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While visiting a local church in central Florida this past Christmas, the retired professor, pastor, and missionary began his message that evening admitting unashamedly just how long it took for him to prepare for his lecture on prophecy; he said he had been studying it since the age of fifteen! He spoke on why he personally believed in a pre-tribulation rapture of the Church, or another way of putting it, why he believed that the church will be snatched away prior to the beginning of the seven years of tribulation on earth in the future.
He provided some compelling arguments, but the one that struck home was that he believed that was what the Bible teaches. I knew exactly what he meant by that, and it was not a statement of arrogance by any stretch. Ah, he was a kindred spirit who clung to the truth of Scripture! I loved him in the Lord already though I knew nothing about him except the different roles he played throughout his life for the Lord. Let’s briefly talk about the pre-tribulation rapture of the Church, and what it means to you and me.
You will not find the word imminent in the Scripture any more than you will find the word rapture. It comes from a Latin word literally meaning “hanging over your head” or “looming overhead.” But this word or concept or idea is expected to play a very active role in the daily routine of every believer in Jesus Christ since the first century.
(1) It provides hope, always a positive expectation in the NT, and
(2) it gives a positive purpose to living a purified life every moment of every day (1 Thess 4:7; 1 Jn 3:2-3).
(3) But it also provides a negative incentive for the believer to avoid any embarrassment of not being ready when He does return (1 Jn 2:28). Another way of relating to this warning is using a borrowed expression of not being “caught with your pants down.”
We are living in exciting times even though our country is in a downward spiral. Our once great nation has been greatly diminished. I suppose we could argue the root cause of this until the cows come home; so I will simply quote from this passage that primarily refers to Israel, but an application can be made to any nation of the earth,
“Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD” (Psa 32:12a).
Nations that do not honor and cooperate with the LORD cannot be said to be truly happy. We cannot say we trust in God and live like there is no God. Look at us; our country is becoming increasingly secularized and hostile toward Christianity. Two bothersome traits that are characterized by people are self-absorption and desensitization toward others. That’s a loaded package with a lot of not-so-good goodies inside. We want our economy turned around but not our lives; we long for political change, not personal change; sounds like Israel in Jesus’ day.
We want prosperity but not His presence. Our morality is heading for the rocks faster than technology is advancing. We may say we love God but yet have no time for Him for there is a beast of apostasy growing within the belly of the Church in America. You may not like the word judgment, but America has all the characteristics of any nation under Divine wrath in the Scripture. It is the very spirit of Judges 21:25 that is thriving and driving our nation and will be its undoing. It’s heartbreaking.
So where is the excitement in living amidst this doom and gloom? For those who do not know the Lord there is none, but for genuine believers, we may be the generation that never experiences death because of the rapture of the Church! Signs have nothing to do with the imminent return of Christ coming in the clouds (the rapture), but the signs of the times indicate the second coming when Christ returns to set up His kingdom on earth for a thousand years. Here’s the specific cause for excitement. Those appearing signs shrink the window between now and the time of the rapture since the rapture of the Church is the next eschatological event!
Prophecy students got a big adrenaline rush and pumped when Israel took its place among the nations once again in May 14, 1948 (Ezek 39:27-29; Amos 9:14, 15) after being destroyed and scattered to the four corners of the earth in 70 A.D. by the Roman General Titus. Some of the signs of the second phase of the second coming required Israel to be back in the land with a functioning temple! Well, they're in the land, and there's talk of rebuilding the temple! this only stokes the fires of prophecy being fulfilled. You can't have a seven-year tribulation period without a nation of Israel in existence!
The imminent return of Christ or the rapture (1Thess 4:17) takes place before the antichrist makes a pact with Israel for seven years or breaks his peace accord 3.5 years later (Dan 9:27), referred to as the time of Jacob's trouble (Jer 30:7; Dan 12:1) or the conclusion of the seven years of tribulation. Not all evangelicals subscribe to a pre-tribulation rapture viewpoint, however; there are four major views of the rapture of the Church.
Prophecy students got a big adrenaline rush and pumped when Israel took its place among the nations once again in May 14, 1948 (Ezek 39:27-29; Amos 9:14, 15) after being destroyed and scattered to the four corners of the earth in 70 A.D. by the Roman General Titus. Some of the signs of the second phase of the second coming required Israel to be back in the land with a functioning temple! Well, they're in the land, and there's talk of rebuilding the temple! this only stokes the fires of prophecy being fulfilled. You can't have a seven-year tribulation period without a nation of Israel in existence!
The imminent return of Christ or the rapture (1Thess 4:17) takes place before the antichrist makes a pact with Israel for seven years or breaks his peace accord 3.5 years later (Dan 9:27), referred to as the time of Jacob's trouble (Jer 30:7; Dan 12:1) or the conclusion of the seven years of tribulation. Not all evangelicals subscribe to a pre-tribulation rapture viewpoint, however; there are four major views of the rapture of the Church.
Pre-tribulation: the Church is raptured before the seven-year tribulation period. There is a non-biblical spin-off of this view called the partial rapture theory, only the faithful at the time will be raptured.
