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The Day or Hour
Can We or Can’t We Know?

IT’S TRUE, NO ONE KNOWS THE specific day or the specific hour of Christ’s return as recorded in Matthew 24:36. It is a mystery. Though the day and hour may not be known, we can know when we are in the very last years of earth’s history, even the last year.

Take a look at the same chapter that gave us this infamous verse. We can know when we are in the beginning of sorrows (Mat. 24:7, 8). We can know when the Antichrist is in the temple (Mat. 24:15). We can know when we are in the great tribulation brought by the Antichrist (Mat. 24:16-21). We can know when we are the people who will witness the return of Christ if we are not martyred by the Antichrist (Mat. 24:29-31). In other words, we can know when the earth has only seven years left when the Antichrist is revealed. We can also know when the world has only 10 1/2 years remaining by calculating the time when the Antichrist confirms a seven year covenant.

When the Antichrist confirms a seven year covenant with Israel, breaks the covenant with Israel, and then ushers the world into the great tribulation, we know there is only 10 1/2 years left to our  present world (Dan. 9:27). The covenant is seven years: 3 ½ years unbroken and 3 ½ years broken. After the covenant is broken, we are then taken into seven years of hell on earth with the great tribulation. From our present point of time in history we know with assurance that Christ will not return for more than 10 ½ years. Once the seven year covenant is confirmed, the 10 ½ year countdown to Christ’s coming begins.

Also, the book of Revelation informs us that the Antichrist arrives on the scene and is permitted to do what he wills for 3 ½ years (Rev. 6). After these 3 ½ years the two witnesses (Israel and the Church) are revived and bring Christ’s judgment on the Antichrist’s kingdom for 3 ½ years. At the end of these seven years, Christ will then return.

We can know when we are living in the last seven years of earth’s history. We are given specific events in the book of Daniel, Matthew 24, and the book of Revelation to let us know where we are on the prophetic/historical timeline. We can know when the return of Christ is at the door—which could be on any day that we wake up—after we go through the seven year tribulation and the great revival of Israel and the church.

There are also many other events that let us know that we are now in the last of the last days—the “this generation” of Matthew 24:34. Some of these events include the exponential increase of travel and knowledge; Israel reformed as a nation (1948); Israel taking possession of Jerusalem (1967); temple now ready to be rebuilt; and emphasis on the new world order (realignment of all nations into 10 regions); movement toward a cashless society.

The signs of where we are on the prophetic timeline are all around us. However, as in the days of Jesus when He informed the people that they could discern what the weather would be by the signs in the sky, yet they could not discern the prophetic times they were living in even though they were looking at their long awaited Messiah eye to eye (Luke 12:54-56)

This is how it is today. Even though the signs of our living in the last of the last days are all around us, it seems that the majority refuse to acknowledge that they are actually living in the time when the cashless currency, realignment of all nations into 10 regions, and the appearance of the Antichrist are fulfillments of prophecy. We are the “this generation” of Matthew 24. We are the generation that will see the fulfillment of all prophecy. We are the generation that will live through the brutality of the Antichrist and the glorious redemption of Christ’s return. We are the "this generation" of Matthew 24.

Steve Magill
Copyright March 2017