Catchy title to the new book! NOT! There is so much confusion about the statement, "Nobody knows the day or the hour" that I thought it best to write about it, today. People basically put their head in the sand and say, "I can't know when Jesus is coming so I won't look at the signs of His coming.
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The reality is that there are two comings of our Lord. A secret coming called the rapture where no one on earth will see Him and then the actual second coming where every eye will see Him.
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Every instance of not knowing the day or the hour is a reference to the secret coming, the rapture. Two instances refer to the coming of the "New heaven and new earth" described in Revelation 21:1 and of that event Jesus said, "not even the angels of heaven know, nor the Son, but only the Father knows" (Matthew 24:35-36, Mark 13:31-32).
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However, every other instance of not knowing the day or the hour is referenced to the rapture. Why is that important? Because once the tribulation begins, the Bible is clear that we are seven years from the return of Christ. The seven year tribulation is described as two periods of 42 months, two periods of 1260 days, two periods of time, times and dividing of time. From the time when Antichrist shall make firm a covenant with many it is seven years until the return. So any kindergartner should be able to calculate the return of the Lord.
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However, of the rapture the Bible says, no one knows the day or the hour. This is a direct reference to the feast of trumpets which is celebrated by Jews around the world over two days because they say of that feast, "no one knows the day or the hour". Jesus' repeated reference to this phrase regarding the rapture points to the fact that the rapture will take place over the two day feast of trumpets which corresponded with what Paul wrote to the Thessalonians and the church in Corinth.
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"For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up [harpazo - seized out by force; it's from the Latin that the word derived for Rapture comes - rapio] with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord." - 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17
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"Behold, I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed." - 1 Corinthians 15:51-52
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Even John the Revelator wrote that the first thing to take place after the seventh church age was the sound of a trumpet and a call from heaven to come up here. He wrote:
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"After these things I looked, and behold a door stand open in heaven, and the first voice which I had heard, like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me, said, "Come up here!" - Revelation 4:1
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Feast of Trumpets is the first of the three fall feasts which all have yet to find prophetic fulfillment. Each of the seven feast [or appointed meeting times] from Leviticus 23 have a fulfillment in Jesus Christ. In the first coming fulfillment took place with the death, burial, and Resurrection of Passover, Unleaven Bread, and First Fruits. Then with the Holy Spirit coming on the day of Pentecost this fulfilled the early summer feasts. And it will be with the return of Christ that the fulfillment of the three fall feasts will take place, first with Trumpets and the rapture, then Day of Atonement and the actual second coming, and finally Feast of Tabernacles and the thousand year reign of Christ.
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I will close today by listing out the references made to the rapture through the passages that say "no one knows the day or the hour" all pointing to a catching away on an upcoming Feast of Trumpets.
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"Then there shall be two men in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one will be left. Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming." - Matthew 24:40-42
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"For this reason you must be ready too; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will." - Matthew 24:44
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Parable of the faithful and sensible slave, ends with... "The master of that slave [the evil slave] will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour which he does not know." - Matthew 24:50
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At the end of the parable of the ten virgins which is definitely a parable about the rapture, ends with; "Be on the alert then, for you do not know the day nor the hour." -Matthew 25:13
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"Blessed are those slaves whom the mster shall find on the alert when he comes... And be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming he would not have allowed his home to be broken into. You too, be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour that you do not expect." - Luke 12:37, 39-40 (the slave doesn't know the day or the hour)
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Faithful and Sensible Steward Parable ends with, "the master of that slave [who beat the other slaves] will come on a day when he does not expect him, and at an hour he does not know" - Luke 12:46 (again another reference to a coming at a day or hour he does not know, a reference again to Feast of Trumpets)
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"Be on guard, that yoru hearts may not be weighted down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of life, and that day come on you suddenly like a trap; for it will come upon all those who dwell on the face of all the earth. But keep on the alert at all time, praying in order that you may have strength to escape all these things that are about to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man. - Luke 21:34-36
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Other references to a coming day which no one knows the day or the hour tied to the rapture:
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"Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life." - John 5:28-29 [reference to the dead in Christ who will hear the sound of the trumpet and the voice of God - rapture]
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"Do not greive the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption." - Ephesians 4:30 [sealed until day of redemption of our body described in Romans 8:23]
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"For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ." - Philippians 1:6, 9-10 [day of Christ which no one knows the day or the hour]
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"Do not forsake the assembling together of yourselves as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more, as you see the day drawing near." - Hebrews 10:25 [what day? the day of the rapture which no one knows the day or the hour]
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"But you, brethern, are not in darkness, that the day should overtake you like a thief; for you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness; so then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober." 1 Thessalonians 5:4-6
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"Remember therefore what you have received and heard; and keep it, and repent. If therefore you will not wake up, I will come like a theif, and you will not know at what hour I will come upon you." - Revelation 3:3
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Here what I know, "I don't know exact day or the exact hour, but I know it is the day and the hour which no man knows, its the Feast of Trumpets!" Grace and Peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ!
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