According to Thessalonians 5:1-2, the phrase “the times and the seasons” represents the Day of the Lord. However, in God’s plan there is a time and a season for everything (cp. Ecclesiastes 3:1-22) and the Preacher (Ecclesiastes 1:1) concludes that: “there is nothing better, than that a man should rejoice in his own works; for that is his portion: for who shall bring him to see what shall be after him” (Ecclesiastes 3:22)? According to Luke, Jesus told his disciples that it was not for them “to know the times or the seasons the Father had placed in his own power (Acts 1:7), for as Moses claimed “the secret things belong to God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and our children forever…” (Deuteronomy 29:29). Many folks today don’t act like they believe these things, because they keep predicting the date or the decade or the century of Jesus’ return (which could never be true, if he already returned). Nevertheless, as far as Jesus’ return is concerned, and as far as the Apostles’ question (Acts 1:6) is concerned, Jesus had already told them that no one, not even he, was able to say when he would return to restore the Kingdom of God (Matthew 24:36; Mark 13:32).
I believe there is a significant point that is missed here. Jesus claimed that not even he knew when he would return to set up the Kingdom of God (Mark 13:32). Why would that be so? After all, it isn’t that difficult to figure out that, if the forty years of Israel’s wandering in the wilderness was to be fulfilled in Jesus and the Church of the first century AD, then one could predict things would really begin to look like Jesus would or was about to return cir. 66-71 AD, depending on whether one counted from the beginning of Jesus’ ministry or its end, and whether or not the first year was inclusive in the count. So, why couldn’t Jesus give an educated guess or a probability? First of all, Jesus repeated only what the Father gave him to say (John 5:19-20). That is, he never spoke on his own initiative. He revealed the Father. He couldn’t do that, if he spoke in guesses or probabilities. Secondly, the date of Jesus’ return wasn’t set in cement, so to speak. It was variable (cp. Matthew 24:20, 22), depending upon whether or not the Jews, as a nation, would repent, and, if not, the degree to which they continued in an effort to destroy the witness of God (i.e. the Lord’s witnesses).
If the Lord’s witness was in danger of being snuffed out, Jesus would have returned earlier than when one might have predicted. For example, when the persecution that followed the stoning of Stephen began to go international (Acts 9:1-2; 26:9-11), this would have empowered the Jewish leadership to change the times and the seasons, according to their liking (Daniel 7:25). Therefore, the Lord stepped in and would have brought the Jews’ war with Rome thirty years earlier than when it actually occurred (Luke 21:20-24). During the 30s AD, under the orders of Gaius Caesar, the Roman general, Petronius, was positioned at Ptolemais, on the coast just north of Caesarea, and was ready to march upon Jerusalem to place an image of Gaius Caesar in the Temple at Jerusalem.[1] This would have begun a war between the Jews and Rome, which would have ended in Jerusalem and the Temple being destroyed thirty years prior to the time the event actually occurred. Luke presented his Gospel narrative to Theophilus (Luke 1:1-4), the then reigning high priest at Jerusalem (cir.35 to 39 AD), and Theophilus stopped the persecution (Acts 9:31). Thus, at least for awhile the nation was preserved.
Therefore, we are able to understand that God is not controlled by the “times and the seasons” but, rather, they are controlled by him (Daniel 2:21). If the Lord’s plan were set in cement, he would have no choice but to bring about the times and the seasons just as planned. Nevertheless, the Scriptures reveal that, although the Lord has a plan (Jeremiah 29:11), he isn’t governed by that plan. Rather, he, himself, initiates all the triggers within his plan (cp. Jonah 1-2; 3:1-5, 6-10; 4:9-11; Nahum 1:1; 2:8; 3:7),[2] and mankind is faced with living within those times and seasons. While he may rebel against the table which the Lord puts before him, he is unable to change the table of the Lord (viz. the times and the seasons).
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[1] See Josephus; Wars of the Jews 2.10.1-5 [184-205].
[2] When Nineveh repented under the ministry of Jonah, God repented of what he intended to do, but when Nineveh returned to its old ways and repented not under the ministry of Nahum, God carried out what he planned to do to that “great city” (Jonah 1:2, 3:2-3; 4:11).
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