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Transcript 101C — Does Christ Know the Day and Hour of His Return?
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum.
CALLER: On the question of Jesus' not knowing the day of His return, He said to His disciples that not even the Son of Man knows the day when He was going to return. But I've also read in Zechariah 13, where it says that the Lord would know when the day was. And I was wondering if you could explain if that is talking about Jesus Himself, or is there something else in view?
HC: Zechariah 13. That's a curious possibility you offer. I wonder which verse you're thinking of. It says in verse 1: "On that day there shall be a fountain opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness." Now that of course is talking about the day when Christ went to the cross. That is when He provided cleansing.
And then in verse 4: "On that day every prophet will be ashamed of his vision. When he prophesies he will not put on a hairy mantle in order to deceive, but he will say, I am no prophet. I am a tiller of the soil, for the land has been my possession since my youth." I'm not sure exactly what God had in mind in saying that.
Verse 7: "Awake, oh sword, against my shepherd, against the man who stands next to Me, says the Lord of Hosts. Strike the shepherd, that the sheep may be scattered. I will turn My hand against the little ones." Now that's again talking about Christ on the cross, and the church is scattered. The disciples momentarily are without any kind of a leader, because their leader, Christ, has left them, to endure hell for their sins.
CALLER: I'm sorry but I couldn't give you the exact verse, but I know it was in Zechariah.
HC: Well, let's look at the verse in the New Testament. In Mark 13 we read in verse 32: "But of that day or that hour no one knows, not even the angels in Heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father."
Now the first thing we have to bear in mind is that it's talking about the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ does not know of that day or that hour. And that's a puzzle, because Christ is Eternal God. He is the one who created the universe He knows the end from the beginning. And I just can't believe that Christ would not know the timetable of the end.
The other thing I'm wondering is, why does it emphasize the Son here, along with the angels and everyone else? I do know this, that in the Bible the word day and the word hour are frequently synonyms for Judgment Day itself. We read, for example, in Matthew 7, where it's talking about false prophets, "In that day they will say, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your Name?" and so on. Now the context there is very clear that it's speaking of Judgment Day.
The word hour is also frequently used in speaking of Judgment Day. We read, for example, in Revelation 18, where it speaks about the destruction of Babylon, a figure of the kingdom of Satan. And it says, ''In one hour your judgment has come." Hour and day are synonyms, therefore, for Judgment Day.
Now we know this, that the angels were to come into judgment because of their sins (that is, the fallen angels are going to be removed into hell). We know that all mankind who are not saved are going to come into judgment for their sins. And we know that Christ was going to endure judgment because of the sins that He had taken upon Himself, the sins of those who were going to believe in Him. Yet at this point in time, when Jesus is speaking this, neither the angels, nor mankind, nor Christ had experienced judgment as yet.
And so I am inclined to believe that this verse 32 is not a time reference at all. It is simply a statement of the fact that no one has experienced judgment as yet, who is to experience it. The Father knows what that judgment will be, because it is the Father who is going to pour out His wrath on the Son.