Theological Digression: “No one knows”

Whenever someone comes up with a new theory about when the Rapture might happen, it is not uncommon for someone to say “Well, the Bible says no one knows when the Lord will return, so we shouldn’t be speculating about it.” I’d like to take a moment to address that criticism.

The verse that is being quoted can be found in two places in the Bible. Let’s take a look at them.

Matthew 24:36: “But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.
37 But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark,
39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
40 Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
41 Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
42 Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.
43 But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.
44 Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.”

The passage states that no one knows the day or hour of the Lord’s return. However, it is critical to understand that the Lord is not talking about the Rapture here, but is instead talking about His return at the end of the Great Tribulation.

There are a couple things that make this clear. First, this entire passage is a response to three questions the disciples asked Christ. These questions can be found earlier in the chapter:

Matthew 24:1: “And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to show him the buildings of the temple.
2 And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? Verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.
3 And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?”

As can be seen, the disciples asked three questions: when would the Temple be destroyed, what sign would happen just before the Lord returned, and what would be the sign that the world was about to end? The disciples asked these questions because they believed the destruction of their Temple would be a part of the end of the world. As it turned out, they were wrong.

Christ, in turn, started talking about the Great Tribulation. We know He was not talking about the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD (at which point the Temple was actually destroyed) because of what He told the disciples to be expecting. In fact, many of the signs He mentioned still have not happened. For example:

1. The Abomination of Desolation

Matthew 24:14: “When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)
15 Then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains:”

This is a reference to Daniel 9:26, which says:

Daniel 9:27: “And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.”

Here Daniel is talking about the Great Tribulation. The Antichrist will sign a seven-year peace treaty with Israel (the phrase “one week” is symbolic for seven years), and in the middle of those seven years he will break the treaty and stop the sacrifices in the Temple. In fact, he will go even further and install himself in the temple, declaring that he is God:

2 Thessalonians 2:3: “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.”

None of those things happened in 70 AD. Israel did not sign a seven-year peace treaty with the Antichrist. The Temple was destroyed, but the Antichrist did not install himself in the temple and declare to the world that he was Almighty God. That has yet to happen.

2. The Great Tribulation

Matthew 24:21: “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.
22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.”

This states that just before Christ returns there will be a “great tribulation”. This time of trouble will be the worst thing the world has ever seen. Nothing worse ever happened before it and nothing worse will ever happened after it. In fact, it is so bad that if it was not shortened no flesh would be saved – in other words, if God did not cut it short every living thing on Earth would die.

Needless to say, that has not happened yet either. When Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 AD it was a time of great trouble, and something like a million Jews were slaughtered, but it was certainly not the worst thing that ever happened in all of history. It was not even the worst event to ever happen to the Jews – during the Holocaust 6 million Jews were killed, or nearly 2/3rds of the world’s population. So this has not happened yet either.

3. The Sign of the Son of Man

Matthew 24:30: “And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, …”

This has also not happened yet. No one even knows what the “sign of the Son of man” is. It certainly has not appeared in the sky and caused all of the nations to mourn.

4. The Return of Christ

Matthew 24:30: “And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.”

This, clearly, has not happened yet either. Jesus has not returned to Earth from Heaven with power and great glory. The Second Coming is still in the future.

5. The Gathering of the Elect

Matthew 24:21: “And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the one end of heaven to the other.”

This has not happened either. The elect are still on Earth. The trumpet has not sounded.

The point of all this is that when the disciples asked Christ what the sign of His coming would be, He basically told them this:

* There would be wars and rumors of wars (v6)
* There would be famines and earthquakes (v7)
* Christians would be persecuted (v9)
* There would be the abomination of desolation (v15)
* There would be the worst time of trouble the world has ever seen and will ever see (v21)
* The sign of the Son of man would appear in heaven, causing all the nations to mourn (v30)
* And then Christ would return.

Christ, then, spent the whole chapter talking about His return after the end of the Great Tribulation. When Christ said in verse 36 that “of that day and hour knoweth no man”, He was talking about His coming after the Tribulation. All we know is that after the Tribulation ends the sign of the Son of man will appear in the sky, and at some point after that Christ will return. The exact timing of His return is unknown.

The key point here is that Christ is not talking about the Rapture of the Church. The Church is never mentioned in the entire chapter. We already know, based on other passages, that the Church will not be on Earth during the Great Tribulation – they will be Raptured out first. (I have discussed this in another paper, so I will not repeat that here.) Jesus is telling people who get left behind what to expect during the Great Tribulation and how they will know that the Lord is about to return.

Therefore, the idea that this verse teaches that no one knows when the Rapture will happen, and therefore we shouldn’t even speculate about it, is wrong because this verse is not talking about the Rapture. This can also be seen in the other place where this is discussed – Mark 13:32-37. Mark 13 is almost a copy of Matthew 24 (you can read it for yourself and see what I mean). Once again, the focus of the “no man knows” statement is Christ’s return at the end of the Great Tribulation. These passages don’t even mention the Rapture.

In fact, when the Bible does talk about the Rapture it goes so far as to say that the event should not catch us off-guard. For example, look at this passage:

I Thessalonians 4:13: “But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.
14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
15 For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air: and so we shall ever be with the Lord.
18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
5:1: But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you.
2 For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.
3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape.
4 But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.
5 Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
6 Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.”

(As a side-note, there are people who claim that the word ‘rapture’ is not found anywhere in the Bible. However, the word ‘rapture’ comes from the Latin word ‘rapturo’. If you take the phrase “caught up” from verse 17 and translate it into Latin, do you know what word you get? That’s right, ‘rapturo’. So saying ‘rapture’ does not appear in the Bible is wrong for two reasons: (a) it’s a Latin word, so of course it won’t be found in an English Bible, and (b) if you translate these verses into Latin it actually does appear.)

Here it is clear that Paul is talking about the Rapture. Verses 16 and 17 clearly talk about the Lord returning, the resurrection of the dead, the transformation of the living, and our going to always be with the Lord. With that context in mind, Paul says in verse 3 that the world will be completely caught off-guard by this event. However, in verse 4 he says that that is not the case for the Church. Look at that verse again:

I Thessalonians 5:4: “But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.”

Paul actually comes right out and says that the Church should be expecting the Rapture. It should not catch us by surprise. In fact, in verse 6 Paul commands the church to be sober and watch for it.

So, then, the idea that “no one knows when Christ will return, so therefore we shouldn’t speculate about the Rapture” is completely wrong for several reasons. First, Christ was talking about His return at the end of the Tribulation, not the Rapture. Second, Paul commanded the Church to be watching for the Rapture so that it does not catch us off-guard. The world would be caught off-guard, but the Church should be different.

Sadly, I think that many in the Church are not looking for the Rapture at all. If they even think about it they see it as something that will happen a very long time from now, if it ever happens at all. There is no expectation that it will happen soon, nor do many even know what signs to be looking for. When it happens I believe it will take many completely by surprise – even though it shouldn’t.