[[I’ve read the Bible and it says that no man knows the day.]]
Read the whole context of that passage carefully- it speaks about Christ’s return to earth to judge- His second coming- nowhere in the passage is it talking about the idea that no man knows the hour or day when God’s people will be taken up- but it does say noone knows the hour or day that Christ will return to earth again
I always thought that verse was talking about the rapture too- but it was pointed out to me that it’s about the second coming- which i see now- This isn’t a defense of knowing when the rapture might occur- nor is it a defense of meade- i have no idea what he believes— but rather just a clarification of of the passage-
Point taken. I didn’t take the time to look it up. But, we still have no idea when rapture will occur.
How could it be about the second coming? The day the tribulation starts, you know to the day when the second coming will be ... exactly 1260 days ... times 2.
Right???
The second coming and the ‘rapture,’—i.e.: believers being caught up with Jesus in the clouds at his return—weren’t separated into different events until 1830. Prior to that date Christians believed that what is now called the rapture would occur when Jesus appeared in the clouds in His second coming.
The reason Christians believed—and most still do—that the second coming and the rapture occur together is because the Bible doesn’t teach separate events. First, the Apostle John stated in divine revelation back in the first century that he was our fellow-partaker in the tribulation. But just as important is Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer. In it He says:
John 17:
15 I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one.
16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
17 Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.
18 As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.
19 For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.
Jesus says nothing about catching us up out of the world. Rather, He specifically asks God NOT to take us out of the world. Jesus knew what He was talking about, as did the Apostle John. The secret-rapture is a myth.