Repent For The End Is Near

In popular English, this might be paraphrased, �it�s none of your business to know the dates of future events which my father has appointed.�

This wasn�t a new teaching of Jesus. He had already taught that the kingdom of God could not be observed through signs (Luke 17:20).

In 2 Peter 3:10, Paul said �the day of the Lord will come like a thief.�

In Matthew 24:36, Jesus said �no one knows about that day or hour.�

In 1 Thess 5:2 it says �the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.�

Now, I realize that some of you may be thinking�no doubt prompted by some of the popular newspaper eschatology out there, things you�ve heard preachers say, or have read in books�you may be thinking, doesn�t scripture also say �you are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief?� Doesn�t scripture say specifically we can�t know the day or hour, but it doesn�t specifically say we can�t know the week or month or year? Date-setters argue that Jesus is saying, in effect, go ahead with your predictions, but don�t try to narrow it down to the day or the hour.

One writer called this �an attempt to pull an end-run on God, and find out what He expressly indicated is not to be found out.� It�s like pitting the spirit of the law versus the letter of the law. Since the spirit of the law looks at our hearts, as does God, and since God chided the Pharisees for following the letter of the law,instead of the spirit of the law, we�re on dangerous ground, when we try to rationalize our way around what should be a pretty clear statement of the Lord. It�s the kind of double-talk that makes so many Americans despise politicians. Do we really want people rightly accusing Christians of the same kind of thing?

If you told your child not to eat the cookies, because you wanted to save them for company, but he or she ate one and you found out, your child might respond, �I didn�t eat the cookies. Cookies is plural. I ate one, and there are still plenty left for company.�

Would that be an acceptable answer to you, as a parent? Is that keeping with the spirit of what you intended?

The more detailed one attempts to map out the future, the more inferences one must make which are not explicit in the Scripture. Therefore, the tendency of the imagination to fill the gaps increases and the probability of erroneous calculation grows. John Piper

I could get into a lot of theological hair-splitting that the date-setters, or what one writer called the �calendarizers� have to do, to get around the clear meaning of these scriptures we just cited. I could take some time examining the Greek meaning of the words day and hour, and tell you how these, according to the context, can mean general appointed time, not a literal day or hour. I could point you to scriptures where the word translated day can mean a period from several months to an indefinite period of years. But I won�t waste time with that.

What I want to emphasize today is the context in which these statements were made, and the point Jesus, and in the epistles, Paul and Peter, were trying to make. We don�t know the time of his return, and we don�t need to know. It doesn�t affect our relationship with the Lord Jesus, it doesn�t impact our salvation, and it doesn�t affect our ability to follow Him with our whole hearts. Date-setting, over-speculation on the details, is missing the point. The emphasis is on watchfulness, and readiness, and holiness, not on speculation.