of believers being taken out of the way before that desecration of the temple can occur. See 2 Thessalonians 2. Much more detail of that mysterious transformation is given in 1 Thessalonians 4:1- to 5:3, however, as well as 1 Corinthians 15:50-53.

A possible link to the confirmation of a covenant is in 1 Thessalonians 5:2-3 where Paul writes this:

“For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say, ‘Peace and safety!’ then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape.”

Who will, most likely, cry out “Peace and safety!” when a peace covenant is made that seems to assure them freedom to relax their security alertness and war-minded existence, to rebuild their temple and freely worship as they have not done in centuries? The Jews of Israel, of course.

It is not clear that that cry is uttered in reference to that covenant, but if it is, then the remaining question is, when is it uttered—at the announcement of an agreement to be signed or when the actual signing takes place?

But it is clear that when that cry is made, it sparks an action that begins the Day of the Lord, the beginning of those days of judgment in the seven years of the Tribulation period. It will be quietly, without fanfare, just as a thief appears in the night. At that moment, the One who comes will take away what He has come for—those who are His purchased possession—and sudden destruction will immediately begin. The Rapture will have occurred!

Things to come will do so at God’s appointed times; therefore, Jesus says, “watch, for you do not know at what hour your Lord may come.”

Endnotes

[1]  Sir Robert Andersonhttps://www.raptureready.com/resource/anderson/robert_anderson.html

Much has been said and written about that statement of Jesus, as to its implications and applications. It is the thought behind the parables of Jesus, teaching His disciples, and those following, the importance of faithfulness in our given stewardship responsibilities. Likewise, if we do not know the day or the hour, then knowing the specific year, month or week is not likely, either.

So we understand the importance of the next enlightenment Jesus opens up to us in regard to that day and hour—“when you see these things begin to happen….” Paying attention to the “signs of the times” is the way to “watch, for you do not know at what hour your Lord may come.”

A somewhat related event that sometimes gets tangled up with the “no one knows the day nor the hour” is the incident involving that last question the disciples had for Jesus just as He was beginning to ascend into the heavens in a cloud, as recorded in Acts 1:6-7:

“Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, ‘Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?’ And He said to them,‘It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority.’”

In other words, the Father has an appointed time for that to be fulfilled. Obviously, then, He had set an appointed time, and He did it, on May 14, 1948. So that incident had nothing to do, directly, with the coming of the Son of Man. It was, in fact, though, the door-opening event to begin the last of the latter days of this age.

After Paul writes of the marvelous transformation experience of the Rapture in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18, he uses that phrase “times and seasons” to alert the Thessalonians that another time of God’s appointment is coming upon them, in 1 Thessalonians 5:1-3 (Note—there were no chapter breaks in Paul’s original letter. The Rapture topic continues.):

“But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say, ‘Peace and safety!’ then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape.”

It may be comparable to the birthing of a child, when the water bag breaks to start the labor pains and the struggle to bear the child into the light of day. Such as this—the Rapture occurs, then seven years of “labor pains” until the Son of Man breaks through the veil of human history, again, into the light of day on earth in His Second Coming.

In speaking to the believers in this 21st century, as this eternal Word of God is meant to do, do we know perfectly these things? As the Holy Spirit led Paul to write these words, He would have known the promises of God yet to come to pass, and the signs of the times and seasons would be those of this final generation to observe—and to know perfectly what is on the threshold of history according to the Bible’s foretelling.

Let’s look at some of the signs of the times that are filling the airwaves of news media, both mainline and alternative sources. Probably the greatest volume of news content is given to the campaigns of the candidates for the presidential election in November, 2016. Never has there been so much controversy among candidates as there has been in this period in the Republican arena.

It is the year for outsiders, it seems, and for the first time ever the veil has been lifted on how candidates are selected for the ultimate election process. The terms, “insiders” and “the establishment,” have been identified as that inner circle of political movers and shakers who have actually put their chosen selections in place to perform the activities of apparent viable candidates with no strings of outside control attached to them.

It is just as they have done for decades under the guise of “free elections” and “choice of the people.” The oft-quoted phrase that defines our method of government as that “of the people, for the people and by the people” seems to resound with an ironic ring to it, much like the emptiness of a clanging cymbal.

When Barack Obama won the 2008 election, Henry Kissinger rather gleefully declared that “he has been primed to lead us into a New World Order.” After nearly eight years in the oval office, Obama has been considerably successful in accomplishing his stated goal made during that first campaign—to “fundamentally transform America forever!”

That means, “destroy the foundations of American sovereignty,” in any man’s language. That he is on the very brink of that accomplishment is undeniable. America’s national debt has more than doubled in these eight years, economic development and growth is dismal, military strength and viability are at their lowest since before World War II.

In recent weeks Obama has hinted at the possibility of a third term as president—not allowable under the Constitution. All he needs is some kind of civil uprising that would call for the institution of martial law, and he could legally postpone the presidential election, perhaps indefinitely.

