Pilgrim - The TIME of Jesus Christ's RETURN, by Bob L. Ross

The TIME of Jesus Christ's RETURN

by BOB L. ROSS

(written in the mid-1990s)

Why Christ (nor the Apostles) Could Predict

A.D. 70 or ANY "Time" For His Second Coming

CHARLES HADDON SPURGEON

"If I read the word aright, and it is honest to admit that there is much room for difference of opinion here, the day will come, when the Lord Jesus will descend from heaven with a shout, with the trump of the archangel and the voice of God. Some think that this descent of the Lord will be Post-millennial — that is, 'after the thousand years' of his reign. I CANNOT THINK SO. I conceive that the advent will be PRE-millennial — that He will come first; and then will come the millennium as the result of his personal reign upon earth. But whether or no, this much is the fact, that Christ will suddenly come, come to reign, and come to judge the earth in righteousness." [from Justification & Glory MTP Vol 11, Year 1865, pg. 249, Romans 8:30 (age 31)]

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Many of the "Preterist" brethren refer to verses of Scripture which pertain to what is called "imminency," and they think that these verses have their "target date" as A.D.70. Whenever such verses imply "something" is going to "take place" in the future, the verses all are "funneled to" A.D.70, despite the fact no one in A.D.70 "saw" such things as the return of Christ, so far any one knows. If they "saw" it, they evidently didn't know what they were "seeing," and they didn't say anything about it.

Also, Preterists seem to think that "Futurists" (those who look for the coming of the Lord at any time) have no "answer" to these verses, as if it is the obligation of a Futurist to "disprove" the arbitrary application of Scripture to "A.D.70" or to any other "vortex" or "cavity" for such "imminent" passages. The "burden of proof" always falls upon the "affirmative," so it remains for any alleged "fulfillment" to be proved by the claimant.

But Futurists do indeed have an "answer" in regard to passages which teach "imminency." We also affirm that if Preterists would read more "Bible" and less from the "Pretiographa" at the "Prophecy Palace," "Kingdom Counsel" and "Preterist Archive," they would have a better chance of "seeing" what did not take place in A.D.70.

Preterists will not get the information given in this article on the websites or in the books which affirm "Maccabeesism" and "Josephusism." They will never get this teaching from the "Kingdom Counsel," The Parousia book, from Josephus, or John L. Bray.

— THE REASON —

The REASON prophecy of the "Return" is viewed as "imminent" is because neither Jesus, the Holy Spirit, nor the Apostles KNEW any more about the future than the FATHER willed anyone to know. And the Father did not will for Jesus to reveal a "time" or "time frame" for His return, therefore, He could not have had A.D.70 or any other specific "time" in mind when He uttered words about His Return. This is sufficient within itself to dissolve the favorite "sugar-stick" of Preterists, which is Matthew 24:34 on the word "generation." The passage affirms the concept of imminency without a specific "time" or "time-frame" targeted. By this manner of speech, Jesus emphasized that His Return was more certain than the passing of the "progeny." Also, it was more certain than the passing of "heaven and earth," or the creation. The emphasis is upon the certainty of His return, and not upon a prediction of a "time" or "time frame."

DANIEL, perhaps, would have liked to have known more than GABRIEL told him, but Gabriel could only reveal so much as the FATHER commissioned him to reveal (Dan. 12:4, 10:21). The disciples of Jesus wanted to know a lot more things; but Jesus told them that they were not able to "bear" them (John 16:12), and some things He would never tell them, for He was not told by the Father to tell them.

— JESUS DID NOT KNOW THE "TIME" —

Now, concerning the SECOND COMING OF CHRIST, Jesus did not and COULD NOT reveal any "more" than what the FATHER commissioned Him to reveal, else Jesus could not have said, "I have given unto them THE WORDS which THOU gavest me" (John 17:8) and "ALL THINGS that I have heard of my Father I have MADE KNOWN unto you" (John 15:15). "I have many things to say and to judge of you: but he that sent me is true; and I speak to the world those things which I have heard of him (John 8:26). Jesus was under His Father's "commission" or "commandment," which means He was under the Father's authority. He "knew" only what He was under commandment to "teach." You can argue until you are blue-in-the-face about His omniscience, but the fact is, in his Office as Mediator, He was not commissioned of the Father to "know" or "teach" about the "time" of His Return. Notice —

