We have a Scripture which tells us when Christ will return at His Second Advent, not the rapture of the church as described in I Thessalonians 4:13 -18 but His Second Coming. He told us in Matthew 23:39: "For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, ‘Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord!’”
A fundamental rule of hermeneutics is to ask this question about any portion of Scripture: To whom is this person speaking or writing?" Matthew 23:1 answers that question: "Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to His disciples." So, the answer is that He spoke to Israel, not the Gentiles.
The next important hermeneutical question is this: What's the context in which the verse occurs? The end of the chapter brings the answer: Jesus said, "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who have been sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. 38 Behold, your house is being left to you desolate! 39 For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, ‘Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord!’”
So there it is. Christ will return when the nation Israel recognizes Him as their Messiah. When will the nation of Israel say that about Jesus? They certainly aren't saying that today.
We must put that national realization into its context. Israel will realize that Jesus of Nazareth whom they had rejected is their Messiah after the Great Tribulation whose judgments will prepare them to come to that belief.
In the Tribulation, Israel will come to believe that the antichrist is their Messiah. Midway through that judgmental time, he will turn on them and betray them, breaking his treaty with them.
Then all the nations of the world will come against Israel ant that, with the other factor, will cause them to realize that Jesus is their Messiah and will turn to Him saying, "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord" and will make the great confession of Isaiah 53:1-12.
No one today can set a date for that confession when, as Romans 11:26 says, "and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written: “The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob.”
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