Truly 2016 will be a very pivotal year, for that beast of Revelation 13 has a seventh head that is relentless in its determination to be formed and made operative as a one world government, the stated goal of the New World Order.

However, the sovereignty of the Lord of the universe cannot be destroyed, nor even sidetracked in the ultimate accomplishment of His goals. The plans and actions of “flesh and blood” will never overcome nor out-maneuver our God of the universe. That godless bulk of mankind, whose purposes since the days of the Tower of Babel have been to rule the world with a slave-holder mindset, wants equality for all, except that some are just more equal than others.

The point in time when the future is upon us and it becomes reality is rapidly closing. The secular world events are illuminating Bible prophecy, and the statement that “no one knows the day or the hour, except the Father” is bursting with eagerness to unfold.

Few prophecy students and teachers, it seems, are apparently willing to proclaim the meaningfulness of the seven feasts of the Lord which He outlined for Moses in Leviticus 23. God could not have been more specific in drawing attention to those seven feasts or festivals when in 2014 and 2015 those blood-red moon eclipses appeared exactly on the first and last of the seven feasts each year.

Since the time of Moses those feasts have been celebrated by Jews. By law they have been on the Jewish calendar every year as if God did not want them to forget their significance.

So what are some of the significant details of those feasts?

· They were pointing to future events for fulfillment;

· They did not mark Israeli accomplishments but foreshadowed future actions of God;

· The first four were fulfilled in the first few weeks, beginning with the crucifixion of Christ;

· None have been fulfilled during the centuries since;

· They are on the calendar roughly in the pattern of the harvest season;

· Their layout on the annual calendar seems to match the ministry of the Body of Christ and the Holy Spirit during the times of the Gentiles.

The first four feasts already fulfilled are the Feasts of Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits and Pentecost, the indwelling of believers by the Holy Spirit. The final three feasts are the Feasts of Trumpets, Atonement and Tabernacles, all in the fall months.

All of the feasts were pinpointed to a specific day on the calendar, except for one, and that one had a very specific requirement that left its exact day of beginning uncertain. The Feast of Trumpets was to begin at sunset in Israel on the designated day but only after that thin sliver of the new moon could be seen on the horizon and reported back to the religious leaders at the temple.

If it was covered with clouds and not seen, the feast could not begin. They would have to try again the next day, since a second day was part of the feast’s timing. Thus, the uncertainty results in exactly what Jesus said, “No man knows the day nor the hour.”

The connection between this feast and the coming of the Son of Man is found in the fulfillment of the foreshadowing this feast portrays of that which is to come, namely the Rapture of the Body of Christ. The Bridegroom comes to meet His Bride, and the Bride goes to meet Him inthe air, just as Paul writes of this in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17:

“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.”

A beautiful Old Testament portrayal of this event, the Bridegroom coming for His B ride, is in the account of Abraham taking his son, Isaac, to that designated mountain to offer him up to God, as related in Genesis 22. The picture reaches back to compare the incident with Jesus going to the cross on that same mountain and being sacrificed for the sins of mankind, followed by His departure and absence from the earth until that future return for His Bride.

In Genesis 22 after God had provided a ram caught in a nearby thicket for Abraham’s sacrifice instead of his only son, Abraham returns to where he left his two young men-servants and they return home. Strangely, there is no more mention of Isaac being included in that return, and he is not mentioned again until in Genesis 27.

There we see that Abraham sends his servant to find a wife for his son, Isaac, a Bride, if you will understand. The servant appears to be a type of the Holy Spirit, who finds that Bride and returns with her. As they approach the home-place, Isaac, out in the field, looks up, sees her coming and goes to meet her. God’s plan was in place before time began.

In 1 Corinthians 15:50-53, Paul refers to the trumpet sound, like in the passage above, as “the last trump.” Some have taken this to mean that the Rapture would occur at the seventh, or last, trumpet sounding in the series of judgments initiated by the sound of a trumpet that are listed in Revelation 8 and 9 and that seventh one at Revelation 11:15.

However, these trumpets are sounding warnings of judgment not glorious translations of believers to meet the Lord. In the details of the Feast of Trumpets are a series of four different types of soundings, the last one being a lengthy, wailing sound—“the last trump,” the call to assemble. In summary, then:

· The Feast of Trumpets, portraying believers going to meet the Lord;

· At a time that is uncertain as to the day or the hour;

· At the sounding of “the last trump” of a series of trumpet sounds at the festival’s beginning.

Have I set a date for the day or the hour? No.

Have I distorted or incorrectly stated the facts considered? I do not think so.

Have I narrowed the focus for those who would look for the coming of the Son of Man? Yes. Have I intensified the meaning of “watch for you do not know what hour your Lord may come?” Yes.

The apostle Paul would say to us, “And do this, knowing the time, that nowit is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer thanwhen we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light” (Romans 13:11-12). And Jesus says, “Occupy until I come.”