Chapter
Twelve
Imminency
(Heb
There are several doctrines that have spun off of the
pretribulation rapture that pretribbers use to bolster their defense. Most
of these spin-off doctrines are straw men that have been set up because of
desperate attempts to defend pretribulation rapture. After all, since
there are no scriptures to support PTR, one must use contrived doctrines
to support it. Then they must find scriptures for the doctrines they
invent to support PTR. It is also circular reasoning because if PTR isn't
true, then the doctrines they use to support it have nothing to stand on.
One of these spin-off doctrines that pretribulation rapturists have
invented is the doctrine of Imminency. They use the argument that any
doctrine that has the church going through the tribulation period takes
away the imminency of Jesus' coming. In his article
""Pre-Wrath" Or "Pre-Trib" Rapture?", Dave
Hunt declares with confidence that Marvin Rosenthal could not be right
about the church going through part of the Tribulation. Mr. Hunt gives the
following reasons for his declaration: "Numerous
problems immediately arise. Since the Antichrist, according to Rosenthal,
must appear first, the church is no longer watching and waiting for Christ
but for Antichrist. Moreover, even after the Antichrist takes control of
the earth the church cannot look for Christ until she has suffered
considerably under that "Wicked" one. If Rosenthal is correct,
then one can no longer expect Christ at any moment. Imminency has been
lost, and with it the "blessed hope" that sustained believers
for centuries." (1)
A major problem with this argument is that the doctrine of
Imminency is not valid Bible doctrine and would not exist if it were not
for PTR. If we get rid of PTR, that solves the problem of imminency. In
other words, get rid of the dog that brought the fleas. Evidently, Mr.
Hunt gets the idea of imminency from a misinterpretation of the scriptures
that either he executed or simply assimilated throughout the years from
listening to many messages on the subject. If something is preached long
enough, it will become an accepted doctrine regardless of whether the
Scriptures support it or not. This is just such an example. Somewhere done
the line, in the past, someone misinterpreted the Scriptures and either
wrote an article or commentary, taught or preached a passionate message,
and it became truth by default. Once it passes several generations you do
better to make them deny their own name than to deny their doctrine is
biblical.
It is also an example of one error leading to another.
Pretribulation Rapturism hangs its flag on the doctrine of imminency. This
means they have to interpret the scriptures in a way that fortifies
Pretribulation Rapture. To sit down with an unbiased, open mind and study
the scriptures on the subject is not an option to them. However, the
glaring truth is that they are wrong about the imminency doctrine and that
means their main objection to Rosenthal and others is bogus. That leaves
them with the statement "we are not appointed unto wrath" as an
objection, which is rather simple to overcome with the scriptures. We will
do so later on (in this article). First, let us take a biblical look at
the doctrine of imminency. Did
Jesus teach the doctrine of Imminency?
If He did, we should be able to find abundant scriptures that
declare this teaching clearly. In fact, there are none. That's right,
there is not one scripture to support the doctrine of imminency for the
entirety of the Church's existence on earth. Imminency is the idea that
the Parousia of Christ Jesus could occur at any moment. It is the main
point of a multitude of salvation sermons, last days sermons, and sermons
that are directed at bringing the backslidder and hypocrite to repentance.
However, Jesus never taught imminency in any of His teachings except when
He taught about the last of the last days. What He did teach was that no
man knows the day or hour and He would not come until the prophetic signs
were fulfilled. A.
(Mark 13:32-33 NKJV) ""But of that day and hour no one knows,
not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. {33}
"Take heed, watch and pray; for you do not know when the time
is." B.
(Mat 24:4-6 NKJV) "And Jesus answered and said to them: "Take
heed that no one deceives you. {5} "For many will come in My name,
saying, 'I am the Christ,' and will deceive many. {6} "And you will
hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all
these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet." C.
(Mat 24:33 NKJV) ""So you also, when you see all these things,
know that it is near; at the doors!"
