3934 - The Day and the Hour by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Dec 10, 1912

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 39, No. 48.

3934 — The Day and the Hour

By Editor

I have been reading your paper, in regard to the second coming of Christ. You said we could not know the day or the hour. How may we harmonize this with 1 Thess. 5:4? E. A.

It is Jesus Himself who tells us, "But of that day and hour knoweth no one, not even the angels of heaven, neither the Son, but the Father only." Matt. 24: 36. 1 Thess. 5:4 is a general statement: "But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief." That would not necessarily mean that we would know the day or the hour when the great day of God's judgment begins. But we will know the seasons, we will know the time; and God's children at that time will be watching and waiting. And the very fact that they are to watch and to wait would show that they do not know the exact day. A man who knows the time of the train does not watch for days or hours before it is time for the train to come. So God's children, not knowing the day or the hour, will be watching and waiting; but they will know the seasons, and then know that the time is near, even at the doors.