But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. Matthew 24:36
In the 24th chapter of Matthew, Jesus prophesies of the chronology leading up to His second coming, marking out the signs and wonders that His saints can watch out for. In light of this, can it truly be that the divine Son of God, to whom all power has been given, is not acquainted with the day and hour of the most glorious event of all time? So difficult has this verse been for many, that they have relinquished themselves to the idea that it was not in the original manuscripts. But there is no need to venture into such speculations.
We are told that in Jesus ‘dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily’ (Colossians 2:9). In other words, the Son of God lacks nothing in respect to the attributes of deity. Given that Jesus is omniscient, we can have no doubt that He is aware of the exact moment of His return. What then do we make of the above passage?
The word ‘knoweth’ as it appears in Matthew 24:36 can also mean ‘to make known’, as it is thus used by Paul:
For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. 1 Corinthians 2:2
Paul had great knowledge, but he determined not ‘to know’, or rather, to make known, anything but the gospel truths to the brethren at Corinth.
Following that the word ‘knoweth’ in the passage in Matthew can also mean ‘declareth’, it follows that Jesus was not teaching that He does not know when He will return, but that it is the prerogative of the Father only to declare the day and the hour of that event. Consider this: God Himself will speak from heaven at some point, announcing the day and hour of His Son’s return!
Now when God speaks from heaven, the earth shakes. Speaking of Sinai, Paul writes, ‘whose voice then shook the earth’ and speaking of the last days, Paul continues, ‘but now [God] hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven’ (Hebrews 12:26).
At the pouring out of the seventh plague just before Christ’s coming, the Bible declares that there will come ‘a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done’. This voice is none other than the Father’s and a violent shaking accompanies it: ‘and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great’ (Revelation 16:17-18). Along with saying ‘it is done’, we can understand that during this time, the Father declareth ‘the day and the hour’ of His Son’s return.
Seven days before the first raindrop fell, Noah was confronted by the following address: ‘the LORD said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark’ (Genesis 7:1). Likewise, the Lord will declare the day and the hour to the great comfort and deliverance of His saints, and to the dread terror of His enemies.
Christopher Sparks