Part Two — Understanding the Son’s role in relation to when He will return

In the previous post, I asserted that the issue concerning Jesus’ statement in the Olivet Discourse that He didn’t know the day and hour of His return has nothing to do with a lack of omniscience. In this post I will explain why He doesn’t know the precise day and hour of His return (the second advent).

One of the most difficult verses in the New Testament concerns a statement by Jesus in the Olivet Discourse concerning the timing of His return. This statement occurs in Matthew and Mark but is absent in Luke and John. Nothing further is directly addressed about that statement in either the epistles or in Revelation. It’s also interesting that the disciples never questioned Him about that statement. It’s almost like they understood something we don’t.

Here’s what Matthew and Mark record in remarkably similar words:
• “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.” (Matthew 24:36)
• “But of that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.” (Mark 13:32)
It is interesting that the NET omits “nor the son” in Matthew’s Gospel, yet the phrase “the Father alone” is included. So even in that translation we have the same basic statement that Jesus doesn’t know the exact time when He will return since only the Father alone knows the day and hour. In Mark’s Gospel the phrase “nor the son” is included in the NET.

While this verse is often used as a proof-text by those who deny the deity of Jesus Christ, I will not be addressing that issue here. Suffice to say that as a presuppositional apologist, God said what He said through the human authors He selected and I believe what He said. Besides, there are plenty of other passages that assert His deity without question. Instead, I will be making sense of what Jesus said in a way that I hope can be understood by both believers and unbelievers.

As noted above, in the previous essay I have made it clear that the issue does not concern Jesus’ omnipotence. That means there is something else that needs to be said to clear up the issue. So let’s begin.

First of all, let me state the obvious: Jesus is responding directly to the first question put to Him, asking “when will these things happen?” (Matthew 24:3; cf. Mark 13:4 and Luke 21:7). While at first blush it may seem to be a question directed only at Jesus’ prediction that the Temple will be destroyed, the phrase these things is plural, therefore more than the Temple’s destruction is in question. The question may presuppose that the disciples thought that the destruction of the Temple signaled the beginning of the end-time events (as noted in the Old Testament) that will eventually result in His return. The disciples were well aware that Jesus is the Messiah who will one day rule over all Israel, but they didn’t know when His reign over the kingdom would be fulfilled.

Another question considering the texts that I’ll consider briefly: what is going on now concerning Jesus’ future return? First, the Father is currently withholding His wrath until the sins of the nations are complete (Genesis 15:16b). Secondly, the Father is currently being patient (2 Peter 3:9).

Please note that the time for the Son’s return might not be a matter of time as we account for it by twenty-first century Western standards (by the use of a calendar and clock), but when things are complete. Consider that God told Abraham that He would bring judgment upon Egypt and the Amorites (Genesis 15:14-16). And yet in verse 16 He says there will be a delay relevant to when He judges the Amorites by saying, “for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete.” It would be some time before He declared the iniquities to be complete. That occurred when He stated in Leviticus 18:25a “For the land has become defiled, therefore I have brought its punishment upon it,” thus declaring His judgment upon the Amorites ready to be executed. In other words, although the Father obviously knows the precise moment when He will act, it’s not the calendar He has in mind but when sinfulness and lawlessness reaches a point to where the sins of the nations are complete and the time is appropriate for His judgment to begin.

Consider Psalm 110:1-2 (cf. Hebrews 10:12-13), written close to one thousand years before the Olivet Discourse. In verse one Yahweh (the Father) tells David’s Lord (Jesus) to “sit at My right hand,” an event that happened after the ascension (Hebrews 1:3b). In verse two the Father will tell His Son to “rule in the midst of your enemies.” In both cases, the Father is directing the Son what to do. The first directive has already occurred and the second is still future (Revelation 19:11).

We know that during the first advent that Jesus was always obedient to the Father:
• Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work” (John 4:34).
• “I always do the things that are pleasing to Him” (John 8:29b).
• “I did not come to do My will but the will of Him who sent Me” (John 5:30b).
• “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me” (John 6:38).
This may sound silly, yet the only way Jesus can be obedient is if the Father directs Him to do something. Why do we think that has changed? The Son was being obedient to the Father and carrying out the Father’s will while walking on this earth among men, and He is still being obedient to the Father even now after the resurrection and ascension. After all, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever (Hebrews 13:8).

So does Jesus know when He will return? Yes, when the Father “which the Father has fixed by His own authority” sends Him back to earth (Acts 1:7). Does He know the precise day and hour according to current Western time keeping? No, He’s patiently waiting for the Father to say “Go!” (Psalm 110:2b). How will He know when it’s time to return? When the Father hands the title deed to the earth over to the Son (Revelation 5:1, 7).

When the Father sends the Son again (the second advent) Jesus, always obedient to the Father (John 14:31a), will return (Acts 1:11b).

“It is possible to be so worried about the time (chronos) for something—such as the return of Christ—that we miss the time (kairos) for something—such as living like citizens of the kingdom of God.”
— Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes (E. Randolph Richards and Brandon J. O’Brien, InterVarsity Press, 2012)