On Sept. 18, 2017, I posted an article titled, “Sorry to Tell You, But Jesus Is Not Returning on Sept. 23.” I could repost that same article today, word for word, and it would be just as relevant, as once again, some Christians are predicting the Lord’s return to rapture His church on that very day this year.
But it’s not because Sept. 23 itself carries any significance. It’s because of the belief that Jesus will return on Rosh HaShanah, the beginning of the Jewish New Year, called Trumpets in the Bible. And in both 2017 and 2025, Rosh HaShanah falls on Sept. 23.
That’s also why Edgar Whisenant, a former NASA engineer, pointed to Sept. 12, 1988, as the date for Jesus’ return in his now infamous book, “88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Be in 1988.” That’s when Rosh HaShanah fell that year.
And that’s why, in July 2023, a wrote an article titled, “Enough with These Crazy Rapture Prophecies!”
That, too, could be reprinted verbatim today, and it would be just as relevant. When will we learn?
After all, Jesus plainly told us that no one knew the day or hour of His return. And while we should know the times and seasons (1 Thessalonians 5:1-11), we cannot know the specific day or hour (Matthew 24:36).
I have often heard this answer in response: “The Mishnah (Rosh Hashanah 2:6–7) describes how witnesses are interrogated by the Sanhedrin about sighting the new moon’s ‘horns’ (the thin crescent just before full darkness). If their testimonies align, the month is declared, and the festival begins the next day. However, if witnesses arrive late, are delayed by weather, or their accounts conflict, the start could be postponed by a day – leading to the phrase ‘no one knows the day or the hour’ as an idiomatic reference to this uncertainty.” That’s the argument.
Yet in all my research, as confirmed by rabbinic scholars I have checked with, I have found zero evidence that the phrase “no one knows the day or the hour” was an idiomatic way of speaking of the uncertainty of the beginning of Rosh HaShanah in the ancient Jewish world. And this means that when Jesus said that no one knows the day or the hour, He meant exactly what He said. No one knows.
Others would ask, “But can’t you make the argument that, just as the Spring Feasts pointed to the Lord’s first coming, the Fall Feasts point to His return?”
Absolutely, and I agree with that line of thinking.
Passover corresponds to His crucifixion; Firstfruits to His resurrection; and Pentecost (Shavuot) to the outpouring of the Spirit. In the same way, Rosh HaShanah (which is Trumpets in the Bible), corresponds to the Lord’s return with the blast of the trumpet (shofar), followed by the Day of Atonement (national cleansing for Israel) and Tabernacles (Sukkot), speaking of the nations of the world coming to worship the King in Jerusalem.
So it’s possible that Jesus may return one year at Trumpets. At the least, He will come back in prophetic fulfillment of that sacred time. (If you want to go deeper, read this.)
But the Bible tells us plainly that certain things must precede His coming, including the revealing of the antichrist (see 2 Thessalonians 2). And if you agree with me that the Bible does not teach a secret, pre-trib rapture, then it’s clear that He is not coming back this Sept. 23. Not a chance. (For the book I co-authored on the subject, see here.)
Some, however, would protest and say, “But then you’re guilty of saying that His coming is postponed, and He might just come when you’re not ready for Him. I would rather live ready.”
I certainly agree with living ready, but not because He could return at any moment, which I do not believe the Bible teaches. Instead, I live ready to meet the Lord for two reasons: 1) I love Him and want to please Him 24/7, and 2) any of us could die at any moment, and we should live ready to meet Him in death.
But that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t long for His return. Of course we should!
How could we not long to see Him face to face, to be alive when He returns and establishes His kingdom and abolishes suffering? How could we not yearn to be changed in a moment of time into our new bodies, meeting Him in the air and accompanying Him down to earth? (See 1 Corinthians 13:12; Isaiah 25:6-8; 1 Corinthians 15:51-55; Philippians 3:20-21; 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17.)
We should long for His return with every fiber of our beings, living in the light of that glorious day (see 1 John 2:28-3:3). But let’s do so without useless date setting which has no basis in the Bible, trivializes the glory of that day, and causes confusion and even unbelief.
Surely we can do better than that.