We are not on the planning level with God! by Linden Malki

Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel spoke of  End Times,  generally in terms of a takeover of the Land of Israel by God or someone sent by God.  This goes back to the Exodus, when the "Children of Israel", descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who was renamed "Israel" when he struggled with God after having to leave his childhood home.  Jacob/Israel was the father of 12 sons, who went to Egypt during a famine and settled there.  400 years later, those descendants of Israel had become enslaved by the Egyptians, and they escaped and returned to their original homeland through the intervention of God through an Israelite named Moses.  1500 years later,the surviving  Judeans were constantly expecting direct rule by God Himself to happen at any time, and there were no shortage of candidates for this revolution. 

When Jesus appeared,  there were those who attempted to make Him a King and expected the heavenly army to show up and re-establish the Kingdom of God.  He explained that he could not stay on earth and was taken back into Heaven--but said that he would return and there would be a new world established under the direct rule of God. However, what did happen is that He did maintain a spiritual relationship with anyone who accepted the terms of this relationship, which developed into what we know as the Church.

The original church was looking for a return within their lives, but it didn't happen. He told them it wouldn't, that nobody knew, but there are still those who claim to know what God didn't tell us. One of those times was the coming of a year designated as 1000AD, complicated by varying calendars. There was  a Jewish rabbi of the 1600's who claimed to be the prophet of the Messiah (the Jewish version) who gained a large following, was eventually jailed by the Ottoman authorities in Constantinople, and was offered the options of execution or Islam--and lived the rest of his life in the Ottoman court.

There have been several major church organizations founded on preachers who claimed to be the messengers of the Last Days. One was the Seventh-Day Adventists, whose founder was convinced that the second coming was due in 1844.  Another was the Mormons, who believe we live in the last days, and the Jehovah's Witnesses originally expected the end to be in 1914, and still emphasize a coming end.  Another interesting suggestion was a reading of an ancient Mayan calendar, which was being interpreted to say that it ended in December, 2012.

We still don't know any more than the disciples who lived with him and saw his ascension into Heaven--and we are still supposed to live every day like it could be tomorrow.