[Darris McNeely] All my adult life, I've really been a student of Bible prophecy. And whenever you get into this subject, you do read a lot of various predictions. Ministers, churches, groups and movements down through history have made predictions about when Jesus Christ will return. We've been talking about that and how to avoid that trap, how to avoid false ministers who make those predictions, how to figure out really who they are. But let's come down to the question of what is it that we really need to understand in regard to Christ's return?

What's the most important point to take from that? And I think that in Jesus' own words here in Matthew chapter 24, again the Olivet Prophecy. He says in Matthew, in verse 42, "Watch therefore for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. But know this that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. Therefore you also be ready." Be ready. "For the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect" (Matthew 24:42-44). The real emphasis on this whole subject of Christ's return, the signs of His coming that the disciples asked Christ, is really brought up and summarized in this one point right here. Be ready. Don't try to predict, but try to be ready. That's the most important thing.

[Steve Myers] Yeah, I think it's interesting that the disciples—what question did they start out with? They started out with the question of when. But Christ made the point of what was most important, rather than when, He told them how to watch. He said be ready, spiritually ready. Put your spiritual house in order. That's the most important key that Christ focused on. In fact, there's an interesting passage that's over in the book of Luke. In Luke 12:35 Christ Himself expounded on this concept of how to be spiritually ready. He says, "Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning. And you yourselves be like men who wait for their master when he will return from the weddings, that when he comes and knocks they may open to him immediately." And so He says, "Blessed are those servants whom the master when he comes will find watching." And that's not just making charts and graphs and predictions of when Christ will return, but watching in the sense of being spiritually ready, having a relationship with God, being close to Him, praying, studying, drawing closer to Him in every way in our life—that's how we become spiritually ready for the return of Christ.

[Darris McNeely] As I've winnowed all of this down in my own research, study, teaching through the years, I've come down to a verse that's in 2 Peter chapter 3 beginning in verse 10 where Peter was addressing this very same question and of all things way back in the first century, shortly after the church was founded because people were making predictions then. And people were needing to be instructed on how to approach this subject. Peter wrote this in 2 Peter—2 Peter, let's just go ahead and write this down here so you can get this. I think this is one of the most important sections to emphasize—verses 10 through 12 of 2 Peter chapter 3. Peter says, "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise and the elements will melt with fervent heat. Both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up." He's taking in this one verse and He's really encompassing so many different prophecies that talk about the end of the age and events of that time and even beyond. And he's saying it's going to happen. The day of the Lord will come. All of these prophecies are sure. And he said because of that, "Therefore," verse 11, "Since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and in godliness" (2 Peter 3:10-12). That's the real point. What type of person should you be? What type of person should I be?

In all of our ways, in our holy conduct and godliness. In other words, we should be striving to have a close relationship with God, keeping His word, treating each other with respect and kindness, and worshipping God in the right way—motivated by an understanding that this physical world is going to come to a point in time, the prophesied end of the age. And we want to be ready, we will want to be prepared for that—in a sense, to truly meet our Maker because there will be a day of judgment.

[Steve Myers] And I think that's so important. So remember it's not about the when, it's how we're ready. And, in a sense, it's also about who—who we are and who we have a spiritual relationship with. That's what Christ focused on when He came, to be ready for the end time.

[Darris McNeely] And that's what important about knowing the events and the signs and all regarding the second coming of Jesus Christ. That's BT Daily. Join us next time.