In our original article, Watching and Waiting Is Not Knowing, we dissected many passages that people often cite when saying that we should know with certainty the general timeframe or the season of our Lord’s return for His bride. If the reader is unfamiliar with our original article, we highly recommend they read that article first, so they may get a solid foundation of our subject matter going forward.
Underlined Scripture passages are my own emphasis.
“But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father” – Mark 13:32
I have written extensively on this verse, and my article Mark 13:32 – ‘Neither the Son, But the Father’ encourages the body of Christ to truly believe what our Lord said. Regarding the rapture, no one knows the day or the hour, “but the Father” only.
The Greek word for “hour” is 5610 ὥρα “hora” and means “a time, or period, or hour. Properly, an hour; (figuratively) a finite ‘season’; limited time or opportunity to reach a goal (fulfill a purpose); a divinely pre-set time-period; a limited period to accomplish the Lord’s specific purpose, i.e., ‘the hour’ in which specific characteristics prevail exactly like that for a limited time.”
The Scriptures clearly declare to us that no one knows the day or the divinely established timeframe (the correct definition, above, to all future prophetic uses of the Greek word “hora,” here translated hour) of the resurrection/rapture of the church.
Creation Week is an Illustrative Picture of Human History with the 1,000 Year Rest of the Messianic Kingdom
What do I mean by ‘Illustrative Picture’?
I have discussed God’s six days of creation with the seventh day of rest as being an illustrative picture of approximately 6,000 years of human history and the Millennial Reign of Christ in The Prophetic Third Day.
Every generation before us for the past 2,000 years, however, believed they could very well be the generation to be alive when the Lord came for His bride, and The Imminency of the Rapture is what Christ and His Apostles taught concerning our blessed hope. So how does this truth align with this illustrative picture of Creation Week with cumulative Biblical history?
Past Generations Waiting and Watching in Vain?
How could this be? If the six days of creation is a patterned illustration of approximately 6,000 years of human history and the seventh day of rest to the Messianic Millennial Kingdom, would not the generations before us have been watching and waiting for their blessed hope in vain? No. Why?
If the rapture had occurred at any time in the last 2,000 years, there could have been another dispensation, unrevealed to us in the Scripture, that may have followed the church age before the beginning of the Tribulation. Do we have an example in the Bible of just such a situation? Yes, we do. The church age itself!
Though the Tanakh (Old Testament) spoke of God taking a people for Himself out of the Gentile nations, the concept of a church-age dispensation is entirely foreign to the Hebrew Scriptures. In the same way, there could have been another dispensation that was also not revealed to us in the Bible but was kept secret by God’s design, just as the church-age dispensation was a veiled mystery within the Tanakh.
Impossible to Calculate Accurately
When it comes to Creation Week being a representation of God’s plan for humanity, in the last couple of years, I have come to realize that this prophetic picture may not be an exact representation for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is: if these 6,000 years were calculatable to the exact year, then we should have more than a good idea of when the rapture should occur as we approach the 6,000-year mark. Would not this negate unknowable imminence as we drew nearer to the 6,000-year threshold – if we could precisely calculate history accurately – and anticipate the hour (divinely appointed timeframe) of the rapture the closer we got? It certainly would.
The illustrative pattern of this theory, in my opinion, is Biblically sound, but the exact, to the year dimension to it does seem to be extremely problematic. This issue, though, can be resolved when we realize that we really do not know exactly where we are on God’s divine timeline, or the exact chronological dimension to time, in relation to this symbolic pattern of Creation Week to God’s overall plan of redemption and consummation, and that this relationship is essentially an illustrative pattern.
With that said, the general consensus among reliable conservative creationists that study the genealogies and chronologies of Scripture is that God created the heavens and the earth approximately 4,000 BC and that we are currently approaching somewhere in the vicinity of the 6,000-year mark since creation, give or take an indeterminate amount of time.
Genetic research also confirms this approximate age!
While the Bible’s timeline of ancient history can be considered nothing short of impeccable in many regards (e.g., 1 Kings 6:1), there are always issues when it comes to an exact chronology. While these concerns are not in the scope of this study, I do believe we would do well to admit that we have a pretty good idea of where we are, approximately, but no one other than God knows exactly where we are positioned in the scheme of precise and accurate historical and Biblical chronology.
At this time, it would behoove me to take the opportunity to thank the men and women down through the centuries who have attempted to calculate where we are in relation to creation using Biblical and secular historical data. Just having an approximation on when creation occurred has been invaluable to the body of Christ.
