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First Thessalonians, part 14, Discerning the Times

Paul has just described the resurrection of the dead and the gathering of the saints at Christ’s coming (4:13–18). He now turns from what will happen to the question of when it will happen. 1 Thessalonians 5:1 begins,

¹ Now as to the times and the epochs, brethren, you have no need of anything to be written to you.

The chapter division can obscure the continuity. Paul is still discussing the coming(parousia)of Christ and its implications.

Times and Epochs

Paul uses two Greek words: chronoi, “times,” periods or spans of time and kairoi, “seasons,” appointed occasions or decisive times. The same combination appears in Acts 1:7, when the disciples ask Jesus about restoring the kingdom to Israel:

⁷ It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority.

Paul's language probably reflects this same teaching. The question is not simply, “On what calendar date will Christ return?” It concerns God’s appointed times in the unfolding of His Kingdom. There may also be an echo of Daniel 2:21:

²¹ It is He who changes the times and the epochs; He removes kings and establishes kings….

God controls history. The Day of the Lord occurs according to His timetable, not man’s.

Perhaps the most striking point in Paul’s statement (5:1) is that it seems to contradict what Jesus told His disciples in Acts 1:7. Jesus told them, “It is not for you to know,” but 20 years later, Paul told his disciples, essentially, “I don’t have to tell you about times and epochs, because you already know.”

Early Predictions

Many preachers today treat Acts 1:7 as a fixed principle that will not be modified by future revelation. Others, of course, have unwisely claimed to know the date of Christ’s return. As far back as 1260 A.D., Joachim of Fiore thought that Christ would return that year. In 1533, Melchior Hoffman, a German Anabaptist preacher, expected the apocalyptic transformation to begin at Strasbourg, associated with the return of Christ and establishment of the New Jerusalem.

William Miller, an American Baptist preacher, calculated that Christ would return around 1843–1844. This was later refined to the Day of Atonement, October 22, 1844. Its failure became known as “the Great Disappointment.”

Russell and the Jehovah’s Witnesses

Some Adventists, being influenced by the Millerites, expected Christ’s return around this period. Charles Taze Russell, founder of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, later accepted the teaching that Christ’s invisible presence (parousia) had begun in 1874, initiating a 40-year “harvest” period that ended in 1914. The “Times of the Gentiles” would end in 1914, and the present political/ecclesiastical order would reach its climax of judgment.

Russell explicitly wrote in 1876 that “the seven times will end in A.D. 1914.” His 1877 collaboration with Barbour, Three Worlds, combined that date with the belief that Christ's invisible presence had already begun in 1874.

This explains the original title of Russell's magazine when he began publishing it in 1879: Zion’s Watch Tower and Herald of Christ’s Presence. It was a “Herald of Christ’s Presence” because Russell believed that parousia was already underway.

The year 1914 was certainly an important year in prophecy, based on a “seven times” period since the rise of Babylon (607 B.C.). However, what he failed to see was that it marked the start of our captivity to Mystery Babylon through the establishment of the Federal Reserve Bank, which, in time, subjected the entire world to economic slavery. Also, 1914 saw the start of World War 1, which did indeed begin a long-term cycle of judgment on the nations. The Federal Reserve Act was important to the neo-Babylonians to pay for World War 1.

In 1904 Russell expected the great “time of trouble” to develop before 1914, culminating by the end of the Gentile Times. In 1894 he remained highly confident in the chronology, saying that he saw no reason to change the figures. But in a July 1904 Zion’s Watch Tower article, Russell reconsidered the sequence. He now suggested that the climactic worldwide anarchy might occur after October 1914, rather than being completed by then. He retained 1914 but became more flexible about precisely what that date represented in the sequence.

It was under Joseph Rutherford and subsequent Watch Tower development that 1914 itself became the beginning of Christ’s invisible presence. (Russell died October 31, 1916, and Rutherford was elected January 6, 1917.) Russell’s 1874 date was eventually discarded. Historical summaries of Watch Tower doctrine place this shift in the early 1930’s. That major doctrinal revision belongs primarily to the post-Russell Watch Tower movement.

Jehovah’s Witnesses still officially teach today that 1914 marked the beginning of Christ’s invisible royal presence (parousia) and the beginning of his rule as King of God’s heavenly Kingdom. Their current material states plainly that “God’s Kingdom started ruling in heaven in the year 1914.”

More specifically, the present doctrine is this: In 1914 Christ was enthroned as heavenly King + beginning of Christ’s invisible parousia + beginning of the “last days.”

The years 1914-1917 were, indeed, pivotal in prophetic history. However, these dates were based on a chronological “seven times” cycle of 2,520 years, without taking into account that God had given the beast nations “seven times” of authority in the earth. The Grecian Empire—the third beast empire in the series—was deprived of its final full century from 163-63 B.C., when Jerusalem became independent under the Maccabees. (Rome took over in 63 B.C.) Hence, the rule of these beast empires was deprived of a century of authority, which means that a century had to be added at the end (from 1914/1917 to 2014-2017).

What actually happened is that this marked a transition of spiritual authority from the beast systems to the overcomers. It did NOT mark the parousia of Christ, however. The date was more comparable to Joshua crossing the Jordan. The land of Canaan still had to be conquered under that divine authority to prepare the way for Christ’s parousia.

Recent Predictions

Recall that Edgar Whisenant presented 88 reasons why “the rapture” would occur in 1988.

https://ia800101.us.archive.org/17/items/ReasonsWhyTheRaptureWillBeIn1988PDF/14080011-88-Reasons-Why-The-Rapture-Will-Be-in-1988.pdf

His “reasons” were not proof, and so they failed. Yet 1988 was important in lesser ways for us. On August 2/3, 1988 we held a prayer campaign to deal with the threat of the Prince of Persia, who sought to bring America into a Mideast conflict. Two years later, Iraq invaded Kuwait on the night of August 2,3, 1990, and this led to the Gulf War in 1991.

We had revelation about two impending wars involving the Prince of Persia (Iran). We are now in the midst of that second war. Hence, 1988 was an important date, but when men lack more detailed revelation, they usually make the mistake of linking their date to Christ’s parousia, instead of seeing the date as a steppingstone toward the parousia.

Later, Harold Camping thought that Christ may return on September 6, 1994, but when this did not happen, he was much more assertive in claiming that Christ would return on May 21, 2011. Furthermore, the world was going to be destroyed on October 21, 2011.

https://ia800101.us.archive.org/17/items/ReasonsWhyTheRaptureWillBeIn1988PDF/14080011-88-Reasons-Why-The-Rapture-Will-Be-in-1988.pdf

Of course, neither of these dates proved to be correct. On June 9, 2011 he suffered a stroke, and formally retired from Family Radio in October 2011. He later died on December 15, 2013.

Progressive Revelation

Paul gave the Thessalonians more revelation that Jesus gave His disciples in Acts 1:7. This in itself shows that prophetic revelation unfolds progressively over time. In fact, we would expect the greatest portion of revelation to be given as we draw near to its fulfillment. Amos 3:7 says,

⁷ Surely the Lord God does nothing unless He reveals His secret counsel to His servants the prophets.

He “does nothing??” We know that He hides His secrets even from good men until it is time to reveal such things. So it appears to me that the appropriate secrets will be hidden until the appointed times draw near.

It pictures the prophets as being given access to God’s Counsel/Council—His purposes are disclosed to them before He executes His judgments. The problem, of course, is that many claim to receive revelation that ultimately proves to be either false or misunderstood. Therefore, it is important for each person to develop his/her own ability to discern truth.

The best place to begin is to know the Scriptures.