Posted by Bibleman [Bibleman] on November 11, 1999 at 02:01:15 {mJnjjpluA6MRXA6xmpscslyACFuF8c}:
In Reply to: For Friend From Fleeing posted by Shelby on November 10, 1999 at 20:49:34:
Hi Shelby,
This is an interesting exercise in interpretation.
But there are some DETAILS you overlook.
The "end of the system of things" or the "end of the age" that is the topic of discussion is NOT the "end of the world." Luke 21:24 tells us specifically which "age" is being referred to and it is the "APPOINTED TIMES OF THE NATIONS."
That is the "system of things that would END." The APPOINTED TIMES of the nations, of course, appropriate ends when? When Jesus takes up his own kingdom power. It's the end of the "7 times" prophecy of 2520 years.
So your conclusion about Jesus not giving a specific time is totally erroneous:
I'll take words out of His sentence so that it reads straight up. Heaven and earth will pass away, but of THAT day and hour no one knows. Here He is talking about 'the end', but gives no information to pin down the time so why would He spend 34 verses giving hints to something they're not supposed to know anyway.
The reason why this doesn't work for you is that you you are reading this out of context. The date of the Messiah's return is specific. It has to fulfill the 2520 years from the fall of Jerusalem and it must fulfill the "1335 days" prophecy which mandates a period of 45 years from the time of the end of the trampling and the Jews return to Palestine until the Messiah arrives.
So when Jesus said, "no one knows the DAY nor HOUR" this was very specific, since they did know the YEAR. The YEAR must be fulfilled.
But the "day nor hour" reference has a further meanting. Matthew 24:26 states: "Concerning that day and hour nobody knows, neither the angels of the heavens nor the Son, but only the father."
This refers back to a critical circumstances of this event and that is as stated in verse 29 which says "Immediately after the tribulation of those days the SUN will be darkened..."
This is thus a reference that the Messiah who would return as the prodigal son in the imperfect form at the Second Coming would not know prior to his becoming the Messiah that he was the Messiah. This reference to the "darkening of the sun" is a reference to the spiritual darkness of the prodigal-son Messiah. His test requires this understanding of scripture not to be understood until after the fact.
So this is a "coded" message in scripture to tell us something specific about the Messiah not knowing anything about becoming the Messiah until it actually occurs.
None the less, there is no contradiction since we know the Bible does require the absolute dating of the YEAR for the appearance of the Messiah and the "end of the gentile times" 2520 years after the fall of Jerusalem. So the YEAR is known. Thus the reference to nobody knowing the "day nor hour" is specific to just the DAY and HOUR.
This even works out to be absolutely true for the eagel-class who have to set up a mock death for the prodigal-son Messiah who up to this point doesn't know he's the Messiah. That's because the whole event took place over a period of three days. But there was a two-day period from after Midnight of December 25 through the afternoon of December 26 when this event was to happen. But the exact DAY AND HOUR when the kingdom would actually be set up was not known to them. They knew it was either December 25th or December 26th, but they didn't know which day nor the specific hour. And even the angelic Jesus in Heaven may not have known that. During this period there had to be the legal "battle in heaven" and then Satan got kicked out of heaven. But exactly when the trial would be over during these two days may have been something Jehovah totally kept to himself. It was something Jehovah left to himself.
So when it says nobody knows the DAY AND HOUR it is quite specific, because some knew one out of two days, but nobody may have known the specific HOUR. And lots of people knew the YEAR.
Of note, only after the prodigal-son Messiah became the Messiah in this fashion, that the parable of the "prodigal son" struck home as being about him. Not that the Messiah was to come in the imperfect flesh, but that the Messiah would be a person who spent most of his life out of the truth and disfellowshipped for immorality before finally returning.
It was only after the fact that he then recognized
why the event of baptizing the Ethiopian eunuch who was reading Isaiah 53 was significant or the reference in Revelation about the Lord being killed in "Sodom and Egypt."
It was only after-the-fact that it was clear these were clues to the eagle-class as to how to recognize who the chosen one to become the Messiah in the flesh would be.
But all tha aside, this underscores more than ever the significance of CHRONOLOGY. The "appointed times of the nations" we know were to continue after the 70CE destruction of Jerusalem. But for how long? The scheduled time period of 7 times was 2520 years after the fall of Jerusalem. So this would be well into the future. The signs were given as well to help critically identify when this time period was.
To paraphrase, as you did, when they saw more than half the nation wiped out in a horrorible tribulation and then the restoration of the Jews to Palestine, that was there sign that the Messiah was about to take up kingdom power. That great tribulation which nearly wiped out "all flesh" of the Jews was the HOLOCAUST, and the manner of their near-genocide is called the "worst event in human history." This tribulation was a one-time event. And it PRECEDES the Second Coming.
Note again:
Matthew 24:29 says: "IMMEDIATELY AFTER the tribulation of those days...."
Mark 13:24 "But in those days, AFTER that tribulation, the sun will be darkened...."
According to Daniel 12, there must be at least 45 years from the end of the trampling of the holy ones until the Messiah arrives to fulfill the 1335 days. If this is all to happen within a "generation" of 80 years (Ps. 90:10) then that great tribulation must have come and gone within the first 35 years of that post-1914 generation, which means between 1914 and 1949 there must have been an incident of near-genocide of the Jews in which more than half their number would perish.
Question is, is there any event during that period that matches that requirement to fulfill that prophecy? Were the Jews ever facing the possibility that "no flesh would be saved", meaning total genocide. And did this tribulation wipe out more than half their number in an event that woudl shock the world?
The answer is YES! And that event was the HOLOCAUST.
If we date the end of that tribulation in 1947 when the Jews returned to Palestine then the Messiah should have arrived 45 years later in 1992 and that is when the "sign of the Son of man in the clouds" should have occurred.
It did. December 26, 1992. Pictures were taken.
Cheers,
Bibleman
P.S. There is no way getting out of the HOLOCAUST being the "great tribulation." It has to happen to Daniel's people. It has to happen to the "holy ones." This tribulation is the "dashing of the holy ones to pieces." The "holy ones" are the Jews. It was they who were trampled upon and dashed to pieces during the HOLOCAUST.