Jesus said: "For I have not spoken OF MYSELF; but the FATHER which sent me, He gave me a commandment, WHAT I should say, and what I should SPEAK." (John 12:48)
Jesus: "WHATSOEVER I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak." (John 12:50)
Jesus: "The Son can do NOTHING of himself, but what He seeth the Father do: for what things he doeth, these doeth the Son likewise." (John 5:19)
Jesus: "I can of mine own self do NOTHING: as I HEAR, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the FATHER which hath sent me." (John 5:30)
Jesus: "I do NOTHING of myself; but as my Father hath TAUGHT me, I speak THESE THINGS." (John 8:28)
Jesus: "The words that I speak unto you I speak NOT OF MYSELF: but the FATHER that dwelleth in me, He doeth the works." (John 14:10)
Jesus: "I have kept my FATHER'S commandments." (John 15:10)
Jesus: "The word which ye hear is NOT MINE, but the FATHER'S which sent me." (John 14:24)
Jesus: "I have given them THY WORD." (John 17:14)

If Jesus had revealed "more" of the future than the Father commanded, Jesus would have been guilty of SIN, and this would mean He is not the Son of God as He claimed (John 10:36). He "knew not" the "times" for He did not have that information "commissioned" in His "portfolio." It was "Top-Secret" in the FATHER'S "files."

THE HOLY SPIRIT came to teach no more than what Jesus taught, and Jesus said, "He will guide you into ALL TRUTH: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever HE SHALL HEAR, that shall he speak: and He will SHEW you THINGS TO COME. He shall glorify me: for He shall RECEIVE OF MINE, and shall SHEW IT UNTO YOU. All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that He shall TAKE OF MINE, and shall SHEW it unto you" (John 16:13-15).

That plainly shows you that "Truth" and "All Things" originate with the Father, come thru the Son [see Hebrews 1:2] and are communicated by the Holy Spirit. Since the "times" were in the "Father's power only," and were not communicated to the Son to communicate to the Spirit, the Spirit did not do any more as to revealing a "time" than did the Son.

A few of those who call themselves "Preterist" have sought an "escape hatch" from this truth by trying to prove that the Spirit later revealed things to the Apostles that Jesus said He didn't know! In other words, the Apostles knew more about the Return than Jesus knew about it when He was on earth! This is the "thinking" of men such as Max King and Don Preston, a couple of Campbellite "water-bearers" who don't know the meaning of John 3:16, much less Bible prophecy. The "problem" with their idea lies in the fact that the Apostles didn't teach anything more than Jesus taught! Also, this idea has one purpose, and that is, to "target" A.D.70, and if this was something later revealed to the Apostles, then it proves that Jesus didn't know about it, and thus never had that in mind when he uttered "imminent" verses such as Matthew 24:34.

The fact is, the Holy Spirit revealed no more about "times" of the Return than Jesus revealed. The Apostles revealed no more about "times" than Jesus. That's why anybody who comes along with "more light," and claims "new truth," or says "God told me" or "the Spirit lead me," and he has another doctrine on this than Jesus, he is a man walking according to the flesh, under the absolute control of a "vain imagination" and is seeking to be some "great one" (Acts 8:9). And it does not matter how many "degrees" he has, or how many "tongues" he "talks in," or which sect of the "Church of Christ" he is with, or what "miracles" he can report. If he has "more light" than the Father gave to Jesus, which Jesus gave to the Holy Spirit, which the Holy Spirit gave in the inspired Scriptures, put an "x" on his head as a "reject." This person does not have "light," but darkness. Don't "trust" him any further than you can throw your house.

Now, JESUS did NOT predict "A.D. 70" or any other "TIME" because HE DID NOT KNOW, and therefore He COULDN'T. And it matters little "how" one wants to "explain" or "explain away" Mark 13:32-33, Matthew 24:36, 42-44, 25:13, I Thessalonians 5:1-6, in reference to "Omniscience" and "Deity," and disregarding the "commission" Christ was under as "Mediator" of the Father's Will, the line at the bottom still says — "MY FATHER ONLY" has this "POWER." We are not diminishing the "Attributes" of His Deity any more than His Incarnation "diminishes" them; it is not here a matter of the essential attributes of His Deity, but the attributes of His commissioned Mediatorship. It is simply in the Father's "domain" of "POWER" [authority], not the Son's, to "know" and communicate anything as "Truth." The Son only administered what the FATHER commissioned Him to administer as the "Truth."

To DENY that, in effect, is to deny the Deity of Christ, the Sonship of Christ, the Trinity, the Sinlessness of Christ, & the Inspiration of the Word of God.

— THE "WHY" —

Jesus: "It is not for you to know the TIMES or the SEASONS, which the FATHER hath put IN HIS OWN POWER." (Acts 1:7)
Jesus: "But of that DAY and HOUR knoweth no man, no, not the ANGELS of Heaven, but MY FATHER ONLY." (Matthew 24:36)
Jesus: "But of that DAY and that HOUR knoweth no man, no, not the ANGELS which are in heaven, NEITHER THE SON, but the FATHER." (Mark 13:32)
Jesus: "Take ye heed, WATCH and PRAY; for ye know not WHEN the TIME is." (Mark 13:33)

So, if Jesus somehow "did know" [as some may be inclined to try to "prove" by some "hermeneutic"], it is dead-solid-certain He didn't let anybody else know that He "did know," for He plainly said that He didn't "know." It was not in His commission to know.