I do realize, however, that there are those who claim they know for certain where we are on God’s divine timeline, chronologically, but I am always very skeptical and cynical of these assertions. Why? For some of the reasons we discuss below; examples that can only scratch the surface.
Noah’s Flood
When it comes to Noah’s flood timeline, Creation Science scientists – scientists with PhD’s from secular universities who have rejected Darwinian evolution in favor of Biblical creation and the historical creation narrative in Genesis – have estimated that the flood occurred anywhere from 4,300-4,500 years ago. This is a two-hundred-year general disparity.
As an example, here are just three estimates on Noah’s flood by three excellent Creation science ministries.
Answers in Genesis (2011) estimates an approximate date for the flood as 2348 BC, 4,372 years ago from the year 2024.
Institute for Creation Research (2018) estimates an approximate date for the flood as 2472 BC, 4,496 years ago from the year 2024.
Creation Ministries International (1981) estimates an approximate date for the flood as 2304 BC (+/- 11 years), 4,328 years ago from the year 2024.
As we can see, there is a 168-year discrepancy between the earliest and latest estimates of when the flood occurred in just these three articles from three Creation scientists.
Creation scientists are also conflicted with each other when it comes to the age of Earth from creation, as many believe we have yet to cross the 6,000-year threshold, while others say that we have. Given we have the disparity of 200 years or so regarding the flood, I think it safe to just say that we are somewhere around the 6,000-year mark, give or take an indeterminate amount of time.
We should be honest here: Christians cannot even agree what year Jesus was born or what day or year Christ was crucified, let alone the dates of events that occurred thousands of years earlier.
When it comes to those who insist they know exactly where we are in God’s economy, chronologically, I doubt very highly that any man or woman will have anything to brag about in the presence of God. No one should ever be able to say in heaven, “I am the only one who accurately calculated God’s chronological timeline,” to the exclusion of everyone else. This is Creator God’s divine chronological timeline and not ours; though, as His creations made in His image, God certainly desires us to know approximately where we are, hence all the internal historical Biblical data He provided to us.
What is a Biblical Year and What is God’s Calendar?
Mankind has used many different calendars throughout unique periods of time and in various societies and cultures down through the millennia since creation.
Fascinatingly, when it comes to God’s calendar, God has divinely elected not to clearly reveal this to us in His Word, as there is no definitive and conclusive calendar provided within the Torah, the rest of the Tanakh, or the Brit Chadashah.
When it comes to Israel, this debate on the calendar seems to have been an ongoing discussion for centuries. Just a casual search on the internet shows the illusiveness to knowing anything for certain, though many people can become very self-certain in their own views. The general debate seems to revolve around whether a solar or lunar calendar was intended to be observed – and how it was to be calibrated – with the discussion getting more convoluted and complicated from there.
Please do not misunderstand me on this: God does cite the passage of time in years in Scripture, but Scripture does not reveal to us or define exactly how those years are to be fully understood, calibrated, and calculated.
Known Unknowns
One of the verses we cite for God’s Creation Week picturing the approximate prophetic pattern of 6,000 years of human history and the 1,000 years of rest in the Messianic Millennial Kingdom is 2 Peter 3:8:
“But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” – 2 Peter 3:8
The Greek word for “as” is 5613 ὡς “hós” and means as, like, like as, even as, that about, how, when, since, as long as.
In 2 Peter 3:8, we are seeing a comparison of, like as, like, as, about, that about, etc., which essentially signifies something that is not exact in nature but is to be considered very or somewhat similar.
When it comes to the Scriptural theory of approximately 6,000 years of human history with the Millennial Kingdom of rest – again, I see this myself as a sound Biblical pattern, but not necessarily in an exact science because of what we are speaking of – there are what I refer to as known unknowns.
For instance, in An Examination of the ‘Day of the Lord’, we discovered that the day of the Lord, which includes the Tribulation and the Messianic Millennial Kingdom, is 1,007-plus years long. Why do I say “plus” years long? Because we have at least two known unknowns.
The first is The Gap of time in between the rapture of the church – which inaugurates the day of the Lord – and the commencement of the Tribulation. The Gap is an unknown amount of time that is included within the day of the Lord.
