Hey again Rella,
I debated a bit before inserting the 3033 date, simply because I know this is offensive to you, and I don’t want this to be a Harold Camping type of thing. You will not find a Full Preterist making a date prediction, which is one of the differences between my paradigm and theirs.
I, too, was always told that it is almost the consummate evil to posit a date for Christ’s final return. Then I read LaSpino3’s post on this website where he pointed out that the phrase “no man knoweth the day nor the hour” is clearly a verb written in PRESENT TENSE FORM for those Christ was THEN speaking to. It’s very true that no one at that particular time in Christ’s earthly ministry knew the day nor the hour of Christ’s return, but that state of ignorance for the disciples and for Christ Himself and the angels didn’t last forever. John was already telling the saints that it was “the last HOUR” in I John 2:18. James 5:8-9 said the judge was already standing “before the door” at that point. And I Peter 4:7 said that the “end of all things was at hand”, or present at that time to those reading that epistle. Then John’s apocalypse gave a full rundown of the unsealed prophesies for their future that were all THEN “AT HAND”.
When we read this “no man knoweth” phrase, it actually never even suggests that it is sinful to seek to know the time Christ returns.
Look at it this way. Suppose I said “No man knoweth who will be elected president.” Will that statement ALWAYS be true? Of course not. We will know after this coming election. Does that mean that we should not even attempt by polls, debates, and interviews to find out who is likely to win the presidency? Again, of course not.
Same thing with our fervent desire to be face-to-face with our Lord Jesus. He doesn’t forbid us to seek knowing the time He will come for the rest of His saints. Like yourself, it is hard for me to wait, but every indication I can see in scripture tells me that we have quite a way to go yet.
As for the pessimism you have regarding the world’s state of affairs that you present as continuing to spiral downward ever since creation, I can’t agree. If we look only at the unregenerate hearts of mankind alone and their actions, that would depress anybody’s focus. But that focus on sinful man discounts the effect of the Spirit of God’s steadily increasing work among the nations of the world, ever since the Fall.
God used to “wink”, so to speak, at the “times of ignorance” among pagan nations during the first few millennia, but since Jesus came to earth, He “commanded all men everywhere to repent”. The 4th millennium of human history (1,000 years of a physical Temple worship system from Solomon’s Temple up to Christ the True Temple) was saturated with the ministry of the prophets’ work, both spoken and written. “The entrance of thy words giveth light”, we are told, regardless of whether those words of the prophets were obediently followed by all or not.
With the passing of the Old Covenant and the establishment of the New Covenant, another upsurge for the kingdom of God occurred. Especially when the demonic realm was destroyed along with the decayed elements of that Old Covenant. As a consequence of an eradicated demonic realm, Isaiah 65:17 could prophetically describe conditions under our present New Covenant Ages as “New Heavens and a new Earth”, wherein dwelleth righteousness (although righteousness was not promised to be a universal, worldwide condition (yet) in this present NHNE of Isaiah and II Peter 3:13).
At the final resurrection and judgment, I believe God will return to “clean house” by purging out the human sources of evil remaining in this world, just as He already purged demonic evil out of it back in AD 70. It’s a slow, incremental progress over the millennia, with all the credit going to God’s influence of His Spirit who is now dwelling within the hearts of regenerate mankind.
You can’t see the leaven of the kingdom actively working within the dough, but it’s there nonetheless, and very much alive. Give it time to develop. God doesn’t zap the world into a righteous state instantaneously; He puts His treasure into “earthen vessels” and uses time and tribulations to work His best designs.