No One Knows the Day or the Hour, but as for the Year...

Keep watch!

Mar 13:32 "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 33 "Take heed, watch and pray; for you do not know when the time is. ... 37 "And what I say to you, I say to all: Watch!"

Notice that Jesus didn't say anything about not knowing the year. On other occasions I have discussed the teachings of the early church fathers (John the Apostle, who taught Polycarp, who taught Ireneaus, for example), that there are 6000 years of Satan's rule on earth, and a 1000 year period of rest, ruled by Jesus in human form on earth. This is supported by 2Peter 3:8. Other early teachings break the 6000 years down into three 2000 year periods. Daniel teaches that the last seven years of the 6000 years are the Tribulation, which is preceded by the Rapture (putting several teachings together and summarizing). Ezekiel places the Rapture in the "time of the Gentiles.”

Eze 30:3 For the day is near, Even the day of the LORD is near; It will be a day of clouds, the time of the Gentiles.

Note: Since we know that the world will be in darkness when Jesus comes to earth the second time, this day of clouds is His appearing, a.k.a. the Rapture. When He comes as a thief in the night, He comes “in the clouds” and does not set His feet on the earth (because Satan is still ruling earth during the time of the Gentiles). When He returns to earth in the same place from which He ascended, He (and we) will be coming “with the clouds.”

RAPTURE:
1Thess 4:17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.

SECOND COMING:
Rev 1:7 Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen.

The last 2000 year period was from the first coming of Jesus to His second coming. He died, rose again, and ascended into Heaven in 32 A.D. (validated by recent calculations based on the discovery of the Essene or prophetic calendar among the Dead Sea scrolls, which also proved true Daniel's prophecy of Jesus' entry into Jerusalem to the very day (the first Palm Sunday, April 6, 32 A.D.). Pentecost followed 53 days later (50 days from Passover), the festival of Shavuot, which celebrates the giving of the Law to the children of Israel through Moses; on this significant feast day the Holy Spirit commissioned the church, and replaced the now fulfilled Law with grace, and the church went forth to many nations to make disciples amongst the Gentiles.

So if the 2000 year "time of the Gentiles" clock began running in 32 A.D., and if we haven't lost a year or two due to historical upheavals and changes in calendars, then Jesus will return in 2032 A.D. The year 2032 minus the seven Tribulation years is 2025 for the Rapture. Give or take a year or two for possible calendrical errors.

Jesus and the prophets also gave us prophetic signs to watch for (it certainly wasn't given for the Jews' benefit, who were made blind to such signs), and Paul and John earnestly exhorted the church to read prophecy, but they also foretold the present apostasy, prophesying that the church would stop teaching prophecy towards the end of the age of the Gentiles. That has certainly happened.

So yes, since the Ezekiel 38 nations are aligning according to prophecy, and many other prophecies are being fulfilled, such as the technology of the Mark, we can be pretty sure that Jesus' glorious appearing in the clouds to raise the believing dead and Rapture the living believers is less than five years away, and more like two or three. Or it could happen today.

All we know about the season is that it will be a day of clouds. Not much of a clue. So no one knows the day or the hour, but we were TOLD to study prophecy, and Peter's choice of the ONE THING he wanted us to remember was that the days of Creation represented 1000 years each. He was going to his death shortly after that letter, as he was well aware, and that's the "one thing" he wanted us to remember, so it was clearly of vast importance. No doubt he knew that in the latter days, these in which we have been born, the heresy of evolution and a billions-of-years timeline would obscure the Biblical truth of a 7000 year age for earth. As his last word to people who would be born almost two millennia in the future, Peter begged that future church to remember the truth and do the math.

2Peter 3:8 But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day [is] as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.