The End Is Not Yet

Jesus did not teach that his followers must know end-time chronologies, the “times and seasons.” He did not provide them with specific “signs” by which they could decipher the day, the hour, or the “season” of his return or otherwise decode God’s prophetic timetables. Instead, he warned that many deceivers would come and “deceive many,” false prophets who perform “signs and wonders” and thereby misdirect and mislead the “elect.”

According to the Lord, these deceivers will propagate false information about the “coming of the Son of Man” and related events, including claims about its timing and the “signs” of its imminence - (Matthew 24:4-6, 24:23-27).

[Photo by Johannes Plenio on Unsplash]

Since its inception, the Church has seen and heard many “wars and rumors of wars,” along with earthquakes, famines, and other disasters and tragedies, both natural and manmade.

Jesus declared such things will come to pass, they are inevitable, but the “END IS NOT YET.” At most, they constitute harbingers of the eventual destruction of the existing world order, clear evidence that it will end and even now is winding down to its conclusion. However, such things are not “signs” by which anyone can calculate the timing of the last day.

The stress in his warning is on what his followers will “HEAR” from deceivers, the rumors, and claims of false prophets and false teachers intended to raise false expectations in the Assembly about the immediate future.

What Jesus did say about the timing of his return is crystal clear - “No one, not the angels of heaven or the Son knows the day or the hour of the coming of the Son of Man, except the Father alone.”

Only God knows that day’s timing. Alas, ever since Jesus said these words, deceivers and false prophets have worked tirelessly to insert loopholes in them so they can claim to know the “signs and seasons,” the “signs of the times,” and thereby calculate the proximity of the end.

HIS REPEATED WARNING

Repeatedly, Jesus warned that no one knows the timing of that day. For example, the lesson he drew from his analogy of the “days of Noah” was that the men of that day “knew not until the flood came and took them all away, so shall be the coming of the Son of man… Watch, therefore, for you know not on what day your Lord is coming.”

The sudden arrival of the “Son of Man on the Clouds” is analogous to a “thief in the night” who strikes when least expected. If a homeowner knew on which night the “thief” was planning to rob him, he would be prepared to catch him in the act.

Jesus stated explicitly that no one knows or can know the “day or hour” of his “coming.” The only exception to this rule is God, period. Moreover, nowhere did he stay that we can ascertain the general “season” of the end by observing the “signs” occurring about us in the world.

He reiterated this warning prior to his ascension when the disciples asked about the timing of the Kingdom’s restoration:

• (Acts 1:6-8) – “They, therefore, when they were come together, asked him, saying, Lord, do 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 set within his own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you: and you shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea and Samaria, and to the uttermost part of the earth.”

Instead of providing chronologies and lists of recognizable “signs,” Jesus commanded the disciples to wait until they received the Gift of the Spirit. Afterward, they would take the Gospel from Jerusalem to the “uttermost parts of the earth.”

In his ‘Olivet Discourse,’ the Lord pointed to the completion of that very mission as the one event that would trigger the “end” and the “coming of the Son of Man.” The task of the Assembly is not to decipher signs and calculate dates, but to preach the Gospel “to all nations” - (Matthew 24:14).

The point of his repeated warning is that his disciples must ALWAYS be prepared for his sudden arrival precisely BECAUSE they do not know its timing.  Its appearance will be swift and unexpected. On that day, it will be too late to prepare for his arrival, and any prophetic knowledge of “signs” will be futile.

In the meantime, his followers are commissioned to take the Good News of the Kingdom of God to every nation, a mission that must continue until the moment he does arrive “on the clouds.”

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