Part I
Almost two thousand years ago, the Son of God left Heaven's glory and came to earth to become the Son of Man. He who had eternally existed with the Father and Spirit in perfect unbroken fellowship, took on human form and became a man. His miraculous birth, sinless life, substitutionary death, bodily resurrection, glorious ascension, and enthronement at the right hand of His Father are all brilliant facets related to the first coming of Christ.
The implications of that direct intervention of God in the affairs of men can neither be fully fathomed nor, with the greatest of oratory and literary skills, overstated by mortal man.
The Lord's first coming was the noon hour of at least 6,000 years of human history. Astoundingly, but not surprisingly, as the Jewish prophets foretold, God was dwelling in human form among His creation. Men could see the visible Son and know precisely what the invisible Father was like, for Jesus was the "the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person" (Heb. 1:3).
Only one event, in the still-to-unfold future that awaits mankind, will be able to compare in significance with the first coming of the Son of Man. That event can be succinctly summed up in four words: Jesus is coming again.
Among the major purposes associated with the Second Coming will be the consummation of salvation for those who have died in Christ ("the dead in Christ shall rise first" {1 Th. 4:16}); deliverance of the living who have trusted Christ as Savior ("Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them" {1 Th. 4:17}); the judgment of the wicked during the day of the Lord ("For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. 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"{1 Th. 5:2-3}); and the establishment of Christ's rule over the earth ("The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever"{Rev. 11:15}).
The resurrection of the dead, the final redemption of the righteous living, the judgment of the wicked, and the introduction of a golden age, then, are major themes related to Christ's return.
IS THE RETURN OF CHRIST IMMINENT?
For those who believe and honor God's Word, the fact of the return of Christ to earth is beyond debate. Concerning that return, a significant number of Bible-believing Christians believe the Bible teaches that Christ's return will be premillennial -- that is, at His return He will personally establish a literal, thousand-year kingdom on the earth. And, with that position, this writer strongly concurs.
However, there has been considerable, spirited debate with regard to the seven-year period (often referred to as the Tribulation Period, or the seventieth week of Daniel) immediately preceding Christ's physical return to the earth and its relationship to the timing of the Rapture. Some contend that the Rapture of the Church will occur prior to the commencement of that seven-year period, or pretribulationally.
Intimately associated with the pretribulational view of the Rapture is the belief in imminence.Imminence is commonly expressed by the concept of an any-moment Rapture. It is sometimes voiced with the sentiment, "I'm looking for the upper Taker (Christ), not the undertaker (the Antichrist)."
A number of Second Coming hymns suggest imminence in their lyrics. Leila Morris wrote:
"Jesus is coming to earth again -- What if it were today? Coming in power and love to reign -- What if it were today? Coming to claim His chosen Bride, All the redeemed and purified, Over this whole earth scattered wide -- What if it were today?"
And in the same vein, George Whitcomb wrote:
"Jesus may come today -- Glad day! Glad day! And I would see my Friend; Dangers and troubles would end If Jesus should come today."
Many outstanding seminaries, Bible colleges, missionary agencies, and churches include imminence in their doctrinal statement.
A large number of those who hold to a pretribulational and imminent return of Christ view imminence as an important doctrine, but not a divisive doctrine. They give genuine latitude to those holding divergent views on the chronology of the Second Coming. Others, however, have "set" pretribulational rapturism "in concrete," and in such circles to even raise genuine questions concerning imminence is to incur wrath and to be held suspect.
Amazingly, a doctrine which was virtually unknown in America 120 years ago has now become, for some, a fundamental of the faith. Of course, the bottom line -- the final arbiter in every spiritual debate -- is to be the Word of God; never tradition, church dogma, or human preferences.
THE ORIGIN AND EARLY DEFINITIONS OF IMMINENCE
Some writers have attempted to anchor pretribulational rapturism and its handmaiden, imminence, in the rock of antiquity and the early church. It has been suggested that extant historical documents show that the early church believed in an any-moment pretribulational Rapture. In point of fact, quotations from the early church fathers suggest that (1) they believed that Christ could return in their lifetime, and (2) that His return would be preceded by a period of difficulty. But in no sense did they teach that the Rapture was pretribulational or imminent.