When
you ask people where they get the doctrine of imminency they point to
several scriptures in the Bible. I will post all the one's in the book of
Matthew for you to read and refer to throughout this article. (Mat
24:42 NKJV) ""Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour
your Lord is coming." (Mat
24:43-44 NKJV) ""But know this, that if the master of the house
had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not
allowed his house to be broken into. {44} "Therefore you also be
ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect." (Mat
24:48-51 NKJV) ""But if that evil servant says in his heart, 'My
master is delaying his coming,' {49} "and begins to beat his fellow
servants, and to eat and drink with the drunkards, {50} "the master
of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him and at
an hour that he is not aware of, {51} "and will cut him in two and
appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping and
gnashing of teeth." (Mat
25:13 NKJV) ""Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor
the hour in which the Son of Man is coming."
In the following scripture we are told that we should follow a
certain procedure in order to be aware of His coming. It is not the fig
tree we are told to watch, but to employ the method of determining the
signs that indicate what is about to occur. As we see the signs of leaves
in the fig tree, we know that summer is approaching. Jesus used other
metaphors in much the same way. "Now
learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become
tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. {33} "So
you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near; at the
doors!" (Mat 24:32-33 NKJV) "He
answered and said to them, "When it is evening you say, 'It will be
fair weather, for the sky is red'; {3} "and in the morning, 'It will
be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.' Hypocrites!
You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the
signs of the times." (Mat 16:2-3 NKJV)
The doctrine of imminency came from misunderstanding the
Scripture's where Jesus tells us to eagerly, soberly and alertly watch for
the signs of His coming. Jesus taught that there would be plenty of signs
that would indicate that His coming was near and we are to be alert and
recognize them. We are never told to watch for His coming, but for the
signs. He lists the signs in Matthew 24:5-27 (NKJV) in chronological order
and in complete harmony with Revelation. Jesus told us to watch for these
signs because they are the signs of His coming and will motivate us to be
prepared for that Day. The Day of the Lord is a tumultuous time and we
must be prepared to face the storms. 18
Woe to you who desire the day of the LORD! For
what good is the day of the LORD to you? It
will be darkness, and not light. 19
It will be as though a man fled from a lion, And
a bear met him! Or
as though he went into the house, Leaned
his hand on the wall, And
a serpent bit him! 20
Is not the day of the LORD darkness, and not light? Is
it not very dark, with no brightness in it? Amos
5:18-20 (NKJV)
(Mat
24:29-31 NKJV) ""Immediately after the tribulation of those days
the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars
will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. {30}
"Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all
the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man
coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. {31} "And
He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will
gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to
the other."
Jesus did not include a coming before this coming, only signs.
Therefore, signs are what we should be looking for and not His coming or a
pretribulation rapture. When He comes, we will be instantly caught up at
that exact moment. We cannot watch for the pretribulation rapture since
the rapture is an instant event. How could we be watching for something
that will happen in the twinkling of an eye? (1
Cor
The coming of the Lord is a much slower event than the rapture
itself. People get these two events confused and never search the
Scripture's to discover the difference. Look at the verses that describe
the coming of the Lord and you will see that it is much slower than the
rapture. "Behold,
He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who
pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him.
Even so, Amen." (Rev 1:7 NKJV) "Then
the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and
island was moved out of its place. {15} And the kings of
the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men,
every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the
rocks of the mountains, {16} and
said to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the
face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! {17}
"For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to
stand?"" (Rev 6:14-17 NKJV)
Although His appearing will be instant, yet His actual coming will
not be so. He will fight against those who denied Him and rebelled against
His Lordship. He doesn't do all this in the twinkling of an eye. The
twinkling of an eye pertains only to His appearing and our leaving, not to
His coming. (2
Th 1:6-10 NKJV) "since it is a righteous thing with God to repay with
tribulation those who trouble you, {7} and to give you who are troubled
rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty
angels, {8} in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God,
and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. {9}
These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of
the Lord and from the glory of His power, {10} when He comes, in that Day,
to be glorified in His saints and to be admired among all those who
believe, because our testimony among you was believed." Does
opposing PTR destroy imminency?
Opposing PTR does not do damage to the doctrine of imminency since
it is already damaged by proponents of PTR themselves. Let me explain, I
believe that all the PTR books, audio tapes, videos, and all other forms
of disseminating this erroneous doctrine has destroyed the doctrine of
imminency beyond repair. The reason is because the volume of PTR material
has balanced imminency on two faulty premises.
