“No one knows about that day or hour…”

Two important events must take place first

It’s a statement that you will often hear bandied around by Christians to underline a belief and understanding that Christ could return at any time, maybe even right at this very moment while you are reading this blog.  But this “anytime rapture” is clearly not even possible because in many books of the Bible we are given the exact timing of certain events that must occur before Jesus can return.  That day will not come until the great apostasy or falling away occurs and the man of lawlessness (Antichrist) is revealed first.¹  In fact, the Apostle Paul tells the Thessalonians not to be alarmed or unsettled by this issue because there are certain events that must take place first.

No one knows about that day or hour

The belief of the anytime rapture is known as the “imminent return of Christ.”  Basically, it means that there is nothing preventing Jesus from returning at this very moment and Matthew 24:36 is used as a proof text.  I want to show you that this verse does not mean what many think it seems to say at all but was a common Jewish figure of speech used to describe the Jewish New Year’s day known also as Rosh Hashanah.  We can also call it the Feast of Trumpets or Yom Teruah and it marks the day that the rapture of the church will occur.  It’s sort of like when us Aussies talk about the “day that stops a nation.”  All of us know that the Melbourne Cup day is being referred to, the first Tuesday in November.  However, an outsider would have no idea that we are talking about a horse race.  Maybe one might think that it is the day that the whole nation went into “lock-down” due to the Coronavirus.  You can see where a misunderstanding can occur.  One of my favourite sayings as a pastor has been, “if you take the text out of context, what are you are left with?  A con!”

In some respects, this phrase does refer to the fact that we do not know exactly when Jesus will return to collect His bride and when the believers will be raptured.  But the inference is that we will know within a day or two.  I want to show you that the reason for the uncertainty of the Day of the Lord and the coming of the Son of Man is because of the combined uncertainty of the appearance of the new moon and the uncertainty of when two witnesses will see the barely faint crescent of the new moon on the horizon at Jerusalem perhaps even like the picture above.

The seven Jewish feasts are a rehearsal

In the Jewish yearly calendar, there are seven annual feasts.  Each one of the seven historical Jewish feasts is a rehearsal for the prophetic equivalent.  Listen to my “Feasts of God series” to learn about the Jewish feasts and their prophetic fulfillment in God’s timeline.  So far, four feasts have already been fulfilled in God’s redemptive calendar and three are still yet to come.  The last three are grouped together and must occur in Autumn (northern hemisphere) time.  The very next feast to occur in God’s redemptive calendar is the Feast of Trumpets which lines up to be prophetically fulfilled at the rapture of the church at the end of the Great Tribulation mentioned in the New Testament.  The Feast of Trumpets always occurred at the New Moon on Rosh Hashanah (New Year’s Day on the Jewish civil calendar).  It was an annual day of trumpet blasts indicating that Yom Kippur or the Day of Atonement was only 10 days away. These are known as the 10 days of awe and they are like an alarm clock for the people to wake up for the national day of annual cleansing.  At the end of days, the world will need to wake up for the terrible Day of The Lord will arrive and Jesus will arrive back to defeat the enemies of Israel.  But the Jewish New Year’s day has a dual purpose.  It will also be the day that the bride of Christ will meet the Lord in the air at the blast of the trumpet (shofar – ram’s horn).

The biblical calendar is set by the moon not the sun

The Bible says that nobody knows the day nor the hour when this day will occur.  Why is that?  For starters let me say that the Jewish holy days were set by the moon, not by the calendar.  In the western world, we set the first of the month by the calendar.  The Hebrews set the calendar by the new moon.  And that is a key difference.  Each new year’s day was set aside as a holy day but it couldn’t be celebrated until it had first been declared.  And the rest of the festivals for that month were not set until that first day of the month had been declared.  This whole uncertainty thing every month was baked into the cake for every Jew every month.  They relied totally on the Sanhedrin to set their calendar for that month.  But essentially the statement by Jesus that “no man knows the day nor the hour” was a Jewish figure of speech referring to a particular festival.  In essence, He was literally saying here in verse 36, “I am coming on New Year’s Day.”

Jewish New Year’s Day is always inexact

But the whole point is that the Jews never knew exactly what day New Year’s Day would fall on because it all depended on two reliable witnesses coming to the President (Nassi) of the Sanhedrin (Jewish council) to report that they had seen the first thin crescent of the new moon.  They knew of course approximately as they would be watching the waning of the full moon from the middle of the month and they knew that they were at day 29 and that it would be any day now.  As soon as two reliable witnesses came separately and reported to the Sanhedrin that they had seen the new moon then the Nassi would announce the first holy day of the year with the word, “sanctified” and with trumpet blasts.  After this proclamation, the Sanhedrin ordered watchmen on the nearby hillsides to light fires and thus inform the Jews in all of Judea, Samaria, Egypt, Babylon, and the rest of the lands where there were dispersed Jews (diaspora) that the new month had begun. That started the festival of the New Moon and the countdown to the beginning of the next month.

It all depends on two witnesses

So as westerners we need an adjustment in our thinking.  The whole Jewish year is set by the new year because it relied on two reliable witnesses.  It had to be proven and finally announced.  See the uncertainty involved!  First of all, the lunar cycle is on average 29.53 days in length from new moon to new moon but lunar cycles are varied and extremely complex.  For example, the shortest lunar cycle in 2020 is from the August 19th new moon and ends with the new moon on September 17th, lasting 29 days 8 hours, and 19 minutes.  But the longest lunar cycle in 2020 was from February 23rd to March 24th. Its duration was 29 days 17 hours and 56 minutes.  This is a variation of 9 hours.  Secondly, the start of the new moon depended on human observations and observations are subject to human error and weather conditions.  Will it be tonight or tomorrow night, will it be 8 pm or 10 pm and so forth. 

So, what I am saying is that no one in Israel could plan for the first day of the seventh month (New Year’s Day), called Yom Teruah or the Feast of Trumpets (also called Rosh Hashanah).  They would have to wait until the day was publicly announced by the authorities.  However, they would know approximately when it was coming within a day or two.  New Year’s day was totally dependent on the testimony of two witnesses.  Amazingly we too are waiting for the testimony of two witnesses to start the seven year Tribulation period.  The Bible indicates that one of those witnesses is the Old Testament prophet Elijah or at least a man who is a type of Elijah in the same way that John the Baptist was a type of Elijah.²  Two witnesses will start the prophetic calendar ticking at the start of the last seven years by identifying the first Jewish New Year.  They will then mark out the temple and altar and they will prophesy for exactly 1260 days.

An imminent anytime rapture is a false hope

After the initial New Year’s Day is declared, we are on the countdown, and many events after that are known because we simply count the number of days. But remember, the days are re-calibrated at the beginning of each month according to when the thin crescent of the new moon has been seen.  In the seventh year, Jesus will return and the Day of the Lord will commence at the declaration of the final Jewish new year.  It will be an amazing day and Jesus himself used this figure of speech to identify this day for us.  It is my belief that it has nothing to do with the modern church’s understanding of an imminent anytime rapture!

The time of the harvest for the church is coming to a prophetic close in history and Jesus is that much closer to coming back.  The instruction for the church is to be ready and to watch and pray.  Yes the Lord will come like a thief in the night but we are not in darkness so that this day should surprise us like a thief.³  Be ready church, for your redemption draws near.