Many Muslims come to me challenging the divinity of Christ by quoting from Matthew 24:36, “that no one knows the day or the hour, only The Father knows”
They say that how can Jesus be God if he didn’t know the time or hour, this would be against God’s all knowing nature??
Please explain!
Jesus did know the time and the hour. When he spoke of this he was speaking for himself as human. Later on in the book of John he states that by himself he could do nothing but only by the will of the Father he could do everything. He was stating there were two sides of him, Man and God. This tells me that he was explaining that as a human being he did not know the time of the hour but for the part of him that was God he knew just like the father knew. This was my interpretation on it.
It is referring to the identifying the hour and the day that the feast of trumpets starts which is part of the feast of tabernacles.. two separate priests have to agree on when the new Moon begins as to mark the beginning of the feast of trumpets.. The messiah will return at the last trump which is sounded at the feast of trumpets .. no man knows the day or the hour until it has come…
Jesus stated that the Father is greater than he. The same Father who would make Jesus’ enemies his footstool. When Jesus spoke of “not knowing the Hour” he had not yet ascended to heaven. Also important is that the Bible tells us that Jesus was the ” first” and”only” begotten of the Father.” And that “all” other things were created by him and through him. The former self of Jesus was, in essence, the same as his father YHWH, hence John 1:1.
To satisfy the ego of those who like to nick pick semantics. And minor errors. The adjustment is for you.
https://youtu.be/Kutgy5f9ky8. This video helped me me understand it
What Christ was saying is, that no man can or will know when Christ returns. (If it is Christ who is returning, trust me, He’ll be THE FIRST to know.) So what Christ is saying is,
“Hey, if you’re looking for a secret interpretation on when I’m going to return, don’t bother, because I’ve even taken myself out of this equation. So there isn’t any hidden meanings behind my words, Nor will you be able to read into anything I say.”
Even after all of that, we have cults like the Jehovah’s Witnesses, that STILL tried to interpret the end times of when Christ would have returned.
First of all you can tell them they’ll need more than one verse to contradict His divinity. Jesus was at the time fully man and fully God, but He chose to live as we would to model the way we should live, dependent upon and led by God. In this case Jesus, if He truly meant that He didn’t know, chose to leave behind His power as He mentioned in John 18ish that He could call legions of angels to His aid at any time. Ultimately if said lost individual wants scripture on the divinity of Jesus the list is extensive
As simply as possible, Jesus and the apostles are Galileans. The church is the bride of Jesus.
In the ancient Galilean wedding custom once the bride and groom were betrothed, the bride went home to prepare herself for the wedding and to wait for the groom to come and retrieve her. The groom returned to his fathers house to prepare the wedding feast and to prepare a place to bring his bride to. This took about a year. After the father was satisfied that the room the groom prepared for the bride met with his approval and that all the preparations for the wedding were completed, the groom would wait. It was the fathers prerogative to let his son know when he would be allowed to retrieve his bride and bring her back to his fathers house. No one but the father knew the day or the hour that the wedding feast took place.
The humanity of Jesus was not privy to the information, Jesus came as a man, not as God.
This is a great example of the criterion of embarrassment. Simple put nobody in their right mind will record something embarrassing, and if they are in their right mind and record something embarrassing it must be because it is true. And how embarrassing’ to be God and not be all knowing. So because this is embarrassing this leads textual criticism to conclude it is truthful. In the same document Jesus claims to be God. It is a contradiction to say the writer would write truths about embarrassing things and lie about non-embarrassing things. So what we conclude is the probity of the non-embarrassing things being true is greater than normal when the writings include embarrassing facts as well.
So we conclude Jesus is devine form this criterion of embarrassment.
Now how do we rectify scripture. Well we know God is the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Each a separate person equal to each other but with different roles. The difference in roles does not change how they are equal. My wife is a banker. Her role in our family is the finances. My role is to fix things. Both of our role is under Jesus. My wife *doesn’t know* how to change oil in her car. Not her role. But she tells me how much I can spend on parts to change the oil in her car. That is her role. Does the fact she doesn’t know how to change oil in her car make us unequal? The answer is no. We are equal in our marriage under Christ. We just have different roles. This is obviously a simplified version of the roles of the trinity. But just used to show how different roles can be equal is logically valid.
So in this example the role of the Father is to know when the second coming will happen. The role of the Son is not to know, but the role of action. There is no contradiction because God the father knows the time so therefore God know. But God the son does not know the time as that is not his role, but that doesn’t mean God doesn’t know. Just in his role as the son he doesn’t know. So nothing is taken away from the God’s all knowing nature.
