Predicting When Jesus is Coming

Mankind has tried to predict Jesus' return since He ascended into Heaven some 2,000 years ago. Prognosticators, in all their knowedge, signs, and indications have managed to miss it consistantly. They should have listened to Jesus because He said:

But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.(Matt 24:36).

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When I was a child I remember the Jehova Witnesses predicted the coming of Jesus. They missed it just like they did in the early part of the 20th century. Edgar C. Whisenhunt reportedly made a quarter million dollars from his best-selling book, "88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Be in 1988". It didn't happen. There have been many, many attempts to predict the coming of Jesus and all of them were wrong.

C.S. Lewis makes it very clear. Here's a passage from "The Worlds Last Night: An Other Essays:

"Clearly, no one wishes to say anything that will [awaken] mass hysteria. We must never speak...about 'the Day' [of the Second Coming] without emphasizing again and again the utter impossibility of prediction. We must try to show them that that impossibility is an essential part of the doctrine. If you do not believe Our Lord's words, why do you believe in His return at all? And if you do believe them must you not put away from you, utterly and forever, any hope of dating that return?

His teaching on the subject quite clearly consisted of three propositions: (1) That He will certainly return; (2) That we cannot possibly find out when; (3) And that therefore we must always be ready for Him."

Many like to argue whether Jesus is going to return before the tribulation, in the middle of the tribulation, or the end of the tribulation. I used to get caught up in the argument in a big way. Now I don't worry about it. Jesus clearly says that nobody knows. I'm going to trust Him and be ready. You should, too.