<p>24:36&nbsp;<i>But of that day and hour</i>-&nbsp;<i>Hemera&nbsp;</i>can refer to a period rather than a specific calendar day; it occurs often in the prophecy: &ldquo;Those days&rdquo; (:19), &ldquo;those days should be shortened&rdquo; (:22), &ldquo;the tribulation of those days&rdquo; (:29), &ldquo;the days of Noah&rdquo; (:37), &ldquo;the days that were before the flood&rdquo; (: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 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- see below on&nbsp;<i>Knows no man</i>.&nbsp;</p><p><i>No one knows</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 (:15), and when we &ldquo;see&rdquo; / know / perceive &ldquo;all these things, know that it is near&rdquo; (:33). 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 :42: &ldquo;Watch&nbsp;<i>therefore</i>&nbsp;because you do not know s.w. what hour your Lord comes&rdquo;. 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 (: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><p>It is commonly thought that even the Lord Jesus doesn't know the time of his return, only the Father does. During his mortality, the Lord said exactly this (Mk. 13:32)- at the time he was speaking to the disciples, he himself didn't know. But after his resurrection and glorification, the Lord made two statements to the disciples which he surely intended to be connected: &quot;All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth... it is not for you (the inquisitive eleven standing on Olivet) to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power&quot; (Mt. 28:18; Acts 1:7,8). But&nbsp;<i>all</i>&nbsp;the Father's power has been given to His glorified Son, and this therefore includes knowledge of the &quot;times and seasons&quot; of the second coming. In the exalted Lord &quot;are hid all the riches of wisdom and knowledge&quot; (Col. 2:3); it is thereby inconceivable that the Father would still keep back some knowledge from the Son. The point of all this is that when the Lord Jesus said that &quot;of that day and that hour knoweth (present tense) no man, no, not the angels... neither the Son&quot; he was not laying down a general principle for all time. He was speaking of the situation at that time: 'You can't know now, indeed at the moment even I don't know; but these are the signs which will tell the believers when I'll come'. By implication he was saying 'You can't understand them, although I'm giving them to you, but in the future some will understand them, because these signs will accurately pinpoint my return'. This was exactly the spirit of what the Angel told Daniel when he too wished to know when Messiah would come in glory; he was basically told 'It's not for you to understand, but in the last days understanding of these things will be increased among God's people; they will know the time, but you can't'. There are so many connections between the Olivet prophecy and Daniel that perhaps it is legitimate to think that the Lord was alluding to the Angel's refusal to tell Daniel the time of Messiah's coming. That the Lord was primarily referring to the twelve when he spoke of them not knowing &quot;when the time is&quot; (Mk. 13:33) is confirmed if we appreciate that the Lord Jesus sometimes uses &quot;the time&quot; as a reference to the appointed time for his own death (Mt. 26:18; Mk. 14:35; Jn. 7:6,8). The disciples were fascinated with the time of his return, and the Lord was giving them the signs. But knowing his death was only days away, inevitably he had in mind &quot;the time&quot; of his passion. And he knew that as they didn't know the time of his return, so they didn't understand the time of his death. Having pointed out that they knew not &quot;the time&quot;, in words surely reminiscent of his criticism of Jewry generally for not knowing &quot;the time&quot; of his coming and death (Mt. 16:3; Lk. 19:44), the Lord went on to tell the story of the man (himself) who left his household (the disciples) and told them to watch, with warnings as to what would happen if they didn't. Every one of those warnings, and some other language in the Olivet prophecy,&nbsp;came true of the disciples in the next few days, in the context of &quot;the time&quot; being the time of Christ's death:</p><table border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0>    <tbody>        <tr>            <td valign=top>            <p>            They shall deliver you up to&nbsp;&nbsp; the councils</p>            </td>            <td valign=top>            <p>As Christ to the Sanhedrin</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td valign=top>            <p>Beaten</p>            </td>            <td valign=top>            <p>Christ buffeted</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td valign=top>            <p>rulers and kings for a   testimony&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>            </td>            <td valign=top>            <p>Chief priests, Herod, Pilate</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td valign=top>            <p>...brother shall betray the brother&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>            </td>            <td valign=top>            <p>Judas; Peter's denial?</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td valign=top>            <p>...turn back to take up his garment&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>            </td>            <td valign=top>            <p>John Mark's linen garment</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td valign=top>            <p>...false   Christs...&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>            </td>            <td valign=top>            <p>An echo of 'Barabbas'?</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td valign=top>            <p>the sun shall be   darkened...&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>            </td>            <td valign=top>            <p>As at the crucifixion</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td valign=top>            <p>Watch&nbsp;pray...&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>            </td>            <td valign=top>            <p>&quot;Watch with me&quot;; Gethsemane</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td valign=top>            <p>at even...&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>            </td>            <td valign=top>            <p>Last Supper</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td valign=top>            <p>at midnight...</p>            </td>            <td valign=top>            <p>Gethsemane</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td valign=top>            <p>at the cock crowing</p>            </td>            <td valign=top>            <p>Peter's denials</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td valign=top>            <p>in the morning</p>            </td>            <td valign=top>            <p>trials and crucifixion</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td valign=top>            <p>find you sleeping</p>            </td>            <td valign=top>            <p>disciples in Gethsemane</p>            </td>        </tr>    </tbody></table><p>And at the end of the prophecy, He hammered this home again: &quot;When (the trees) now shoot forth, ye see it, and know of your own selves that Summer is now nigh at hand. So likewise ye, when ye see these things... know ye&quot; (Lk. 21:30,31 RV). The very personal feeling within us that Summer is near is likened to our knowledge of the imminence of the Lord's coming; you can't be told by anyone else that Summer's coming, you see the signs, and you know within your own self.&nbsp;</p><p><i>Not even the Angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father</i>- A clear indication of their limited knowledge, which helps explain their &lsquo;testing&rsquo; of God&rsquo;s servants in some Old Testament incidents, apparently in order to obtain more knowledge about them.</p>