When will Jesus come back?

Jesus states directly that no one knows: "concerning that day and hour no one knows—neither the angels of heaven nor the Son—except the Father alone." This isn't an oversight in the biblical record; it's a deliberate, repeated feature of how the New Testament addresses this question.

When his own disciples asked directly, Jesus redirected them: "It is not for you to know times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority." Paul reinforces this by comparing Christ's return to "a thief in the night"—arriving unpredictably, specifically resistant to advance calculation.

This consistent pattern is itself meaningful: the emphasis throughout the New Testament falls on being ready and faithful at all times, not on successfully calculating a date. Every specific date-setting attempt throughout history—and there have been many, across many different groups—has failed, which fits exactly what Jesus himself said to expect.