Mid-tribulation: the Church is raptured in the middle of the seven-year tribulation period.
Pre-wrath tribulation: the Church is raptured between the middle and the end of the seven-year tribulation.
Post-tribulation: after the seven-year tribulation the surviving Church is migrated into the Kingdom.
Now, what is important to understand with these various views is that only the doctrine of the imminent return of Christ fits with a pre-tribulation rapture. Recall the literal meaning of imminent, “hanging over your head;” there are no signs, no indications, no intimations, and no heads up; nothing needs to be fulfilled; there is nothing attached to the imminent return of Christ. Jesus could come at any moment, with zero warning. Except for a pre-tribulation view all of the views above require something to precede it, therefore, supporting any view other than a pre-tribulation rapture destroys the doctrine of the imminent return of Christ.
At this juncture let’s do a high-altitude pass-over of future end-time events. The next eschatological event on earth is the rapture of the Church. Next, the man of sin comes to the forefront of the global scene bringing with him seven years of tribulation. At the end of the seven-year tribulation period, the second advent takes place; Christ returns to earth with His saints (you and me) and establishes His kingdom, and He literally reigns from Jerusalem for a thousand years. At the end of the millennial reign, the final affairs in dealing with the manifestations of sin are dealt with conclusively and completely. Afterward, the Universe gets a Divine makeover, a new heaven, and a new earth (2 Pet 3:13; Rev 21:1).
At this juncture let’s do a high-altitude pass-over of future end-time events. The next eschatological event on earth is the rapture of the Church. Next, the man of sin comes to the forefront of the global scene bringing with him seven years of tribulation. At the end of the seven-year tribulation period, the second advent takes place; Christ returns to earth with His saints (you and me) and establishes His kingdom, and He literally reigns from Jerusalem for a thousand years. At the end of the millennial reign, the final affairs in dealing with the manifestations of sin are dealt with conclusively and completely. Afterward, the Universe gets a Divine makeover, a new heaven, and a new earth (2 Pet 3:13; Rev 21:1).
Let me give a few verses related to the imminent return of Christ to show it is not an isolated concept or an obscure doctrine, and talk about one passage not listed here: Lk 12:36; Rom 8:23; 1 Cor 11:26; 2 Cor 5:2; Gal 5:5; Php 3:20; 4:5; Titus 2:13; Heb 9:28; Jas 5:7-9; 1 Pet 4:7; 1 Jn 3:3; Jude 1:21; Rev 3:11; 22:7, 12, 20.
After Paul preached in the city of Thessalonica, he began hearing of the boldness of those who believed from others he had not evangelized, “For from you the word of the Lord has sounded forth not only in Macedonia and Achaia but also in every place. Your faith toward God has gone out, so that we do not need to say anything” (1 Thess 1:8, amazing!).
It was not an easy witness or without cost, however, “And you became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction [emphasis mine, the idea is being under a literal pressure of some severity], with joy of the Holy Spirit [ironic, affliction and joy coupled!]” (1 Thess 1:6). Some of the affliction was coming from an idol-infested city for they had “turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God” (1 Thess 1:9); a lot of locals were profiting from idolatry. The root cause of their trouble was that persecution was chasing their conversion behavior which magnified throughout the city and surrounding areas. They became imitators (“followers) of the missionaries (1 Cor 11:1) and went on to imitate Christ (1 Pet 2:21) through sharing the Good News, reproducing, and suffering for it.
Would to God we would have such a witness testimony, but they did all of this in light of the fact that they believed as did Paul in the imminent return of Christ, and we, being 1,963 years closer to it, should as well! Should we die before being raptured, we would have been biblically right in believing in the imminent return of Christ. It is more about living holy in light of the expectation of His return because of our love for Him, and should the rapture take place on our watch, it would only be icing on the cake!
And now we come to our M-G text. This was the first of two letters written by Paul from Corinth to the Thessalonians around 51 A.D. Not only were these believers from Thessalonica spreading the Gospel in spite of persecution, serving the living and true God in a town that worshiped deaf, dumb, and dead idols, but notice what else was said of them,
Would to God we would have such a witness testimony, but they did all of this in light of the fact that they believed as did Paul in the imminent return of Christ, and we, being 1,963 years closer to it, should as well! Should we die before being raptured, we would have been biblically right in believing in the imminent return of Christ. It is more about living holy in light of the expectation of His return because of our love for Him, and should the rapture take place on our watch, it would only be icing on the cake!
And now we come to our M-G text. This was the first of two letters written by Paul from Corinth to the Thessalonians around 51 A.D. Not only were these believers from Thessalonica spreading the Gospel in spite of persecution, serving the living and true God in a town that worshiped deaf, dumb, and dead idols, but notice what else was said of them,
“And to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come” (1 Thess 1:10).
The verb wait is in the present tense which means continuous action in Greek; they were waiting for His Son from heaven or kept on waiting for Jesus to come from heaven while they were serving the living and true God and being afflicted for it. This one leading theologian gave an illustration of the literal meaning of wait as “to wait up for.” He illustrated.
