Ask Pastor Mike Live

John: I have a question on the Rapture. I’m not sure if you’ve seen any of it, but a lot of talk about the Rapture is circulating for this year's Feast of Trumpets. I've done some research on it to see what it actually meant, along with someone who has pretty much put a date on it. I know there have been people before who have put dates on it, and we know the famous scripture says no man knows the day or the hour.

But what I’m understanding, which is new to me, is also a reference to a Jewish idiom and that Christ was speaking in reference to the Feast of Trumpets, where "no man knew the day or the hour." There's a lot of biblical timeline that correlates to the Feast of Trumpets and three more of the seven feasts that need to be fulfilled. I’m just curious about your take on that. What do you believe, and could you shed some light on it?

Mike Fabarez: I do believe in the doctrine of imminence, and it's not just based on the idiom of Acts chapter 1. I believe the idea of Christ coming back without anything being in the way of that or anything that I'm going to know ahead of time. There's more than just the idiomatic reference of "day and hour" or the two words in Greek, Kairos or Chronos.

I think the idea of not knowing comes from a question that was asked of him: "Is now the time you're going to restore the kingdom to Israel?" Basically, he's saying, "No, it's not for you to know any of this." He was really pushing off the concern of timing. Every parable Jesus told about timing was, "I'm not telling you the timing and it's not for you to know the timing."

I just think all of this and then saying, "Well, we're going to figure out the timing because of Rosh Hashanah, the Feast of Trumpets, and because it has so much to do with the last trump in 1 Corinthians 15, and that's when we're going to be changed"—I'm not buying any of that. I think with date-setting, we just can't tiptoe around it.

I’m going to live as though every day could be the day, which is what I think Jesus taught us. I'm going to say "Maranatha" every morning. I'm going to pray as it says in Matthew 6, "Your kingdom come, your will be done." I want to pray that every day and live as though every day were my last. I should do what God has in front of me, run the race that's set before me, and not spend any time trying to set dates. I’m not going to try and figure out whether it's this Rosh Hashanah, next Passover, New Year, or my birthday.

I'm going to live every day doing the will of God and be busy about the work when he comes back, because that's what God tells me to do. I want to be found working for the Lord when he returns so that I don't shrink back in shame at his coming. That is what I think we're called to do.

Everything all the way back to William Miller in 1844 and even before that, anytime Christians have tried to set dates—you can go back to Hal Lindsey in the 1970s—it's always ended poorly. It has either sparked a cult group or it has just led to people throwing up their arms and saying, "You guys are crazy," because it doesn't help us.

I'm not big on date-setting. I don't want to get into it in terms of my ministry on Focal Point, which is why I haven't dealt with it. I'm happy to talk about it on the air with you, John, but I haven't spent time preaching about it. I have no qualms with Leviticus 23, Matthew 24, or 1 John 3.

I'm all about the fact that there are interesting weavings of concepts that are all going to relate to the return of Christ in terms of symbolism, connection, type, and antitype. There are fulfillments of Christ's return in the Tabernacle, the Feasts, and as we learn in Hebrews 4, in the Sabbath day. There are great pictures of connection to all of that.

I'm going to enter into my rest when I see Christ, but it doesn't mean he's going to come back on a Saturday. I look for him every day, and I think that's the way we should live. It's interesting, but when something's interesting, I get pulled into it and spend brain power on it, which takes time.

When it takes time, it takes me away from something else that's fruitful and productive. I'd rather be fruitful and productive on something other than something Jesus said is "not for you to know," because that's what he told me. I’m not going to do that. I would much rather figure out something related to God's Word that he said is for us to know.

In Deuteronomy 29:29, he said the things revealed are for you and your children forever, not the things that are hidden. The things that are not revealed, which he said are "not for you to know," he meant it. So, I'm going to say it's not for me to know certain things that he didn't tell us, and I'm cool with that.

If you didn't want me to know that, God, I'm not going to know it. I’m going to dig into the stuff you did tell me. You told me what the Gospel is, you told me people are lost, you told me to have compassion for people who are lost, and you told me to call people to repentance. That's going to be my focus. I don't want to be wrapped up in hunting for something I'm not supposed to know.