REASON # 6 – This View Maintains the Imminent Return of Jesus Christ

1 Corinthians 15:51-52; 1 Thessalonians 5:2-8

When we use the word ‘imminent’ we are talking about an event or thing that is ready to take place; even as ‘hanging threateningly over one’s head’.

An individual who haplessly drives their vehicle at break neck speeds will imminently be stopped and receive a speeding ticket, if they are not imminently killed in a crash caused by their speeding, reckless ways.

When we speak of the “Imminent Return of Jesus Christ” we mean that His coming is near, but we do not know when, but He is coming, and He is coming for His Bride – the Church.

If there is a ‘Mid-Tribulation’ Rapture, then the imminence is taken away, because you could count down the days from the beginning of the Tribulation to the middle of the Tribulation. In years you could figure after 3.5 years the rapture would occur. In days it would be 1260 days. If the rapture were to be after the Tribulation – Post-Tribulation Rapture – then, again, all you would need do is count the number of days and/or years, and you could /would have the answer to the day and time of the Lord’s return.

 

Let’s look at some of the affects of the imminence of Christ return:

 

IT WILL HAPPEN SUDDENLY. “Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,  In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed” 1 Cor. 15:51-52 (KJV).

If you will note with Paul’s wording it is quite evident that, first of all, he is writing to Christians, and sharing with all that not all of us are going to sleep [die]. One of the things about being human is that we are promised/warned that we are going to die, but there is one exception, and that is the Rapture. He also tells us that at this mysterious coming we will be changed. We will not be changed into another ‘life form’, or become some type of animal. Our bodies will be changed from a ‘natural body’ to a ‘spiritual body’ (v. 44). That is the power of the “First Resurrection” (Rev. 20:5-6). All those who trust Jesus Christ will be part of the First Resurrection, but those who do not will be part of the “second death” (Rev. 2:11; 20:6,14; 21:8).

This sudden appearance will be as instant, actually quicker, as if you are driving down a rural highway and a someone on a bicycle suddenly pops from an intersecting trail directly in your lane of traffic. One of the most memorable instances I can recall of something suddenly happening was an evening when I was preaching a message at church on the coming of Jesus and speaking of the rapture happening in a sudden instant, and about that time someone’s beeper went off. We laughed, and I just added, “It can happen just that quickly and suddenly”.

 

IT WILL BE AS UNEXPECTED AS A THIEF. “For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night” 1 Thes. 5:2. Jesus says, “Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.  But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up” Matthew 24:42-43.

There are some who refer to the event of the rapture of the church as a “secret rapture”, and I suppose you could call it that for those who are left behind. The snatching away of millions of Christians would come as a surprise to many. They will have been very unaware of it. It is not a secret for those, though, who believe in Jesus, and that He is coming for His Bride to deliver us from the “wrath to come”.

To many who are in the world the rapture may prove to be a relief for them. There will not be any more of those “Christian bigots” who have no tolerance of all ‘lifestyles’, but confronted all that was evil and vile. They may feel they will not have to listen to those messages on television and radio about sin, a savior, everlasting life, and asking for money.

There will have been a thief who came and stole some things away. There will be mothers who suddenly find their babies missing. Every nursery of every hospital will be empty. The wombs of every expectant mother, at the time of the rapture, will become emptied of that child. There will be husbands and fathers at home with their wives and children, and suddenly he is gone, and the smaller children with him; but mom and the unbelieving teens will remain, wondering what has happened. It could be the mother and children in some homes who disappear; this could be the case in more homes, than in the former scenario. There will be people driving down highways, interstates, streets of cities, and suddenly drivers disappear causing crashes, and traffic tie ups. Pilots flying commercial flights, and small planes will suddenly be gone. You get the picture. It will be catastrophic, and not a very pretty picture upon the earth.

Jesus is coming like a thief to those who do not know Him. Know Him and you will not be surprised at His sudden coming.

 

NO ONE KNOWS THE TIME OF HIS COMING. “But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only” Matthew 24:36. “Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh” Matthew 24:44.

There have been many people who have put a time for the second coming of Jesus. Charles Taze Russell the founder of the Watchtower Society, and sometimes called “Russellites” set a date back in 1914 that Jesus was coming again. He was known then to be teaching false teaching, and this only added to the error of his teaching, and the error of the Watchtower Society, when Jesus never returned as he had predicted. There are also the “Millerites” called this as they were followers of William Miller. Miller thought he had figured out when the Lord was returning; “Study of Daniel and Revelation convinced Miller that Christ was going to return to earth 2,300 years (Daniel 8:14) after Ezra’s return to Jerusalem in 457 B.C.. This gave him the date of 1843 as the year of Christ’s return” (From Christianity Through the Centuries published by Zondervan copyright 1954, 1981 pg. 422).

One thing the man of God and the people of God must avoid, is even attempting to set a time or date for His coming. His coming is imminent. It is not known except to the Father and the Son. Lest someone say, “Well Jesus said He did not know when it would come”; He did not while a man walking among us on earth, because of the veil of His flesh, but now in His glorified body He knows all that the Father knows.

 

BECAUSE OF THE IMMINENCY OF HIS RETURN THERE IS A MOTIVATION TO MAINTAIN PURE, VIBRANT CHRISTIAN LIVING FOR JESUS. “For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.  But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.  Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.  Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.  For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.  But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation” 1 Thes. 5:3-8.

Surely all who profess to know Jesus as Lord and Savior of their lives desire to live lives that will glorify Him. If there is no desire and/or effort for holy living in Jesus, then there is a question of one’s even having faith in Him. John the apostle writes, “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.  And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure” 1 John 3:2-3. I am not talking of a works based salvation, but faith that works.

In the ‘Preterist’ view of prophecy where is there any hope? Where do we fit into this scenario? In the Mid-Tribulation rapture view a date can be set counting the days from the time the Antichrist comes to power to the time of the rapture. I do believe there will be a Mid-Tribulation rapture, but it will be only a rapture of two men who have spent the first 3.5 years preaching the gospel of the Kingdom. They will be raised from death before the eyes of the world, then standing in the streets of Jerusalem ascend into heaven (Rev. 11:1-13). With the Mid-Tribulation rapture view and numbering the days, you could practically live as you wanted until the week before, the day before, or whatever you desired, then pray and seem to make things right. The Post-Tribulation rapture view can be counted down by days as well and would make no sense either. What would the purpose of the rapture be after the Tribulation is over? However, it does seem likely that there will be a resurrection of Tribulation saints in order that they might rule and reign with Jesus for the millennial reign on earth (Rev. 20:1-5).

The Pre-Tribulation rapture view is the only one that leaves us with a motivation to live lives that will glorify our Savior. An expectancy looking, longing for that day Jesus Christ suddenly appears in the “clouds”, and calls His Bride to Himself, and takes us to the place He has been preparing for us, and preparing us for.

“What a day that will be; when my Jesus I shall see, and I look upon His face, the One who saved me by His grace; and He takes me by the hand and leads me to the Promised Land. What a day, glorious day that will be.”

Every day looking for Jesus is a better day. Every day expecting Jesus is a more fruitful day. Every day waiting for Jesus is a more glorious day, because He is glorified in lives that show forth His glory; lives that are lived holy in Him and wholly for Him.