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What �No Man Knows� Means In Context
Posted : 10 Nov, 2010 10:49 AM
Misunderstood Words of Jesus Against Date Setting
We cannot see what Bible prophecy is �good for� until we first completely let go of date setting and the expectation that Bible prophecy should tell us �when.� Now, if what I have said above was not convincing enough, then maybe what Jesus had to say will do the job. He told us what prophecy was for, including first telling us what it is not for�finding out when. In so many words, Jesus stated that no man could know the time of the end until it was upon them.
Matthew 24:36 (HCSB) Now concerning that day and hour no one knows�neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son�except the Father only.
Matthew 24:50 (ESV) the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know
Matthew 25:13 (HCSB) Therefore be alert, because you don�t know either the day or the hour.To some people these words are pretty clear. To others not. To be sure, prophecy aficionados who set dates have all heard these famous words of Jesus. (People who disagree with what they are doing are sure to quote them.) So why do they not see or accept what the words plainly mean?
I can explain that from personal experience. I used to be one of those people who disregarded it. I had just started studying prophecy seriously in 1999 for the same reason that so many do. I wanted to see if all those numberings in Daniel and Revelation did not reveal the timing of the end of the age. I knew the above verses very well but I had twisted their words into a meaning that was detached from their immediate context.
Here's how. I had a very good pastor who I trusted. He gave a sermon once on prophecy in which he quoted that verse about no man knowing the day or hour. He commented, �...but it doesn't say no man knows the year.� Upon hearing that, I thought, �well I'll be darned, I never considered it that way, but he's right! So Jesus meant we can figure out the timing to some degree, just not with pinpoint precision.� This idea gave me the license to forge ahead and try to wring a date out of the Bible despite what Jesus had said.
In defense of my pastor, he was not alone in his thinking. There are other ideas people adopt which end up neutralizing Jesus' admonition to not treat the Bible as a doomsday date factory. For example, another common teaching today is that �of that day and hour knoweth no man� is a Hebrew idiom for the Feast of Trumpets. I think this could be true and can readily explain why Jesus used the complicated phrasing he did, rather than just �time� which is what the day or hour is equivalent to in its New Testament usage. However, the plain meaning of the words would still remain and could not be contradicted.
What �No Man Knows� Means In Context
The problem with any such theories that modify the meaning of Jesus' statement, is, as I mentioned above, that they ignore the immediate context and usage of this phrase. Jesus use the phrase three times: at the end of the Parable of the Fig Tree (Mt 24:32-36), the Parable of the Faithful Servant (Mt 24:42-51), and the Parable of the Ten Virgins (Mt 25:1-13). Every time Jesus used this phrase, it was in the same kind of context with the same implied meaning. He mentions the �no man knows� in the context of �stay alert,� �don't backslide,� and �stay ready.�
Matthew 24:42-44 (HCSB) Therefore be alert, since you don�t know what day your Lord is coming. 43 But know this: If the homeowner had known what time the thief was coming, he would have stayed alert and not let his house be broken into. 44 This is why you also must be ready, because the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.
Matthew 24:48-50 (HCSB) But if that wicked slave says in his heart, �My master is delayed,� 49 and starts to beat his fellow slaves, and eats and drinks with drunkards, 50 that slave�s master will come on a day he does not expect and at an hour he does not know.
Matthew 25:11-13 (HCSB) �Later the rest of the [unprepared] virgins also came and said, �Master, master, open up for us!� 12 �But he replied, �I assure you: I do not know you!� Therefore be alert, because you don�t know either the day or the hour. If you want it any clearer than that, Jesus spelled it out again to the apostles after his resurrection. That time he did not use the words day or hour but actually used the word �time�:
Acts 1:7 (HCSB) He said to them, �It is not for you to know times or periods that the Father has set by His own authority.Day or hour means time. We can't know the time.
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