XII. Imminent, Any Moment Return, With No Prophesied Signs or Events?

The teaching of an imminent return of Jesus to rapture the elect, as taught by pre-tribulation teachers, would generally mean that absolutely no prophesied events need to take place before Jesus gathers his own, and that His return would be signless.  Taking this at face value, this would have to mean that this teaching was viable from the time Jesus ascended to Heaven, until He comes to Rapture His elect.  Most all of these teachers claim this one element of their teaching, imminence, to be the keystone to all of their teaching, and it alone gives credence to pre-tribulation teaching, and without it their teaching would fall apart.  Proponents teach that nothing accomplishes a life of holy living and commitment more than a belief in the imminent return of Christ for His bride, and that the dominant reason for believing the church will be raptured before the tribulation, is that it “allows” us to believe in the imminent return of Christ.  Does that really make any sense to you?  This is why this teaching is guarded with their lives.  I give them credit for taking a strong stand for their beliefs, even though they have to oppose the teaching of Jesus in doing so.  My reason for believing it to be incorrect is because the teaching of Jesus Himself in Matthew 24 says that it is incorrect.  You will further understand my reasons for saying this as we proceed with this section.

I, too, believed in imminency for over 65 years, but because I was a greater skeptic of this teaching and wanted proof, it was perhaps not to the degree of commitment as some.  I now have a much greater degree of expectation, and a greater desire to see the Savior’s return, than at any time in my life, without believing in “imminence.”  The teaching of Jesus to John, regarding the believers in the seven churches in Revelation and their comparative degree of spiritual commitment, taught that the commitment of believers then, and throughout all of future history, would range from a degree of living, loving, and worshiping as close as possible to His bosom, to the very opposite degree of living as far away from Him as possible, and still be accepted as His child and make it to Heaven.  My reason for believing in the imminent return (which by my definition is an absolute, unquestionable, coming of Christ for His elect at a future date known only by God the Father to gather together His elect) has been solely based on my commitment to, and a personal love relationship with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, and nothing else.  This should be the only reason we, the elect, His children, maintain that blessed hope, because we deeply love Him, and, whether we are living or are asleep, we look for His coming in the clouds at God’s appointed timing to be with Him forever in Heaven, and not because we look for an imminent, any moment return.

There is not one place in scripture where an actual, imminent return, as defined above, is taught.  There are many verses that tell us to expect, to wait for and await eagerly, to be awake and keep awake, be ready, be sober and self controlled, be on the alert, and His coming is at hand, plus many others, but not one says or claims that the coming of Jesus for the elect could be in the next moment.  If you have been carefully taking note of everything that I have written to this point, you know that this teaching of imminency must be of man, and was not the teaching of Jesus anywhere in scripture.  He described exactly when He would gather His elect.  In Matthew 24:4-29 alone, there are at least 23 prophesied events (count them in section VIII, at the end of 1A, 2A, 3A, 4A, 5A, and 6A), or happenings, as taught by Jesus Himself, that must take place before He gathers His elect, which eliminates the remotest possibility of an imminent return.  Jesus delineated every one of these 23 happenings in Matthew 24 that had to take place, and most, plus others, were repeated in Mark 13 and Luke 21.  So, if you believe Matthew 24, and subscribe to the teaching of Jesus, an imminent return is impossible.  If you are looking for an imminent, any moment return, you cannot believe Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21.  It is that simple.

Over time, we have been taught every cover-up and excuse man could contrive to convince believers of an imminent, any moment rapture, when Jesus would secretly gather His elect to Himself like a ‘thief in the night.’  Man has spiritualized, dispensationalized, claimed the sovereignty of God, and every other conceivable way to direct our thinking away from the truth Jesus taught in Matthew 24 and Revelation 6.  We have been led to believe that Jesus did not mean all that He said to the elect in Matthew 24, but that He was referring to His third coming for the battle of Armageddon and a return to earth as a conquering King (the second coming being His secret coming in the clouds at the pre-tribulation Rapture); or that He meant something else.  I would challenge any teacher living today that teaches pre-tribulation to argue their position with Jesus, and prove from scripture to our Savior that He is wrong in His wonderful teaching on the Mt. of Olives to the disciples and to us the elect, and also to John, the writer of Revelation. 

