Matthew 24:1-35
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2024&version=NIV
So after this whole dissertation giving us indicators of his second coming, He then says in verse 36.... “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.
He then continues on in verse 37-51 to give more signs of the general time.
Not knowing the specifics of the day and hour does NOT mean not being able to know any of it at all ever.
If that were the case, then why did Jesus answer the disciples questions with specifics of what to look for?
I have often wondered why Jesus said nobody known the day or the hour. Did he know that part of the world is already tomorrow and the hour depends on what time zone your in?
Amos 5:18
King James Version
18 Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord! to what end is it for you? the day of the Lord is darkness, and not light.
19 As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him.
20 Shall not the day of the Lord be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it?
It appears Jesus gives an end times description of both the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus and a future destruction that has not happened yet.
Too many get caught up in the”Fig Tree as Israel” narrative and it’s founding in 1948, failing to see he is simply showing them how they look to the changing of the trees to see when the seasons change.
Then he tells the to look for those greater signs of the end times, and by the time you recognize them it will be too late. The fig tree has nothing to do with it as Israel has always been mentioned as “the vine” and not a fig tree. I’m sure if I am wrong then someone on FR will catch it.
This gospel of the Kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, as a testimony to all nations; and then the end will comeYet, Paul states that in his lifetime, the Faith of those in the Church in Rome First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world. - Romans 1:8
And in Colossians 1:5-6 Paul wrote
5 the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel 6 that has come to you. In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world—just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God’s grace.There was no doubt in Paul's mind that the gospel had gone out into the whole world
This is also what the early Christians wrote about:
Since both Peter and Paul were martyred before the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD, well
the word used for "world" is oikoumene - which specifically means the civilized world i.e. the Roman Empire - the Olivet discourse does not use the world "Kosmos" that designates the entire earth.
Kosmos in Matt 24:21 From the beginning of the world (kosmos) until now"
Jesus then mentions in 24:21 the Great Tribulation - which is for the Jesus-movement Jews.
There has never been, nor will there ever be anything rivaling it. The Church was close to being smothered in its cradle if Nero continued and the Jerusalem Christians had not escaped to Pella - this was a tiny community, primarily Jewish and was attacked by both the Roman authorities AND the Jewish authorities. That WAS the great tribulation