Now, if there is some one who is reading this, and he desires to do what Jesus, the Holy Spirit, Gabriel, Michael, Paul, Peter, and the other Apostles and C. H. Spurgeon NEVER DID, and he is going to start "exegeting" and using "logic" about the words "day," "hour," "times" and "seasons," and says, "But He didn't say thus-and-so" [similar to what an embarrassed Presbyterian writer did when he wrote a little book in defense of getting a "fair hearing" for a nonsense "prophecy" book called 1994] we hope to "cut-his-water-off" in unmistakable language from the "B-I-B-L-E" and forestall his folly.

— "TIMES" OF ALL SORTS ARE IN THE FATHER'S POWER —

Please take special note of that word "TIMES," in Acts 1:7. That word, in the Bible, is used from the very tiniest amount of "time" to the very greatest amount of "time." To see this, get down the Strong's Concordance and do a "word-search," and you will not find a "hole" in that big enough to let a speck-of-light thru; it is absolute FACT. That word, "TIMES," covers it ALL. Any "time" and any "time frame" of any amount is covered by that word. And the "Times" are in the FATHER'S POWER, not the Son's, not the Spirit's, not the Apostles.

The "Times" covers everything from the PAST (Acts 17:30; Galatians 4:4) to the time when "TIME SHALL BE NO MORE" (Revelation 10:6).

When the FATHER set-up the Everlasting Covenant in Eternity (Hebrews 13:20), and the Son was set as the Surety of that Covenant (Heb. 7:22; Eph. 1:4), and the Holy Spirit was set as the Witness of that Covenant (1 John 5:6), the Son and the Holy Spirit had their Work to perform, according to the Will of the Father: "Not my will, but Thine be done" was their badge (John 6:38). "Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do THY WILL, O God" (Heb. 10:7).

"If" it had been the Father's Will for Jesus to "know" the "times" as to the Second Coming, it would have been made known by Jesus and the Holy Spirit. But that was NOT the Father's Will, but it is His will that His people "Watch and Pray," and that's why "imminency" is "sound doctrine" rather than trying to discern "times and seasons, days and hours" as to any "time" or "time frame" for Christ's Return.

If you will take that Truth and look at all of the "imminency" passages, you will see that NO ONE — not Jesus, not Paul, not Peter, not John, and certainly not the Holy Spirit — ever lead anyone to believe anything about a "day," an "hour," a "season," or a "time," but rather, they would encourage the disciples to expect a coming of Christ at any time, as "a thief in the night," "in an hour when ye think not," today, tomorrow and forever. And however you "exegete" a passage which "contradicts" that truth, you are "executing" the Truth!

— AS A THIEF IN THE NIGHT! —

Paul: "For yourselves know perfectly the day of the Lord so cometh AS A THIEF IN THE NIGHT." (1 Thess. 5:2)
Peter: "But the day of the Lord will come as a THIEF in the night." (2 Peter 3:10)
Jesus: "Behold, I come as a THIEF. Blessed is he, that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame." (Revelation 16:15)
Jesus: "Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not." (Luke 12:40)

If Jesus had "A.D.70" in focus, as some teach, such teaching would have made no sense, advising His disciples to be alert for something which was to come years down-the-road. Why should they be concerned about something until near the end of the "time frame"? Could He, or would He, have come in A.D.40 or 50 or 60, if He had "A.D.70" on His mind? If not, then why did He teach the IMMINENCY of His Return?

— WHY "IMMINENCY?" —

Jesus taught a parable which reveals "WHY it is" that the "time" of His Return is kept secret by the Father's own will and power (see Luke 12:34-48). The Father knew "human nature" and Jesus had it with His commission to "know" and to "teach" concerning human nature; He knew how even Christians, who still have that human nature, would react and behave to a "set time" for His Return, if the Father had chosen to commission a "time." The tendency of human nature would be to do less of the Lord's work, and to be more concerned for "enjoying life." The "servant" would be apt to say, "My Lord delayeth His coming" (Luke 12:45).

Jesus used the "imminency" of His return, as it is decreed by His Father, to teach the disciples their FOREMOST responsibility, to "focus" on their Heavenly "treasure" (Luke 12:34), and not on the "things of the world" (Matthew 6:24-33).