According to scripture, there are other events that must precede the Rapture and the Day of the Lord, and which would therefore eliminate the truthfulness of imminent return teaching.  One is found in Malachi 4:5, where God informs us that this ‘day of the Lord’ (which immediately follows the Rapture, or Gathering together) will not take place until God sends Elijah to earth. (Malachi 4:5 “I will send you Elijah, the prophet, before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord.”)  In Revelation 11:3-12, we are told all that we know about God’s two witnesses.  Nowhere is the name Elijah mentioned, but scholars, almost universally, agree that one of them is Elijah.  Many pre-tribulation teachers do not believe that the above verses teach that the time the two witnesses spend on earth coincides with the time the Gentiles tread the Holy city underfoot, the last 42 months of Daniel’s 70^th week, or 1260 days.  These same teachers teach that the time the witnesses spend outside the temple in Jerusalem is other than the last 1260 days, and could even be at the beginning of the seven years.  If we believe Malachi 4:5 to be God’s inspired Word, then the gathering together (rapture) will not take place until after Elijah appears at the midpoint of the 70^th week of Daniel.  Which means, an imminent rapture is not possible before this, or God’s Word cannot be believed. 

In Matthew 24:2, Jesus told the disciples that the temple would be totally destroyed, and this occurred in A.D. 70. (Matthew 24:2 And Jesus said to them, “Do you not see all these things? Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down.”)  Jesus also told Peter he was going to grow to be an old man in John 21:18.  (John 21:18 “Most assuredly, I say to you, when you were younger, you girded yourself and walked where you wished; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish.”)  This would imply that an imminent return before these two events took place could not happen.

There is additional scripture to back up this position that certain things must take place before the Rapture.  In II Thessalonians 2:3, the Apostle Paul wrote to the Thessalonians that the coming of Jesus to gather together His elect (rapture) couldn’t transpire until the falling away comes first. (II Thessalonians 2:3 “Let no one deceive you by any means, for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition.)  We covered this under other headings (see VIII, 5A, paragraph 2).  The Apostle Paul wrote verse three above as an answer for his concern shown in verse one, which gives us another positive proof revealed from God to Paul that the rapture absolutely will not transpire until sometime after the middle of the seven years. (II Thessalonians 2:1 Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you,)  Paul gave a second prophesied event in the last half of verse 3, and that is the man of sin, the son of perdition (the Antichrist), must also be revealed first before the rapture (this occurs at the exact middle of the seven years, and was covered in section VII, paragraph 6).  Another prophesy relates to the cosmic disturbance, which is described in Matthew 24:29-30 and Revelation 6:12-14.  These prophecies are found in Joel 2:31 and in Acts 2:20, and in both of these scriptures the word before is used (described in section VIII, 6A, paragraph 5). (Acts 2:20 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.)  If you believe the scripture to be the word of God, then you must believe these prophesied events will occur first, or before the coming of Christ for His rapture, and before the day of the Lord which follows shortly thereafter.  This of course again negates any possibility of an imminent return of Jesus before these prophesied events are fulfilled.  

Another prominent teaching has crept in among pre-tribulation teachers, which assigns a chronological “prophetic time period” to be fulfilled by each of the seven churches of Revelation.  In researching this, I discovered there are several different interpretations, but in general, they assign, and believe, the church at Ephesus is assigned the years A.D. 30-100, the church at Smyrna is assigned the years A.D. 100-313, the church at Pergamos is assigned the years A.D. 313-590, the church at Thyatira is assigned the years A.D. 590-1517, the church at Sardis is assigned the years A.D. 1517-1730, the church at Philadelphia is assigned the years A.D. 1730-1900, and the church at Laodicea is assigned the years A.D. 1900 to the present.  Of course, nowhere in Revelation is this taught, but liberty has been taken by man to add to what John wrote in Revelation, to assign these periods to the seven churches because it sounded good, and to embellish what John wrote, which was revealed to him by Jesus through an angel.  I am reminded of Revelation 22:18-19, where John recorded that anyone who adds or subtracts from the words of this prophecy will be dealt with severely by God. (Revelation 22:18-19, 18 For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; 19 and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.)  From this teaching, when taken to its logical conclusion, one would have to conclude that Jesus could not imminently return for the Rapture until at least the start of the seventh church period, the Laodicean church age, so that all seven churches would have their assigned time period fulfilled.  Which would mean, the imminent return of Christ for His gathering, the Rapture, could not happen until the beginning of the 20^th century, which wipes out 1900 years of imminency.

