Is it impossible to know the day & hour of Jesus’ return ?
Mat 24:36 - But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven but My Father only.
Mat 24:42 - Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming
Mat 24:44 - Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.
Mat 24:50 - The master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him and at an hour that he is not aware often
Mat 25:13 - Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.
Mark 13:32 - But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.
Mark 13:32 - Take heed, watch and pray; for you do not know when the time is.
Bunch of the widely misunderstood verses are listed above & half of dozen are from Matthew who provides enough reminders that the second coming of Jesus would happen at any moment. In other words no one will ever know the exact time of coming even the Son & angels in heaven. The often preached interpretation is, no one can tell when would Jesus come; be it 100 years, 1000 years or 10000 years. We don't know & we can't know.
That's a very inane method to interpret these verses. In these 7 locations it is clear that just the day & hour are what unknown, However by the teachings of Jesus anyone can easily predict year of second coming with the accuracy of plus-minus 5 years, in fact there are scriptural references that can predict exact year of second coming. So the meaning of those verses is all about the 'exact day & time' is what unknown but year is clearly known. For a wise person it is simpler to read, identify and calculate. First let's calculate the year of second coming in the approximation of a decade i.e., ±5 years.
It starts with the definition of the word 'generation'. Imagine the words Issac's generation, Ishmael's generation. We call them as vertical generation i.e lineage or generations-by-generations. Now the widely used meaning of generation is 'current generation' just like we say millennials or baby-boomers. The word 'this generation' always meant the current generation at the time of spoken. In Jesus & Paul's time this-generation meant people who lived in first century around AD30+
There is an endless list that Jesus claimed to return before the first generation passed away. Denying that would make him a false prophet and deconstruct his divinity. Anyone who believes in Jesus should pay attention to these verses
Mat 24:34 Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.
I owe few proofs that generation all over Bible meant horizontal instead of vertical. For vertical generation the words like lineages or seed have been used. Generation always meant time-slice instead of a tribe or lineage segment.
Acts 13:36 For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep
Exo 1:6 And Joseph died, and all his brethren, and all that generation.
Besides we can see in numerous occurrences where generations are countable like 4th generation 10th generation etc. This means there shouldn't be any confusion in understanding that wherever Jesus quoted as 'this generation' it meant the first generation Jews or Christians who lived in Jesus' time. To strengthen this argument Jesus uses a different wording while he was talking to his disciples. (It's not a Jewish race or vertical tribe instead it was a time-slice of generation(horizontal))
27. For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.
28. Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom.
This itself is enough to conclude that Jesus would come at the max AD 60-80. These kind of passages are enough to confirm approximate year at a decade level(±5 years), In order to figure out the exact year even before happening, Come to Isaiah where astonishingly the exact year was quoted. The passage is huge run from Isaiah 23 till Isaiah 28 and more. If you are a contextual reader and had built the habit to read scriptures in context preferably in larger chunks (that's how it's supposed to be read) it would be clear that Isaiah 23 to 28 is a one single event which comprises judgement, second coming, end-times starting with burden of Tyre.
While scholars agree that Isaiah 23 to 30 is all about end-times and you do not have to be a scholar to observe this, The below verses will suffice which sparks the theme of second coming of our Lord.
Isaiah 24:23 - Cosmic events on Sun & Moon and only the Lord will be ruling on earth(Jerusalem) - (Rev 21:10)
Isaiah 25:8 - Christ will overcome death (1 Cor 15:54)
Isaiah 26:5 - The great city will be destroyed
Isaiah 26:19 - The great glorious resurrection (1 Cor 15:23)
Isaiah 27:1 - The devil is captured and destroyed (Rev 12:9)
Isaiah 27:4 - New world, No more wrath
Isaiah 27:10 - The great city will be destroyed
Isaiah 27:13 - Final Trumpet
Isaiah 27:11 - Manifestation of tongues
Isaiah 27:9 - Next gen kids will be united towards Christ (Lol)
Isaiah 28:16 - Jesus is the cornerstone of new faith (Widespread adaption of Christianity)
It's surprising that according to Isaiah the climax of end-times is widespread adaption of Christianity based on the cornerstone Jesus, grace based forgiveness, atonement for sin via his blood instead of animals which is figuratively mentioned as new heaven & new Jerusalem in Revelation.
