Agreed. I'm actually writing a Bible study on this right now, so maybe I can send you that in a few days. In the meantime I could send you some other things on it. I'll try to send you a conversation tomorrow. :)
Exactly.
Correct. It means we will not be taken by surprise. Pre-tribulationists tend to argue here that "no man knows the hour." But it's not talking about the hour. It's talking about watching to know the times and seasons (1 Thessalonians 5:1).
The two passages you may be referring to are these:
- “Behold, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake, keeping his garments on, that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed!” (Revelation 16:15). This one is addressed to the church, but again the stress is upon staying awake so that they not be taken unawares by His coming.
The other would be:
- "But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into." (Matthew 24:43). In this verse, the "master of the house" is Satan, who is the god of this world. The insinuation is that the church is what the Lord is coming to steal or "snatch" away from Satan before He unleashes destruction on the Antichrist's kingdom (similar to how He rescued out Noah and his family before the flood came. See verses 36-39), and Satan would therefore somehow move to try and prevent it if he knew when the thief was coming. Therefore he cannot know, so they would need to be prepared as those who did not know the exact hour (Matthew 24:44).
But again, this is about the exact hour of His coming, not the times and seasons which we very well should know. The exact wording in the Greek in Matthew 24:43 is "if the master of the house had known in what watch the thief comes...," which refers to a specific time during the night.
Absolutely! You have good spiritual eyesight! What actually takes place is the partial fulfillment of prophecy first, often within about a 100 years of when it is given, but with the ultimate fulfillment set to occur during the end-times. They are uttered during times when they appear to be on their way to fulfillment so that many hold to them and believe in the promises of God, but God knows in His foresight that their ultimate fulfillment will come later to prove His Divinity in prophesying events thousands of years in advance. It's something many don't understand.
It would appear there's a lot I can teach you. :) Like I said, I'll try to send you something tomorrow.
