“Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.” — Revelation 3:3 (King James Version)
For those who don’t know who the “I” is referring to in the above verse, it is Christ. When He comes, it’s to bring judgment upon the world before it’s completely destroyed. Even Kenneth Taylor knew judgment would follow Christ’s return. Otherwise he would not have paraphrased this verse (in the Living Bible) to include, “…Unless you do (i.e., repent and become saved), I will come suddenly upon you, unexpected as a thief, and punish you.”
To be more to the point, I will rephrase what God is saying in Revelation 3:3, “If you do not repent and become saved, you will not know when the time is near for Christ to return.” That does not mean those (in the past) who have not known anything about when Christ would return were not saved. What it means is that only God’s elect can know when the end is near. All others shall be horribly surprised by that event when it happens.
How can even children too young to understand know?
It’s not about understanding (although some will comprehend much). It’s about believing and faith.
Animals have intuitively known when a tsunami (or other natural disasters like an earthquake) was about to hit in time to flee to the mountains. God is able to do anything, but He will not do things for those who remain stubborn and rebellious.
God put temporary seals upon comprehending His word about end time events to prevent His elect from knowing when Christ would return, because it was not necessary information to have before it being close to the time of Christ’s return. That reserved information was foreordained to become unsealed at some point during our earth’s existence. His timing is always perfect.