"A review of Ante-Nicene writings overwhelmingly substantiates the reality of this statement. Neither the writings of Clement of Rome (A.D. 30-100), "The Epistle to Barnabas (A.D. 130), "The Shepherd of Hermas" (A.D. 150), "The Didache" (A.D. 150), Ignatius (A.D. 150-115), Polycarp (A.D. 70-167), Papias (A.D. 80-163), Pothinus (A.D. 87-177), Justyn Martyr (A.D. 100-168), Melito of Sardis (A.D. 100-170), Hegisippus (A.D. 130-190), Tatian (A.D. 130-190), Irenaeus (A.D. 140-202), Tertullian (A.D. 150-220), Hippolytus (A.D. 160-240), Cyprian (A.D. 200-258), Commodian A.D. 200-270), Nepos (A.D. 230-280), Coracion (A.D. 230-280), Victorinus (A.D. 240-303), Methodius (A.D. 250-311), nor Lactantius (A.D. 240-330) lend support to the validity of a pretribulation rapture." (1)
John Sproule, writing in defense of pretribulational rapturism, nonetheless with candor and integrity, noted concerning imminency:
". . ., one of the recognized deans of pretrib. eschatology, refers to imminency as the heart of pretribulationism. Yet he is able to muster only a few vague quotations from the Early Church Fathers plus a few debatable scriptures (Jn. 14:1-3; 1 Th. 1:10, 13-18; 5:6; 1 Cor. 1:7) to support his statement." (2)
Sproule goes on to write:
"Pretribulationism can ill afford to rest on the shaky foundation of traditionalism and eisegetical {reading into the text what is not there} statements. If its {i.e., pretribulationism's} "heart" is a debatable and inductively determined doctrine of imminency then, perhaps, an exegetical "heart transplant" may be in order." (3)
Far from having its roots in the early church, pretribulational rapturism and an any-moment Rapture can trace its origin back to John Darby and the Plymouth Brethren in the year 1830. Some scholars, seeking to prove error by association, have attempted (perhaps unfairly) to trace its origin back two years earlier to a charismatic, visionary woman named Margaret MacDonald.(4) In any case, neither its recent origin nor its source proves or disproves its correctness. But if pretribulational rapturism is used for a badge of fellowship and orthodoxy, one is faced with the perplexing question of what to do with the millions of godly believers who, for almost eighteen hundred years, did not hold to pretribulational rapturism. Among them are heroes of the faith like John Wesley, Charles Wesley, Charles Spurgeon, Matthew Henry, John Knox, John Huss, William Cary, John Calvin, Isaac Newton, George Whitfield, A. B. Simpson, George Mueller, John Newton, Jonathan Edwards, John Wycliffe, John Bunyan, and multitudes more. Would these men be spurned today because they were not pretribulational?
The pretribulational view of Christ's return made its way from England to America in the 1870s and with it, unfortunately, came friction and division. The Scofield Reference Bible (which has helped millions of people in their personal Bible study) made pretribulational teaching a major facet of its 1917 revised edition. Untold multitudes became pretribulational as a result of Scofield's notes which, because attached to his reference Bible, became highly authoritative in the minds of many.
It was the Niagara Bible Conference, however, which initially spearheaded the growth of pretribulational rapturism and the concept of an any-moment Rapture in America. In 1878, the Conference adopted a 14-point doctrinal statement. The fourteenth section dealing with the return of Christ stated: "This personal and premillennial advent is the blessed hope set before us in the Gospel for which we should be constantly looking."(5) This was a broad statement which could be embraced by all premillenarians. However, later that same year, The First General American Bible and Prophetic Conference (closely aligned with the Niagara Conference) in New York City passed five resolutions. In Article 3, they went beyond the Niagara statement. Their resolution stated: "This second coming of the Lord is everywhere in the scriptures represented as imminent, and may occur at any moment."(6) Debate on the interpretation of the meaning of imminence followed. Some argued that imminence meant that signs could be fulfilled and that Christ could return within the lifetime of any individual generation of believers.(7) This view of imminence could better be described as expectancy. It conveyed two facts: (1) Christ could return in any generation, and (2) signs could precede His coming. If the word could in point two (2) were changed to will, their statement would reflect precisely the view of this article. A second group argued that imminence meant that the coming of Christ was possible at any hour.(8)
It was the position of this latter group which, in the years that followed, dominated pretribulational thinking.
With the passing of time, the definition of imminence was more closely defined. John R. Rice wrote:
"Christ's coming is imminent. That means that Jesus may come at any moment. That means that there is no other prophesied event which must occur before Christ's coming. Nothing else needs to happen before Jesus may come. No signs need precede it. Jesus may come today.(9)
Any moment -- no prophesied event must occur -- nothing else needs to happen -- it could be today; these are the points Rice emphasizes.
