Dating The Rapture? Follow Up

Q

I wanted to point out something on your site that isn’t Biblical and is wrong to tell God’s Church. You have a post called “Dating the Rapture” and it says in the Answer area that you think the Second Coming will happen in 2018. That is date setting and is wrong. You cannot put a date on Jesus Christ. “No one knows the day nor hour”. Also, Matthew 24 was written to the Jews and Luke 21 to the Gentiles. Matthew’s account will be a survival book for the Jews during the Tribulation. “This generation” refers to the generation during the Tribulation, the generation of Jews. Please correct what you have because it is wrong and not biblical.

A

Remember the title had a question mark behind it. It was called “Dating The Rapture?” And while the Bible does say no one will know the day or hour of the Lord’s coming, 2018 is neither a day nor an hour. It also says that we should understand the times and seasons, and that we shouldn’t be taken by surprise. In Matt. 16:3 and Luke 19:41-44 the Lord rebuked Israel for not knowing the time of his 1st coming, and in 1 Thes. 5:4 Paul said the timing of His 2nd coming should not take believers by surprise either.

Both Matt. 24 and Luke 21 were written to the Jews, although they contain information that will be valuable to everyone on Earth at the time. The disciples had asked Jesus 3 questions about the 1st Century destruction of Jerusalem, the 2nd Coming, and the End of the Age (Matt. 24:3). The Lord focused primarily on the first question in Luke 21, and on the 2nd and 3rd ones in Matt. 24.

Matt. 24:34 can not refer only to the generation being born during the Great Tribulation because by the time it begins there will be only 3.5 years left until the 2nd Coming. It wouldn’t make any sense to say that some being born when it begins will still be alive when it ends. The phrase “all these things” means all the End Times signs, of which the re-birth of Israel in 1948 was the first.

I’ve made it clear that 2018 is my estimate of the timing of the Lord’s return based on my Biblical understanding. I share it with the intention of alerting people to the possibility that our time here may soon come to an end. What people do with that information is up to them, but there’s nothing about it that’s not Biblical.