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In theological studies, the word eschatology refers to the study of the End Times. For obvious reasons, it’s an important field of study. Unfortunately, there is a lot of confusion about the Last Days, fueled by would-be teachers who haven’t even done their own homework, but are supremely confident in their assertions. It’s been amplified exponentially through all the social media platforms.

Most recently, multiple YouTube videos have been circulating, focusing on the timing of the Rapture. One of them, by a youth pastor from California, has garnered over half a million views in just the past four weeks, and it’s riddled with untruths and inaccuracies, and he is date-setting. Of course, that is a sin, but it also misses the mark when we focus our energies on trying to calculate when we get taken away, rather than on faithfully preaching the Good News and making disciples. And I’d really rather talk about what we should be doing, than what we shouldn’t be doing.

Why did God give us a holiday of trumpet blasts? As Rabbi Loren explained, though it’s commonly called Rosh HaShanah (‘Head of the Year’) in Scripture, it’s called Yom T’ruah – The Holiday of Trumpets. Not pleasant trumpets. Not smooth, jazzy trumpets. Annoyingly loud rams’ horns. It’s to shake us out of our spiritual complacency… like an alarm clock.

Some alarm clock sounds are especially unpleasant. A few of the more annoying ones are the loud buzzer sound, or a rooster crowing, or the worst of all: Nyancat. But I don’t want to wake up to buzzers or roosters or Nyancat. So I use one of the songs on my phone (Andy Griffith Show theme song). But the fact is, alarms are not meant to sound pleasant, but to shock us into alertness; and that is the purpose God intended for this holy day. We need just such a day, since our fallen nature makes us prone to spiritual laziness, complacency and inattentiveness. And what is coming is far too important for us to go on sleeping.

I’m not referring to Yom Kippur, though that is just 10 days away, and is, far and away, the most solemn of days for Jewish people worldwide. I’m talking about something much more consequential: Yom Shivat HaMashiach – the Day of Messiah’s Return. That day will be a day not only of judgment and recompense, but of rescue and redemption. Thing is, we don’t know when that will be. We only have a sense that it is near – much nearer than when we first believed (Rom 13:11).

We read, for example, in 1 Thessalonians 4:15-16, the following: For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Messiah will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore, comfort one another with these words.

It’s natural for those who love Adonai and are loyal to Messiah Yeshua to want to know how soon before we’ll be with Him. It’s what prompted the Disciples to ask the resurrected Messiah about it while they were with Him on the Mount of Olives. But do you remember what He said to them in Acts 1:7-8? He replied, “The Father alone has the authority to set those dates and times, and they are not for you to know. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

He had said it before.“But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone. For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be… Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming. But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what time of the night the thief was coming, he would have been on the alert and would not have allowed his house to be broken into. For this reason you also must be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will. Who then is the faithful and sensible slave whom his master put in charge of his household to give them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes.”

We don’t know when that day will come, but in contrast to the unbelieving world which will be stunned, having been unprepared (as in Noah’s day), we look forward to that day with joyous anticipation.

And, I would add, it is the grace of God that we have a holiday of warning. The Lord our God cares enough about us to want us to be prepared for what is to come.

So now, what should we do, knowing all this? Try to calculate the date? NO! Speculating about dates wasn’t the task He gave us to do. Do the work He assigned you to do – and that work is to tell everyone around you about our wonderful Messiah, Yeshua. That is the surest evidence that we love Him – that we want others to experience Him as well. So spread the Good News. You know you want to hear those precious words, right? “Well done, good and faithful servant!”

So here’s how to think Eschata-logically about this:

We must be about His work when He returns

We don’t know when He’ll return,

therefore…

ALWAYS be about His work!