The verb wait is in the present tense which means continuous action in Greek; they were waiting for His Son from heaven or kept on waiting for Jesus to come from heaven while they were serving the living and true God and being afflicted for it. This one leading theologian gave an illustration of the literal meaning of wait as “to wait up for.” He illustrated.
Suppose you have some relatives coming in for a visit, and they are arriving sometime after midnight. You don’t know what time they will get here so you simply wait up for them knowing that any moment they could show up. This is the practical implication of the imminent return of Christ – to wait up for. The analogy fails in that the date is known, but you get the idea. We keep on waiting for Him to return any moment of every day without knowing a date or time.
The second coming of Christ has always been subject to abuse then as it is now. Poor exegesis, incorrect application, ignorance, and lack of discipline in studying the prophetic portions of Scripture have generated much confusion of end time events and fostered many misinterpretations and predictions, resulting in people being baffled, confused, and skeptical. Paul addresses the second coming at the close of each chapter in his first epistle to the Thessalonians.
Israel becoming a nation is a pivotal indicator in the history of the Church in this matter we call the rapture of the Church. Though there is no time or date and no signs for the imminent return of Christ, by virtue of the signs of the times for the Second Advent or the second coming of Christ, the window for the rapture is shrinking chronologically and inevitably. If there appears to be a delay on God’s part, it is only because of His desire that all men be saved given the reality of the terrible things to follow in judgment (2 Pet 3:9). Would we be willing to die physically to buy time for others to be saved? Once the rapture takes place, it turns ugly on earth very quickly and billions will end up dying without Christ in a short span of time. It’s a provocative question.
This waiting is based on three truths (1) the promise of His return – “wait for His Son from heaven” (1Thes 1:10a; cf. Jn 14:3), (2) Jesus’ physical resurrection – “whom He raised from the dead” (1 Thes 1:10b; cf. Lk 24:6; Acts 1:9; 9:5; 1 Cor 15:17)); A.T. Robertson indicated that the resurrection was the cornerstone of Pauline theology, and (3) ultimate salvation – “Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come” (1 Thes 1:10c; cf. 1 Thes 5:9; Rev 3:10).
The second coming of Christ has always been subject to abuse then as it is now. Poor exegesis, incorrect application, ignorance, and lack of discipline in studying the prophetic portions of Scripture have generated much confusion of end time events and fostered many misinterpretations and predictions, resulting in people being baffled, confused, and skeptical. Paul addresses the second coming at the close of each chapter in his first epistle to the Thessalonians.
Israel becoming a nation is a pivotal indicator in the history of the Church in this matter we call the rapture of the Church. Though there is no time or date and no signs for the imminent return of Christ, by virtue of the signs of the times for the Second Advent or the second coming of Christ, the window for the rapture is shrinking chronologically and inevitably. If there appears to be a delay on God’s part, it is only because of His desire that all men be saved given the reality of the terrible things to follow in judgment (2 Pet 3:9). Would we be willing to die physically to buy time for others to be saved? Once the rapture takes place, it turns ugly on earth very quickly and billions will end up dying without Christ in a short span of time. It’s a provocative question.
There was something else I wanted to say about this godly man who spoke on his reasons for personally believing in a pre-tribulation rapture the Sunday before Christmas last year. He lived out that belief. Even though he was retired, he had a spirit of helping out the church where he attended. He taught a SS class and spoke to the congregation when requested. He was an inspiration to me of a man serving the Lord in the prime of his life to the fullest and continues to grow in the Lord, graced with knowledge, humility, and a congenial and approachable spirit and actively serving the Lord in his twilight years.
Frankly, it was the best Christmas gift I could have received by meeting him. Here before me was a blessed saint who was a lifelong student of the Word, believed in the Word, and lived out the truth of the Word. If I was a betting man, he will continue to do so with the rapture hanging over our heads!
In keeping it real, the rapture could take place before I finish writing this or after we are in the grave or 150 years from now. How is the imminent return of Christ affecting your life in personal holiness and treatment of others? We would all get our act together if we knew Christ was coming back tomorrow say at 4:13 PM EST; wouldn’t we?
In keeping it real, the rapture could take place before I finish writing this or after we are in the grave or 150 years from now. How is the imminent return of Christ affecting your life in personal holiness and treatment of others? We would all get our act together if we knew Christ was coming back tomorrow say at 4:13 PM EST; wouldn’t we?
Now we know why we don't know the time or date of His coming! But since we don’t know the day or hour, what is our sense of urgency to be holy as He is holy or to give Him all we got, or to love our neighbor as ourselves since we don’t know when He will show up? We need to stay spiritually awake in our waking hours and simply, “wait up for” Him! The time is now in letting Him have preeminence in our lives every moment of every day while His return is hanging over our heads!
1Co 15:51 Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—
1Co 15:51 Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—
1Co 15:52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
1Th 4:16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.
1Th 4:16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.
1Th 4:17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.
1Th 4:18 Therefore comfort one another with these words. <><
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