leftbehind

The Olivet Discourse is the sermon given by Jesus to His disciples at the Mount of Olives in Matthew chapter 24, Mark chapter 13, and Luke chapter 21 about the times related to the Lord's coming, which the Left Behind series deals with.

Prophecies

Unknown day and hour for the coming of the Son of Man

Jesus said that the day and hour of the coming of the Son of Man is only known to the Father, thus even the angels and the Son would not be privy to it (Matthew 24:36). The phrasing of "the coming of the Son of Man" referenced in this article is purposefully ambiguous since it can also refer to the Rapture where there are fewer noticeable prophetic signs preceding that event instead of the Glorious Appearing (as the aforementioned signs in the Olivet Discourse seem to apply to the Glorious Appearing). (The Left Behind series calls the arrival of Jesus at the Battle of Armageddon the "Glorious Appearing" to distinguish it from the "Second Coming" which is regarded as the Rapture in the series as it is when Jesus comes back for His people.)

At least after the Rapture and especially (in the context of the eschatology in the Left Behind series) the signing of the covenant with the Global Community and Israel, there is an event that serves as a demarcation point for a prophetic timeline. In the Left Behind series, it is the covenant with Israel that serves to mark the start of Daniel's 70th Week, which is synonymous with the Tribulation, with the expectation of that Jesus would return in glory seven years from the signing of the treaty. In the prologue of Kingdom Come, it is said that the Tribulation is divided into two 1,260 day periods, where Jesus would return in glory at the end of the second 1,260 day period. The beginning of the second period is the desecration of the Third Temple. (In Assassins, the end of a 1,260 day period is also mentioned as the last day of Eli and Moishe's preaching before Nicolae Carpathia would kill them.) At the day of the Glorious Appearing, the believers under the guidance of Tsion Ben-Judah's prophetical framework eagerly awaited the coming of Christ on that day, as they correctly deduced the day as it was seven years from the day Nicolae Carpathia signed the treaty with Israel.

In Triumphant Return, Judd Thompson Jr. and Vicki Byrne Thompson briefly discussed the issue of not knowing the hour and day:

“If this is the last day,” Judd said.
“What do you mean?”
“What if Tsion was wrong? Even Jesus said no one knows the hour when he’s going to return.”
“True, but I think he was talking about the Rapture when he said that. From Daniel 9:27 we know that the Glorious Appearing happens seven years after —” [Vicki stopped. She was presumably going to say "after the Treaty between Israel and the Global Community".]