Also there is the fact Jesus said “no man” and while he was fully God on Earth, he was also fully man. So in his human state and role he might not have know then (when limited by time and space), but after the he ascended to heaven (transcending time and space) as fully God and not human, he knows.
There is a video I want you to watch. It’s about the Galilean wedding ceremony. I’m on my phone or I’d give you the link. Jesus and his disciples were all from Galilee. He was giving them a phrase that they should have recognized as part of the bride and groom’s wedding tradition. Galileans were a little different in their marriage traditions. When all was ready, they had to wait for the groom’s father to give the go ahead for the groom to get his bride. The father of the groom would wait usually until the middle of the night and wake his son who in turn would wake the groomsmen. They would blow the Shofar and wake the village. Traditionally the bride would even sleep in her gown just for this reason. This is why the maidens had to have ample oil in their lamps because no one knew.
It’s a matter of understanding their culture of the time.
Christ was telling them that the wedding to his bride would be a traditional Galilean wedding.
That verse does NOT explicitly say the Son does not know. v36 tells you WHO doesn’t know:
1. Man doesn’t know.
2. Angel’s doesn’t know.
v37 tells you when the Son come, he comes when no one expects Him.
But the time only the Father knows. Jesus had said ‘My Father and I are one’ John 10:30
You may also point to them Isaiah 9:6 – Jesus is called the Everlasting Father.
Assuredly, the Son knows…
He was a son of man, in his flesh when he said it so he was speaking truth
He knew which fish had the coin in its mouth
so according to explanations here, Jesus is sometimes Fully Human and Fully God, and other Times fully human alone?
The point of the commment isn’t the nature of Christ, but the fact the man is not tomboy the date or tine and it isn’t his to tell. His purpose is to prepare us for it. And always to be ready. It part of the functioning of the Trinity and it’s. Paradox which Muslims don’t Want to understand and Christians marvel over
Do you believe God can restrain His attributes?
well the father and the son are seperate and have different roles. God died on the cross as the son but the father didnt die on the cross. doesnt mean the father isnt God. the trinity will always be a stumbling point for muslims and seems to be their greatest objection to christianity. its hard. its not exactly a straightforward concept.
It’s simple. It’s none of your business. My Spirit in this body choose not to speak that revelation through this flesh.
So elementary.
Jesus was both God and man. He had two natures. He was divine and human at the same time. This teaching is known as the hypostatic union, that is, the coming-together of two natures in one person. In Heb. 2:9 it says Jesus was “…made for a little while lower than the angels…” Also, in Phil. 2:5-8 it says that Jesus “emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men…” Col. 2:9 says, “For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form.” Jesus was both God and man at the same time.
As a man, Jesus cooperated with the limitations of being a man. That is why we have verses like Matthew 224:36 and Luke 2:52 that says “Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.” Therefore, at this point in His ministry He could say He did not know the day nor hour of His return. It is not a denial of His being God but a confirmation of His being man.
Madame I appreciate you but one thing I want to tell you… Before discussing with any Muslim, Ask him/her if he believes in the Bible… That’s the only way they can understand the mystery of the revelation of God…
Some things were written figuratively and their thinking cannot curtail them…
Like what Kevin Moldenhauer wrote, they can’t understand it
When Jesus came to the earth he emptied himself – ‘Christ-kenosis’. So his response was based on man. So after ascension, he became fully God again.
Jesus is God the Son who needs to submit to God the Father when He‘s in human form as all the prophets sent should. He can do so because He‘s omnipotent as God.
It’s a trick question, there’s no proof that Jesus doesn’t know the day and the hour
Best defense with Muslims is scripture the proof of scripture and then ask them some questions on Muhammad and the Quran then they usually stop
1- jesus christ have two nature (full human -full God ) when he said this he speak as jesus the human and of course he does not know but as God the son he know
2- the main pharse here that to show them that no one know the times
3- as jesus the son has plan that he always in the will of God the father and he can not proclaim the time
4- as the trinity (father -son -holy spirit ) all is One God but each one have different work. so jesus declared that the father know the times
5- jesus as human put himself less even the the angels who does not know the times
6- jesus claim and declared too many time he does know things above the times such peter cheating
also he will die and arise from the death
as he see nathan under the tree
They have no answer. Just like they have no answer for Jesus saying he doesnt have the authority to choose who will sit at his right hand, it is whom God the Father has appointed. They also don’t have an answer to why Jesus says his ability to lay down his life and take it back up is not of his own power, but it is a command given to him by God. Jesus also says that he can do NOTHING except what the father has commanded and willed. They also have no reply for why scripture tells us that the head of man is Christ and the head of Christ is God and that Jesus says He must now go to the Father for the Father is greater than he.