First, it is based on the inference that the writers of the New
Testament were ignorant of the coming of the Lord and the pretribulation
rapture. For example, how could Paul be cognizant of the time frame of the
pretribulation rapture and also teach imminency. First of all, if Paul
taught that the pretribulation rapture would occur in a futuristic time
period, that all dispensationalists insist are in his writings, then how
could he also believe it would occur some 1900 years earlier in his
lifetime? This means Paul was either ignorant of the very things he wrote
or he didn't believe in imminency. Pretribbers have taught for years a
futuristic rapture based on fulfillment of the signs. They used the words
of Paul for this teaching, but at the same time they declared that Paul
taught that Jesus was coming at any moment.
Secondly, the fact that pretribulation rapturists declare and have
been declaring for years that all the things they call "signs"
must occur before Jesus can come. This is overwhelming evidence that they
believe Jesus could not possibly come in any other period in history.
Thus, by the volume of their own effort they have disproved imminency.
They continue to disprove it with every stoke of the pen and every word
from their mouth and all else they do to promote the idea of
pretribulation rapture.
Just in case someone has not gotten my point by now, I will put it
in plain terms. If Jesus can't come before all the prophesies are
fulfilled, then His coming cannot be imminent. Thus, the idea of any
moment rapture is farcical unless all the signs have been fulfilled. If
they have been fulfilled, why then do pretribulation rapturists keep
writing, using the newspaper and television news as another
"sign" that the prophesies are about to be fulfilled. I do not
know what they are currently waiting on, but it is either the signing of a
peace treaty, a red calf, a mid-eastern crisis, or some other sign. If
they believe such a sign has to occur, then why do they look for Jesus'
imminent coming before it is fulfilled? Isn't this a contradiction? Sure
it is. That's just more of the standard inconsistencies that we have come
to expect from those who promote PTR.
H. A. A. Kennedy points out that it wasn't imminency that Jesus was
declaring in His teaching, but absolute certainty. "It
is note worthy that in this parable the expression occurs: 'After a long
time the Lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them' (ver.
19). Many interpreters have taken for granted that an integral part of
Jesus' conception of His Parousia was the expectation of its nearness (sp,
e.g., Holtzman, N.T. Theol. I. P. 312). Various passages, certainly, can
be quoted in favour (sic) of this impression. But if His utterances, as a
whole, on this mysterious question, are viewed in their mutual relations,
it will certainly be evident, we believe, that to concentrate attention on
the greater or lesser nearness of the Parousia is not Jesus' purpose.
Rather, to quote a very apt remark from J. Weiss (Predigt Jesu vom Reiche
Gottes, p. 69), 'The essential point in the preaching of Jesus (i.e.
concerning the Kingdom of God) is not the greater or lesser nearness of
the crisis, but the thought that the Kingdom of God now comes with
absolute certainty. The crisis is inevitable; salvation no more a dream
but an undoubted reality.' (So also, in essence, Baldensperger,
Selbstbewusstsein Jesu, p. 148: "The nearness of the Parousia is, in
a certain sense, only another concrete, intelligible expression for its
absolute certainty.")" (2)
Imminency is also based on a misunderstanding of the Day of the
Lord. To pretribulationists, it is a period of time lasting Seven years
during which God pours out His wrath. Thus, pretribulationists can
interpret any part of that period of time as they please to fit their
eschatological sequence. I believe the Bible narrows the time of the Day
of the Lord to the final days of the Tribulation period. This would then
make the Scripture's in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-4 very definitive as to when
the gathering together to him will occur. It will occur in the Day of the
Lord and at no other time. (2
Th 2:1-4 NKJV) "Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord
Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, {2} not to be
soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter,
as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. {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,
{4} who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is
worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself
that he is God." (Emphasis added)
There is a certainty in Jesus teachings that He would come with an
awesome judgment of wrath upon the nations. It is clear that only in that
time period is when people should expect Him. Imminency is possible
only when the Antichrist has gained control over the world, committed the
Abomination of Desolation, and has begun persecuting the Church, and not
before that time. The signs will indicate when the Day of the Lord is
near, which is a necessary requirement for Imminency. Jesus sets
forth the signs in order in His teaching concerning Imminency so that His
Church will not be caught in a wicked snare of deception. It wasn't the
persecution alone that the disciples were told to watch out for, but also
the deception. (Mat
24:4-5 NKJV) "And Jesus answered and said to them: "Take heed
that no one deceives you. {5} "For many will come in My name, saying,
'I am the Christ,' and will deceive many."
