by Daniel Onyango

Created on: May 20, 2010

Sacrilege is defined as blasphemous behaviour or depriving something of its sacred character, a violation or injurious treatment of a sacred object (wikipedia.org). For example, the scriptures is considered holy and sacred, and there is a final warning in Revelation 22:19 of the dire consequences of adding to, or subtracting words from the scriptures. The Bible scripture is clear about its stand on fortune-telling, predicting a future date or soothsaying. Indeed with regard to Christ’s second coming it is such a guarded secret that numerous examples are used, including likening it to the coming of a thief in the mid-night hour, therefore making it a closed chapter with regard to making a prediction about it.

Yet concerning the events relating to his second coming, Christ would not have anyone be ignorant. He left no doubt in the minds of his disciples that ignorance about signs of the times may only be injurious to the ignorant. Indeed he had said, ‘ of that day and hour no man knoweth , no, not the angels of heaven, but my father only’ (Matthews 24:36) , but in the same breath he declared, ‘ behold the fig tree, and all the trees, when they now shoot forth, ye see and know yourselves that summer is near at hand, so likewise you, when you see these things come to pass, know that the kingdom of God is near at hand’ (Luke 21:29-31). In Matthews 24 and in Luke 21 Jesus Christ enumerates some of the occurrences and signs of his second coming that may help us to discern or ‘know’ the times or period, not the exact date, of his second coming.

God has given man senses of smell, sight, conscience and wisdom to help him discern events. In addition to this, the Holy Spirit has been given to help man ‘hear’ directly from God (John 14 :26). That way, many things that are spiritual may come to his knowledge. But knowledge of events and the times precludes the exact date of Christ’s second coming ; this is a mystery that only God himself knows. It is safe to suggest, however, that God is loving enough not to keep man in the dark concerning what is to come as declared through prophet Amos (3:7).

Humanity has always had himself to blame for ‘missing out’ on important events. A good example is Noah’s warning to his generation about God’s intended destruction of the earth (Genesis 6:13) . Despite many years of seeing him build an ark in the deserts of Aran they ignored him. It took one century

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