Thus considering Isaiah 23 to Isaiah 30 as single passage, single vision, single event which turns to single fulfillment we can easily spot any bad hermeneutics of those passages just by checking if the preacher inserts random split/break between passages. If anyone doesn't honor the continuity of the passage violate the basic hermeneutic style of Bible. For example the widely popular theology tries to put the timeline as below and see how randomized it looks
Isaiah 24:23 - AD 3000 - Cosmic events on Sun & Moon and only the Lord will be ruling on earth(Jerusalem) - (Rev 21:10)
Isaiah 25:8 - AD 3000 - Christ will overcome death (1 Cor 15:54)
Isaiah 26:5 - AD 70 - The great city will be destroyed
Isaiah 26:19 - AD 4000 - The great glorious resurrection (1 Cor 15:23)
Isaiah 27:1 - AD 4007 - The devil is captured and destroyed (Rev 12:9)
Isaiah 27:4 - AD 4500 - New world, No more wrath
Isaiah 27:10 - AD 70 - The great city will be destroyed (General Titus destroyed the temple)
Isaiah 27:13 - AD 3000 - Final Trumpet
Isaiah 27:11 - AD 35 - Manifestation of tongues (Day of Pentecost)
Isaiah 27:9 - (No relevance)
Isaiah 28:16 - AD 33 - Jesus is the cornerstone of new faith (Widespread adaption of Christianity)
Do you see the inconsistency ? But the approach we have is Isaiah 23 to Isiah 30 is one single event spanning from AD 33 - 70 as a smooth flow honoring the continuity.
Here comes the final nail on the coffin. With the clean conscience that Isaiah 23-30 all about end-times events; God himself has mentioned the exact year of fulfillment. I will reveal the secret right away, before that we need to define what is meant by AD (Anno Dominic) which is translated into English from Latin as 'In the year of the Lord' or 'In the year of the Lord Jesus Christ' otherwise known as 'In the year of King of Jews'.
As Isiah 23 starts as 'the burden against Tyre', here comes the killer verse
15 Now it shall come to pass in that day that Tyre will be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king. At the end of seventy years it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the harlot:
16 “Take a harp, go about the city, You forgotten harlot; Make sweet melody, sing many songs, That you may be remembered.”
17 And it shall be, at the end of seventy years, that the Lord will deal with Tyre
In the whole passage(23-30) God has just revealed the exact year of justice of Tyre as 70 year period, just like that magically from thin air which won't make sense otherwise AD-70 (In the year of King)
Stunned? Surprised ? Speechless ? Check all available commentaries only to find they stumble & mumble and unable to explain that 70 year count while we can perfectly make sense with AD-70 which is Anno Domini 70 or in the year of king.
What this means is Isaiah 23 - 30 is one single passage with the foretold start year of AD-70.
Enough, These kind of explanation are for a reader who lived in first century and before AD-70. Now we live in AD-2017 with so much historical evidences, pictures & war notes on General Titus smashed city of Jerusalem in AD-70 and spoiled the God's temple without any stone on a stone which means Mat 24:2 is fulfilled which leads to Mat 23:38 is fulfilled which in-turn means Mat 23:36 is fulfilled which means that particular generation while Jesus lived was wiped out completely.
Why did Jesus hold such a 'huge grudge' towards that specific generation to the level second coming's main agenda as to wipe-out the first generation Jews ? Here is the fascinating list of verses to point that Jesus hated the first-generation Jews SO MUCH out of compassion.
Mat 11:16 - First-generation Jews were whining & complaining generation
Mat 12:39 - First-generation Jews were corrupt and adulterous generation
Mat 12:41 - First-generation Jews were given gracious opportunities than city of Nineveh
Mat 12:42 - First-generation Jews were given enough opportunities than queen Sheba
PS: Who gets blamed on the day of judgement ? The first-generation Jews. That means day-of-judgement was targeted towards first generation Jews which got over 2000 years ago.
Mat 12:45 - First-generation Jews were demon possessed now seven times more demon possessed
Mat 16:4 - First-generation Jews kept asking for evidences instead of believing in Jesus as Messiah
Mat 23:36 - First-generation Jews will be wiped out because they exceed the grace threshold(Mat 23:32) by killing numerous prophets earlier (Acts 7:52)
Mark 8:38 - First-generation Jews adulterous and sinful generation
Phil 2:15 - First generation Jews were crooked and perverse nation
So God and all angels in the heaven were unanimously were convinced to wipe out the first generation of Jews, pharisees, scribes & scholars in order to pave the way for gentiles(Mat 22:43) so that everyone can worship the Lord.
So second coming of Jesus can have many agenda but the heavily significant agenda is the pay back of the first century Jews which is what happened in the AD-70 where Solomon's temple was destructed, Jewish leaders were massacred, 1,100,000 civilians were dead in hunger & plague and their genealogical records were annihilated.
This is the progressive way to prove that the day & hour may be unknown but the exact year was known even before happening and it's utter naive not to know that after happened.