When Israel was granted nation status and given a homeland in 1948 by the United Nations, pre-tribulation teaching of imminency took on a revised definition for many of these teachers.  The rapture could be imminent after that date, since the prophecy of Israel returning to their God promised homeland was now being fulfilled, and now nothing else had to take place. (Ezekiel 36:24 For I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land.)  Before 1948, they taught absolutely no prophesied event had to take place before the rapture.  Date setters were having a field day, since one unique generation, defined by many as a time period of 40 years, was to live through the 70^th week of Daniel. (Matthew 24:34 Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place.)  The year 1948, plus some 40 years, made the rapture a sure thing between 1980 and 1988, but of course it never happened.  Then, some 20 years after 1948, a better qualification crept in, and their previous imminent teaching had to be revised.  When the Jews captured and controlled Jerusalem in 1967, now for sure it could be imminent, because another prophecy was fulfilled, and Jesus was sure to return soon.  (Jeremiah 30:3 “For behold the days are coming, says the Lord, that I will bring back from captivity My people Israel and Judah, says the Lord. And I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it.”)  Note that two prophesied events took place.  So now, in essence what they are teaching us is that, actually, an imminent return was never possible before these two prophecies were fulfilled. 

When we entered the new millennium, large numbers of evangelical teachers were positive Christ was about to return, and they taught vigorously that now, for sure, we would soon see the rapture. (one day is as a thousand years teaching, II Peter 3:8 But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.)  Well, there was no rapture. Then we were taught that the definition of a generation was miscalculated, and counting from 1967, it could be around 2008-2010.  Now, some are bold enough to tell us there are new qualifications because there was a miscalculation in the calendar.  I just heard an evangelist offer a tape that describes 25 unusual signs of Christ’s second coming that have to be or are being fulfilled, and now Christ could return.  Another one of our esteemed Christian leaders has a current series on ten prophesies being fulfilled before our eyes.  Very recently, nothing had to happen before the Rapture, and now it seems fashionable that all of these prophesies must be fulfilled.  One of the beliefs that you can take a firm stand on is that when anyone tells you they have a date, or a month when Christ will return, take a firm stand against them.  The reason is, no one knows the date, not even Jesus Himself, only God the Father.  And if anyone were to guess the date, God would likely change it to make sure His Word would not be compromised, and that only He would know the date and hour.  On and on it goes, but all of this “imminent” teaching convinces me that many of these pre-tribulation teachers, in spite of what they teach, do not truly believe in their hearts what they are teaching the church, regarding Christ’s imminent return, or they would never, never, make adjustments and changes in their teaching.   

Throughout this study, emphasis has been made that the time of the return of Jesus for His elect, according to Jesus’ teaching, is not a haphazard guessing game.  He spelled it out precisely as to when it would occur.  He gave us certain parameters, things that must precede His gathering together.  Jesus taught in Matthew 24 that some 23 events or activities must occur before Jesus would gather together His elect.  In the above paragraphs, I have given you many more prophesied events, which must occur before the Rapture, and all are backed up where they are found in scripture.  The pre-tribulation protectors will scare you with a thousand reasons why I am wrong.  Make them back up their teaching and prove it with scripture.  My dear friend, whether you are a preacher, teacher, scholar, or layman, I pray that God the Father will give you the fortitude and confidence to bravely make the correct decision, without any fear of intimidation, as to whether or not what Jesus taught is true, and whether or not you will believe what Jesus taught, as described in the preceding pages.  The other choice is to believe what man has devised and which pre-tribulation teachers want you to believe without any definitive scriptural backing.  Once again, it is a positive conclusion that one of these teachings is not correct.  May God bless and help you with whatever decision you make.

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