Also, He knew that "vain man would be wise, though man be born like a wild ass's colt" (Job 11:12). Some "wiser than you" would come along and offer, for a price of course, to tell you all you "need to know" about the "exact time" of the Return. And once he had his hooks in you, he would keep "bleeding" you for more and more money for the "latest" report on "prophecy." So Jesus gave you a good "defense" against such "sheep-shearers," and if you let some one get into your "roll" under the pretense that he is telling you anything about "fulfilled" prophecy or the Coming of Christ at a certain "time" or "time frame," you reap what you sow — your own poverty as to any fulfillment of what you expected.

The "entrepreneurs" and "hustlers" are out there, seeking whoever's wealth they can seduce. You send them your money, and they will begin to believe their own imagined tales are actually true, and this will all the more inflame their greed and lust.

The fact that He did not "know," because the Father did not commission Him to reveal the "time," repels any "suggestion" that Jesus was "playing games" with the disciples. It was the Father's "WILL" that no "times" be given, and that "readiness" and "watchfulness" and "prayerfulness" were to characterize believers in the Return. The "imminency" of the Return serves to keep the "heart" focused on the "things above."

— "DATES" AND "TIMES" MAKE GOD A LIAR! —

Anyone who says that Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the Apostles, or anyone else had "A.D.70" in their sights, or "A.D.1948," or "1988," or "1994," or the latest prediction by Jack Van Impe or the latest "good guess" by Peter Ruckman, or a "time" calculated by some other video-peddler or book-peddler or television "prophecy teacher," is, in Bible terms, a "liar" — for "he that believeth not God hath made God a LIAR," and therefore that man himself is a liar for charging God with lying, for God does not lie (1 John 5:10).

If one says that Jesus Christ had a "time frame" in His sights when He uttered an "imminent" saying about the Second Coming, "implying" a "soon return," and he starts trying to prove "when" that "time" was in the past, or may be in the future, he denies that the "times" and "time frames" are in the FATHER'S hands, and he makes Jesus a liar. Jesus could not and would not step over the "line" of what He was commissioned to do by the Father.

If the Father had wanted us to know a "time," He would have had the Son to reveal it.

If you believe the Bible, and if you believe Jesus Christ, and if you believe the Holy Spirit, Jesus did NOT KNOW the "TIMES" which the Father put in His OWN power — whether it would be "A.D.70," A.D.2000, A.D.5000 or A.D.10,000. "Time" means nothing to the Father, for a "thousand years are as a day," and only a heart of unbelief talks about "our Lord delayeth His coming," "where is the promise of His coming?" (2 Peter 3).

— WATCH OUT FOR THE "BUCK$TER$!" 2000 A. D.! —

We are nearing the year "2000," and we will most likely have the "entrepreneurs" and "prophets" coming out of the woodwork, having all sorts of merchandise for sale, telling you a "month" or a "day" or perhaps even the very "hour" that Christ will come.

In fact, they have already begun [< click link at left]. Even "nationally known" "prophecy teachers" are offering you "exciting" videos and books which will help you to be "ready" for the Coming. Such men will "make merchandi$e" of "suckers" for "filthy lucre's sake" (2 Peter 2:3). Save your money! If you are going to spend it, buy yourself a steak dinner, or a new suit of clothes.

Don't send it off to some "prophecy teacher" who is already raking down a 6-figure (or more) annual gain.

If this world stands 10,000 years, you are to get up every morning, brush your teeth, comb your hair, and "Watch and Pray" and be "ready" for the Coming of Christ. Go about your daily duties and life with your heart "looking upward," for Jesus may come today. Barnum said "A sucker is born every minute," and you are a "sucker" if you let a Jack Van Impe, or a Hal Lindsey, or a Peter Ruckman, or some other "prophecy teacher" try to talk you out of your money to buy a book or video, enticing you to think you are going to learn "more" than you ALREADY KNOW about the "time" of His Return. You don't know the "time," and neither does the "prophecy expert." If you decide to send any of them your money, get a "guaranteed-money back" deal, or hold their Rolex watch as "collateral."

And if you "don't understand," and you want an "explanation," open your Bible to Acts 1:7 and Jesus will "explain it" to you. That is one place where He "explained it," and I am sure most, if not all of you, have enough sense to understand it. It will spare you a lot of wasted time, wasted money, wasted effort, and wasted "euphoria" — all of which you could use more profitably for the work of the Lord as you "watch and pray" in going about His business here on earth.

The "time" of the Christ's Return will "take care of itself." If it is His Will for this world to last a week or a millennium, "what is that to thee? follow thou Me" (John 21:22).

— PASS THIS MESSAGE ON TO OTHERS!—

Note: The Author herewith grants Permission for anyone to use this article, or any portion of it, unabridged or abridged, in any magazine, book, paper, website, broadcast, telecast, or in any other way, in English or in another language, so long as the "meaning" is not altered. If you use it, please send us a copy (if printed) or a notice (if in unprinted form).