Question:

What do you think of the Rabbi Yitzhak Kaduri? Apparently he was Israel’s leading religious teacher up until 2006 when he died at 108 years. Supposedly during the latter years of his life he focused very intently on the teaching of the coming of the Messiah and how to recognize him. He wrote a note concerning the subject of how to recognize him but he asked it to be sealed for a year. When time came to read the letter they found that the acronym for the sentence read Yeshua. Now I view this with a certain degree of skepticism and I’m not into trying to predict when Jesus will come back but I have to wonder why such a man as this would write something like this towards the end of his life. I’m not saying that I don’t believe that there couldn’t be signs before the coming. What I’m really wondering is with everything that is happening today with the rise in anti-christian thinking and with Islam’s new attempt to conquer Europe could such things be correlated. In the past when Israel and the world became too depraved God worked behind the scenes through the prophets to deliver messages and allowing certain nations to rise and destroy. My theory is that we are near the very end of the 1000 years period in which the gospel circulates around the world. I see the world becoming more openly divided into mindsets in which people embrace Christ and his teachings or rational people are lead to him by a true open mind. then there are those who openly embrace hypocritical, satanistic ideas which many know to be false and any disagreement results in physical harm. Might this be warning us of an iceberg we can’t see coming?  Here is a link to a video discussing the late rabbi: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATuecTsn3fg

Answer:

Jesus cautioned us against trying to interpret the times and predict his coming.  He said that “No one know about the day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” (Matthew 24:36).  Earlier in the chapter he admonished his followers to not listen to those who say “there he is” or “here he is.”  He tells us that many false prophets, and interpreters of prophecy will arise, but to ignore them (Matthew 24:23-24, rather loosely paraphrased).  Therefore, I conclude that we would do well to ignore Rabbi Kaduri.  Instead, in Matthew 25, Jesus tells us to simply be ready at all times for him to come back.  People in every age have been convinced that the signs of their times were of the coming of Jesus.  So far, all these “prophets” have been wrong.

It is my opinion, and you can take it for what it is worth, that speculating on when Jesus will come back is counterproductive and simply not helpful toward living the Christian life.  Our job is not to speculate on such matters but to be ready for Jesus to come back.  Will there be signs at the end?  Perhaps.  I simply do not know.  I am sure that after the fact, we will know, but then by that time the signs will no longer matter.  I suggest you give your energy to serving Jesus as he would want you to do and to be prepared for his coming, but not to put significant energy into speculations about the timing of his return.  An “iceberg” is coming, but our job is to be ready at all times and to rely on Jesus, not to be spending our time looking for an iceberg which will surely come when we least expect it (Matthew 25:1-13).  The evangelical world spends vast energy devoted to idle speculations about the second coming of Jesus.  This is great for creating excitement and for bring people into church, but it does not help us to avoid sin, to change our lives or to serve Jesus as he would want us to serve him.

John Oakes