Jesus made it clear in several statements that we are to watch for His return. He also said that no ones knows the day and hour of His return, and that statement is often used to silence much of the discussion concerning His return. People are often accused of date setting for even suggesting that the end of days is not far away.
If I look at events in the Bible and I calculate that Jesus will return on Mar 16, 2017, would that be a sin? Jesus didnt say that we should not try and determine the day and hour of His return, but that we cannot know the day and hour of his return. We should not be like the Millerites who quit their jobs and settled their estates because they firmly believed that Jesus would return on a particular day. There is nothing wrong in trying to determine the day and hour of the return of Christ we just need to understand that we dont have certain knowledge.
It means that we should keep an open mind as we look for the return of Christ. We should keep an open mind, not only concerning the day and hour, but concerning every detail of the return of Christ. We should have an unshakable faith in Christ, but we should not have an unshakeable faith in our interpretation of prophecy. We will not see clear fulfillment of prophecy when we are expecting it to happen in some other way.
Date setters are often accused of weakening the faith. It is said that when people set dates and they turn out to be wrong it causes some people to lose faith. If a date setter is wrong it should cause us to lose faith in the date setter, but not in God or the Bible. If a person loses faith in God because of a date setter, I would question if that person ever had faith to begin with. Those who have faith in Christ try to do what He told them to do. One of the things He told them to do was to look for His return.
If I look at events in the Bible and I calculate that Jesus will return on Mar 16, 2017, would that be a sin? Jesus didnt say that we should not try and determine the day and hour of His return, but that we cannot know the day and hour of his return. We should not be like the Millerites who quit their jobs and settled their estates because they firmly believed that Jesus would return on a particular day. There is nothing wrong in trying to determine the day and hour of the return of Christ we just need to understand that we dont have certain knowledge.
It means that we should keep an open mind as we look for the return of Christ. We should keep an open mind, not only concerning the day and hour, but concerning every detail of the return of Christ. We should have an unshakable faith in Christ, but we should not have an unshakeable faith in our interpretation of prophecy. We will not see clear fulfillment of prophecy when we are expecting it to happen in some other way.
Date setters are often accused of weakening the faith. It is said that when people set dates and they turn out to be wrong it causes some people to lose faith. If a date setter is wrong it should cause us to lose faith in the date setter, but not in God or the Bible. If a person loses faith in God because of a date setter, I would question if that person ever had faith to begin with. Those who have faith in Christ try to do what He told them to do. One of the things He told them to do was to look for His return.