The New Testament teaching that Christ could return and rapture
His church at any-moment, without prior signs or warning (i.e.,
imminency), is such a powerful argument for pretribulationism
that it is one of the most fiercely attacked doctrines by pre-trib
opponents. Non-pretribulationists sense that if the New Testament
teaches imminency, then a pre-trib rapture is virtually assured.
DEFINITION OF IMMINENCY
What is the biblical definition of imminency? Dr. Renald Showers
defines and describes imminence as follows:
1) An imminent event is one which is always "hanging overhead,
is constantly ready to befall or overtake one; close at hand in
its incidence." ("imminent," The Oxford English
Dictionary, 1901, V, 66.) Thus, imminence carries the sense
that it could happen at any moment. Other things may happen
before the imminent event, but nothing else must take place
before it happens. If something else must take place before an
event can happen, then that event is not imminent. In other words,
the necessity of something else taking place first destroys the
concept of imminency.
2) Since a person never knows exactly when an imminent event will
take place, then he cannot count on a certain amount of time transpiring
before the imminent event happens. In light of this, he should
always be prepared for it to happen at any moment.
3) A person cannot legitimately set or imply a date for its happening.
As soon as a person sets a date for an imminent event he destroys
the concept of imminency, because he thereby is saying that a
certain amount of time must transpire before that event can happen.
A specific date for an event is contrary to the concept that the
event could happen at any moment.
4) A person cannot legitimately say that an imminent event will
happen soon. The term "soon" implies that an event must
take place "within a short time (after a particular point
of time specified or implied)." By contrast, an imminent
event may take place within a short time, but it does not
have to do so in order to be imminent. As I hope you can
see by now, "imminent" is not equal to "soon."1
A. T. Pierson has noted that, "Imminence is the combinatioin
of two conditions, viz,: certainty and uncertainty. By an imminent
event we mean one which is certain to occur at some time, uncertain
at what time."2
IMMINENCY IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
The fact that Christ could return, but may not soon, at any moment,
yet without the necessity of signs preceeding His return requires
the kind of imminence taught by the pre-trib position and is a
strong support for pretribulationism.
What New Testament passages teach this truth? Those verses stating
that Christ could return at any moment, without warning and those
instructing believers to wait and look for the Lord's coming teach
the doctrine of imminence. Note the following New Testament passages:
1 Corinthians 1:7-"awaiting eagerly the revelation
of our Lord Jesus Christ,"
1 Corinthians 16:22-"Maranatha."
Philippians 3:20-"For our citizenship is in heaven,
from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ;"
Philippians 4:5-"The Lord is near."
1 Thessalonians 1:10-"to wait for His Son from heaven,"
1 Thessalonians 4:15-18-"For this we say to you by
the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, and remain until
the coming of the Lord, shall not precede those who have fallen
asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout,
with the voice of {the} archangel, and with the trumpet of God;
and the dead in Christ shall rise first. 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. Therefore comfort one another with these words."
1 Thessalonians 5:6-"so then let us not sleep as others
do, but let us be alert and sober."
1 Timothy 6:14-"that you keep the commandment without
stain or reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ,"
Titus 2:13-"looking for the blessed hope and the appearing
of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus;"
Hebrews 9:28-"so Christ . . . shall appear a second
time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly
await Him."
James 5:7-9-"Be patient, therefore, brethren, until
the coming of the Lord. . . . for the coming of the Lord is at
hand. . . . behold, the Judge is standing right at the door."
1 Peter 1:13 -"fix your hope completely on the grace
to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ."
Jude 21-"waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord
Jesus Christ to eternal life."
Revelation 3:11; 22:7, 12, 20-"'I am coming quickly!'"
Revelation 22:17, 20-"And the Spirit and the bride
say, 'Come.' And let the one who hears say, 'Come.'"
"He who testifies to these things says, 'Yes, I am coming
quickly.' Amen. Come, Lord Jesus."
It is significant that all of the above passages relate to the
rapture and speak of the Lord's coming as something that could
occur at any-moment, that it is imminent. This is why believers
are waiting for a person-Jesus Christ-not an event or series of
events such as those related to the tribulation leading up to
Christ's second advent in which He returns to the earth and remins
for His millennial reign.
IMMINENCE AND PRETRIBULATIONISM
As we consider the above passages, we note that Christ may come
at any moment, that the rapture is actually imminent. Only pretribulationism
can give a full, literal meaning to such an any-moment event.
Other rapture views must redefine imminence more loosely than
the New Testamnet would allow. Dr. Walvoord declares, "The
exhortation to look for 'the glorious appearing' of Christ to
His own (Titus 2:13) loses its significance if the Tribulation
must intervene first. Believers in that case should look for signs."3
If the pre-trib view of imminence is not accepted, then it would
make sense to look for signs related to events of the tribulation
(i.e., the anti-christ, the two witnesses, etc.) and not for Christ
Himself. But the New Testament, as demonstrated above, uniformly
instructs the church to look for the coming of Christ, while tribulation
saints are told to look for signs.
The New Testament exhortation to be comforted by the Lord's coming
(John 14:1; 1 Thess. 4:18) would no longer have meaning if believers
first had to pass through any part of the tribulation. Instead,
comfort would have to await passage through the events of the
tribulation. No, the church has been given a "Blessed Hope,"
in part, because our Lord's return is truly imminent.
MARANATHA!
The early church had a special greeting for one another, as recorded
in 1 Corinthians 16:22, which was "Maranatha!" Maranatha
consists of three Aramaic words: "Mar" ("Lord"),
"ana" ("our"), and "tha" ("come"),
meaning "our Lord, come." As with other New Testament
passages, Maranatha only makes sense if an any-moment or imminent
coming is understood. Such an understanding supports the pre-trib
position.
No wonder these ancient Christians coined such a unique greeting
which reflects an eager expectation of the Blessed Hope as a very
real presence in their everyday lives. The life of the church
today could only be improved if "Maranatha" were to
return as a sincere greeting on the lips of an expectant people.
Maranatha! W
ENDNOTES
1 Renald Showers, Maranatha Our Lord, Come! A Definitive Study
of the Rapture of the Church (Bellmawr, N.J.: The Friends
of Israel Gospel Ministry, Inc., 1995), pp. 127-28.
2Arthur T. Pierson, Our Lord's Second Coming as a Motive to
World-Wide Evangelism (published by John Wanamaker, n.d.,
cited in Showers, