“Not sure how that works for certain people that know there is no rapture. If Christians remained once the antichrist makes peace with Israel they could count the exact day to the 2nd coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 1260.”
Well, you make some assumptions there (a peace treaty with Israel, for example is just your interpretation, the Bible doesn’t actually say that). But the Bible doesn’t only tell us that no man knows the day or hour of Christ’s return. It also tells us that Christ is returning soon, tells us the signs of his return, gives us a detailed timeline of the final stages before his return (which many rapture believers seem to ignore when it explicitly conflicts with their belief), and commands us all to watch for these signs so we can be ready. It even advises us to take certain actions in response to those signs happening, which seems supremely silly if none of us would be here to take those actions.
But one thing to note is that saying “no man knows” is not the same as saying “no man will ever know”. If you take Daniel 12 to be a parallel to the timeline of Revelation, then you have Daniel in fact asking when the end will be, in verse 6: “How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?”
He receives an answer much in the form of the “simple math problem” that you posited, but is also told that “the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end” and “the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand”. To me this seems to weigh in favor of the idea that what is unknowable now may not always be unknowable, but is merely sealed by God until the time of the end approaches, and then we will be able to understand.
A commentary I came across
said Revelation itself is not “Sealed up.”
J.Vernon McGee
.
I’m thinking we Are at the
Point to see it unfold
Before our own eyes.
He receives an answer much in the form of the “simple math problem” that you posited, but is also told that “the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end” and “the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand”. To me this seems to weigh in favor of the idea that what is unknowable now may not always be unknowable, but is merely sealed by God until the time of the end approaches, and then we will be able to understand.
I am very impressed by your thinking here. It may only be because I agree.
The bible has timing mysteries.
How many born 500 years ago would connect the about 2,000 cubits Israel was to stay away from the ark, to this current 2,000 year period where Spiritual Israel was kept from the Ark?
They were born at a time when it wasnt for them to know.
500 years later, puzzle pieces/mysteries can be put together.
It wouldn’t have been for His first disciples to know times or seasons either. Just like He instructed them in Acts.
If people studied the ‘disharmony’ of the gospels,they may find timing clues/mysteries too.
In Mathew and Mark, the words No Man Knows is recorded.
Those words are not in Luke and John.
Since we were always supposed to have at least 2,000 years from His Resurrection and Return,maybe Mathew and Mark represents time or eras that will be different from the time or eras of Luke and John.
Stories or words added or missing from any of the 4 gospels, and especially in the 3 synoptic gospels,may offer clues that werent available until near the end of the about 2,000 demon possessed swine years were completed.
Maybe all the while people are trying to harmonize the gospels, the Holy Spirit has intentional disharmony.
To the scoffer,those could be ‘proof’ of uninspiration.
To a disciple, those could be pearls of great value.
“Well, you make some assumptions there (a peace treaty with Israel, for example is just your interpretation, the Bible doesn’t actually say that)”
Daniel 9:24-27
King James Version
24 Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.
25 Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.
26 And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.
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.