The second is when the Messianic Millennial Kingdom is completed, Satan will be released from his prison to deceive the whole world for a “little season” and bring those multitudes who rebel against Messiah and His people to Jerusalem where God will devour them with fire out of heaven (Revelation 20:7-9). We do not know how long this little season is.
Therefore, we have The Gap of unknown time and the Tribulation, along with the unknown time of the little season at the conclusion of the Millennial Kingdom when Satan is released from prison to deceive the world one last time – all of which is seven-plus years longer than the 1,000-year Messianic Kingdom. We also have the 75 days in between the Second Coming and the beginning of the Messianic Kingdom to add into the day of the Lord. Thus, this day of the Lord is not exactly 1,000 years by any means and is even longer when we consider the next known unknown.
Our next known unknown is the last event of the day of the Lord and is the passing away of the old earth and the old heavens. How long after the above rebellion of Satan and his human rebels does this occur, how long does this event transpire, and how does it fit into our timeline? We do not know how long all of this will take, but we do know that it is the last event of the day of the Lord!
All of this demonstrates that the day of the Lord is longer than 1,000 years, which begins with the rapture of the church and is completed at the passing away of the old Earth and heavens. On just this count alone, we can reasonably infer that Creation Week, as an illustrative picture of God’s plans of reconciliation, redemption, and consummation for humanity, is obviously not meant to be an exact representation and/or an exact science.
Furthermore, when we consider human history, would we include the Great White Throne Judgment and the creation of the new Earth and new heavens, preparing redeemed mankind for the Eternal Kingdom into our illustrative pattern? We just do not know, as this is another known unknown.
Moreover, if we were to attempt to calculate when these 6,000 years were to begin (if this were to be taken as an exact representation), would we begin with the creation or the fall? If the fall – which makes logical sense due to God’s plan of salvation for mankind not taking effect until then – then we are left with the fact that we do not know how much time elapsed between creation and the fall, let alone when creation occurred, despite the emphatic claims of those who say they do know.
[For more on this topic, please see When Was ‘The Fall’?]
These are just a few of the known unknowns that enter my mind when I consider this prophetic illustrative picture.
Lastly, there may be – and almost certainly are – other variables that we just may not be aware of or have never considered.
Pertinent Passages
“But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.” – Galatians 4:4-5
Some have suggested that “the fulness of the time” was exactly at the 4,000-year mark after creation. However, this passage just states that when the Father deemed it the perfect time – “the fulness of the time” – He “sent forth His Son.” He will do the same at the rapture!
I will profess that when this “fulness of the time” came, we were certainly in the proximity of the 4,000-year mark after creation, give or take an indeterminate amount of time either way, but to say that it was exactly 4,000 years at this point in history – whether Messiah’s birth or crucifixion – is pure speculation on our part.
“After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight.” – Hosea 6:2
Many have suggested that this verse implies that immediately “after two days” – or exactly 2,000-years – following Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection, Christ will come back straightaway upon the dawning of that “third day.”
With the Hebraic preposition “be” or “bay” translated “in” in front of “yôm” for “day,” followed by “haššᵊlîšî” – rendered, “the third” – these two compound Hebrew words literally read “in day the third.” Converted to modern-day English, we could render the phrase, “within the third day.”
This would be akin to me saying, “I will be there after Passover, visiting you in or within the Feast of Unleavened Bread.” You know that I will not be coming on Passover – arriving afterwards – but you do not know which day I will be arriving during, in or within, the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
The language used does not afford someone to emphatically declare that this raising up will immediately commence when the second day becomes the third day, but that it will occur at an unknown time in or within the third day. Since the verse begins with, “After two days will He revive us,” or “He will revive us after two days,” it is certainly reasonable to suppose that the Lord’s Second Coming will occur early on in or within this third day, but no one should categorically insist that this would imply immediately when the third day dawns.
As we have repeatedly stressed, the pattern of Creation Week is just that – an illustrative pattern. And as we also noted, though the Messianic Kingdom is exactly 1,000 years, the day of the Lord itself is 1,007 years, plus an indeterminate amount of time.
Lastly, in The Parable of the Fig Tree, we discovered that, in addition to the generation that sees all those things Christ mentioned in the immediate context from the Abomination of Desolation leading up to the Second Coming, His parable was not referring to the rebirth of the nation of Israel, but Israel and her neighboring nations being in a young and tender state that Jesus was alluding to. What then is the age a young and tender state for Israel and her surrounding nations? 10, 25, 30, 40 or more years? Again, we have another known unknown.