John Sproule, in a context of taking issue with posttribulationist Robert Gundry's definition of imminence, wrote:
"More representative of the pretrib. concept of imminency is the belief that, without qualification, Christ can return for His Church at any moment and that no predicted event will intervene before that return." (10)
In this definition, the emphasis is changed from no prophesied event must occur to no prophesied event will intervene before Christ's return.
It is one thing to speak of the Rapture as imminent and mean by that Christ could come in one's lifetime and signs can precede that coming. It is another thing altogether to define imminent as meaning that Christ could return at any moment, that his return is signless, and that no prophecies will intervene before He returns.
IS IMMINENCE A BIBLICAL DOCTRINE?
It has already been noted that there is no historical evidence to demonstrate that the early church believed in an any-moment Rapture. (It should be added that fact is in marked contrast to the overwhelming evidence that the early church was premillennial.) In fact, biblical statements preclude the early church from believing in imminence. The gospel had to be preached throughout the world before Christ could return (Acts 1:8). For the early church, that precluded an any-moment Rapture. Peter was to live to be an old man (Jn. 21:18-19). For the early church, that precluded an any-moment Rapture. The Temple was to be destroyed before Christ returned (Mt. 24:1-3). For the early church, that precluded an any-moment Rapture.
Some, attempting to circumvent this very real dilemma, have suggested that after those events were fulfilled, the Church began to believe in imminence. Not only is there no valid evidence for that reasoning, but it continues to contradict Scripture.
Based on Daniel 9:27 and the prophet's words, "He shall confirm the covenant with many for one week," pretribulationists have historically and continuously insisted that the Antichrist will make a covenant with Israel to protect her for seven years (the seventieth week of the Book of Daniel). It is that event which triggers what is commonly referred to as the Tribulation Period. But from the defeat of the Jewish nation in A.D. 70 until the emergence of the modern State on May 14, 1948, no Jewish nation or representative government existed. Hal Lindsey has written:
"The events leading up to the coming of the Messiah Jesus are strewn throughout the Old and New Testament prophets like pieces of a great jigsaw puzzle. The key piece of the puzzle which was missing until our time was that Israel had to be back in her ancient homeland, reestablished as a nation. When this occurred in May 1948, the whole prophetic scenario began to fall together with dizzying speed." (11)
It would have been impossible for the Antichrist to sign a covenant of protection with a non-existent nation. An any-moment Rapture, therefore, was not possible before the modern State of Israel was resurrected out of the ashes of the Second World War. Israel could have become a nation during any generation -- but the Rapture could not have preceded that event. Above all other issues, the fact remains that there is not one verse of Scripture that teaches imminence, if by imminence it is meant that Christ's return is signless, any-moment, and without the possibility of fulfilled prophecies preceding it. The student of the Word will search in vain for exegetical evidence to support imminency. The fact that men are to "wait for," "expect," "look for," "keep awake," "be free from excess," "be alert," (and similar phrases) does not substantiate the claim that no prophesied event can occur before the Rapture. A chart listing verses that demonstrate that fact follows:
TEXT | BASIC MEANING (GREEK) |
Luke 12:36; Titus 2:13 | Wait for, expect |
Romans 8:23; Galatians 5:5; Hebrews 9:28 | Await eagerly |
James 5:7 | Expect, wait for |
Matthew 24:50; 2 Pet. 3:12-14 | Wait for, look for, expect |
1 Thessalonians 5:6,8 | Be sober, self-controlled |
1 Peter 1:13; 4:7 | Free from excess |
Matthew 24:42-43; Rev. 16:15 | To be awake, to keep awake |
Mark 13:33; Hebrews 10:25 | To see, look at |
1 Thessalonians 1:10 | To wait for, expect, near |
Philippians 4:5; James 5:8-9 | At hand |
If church history and the New Testament do not support an any-moment, signless,no-prophesied-events-can-occur-first concept of the Rapture, from where did such a concept come, and how did it grow to dominate much of the conservative Bible-believing, evangelical church?
Pretribulationists have rightly understood that the Book of Daniel provides the backbone of prophetic interpretation; that at the end of Daniel's sixty-ninth prophetic week, the Messiah (Christ) would be cut off (Dan. 9:26). They also correctly understood that an indefinite period of time intervened between the sixty-ninth and seventieth week.(12) Coupled with that was the belief that Israel's prophetic time clock will again commence when the seventieth week is initiated with the signing of the covenant between the Antichrist and Israel. Of necessity, for pretribulationism to be correct, the Rapture must occur before God's prophetic time clock begins again with the seventieth week of Daniel. Pretribulationism requires a signless, any-moment, imminent Rapture of the Church. Without imminence, pretribulationism is dead. Or, put another way, if pretribulational rapturism could be exegetically proven, imminence would be demonstrated to be a logical corollary. Imminence would be a necessary outgrowth of a proven pretribulational Rapture, but an unproven concept of imminence cannot be used to prove pretribulationism. Here is a classic illustration of putting the cart before the horse, and it is routinely done in defense of pretribulational rapturism. The battle cry is sometimes voiced this way: Christ can come for the Church at any moment. Prophetic signs cannot occur. Therefore, the Rapture must be pretribulational.
