No man knows the day or the hour!

Well now!  We've so far been through 5 rounds of this end of the world crap and I think its time we put some things to rest so that the hysteria doesn't happen again.  First we had the Y2K junk coupled with Nostradamus.  The only thing that happened in my world that was caused by the bug was my satellite receiver died a few weeks after.  Then there were 2 instances of Harold Camping. First he said that Jesus was going to rapture His church on May 21, 2011.  Then, WHOOPS!!!  I forgot to carry the 1!  It's gonna be OCTOBER 21st 2011.  Funny thing is that since October 22, 2011, Harold Camping has not been seen nor heard from.  Then the latest and greatest was the Mayan Calendar expiring.  All of which were obviously epic failures.
Now that we have all that mess out of the way, why don't we look at the most ancient of answers to the mystery of "The End of The World" that I can find!  Everyone quotes this scripture [Matthew 24:36 (as I did)] without knowing the context behind it.  It even sounds correct in the context that we put it in.  I have no argument with the context.  I completely agree with it.  We do not know exactly when Jesus is going to rapture the church.  However the Hebrew calendar gives us a REALLY good hint as to the time of year.

The Hebrew calendar works on a lunar cycle.  Which is why our calendar doesn't perfectly coincide with theirs.  Now, 30 days before the month of Tishri (September/October-ish) there was a trumpet to be blown at the beginning of each day to remind everyone that the feast of trumpets is coming.  Clever idea right?  Trumpets are being blown to remind people about the Feast of Trumpets!  God is so simplistically BRILLIANT!!  Now on the 30th day, there is no trumpet to be blown until two rabbis can confirm that the new moon is in place.  If not, a lunar calendar could be seriously screwed up.  After they both decided that the new moon is in place, they would order the sounding of the Awakening Blast to kick off the Feast of Trumpets.  So anyway, this day is referred to as Tishri 1.  The first day of the month. The thing about Tishri 1 is that it was 48 hours long because there was no way to know when the new moon would be declared.  It became known as One Long Day or The day that no man knows the day or the hour of!  See where the context thing comes in?
Now take a look at 1 Thessalonians 5.  Paul is essentially saying that because we are believers we should already know.  Paul was a Jew, a rabbi, and a high ranking Pharisee at that.  He knew about the feasts and, after his conversion, how they pointed to Messiah.  When he is writing this, he is telling them that it will be at the feast of trumpets which is the next feast for Messiah to fulfill (SEE: http://www.luziusschneider.com/Papers/JewishFeasts.htm)
I hope that this message has blessed you as much as it has me.
Grace and Peace be with you ALWAYS!!!!