Does the reader see a pattern here?
Watching and Waiting Is Not Knowing
It seems more than obvious to me that the Lord does not want His people to know exactly where we are on His divine timeline. Why? I believe it has everything to do with the rapture and the fact that all future Bible prophecy has been put into the Father’s hands alone (Mark 13:32, Acts 1:6-7, Psalm 110:1, and 1 Corinthians 15:24-28).
Watching and waiting is directly related to godly living. Consider our Lord’s rebuke of the church at Sardis:
“And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.
“Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God. Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.” – Revelation 3:1-3
[Please see Watching and Waiting Is Not Knowing for more information regarding Revelation 3:3.]
“Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.” – 1 John 3:2-3
The hope of the rapture is directly related to godly living and purifies the Spirit-indwelt believer. Those who have this blessed hope, and are purified by it, are focused and wholly dependent upon the leading of the indwelling Holy Spirit as they earnestly watch and wait for their Lord’s return.
In Messiah’s parable of The Faithful and Unfaithful Servants, He said just as much:
“And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord… that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching… And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants… Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not.”
[Note: Yes, the Lord gives us a parabolic illustration of a literal 24-hour watch, but this is analogous to His church watching and waiting during the church age. To say anything different is disingenuous and does not align with Scriptural revelation of the rapture occurring in a prophetic “hour” – that of a divinely appointed timeframe – known only to the Father.]
“But and if that servant say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to beat the menservants and maidens, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken; The lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers.” – Luke 12:36-38, 40, 45-46
Notice that the Lord said that the unfaithful “servant say[s] in his heart, My Lord delayeth His coming” and “shall begin to beat the menservants and maidens, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken” and the Lord will come “at an hour when He is not aware.”
Likewise, our Lord said of the faithful servants, “Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord when He cometh shall find watching,” and that they should “Be ye therefore ready also, for the Son of man cometh at an hour ye think not.”
Both groups do not know when the Lord will come back, but the faithful servants are said to be “wait[ing] for their lord… that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately.”
Let us consider, once again, what our Lord said about the rapture:
“But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is.
“For the Son of Man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch.
“Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping.
“And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.” – Mark 13:32-37
The Greek word for “time” – as in “ye know not when the time is” – is 2540 καιρός “kairós” and means a measure of time, a fixed and definite time, a decisive epoch waited for, occasion, season of time, and appointed time (very similar to our word for hour – “hora” – defined as a “divinely appointed timeframe” in all prophetic tenses).
“Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour [“hora”] when ye think not.” – Luke 12:40
These statements from our Lord and Savior are not conditional.
Our Lord’s insistence that “[we] know not when the time [of the rapture] is” and that “the Son of man cometh at an hour [divinely appointed timeframe] when [we] think not” could not be clearer or repeated more often in various ways, and I pray that we are wise enough to believe Him.
A Dire Warning and Plea to Day and Date Setters
To our readers who get excited when they hear someone project a day, or a date, or a timeframe for the rapture of the church: Are you tired of having your heart broken? It does not have to be this way. If we just watch and wait as our Lord commanded us, we will never be disappointed. Please resist the temptation of following those who say they know the day, or date, or timeframe of the rapture.
To the Bible teacher who projects a day, or a date, or a timeframe for the rapture of the church: Why? Why are you doing something God never asked you to do? On the contrary, God said no one knows when the rapture will occur, and that includes you.
Since our Lord insists that no one, not even Himself, will know the day and hour (divinely appointed timeframe) of His return and that He will come back when we think not and when we least expect – and that we know not when the time is – then why are some of my beloved brothers and sisters so intent on trying to figure out something Jesus and the Apostles say they can never know?
Those trying to set a day – often a feast day such as Pentecost or the Feast of Trumpets – and those attempting to offer any date or date-range of the Lord’s return, are slighting our Lord’s Words when He repeatedly says that no one can know.
And please, dearly beloved, do not think that you are covering your bases when you are day, date, or timeframe setting by adding words to your suppositions such as, if, might, maybe, could be, I am just throwing that out there, etc., and then state that you are not date setting when you most certainly are day, date, and/or timeframe setting. Have a little respect for your audience and admit outright what you are doing, if you so desire to continue with your endeavors. Please do not insult the intelligence of your readers. They deserve better.
