You have no need that I should write you
5 But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. 2 For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night
I was struck by Paul saying that concerning the times and seasons, you have no need that I should write you. Paul wrote this book about the signs of the Lord's coming, they asked him about the times and seasons and yet he says you have no need for him to write. He didn't say "you don't need to know that" but rather "you know perfectly well". Paul's letters represent the Lord's heavenly ministry. If we don't need Paul to tell us because we already know, then doesn't that mean that we were told by the Lord in His earthly ministry? Not only so but Paul continues that we know the day of the Lord comes as a thief in the night. The Lord told us that. So then, instead of looking at the Old Testament, what do the gospels say about the rapture? The first rapture is likened to the mount of transfiguration. Not all the disciples went up, only a few. Not only so but they represented the sleeping church, the only ones who were wide awake were Moses and Elijah. This suggests to me that at the end of the age you will have those with the spirit of Moses and Elijah, they will be wide awake, they will be watching, they will be warning and sounding the alarm.
So what do we know about the time and season of the Mount of Transfiguration? We know it was six days after the Lord rebuked Peter saying "get thee behind me Satan", we are told this in Matthew and Mark. However, in Luke there is no mention of that rebuke and instead we are told it is "about eight days after the Lord said these things".
The rebuke of Peter is the biggest rebuke in the gospels, stunning really, and if I had to place it on the Jewish Calendar it would be the 9th of AV. Apparently I miscalculated (I said this was the 16th but that is a mistake, it is the evening of the 17th and the day of the 18th of August). Six days later is the evening of Monday, and morning of Tuesday.
Why is it "about the eighth day". The eighth day is when you start a new beginning and it is also when you offer up the firstborn of your herd and when you circumcise a firstborn male. When the Lord said He was going to go to the cross that is the circumcision, the cutting off of the flesh. The rapture is about the same thing. If you think about it the 9th of AV is not the beginning of the story, the witnesses went into the land, they came back, they gave the evil report, then Israel cried out that if they followed the Lord into the good land their children would die. The Lord said because you said that you will die in the wilderness but your children will go in instead of you. So that means on the 9th of AV those children were already there, they had to have been born prior to that day. So the rapture is all about "the eighth day" the day you present the first fruit of the church to God as an offering. These ones were born prior to the 9th of AV.
Everyone is examining the types and shadows, that is fine, the feasts are a shadow of things to come, but Paul told us clearly that we had already been told about the time and season from the Lord Jesus.
Second, the other thing that has always bothered me is that in the gospels the Lord always says "no one knows the day or the hour" and yet it seems clear from a couple of verses that not knowing the day or the hour is what happens to those who do not watch.
Revelation 3:3 Therefore if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you.
I think I have finally solved this puzzle too.
9 Now as they came down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying, “Tell the vision to no one until the Son of Man is risen from the dead.”
When the Lord told the disciples no one knew the day or the hour this was true because they had not yet been told about the mount of transfiguration.