What About Imminence?

[Moon Watcher]

The Coming Epiphany p.70-71

What About Imminence?

Yet another argument put forth by pre-trib adherents is their belief in the doctrine of the imminent return of Christ. They reason that since the apostles were awaiting the return of Christ with great expectancy—and that they may even have believed that Christ could return and the rapture could occur at any time—that nothing has to occur prophetically before the rapture can take place. This includes the peace treaty or any parts of the 70th Week of Daniel.
This is a doctrine that was shown to be false by the apostle Paul himself. In 2 Thessalonians 2:1–3, Paul had to address the Thessalonians concerning a doctrinal problem they had regarding the timing of the Second Coming:

Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.

The Thessalonians falsely believed that the Day of the Lord and the rapture were ready to occur (or had already occurred) and that they missed it and were in the Day of the Lord period. Paul told them that they did not miss it. He also told them about two signs that must occur beforehand, namely the great falling away and the revealing of the antichrist. We have also elaborated on three other signs that need to occur before the Day of the Lord or the Day of Christ: the moon being turned to blood, the sun being darkened, and the prophet Elijah returning to earth. Therefore, since God has made it clear that certain things must occur before the rapture occurs at the Day of the Lord, and since those things have not happened yet, there can be no doctrine of imminence. Christ’s return will not be imminent until the signs mentioned above have first occurred.

Van Kampen elaborates on this point:

The return of Christ has never been truly imminent and will never be imminent until the great tribulation of antichrist begins and the surrounding Gentile nations come together against Jerusalem in the valley of Jehoshaphat. Only then are the elect of God told to look for the sign of Christ’s coming which will be seen in the heavens, but only after the earth is first plunged into darkness by the sign of the end of the age.

So while the first-century church, as recorded in the New Testament writings, showed a great expectation and anticipation of the return of Christ, the scriptures themselves tell us that the rapture cannot occur at any time, but only after the signs are fulfilled.

[Moon Watcher]

Hello all; due to various factors I am going to be putting most of my time and effort into writing articles, which will be uploaded to my website, and posting important prophetic information on the blog entitled: The End Times Forecaster. It is located at http://endtimesforecaster.blogspot.com/ I hope to be posting daily on that site.

Sincerely in Him
William Frederick