So, why do people attempt to predict the day, date, or timeframe of the rapture? Observationally, it appears to be an addictive behavior; something that many cannot seem to break. Only one answer comes to my mind: It is all an effort to be sensational (with some trying to sell a product) by tickling the ears of the prophetic community (and the ears of many in the prophetic community do love to have their ears tickled) and acquire the accolades of men. All this appeals to the flesh and not the spirit. I sorrowfully know of no other logical reason.
Think about it: If someone, perhaps and hypothetically, were to accurately predict the day, date, or timeframe of the rapture, what glory would there be for the Lord? All the glory would go to that person, would it not? Does this sound appropriate to you? Anybody?
Would the Lord commend and reward that person, and others who do the same, for taking their God-given valuable resources of time and energy to do something He never asked them to do, when they could have used those valuable God-given resources of time and energy to win souls for His Salvation Kingdom and edify the body of Christ, which He did ask them to do?
So, please, I plead with my brethren who partake in this enterprise to put this foolishness behind them and do those things our Lord has commanded us all to do: namely, sharing the gospel with the lost, edifying the body of Christ in practical and Biblical ways, loving and serving our Lord, and loving and serving others.
Conclusion
Jesus made it very clear that only the Father knows when He will send His Son for His bride, that no one but the Father knows the literal day or the hour (divinely set timeframe) of our Lord’s return, and that our blessed hope will come at a time we least expect.
When it comes to the so-called “high watch days” of the feasts of the LORD for the occurrence of the rapture, I have addressed why I believe this to be a Scripturally unsound concept and an unnecessary diversion for the body of Christ in Rapture Soothsaying and Imminence, Signs, and Feasts – Oh My!
Witnessing the utter disappointment and dejection of precious brothers and sisters who have believed the latest prophetic projections of the rapture of the church down through the years has been absolutely devastating, and it just seems to get worse with each passing expectation. This truly breaks my heart.
Unrealized anticipations that tragically go unmet and unfulfilled year after year because of promises or emotionally charged projections by trusted Pastors and Bible teachers, should tear at everyone’s heartstrings.
“Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming?” – 2 Peter 3:3-4a
I cannot help but wonder if there is a hidden aspect to Peter’s prophecy: that some Christians are partly responsible for the scoffers mocking us due to our hyperbole surrounding consistent overt predictions in some portions of the prophetic community that this will be the year our Lord returns for His bride – empty promises made year after year after year. Why do we continue to do this? What do we have to gain?
If we just watch and wait for our blessed hope, as our Savior commands us, we should never find ourselves reeling from high expectations that may not come about when we think that it must or when the conditions seem to be positioned perfectly for a future event’s timing that we are told we cannot know with any certainty whatsoever. We should not be expecting the rapture because of any Tribulation signs we may see on the horizon or because we are somewhere around the 6,000-year mark, but simply because the Lord has commanded us to be eagerly watching and waiting for His return.
In any case, it should always be more than enough for the body of Christ to be very excited with anticipation – just as our brothers and sisters before us have been – in knowing that the rapture could happen at virtually any moment! Live as if the rapture could happen today and witness to the lost as if the rapture could happen tomorrow, because it truly could!
Our only job is to watch and wait, with the Holy Spirit purifying and creating within us a godly life, so we will not be taken by surprise when the rapture occurs.
Please, Saint, do not let this teaching cause any discouragement or consternation within your soul. None of this should steal your joy when it comes to The Imminency of the Rapture. Just because we do not know the day or the hour of our deliverance and departure from this world does not mean that the rapture is not near. I will tell you that, personally, just as the generations before us, I am expecting the rapture at any moment, and have been for over 20 years. One thing I do know is that each day that passes gets us one more day closer to our blessed hope. And to me, that is exciting. Here today and gone tomorrow is a very real possibility — and so is gone today!
I look so forward to that blessed day, and I know you do, too, precious Saint.
Until then, as the bride of Messiah Yeshua, let us be about our divine calling in fulfilling our Bridegroom’s mission of growing the Salvation Kingdom by spreading the life-saving gospel message to a lost and dying world who so urgently needs to hear it. Our God is so mercifully patient and does not want any to perish, but entreats all to come to repentant faith in His Son, Jesus Christ. We should desire the same.
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May we all keep Answering the Call of The Great Commission, and giving an answer to every man and woman who so desperately needs Jesus and asks us, “Why Am I Here and What Is It All About?”
Love, grace, mercy, and shalom in Messiah Yeshua, and Maranatha!
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