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There are a number of passages that warn the believer against attempting the
computation of the date of the second coming:--
"But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my
Father only" (Matt. 24: 36).
"Ye know not what hour your Lord doth come" (Matt. 24: 42).
"In such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh" (Matt. 24: 44).
"Watch, therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man
cometh" (Matt. 25: 13).
"But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you.
For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night"
(I Thess. 5: 1, 2).
The fact is that since the setting aside of Israel in Acts 28:, prophetic times are in
abeyance and we are living in a parenthetical period during which the prophetic clock has
been stopped.
The basis of all prophetic computation is found in Dan. 9:, and it is evident that the
present interval of well-nigh 2,000 years has no place in Daniel's 70 weeks. If, then, the
computation of times was clearly wrong during the periods of the Gospels and the Acts
when the hope of Israel was still before the believer, how much more should it be
discountenanced during the present dispensation of the mystery? Instead of being left to
speculate about "times and seasons" the apostles were instructed how they were to
"occupy", with the hope of Israel's restoration in view:--
"But ye shall receive power, the Holy Spirit having come upon you; and ye shall be
witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judæa, and in Samaria, and unto the end
of the earth" (Acts 1: 8).
The expression, the "end of the earth" is of great importance, because by its use the
Lord associated with His command a passage from Isaiah which has a bearing upon the
apostles' question of Acts 1: 6. The passage of Isaiah, to which we refer, is one that is
difficult to translate with certainty. We will compare it as it appears in the A.V. and
R.V., when the difference will at once be manifest:--
"And now saith the Lord that formed me from the womb to be His servant, to bring
Jacob again to Him, Though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of
the Lord, and my God shall be my strength" (Isa. 49: 5, A.V.).
"And now saith the Lord that formed me from the womb to be His servant, to bring
Jacob again to Him, and that Israel be gathered unto Him (for I am honourable in the
eyes of the Lord, and my God is become my strength)" (Isa. 49: 5, R.V.).
The difference between the two renderings depends upon whether we read the Hebrew
word lo as meaning "to Him", or "not". The Lord, Who knew the end from the
beginning, and Who knew that the same Hebrew word could be read as it appears in
either the A.V. or the R.V., so caused Isaiah to write that the prophecy sets forth the facts
without providing Israel with excuse. It was the Saviour's mission to gather Israel to the
Lord, and this gathering shall yet be accomplished. But it was known that Israel would