Pretribulational rapturists, with few exceptions, believe that the Day of the Lord commences with the Rapture of the Church. The Scofield Reference Bible is typical of this position. It teaches that the Day of the Lord will commence with the translation (Rapture) of the Church.(13) However, since the Day of the Lord is a period of direct, divine wrath upon the earth (Joel 1:15, 2:1-2, 10-11, 30-31; Isa 2:12-21; Zeph. 1:14-2:3; 1 Th. 5:2-4), and since Paul taught that believers are "not appointed . . . to wrath" (1 Th. 5:9), it is convenient for pretribulational rapturists to commence the Day of the Lord with the Rapture of the Church. Doing so, however, has created monumental problems for the belief in an any-moment, no-prophesied-event-can-occur-before-the-Rapture position. Because of space restrictions, a few of these problems can only be briefly mentioned.(14)
First: The Bible makes it clear that cosmic disturbance must precede the Day of the Lord. The prophet Joel wrote:
"And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the Lord come" (Joel 2:30-31. See also Acts 2:19-20; Isa 13:9-11; Mt.24:29-31; Rev. 6:12-17.)
Second: There remains a word from the last of the Old Testament prophets concerning that future day. It is a message that holds out some hope. Before the Day of the Lord begins, God will send a messenger to call the nation of Israel to repentance. Malachi, God's spokesman about four hundred years before Christ, recorded:
"Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse" (Mal. 4:5-6).
Third: In the clearest possible way, the apostle Paul notes two events which must precede the Day of the Lord. There must be (1) the apostasy and (2) the revealing of the man of sin in the Temple of God. Paul wrote:
"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 {the Lord} 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; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God" (2 Th. 2:2-4).
The Word of God clearly teaches that cosmic disturbance must precede the Day of the Lord, that Elijah must appear before the Day of the Lord, and that apostasy and revealing of the man of sin must occur before the Day of the Lord. Since pretribulationism states that the Day of the Lord starts at the Rapture, the concept of an any-moment, no prophesied-event-will-occur-first position is biblically impossible to sustain.
(1) William R. Kimball, The Rapture (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1985) 20-21.
(2) John A. Sproule, In Defense of Pretribulationism(Winona Lake, IN: BMH Books, 1980) , 18.
(3) Ibid., 23.
(4) Pretribulation traced to Margaret MacDonald, See Henry Hudson, A Second Look at the Second Coming (Massillon, OH: Calvary Chapel) 3.
(5) Ernest R. Sandeen, The Roots of Fundamentalism: British and American Millenarianism 1800-1930 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970), 276-77.
(6) Nathaniel West, "Introduction," Premillennial Essays of the Prophetic Conference held in the Church of the Holy Trinity, (New York City, Oct. 30-Nov. 1, 1878, Ed. Nathaniel West (Chicago: Revell, 1879), 8.
(7) Samuel H Kellog, "Christ's Coming -- Is It Premillennial?" in Premillennial Essays, 57.
(8) William J. Erdman, The Parousia of Christ a Period of Time; or, When Will the Church be Translated? (Chicago: Gospel Publishing House, n.d.), 126.
(9) John R. Rice, Christ is Coming -- Signs or no Signs (Murfreesboro, Tennessee: Sword of the Lord Publishers, 1945), 3.
(10) Sproule, In Defense of Pretribulationism, 12.
(11) Hal Lindsey, The Promise (New York: Bantam Books, 1984), 199.
(12) That fact can be demonstrated in that at the end of the sixty-ninth week, Messiah would be cut off (Dan. 9:26). That occurred approximately A.D. 32, but the seventieth week (Seven-year period, or Tribulation) would not commence until after the destruction of the Temple in A.D. 70. Therefore, the seventieth week could not possibly immediately follow the conclusion of the sixty-ninth. There was, of necessity, a gap of 38 years which has now extended more than nineteen hundred years.
(13) The New Scofield Reference Bible, C. I. Scofield, ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1967), 1372.
(14) For a fuller discussion, see the author's book, The Prewrath Rapture of the Church, published by Thomas Nelson, and found in most Christian bookstores.