<p>13:32 <i>But of that day or that hour- Hemera&nbsp;</i>can refer to a period rather than a specific calendar day; it occurs often in the Olivet prophecy: &ldquo;Those days&rdquo; (Mt. 24:19), &ldquo;those days should be shortened&rdquo; (Mt. 24:22), &ldquo;the tribulation of those days&rdquo; (Mt. 24:29), &ldquo;the days of Noah&rdquo; (Mt. 24:37), &ldquo;the days that were before the flood&rdquo; (Mt. 24:38). So the Lord isn&rsquo;t necessarily saying that there is a calendar day and hour within that day when He will return. He may even be implying that God has given us conditions to fulfil, and not a calendar date. There is no calendar date discernible from our side, because it is conditional. The Lord repeats this teaching in Mt. 25:13 when He says that we must watch exactly because &ldquo;you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man comes&rdquo;. When the disciples later asked to know this date, the Lord replied that &ldquo;the times or seasons&rdquo; have been &ldquo;set within the Father&rsquo;s own authority&rdquo; (Acts 1:7 RV). This sounds like God has set up required preconditions, and the actual moment of the Lord&rsquo;s return is somehow within frames of reference which His own authority alone has determined. But the Lord goes straight on to remind them of their calling to take the Gospel worldwide (Acts 1:8); for that was one of the major preconditions. Instead of trying to discern a specific date ahead of time, they were instead to refocus upon the spreading of the Gospel. If all the mental effort put into trying to discern the calendar date had been put into simply spreading the Gospel, then perhaps the Lord would be here by now. However, there is also the possibility that in the very last days, the last generation&nbsp;<i>will</i>&nbsp;in fact know the day and hour.</p><p><i>Knows no one except the Father, neither the angels in heaven nor the Son- </i>There&rsquo;s a major theme of knowing / seeing / perceiving in the Olivet prophecy.&nbsp;<i>Eido</i>, translated &ldquo;knows&rdquo;, carries the essential idea of &lsquo;seeing&rsquo; or perceiving. We are to &ldquo;see&rdquo; / know / perceive the abomination of desolation, and when we &ldquo;see&rdquo; / know / perceive &ldquo;all these things, know that it is near&rdquo;. And yet, despite that, we can not know, at least at this stage, the day nor the hour of the Lord&rsquo;s coming. The reason is made crystal clear in Mt. 24:42: &ldquo;Watch&nbsp;<i>therefore</i>&nbsp;because you do not know s.w. what hour your Lord comes&rdquo;. Mt. 25:13 repeats this: &ldquo;Watch&nbsp;<i>therefore</i>&nbsp;because you do not know s.w. neither the day nor the hour in which your Lord comes&rdquo;. The &lsquo;watching&rsquo;, therefore, is the watching of ourselves and for the welfare of others;&nbsp;<i>not</i>&nbsp;the activity of seeking to match world events with Bible prophecies. So our watching is exactly because we do not know the day and hour. God in His wisdom made it like this- so that we should watch all the time. If we knew when the Lord were coming, then we would not watch for Him until that time. Such is human nature. If a man knows what day and hour the thief is coming, he will watch for him at that time (Mt. 24:43). But if he doesn&rsquo;t know, then he must watch all the time. So, looking at it from that point of view, it is absolutely necessary that we do&nbsp;<i>not</i>&nbsp;know the day and hour. And yet it seems so many have seriously misunderstood this. They think that they&nbsp;<i>can</i>&nbsp;work out the day and hour, and their &lsquo;watching&rsquo; is not so much a personal readiness for the Lord&rsquo;s coming at any moment as an extended scouring of the media in an attempt to slot various international happenings into Bible prophecies. Indeed it is observable that personal watchfulness often apparently comes to be excused because of &lsquo;watching&rsquo; the &ldquo;signs of the times&rdquo;.</p>