Although we have already covered this topic in another chapter, it
bears repeating in this one also. The Day of the Lord will be about the
wrath of God and that is why He removes His people from the earth at that
time. There are passages in the Old Testament that declare what the day of
the Lord is and what we should expect to see on that day. (Isa
13:6-13 NKJV) "Wail, for the day of the LORD is at hand! It will come
as destruction from the Almighty. {7} Therefore all hands will be limp,
Every man's heart will melt, {8} And they will be afraid. Pangs and
sorrows will take hold of them; They will be in pain as a woman in
childbirth; They will be amazed at one another; Their faces will be like
flames. {9} Behold, the day of the LORD comes, Cruel, with both wrath and
fierce anger, To lay the land desolate; And He will destroy its sinners
from it. {10} For the stars of heaven and their constellations Will not
give their light; The sun will be darkened in its going forth, And the
moon will not cause its light to shine. {11} "I will punish the world
for its evil, And the wicked for their iniquity; I will halt the arrogance
of the proud, And will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible. {12} I
will make a mortal more rare than fine gold, A man more than the golden
wedge of Ophir. {13} Therefore I will shake the heavens, And the earth
will move out of her place, In the wrath of the LORD of hosts And in the
day of His fierce anger." (Jer
46:10 NKJV) "For this is the day of the Lord GOD of hosts, A day of
vengeance, That He may avenge Himself on His adversaries. The sword shall
devour; It shall be satiated and made drunk with their blood; For the Lord
GOD of hosts has a sacrifice In the north country by the River
Euphrates." (Ezek
30:3 NKJV) "For the day is near, Even the day of the LORD is near; It
will be a day of clouds, the time of the Gentiles." (Joel
(2:1-6)
"Blow the trumpet in Zion
, And sound an alarm in My
holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; For the day of
the LORD is coming, For it is at hand: {2} A day of darkness and
gloominess, A day of clouds and thick darkness, Like the morning clouds
spread over the mountains. A people come, great and strong, The like of
whom has never been; Nor will there ever be any such after them, Even for
many successive generations. {3} A fire devours before them, And behind
them a flame burns; The land is like the Garden of Eden before them, And
behind them a desolate wilderness; Surely nothing shall escape them. {4}
Their appearance is like the appearance of horses; And like swift steeds,
so they run. {5} With a noise like chariots Over mountaintops they leap,
Like the noise of a flaming fire that devours the stubble, Like a strong
people set in battle array. {6} Before them the people writhe in pain; All
faces are drained of color." {11}
"The LORD gives voice before His army, For His camp is very great;
For strong is the One who executes His word. For the day of the LORD is
great and very terrible; Who can endure it?" {30}
""And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: Blood
and fire and pillars of smoke. {31} The sun shall be turned into darkness,
And the moon into blood, Before the coming of the great and awesome day of
the LORD. {32} And it shall come to pass That whoever calls on the name of
the LORD Shall be saved. For in
The Day of the Lord is to be viewed as an event rather a
period of time stretched out over seven years. It is a day of both
judgment and reward when the Son of God is revealed to the whole world. (Rom
2:5-10 NKJV) "But in accordance with your hardness and your
impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of
wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, {6} who "will
render to each one according to his deeds": {7} eternal life to those
who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and
immortality; {8} but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the
truth, but obey unrighteousness; indignation and wrath, {9} tribulation
and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also
of the Greek; {10} but glory, honor, and peace to everyone who works what
is good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek." {16}--
"in the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ,
according to my gospel." (
1.
Dave Hunt, (article) "Pre-Wrath" Or "Pre-Trib"
Rapture? The Berean Call, 2.
H. A. A. Kennedy, St. Paul's Conception of Last Things, Hodder and
Stroughton, London 27, Paternoster Row, 1904, pg. 171
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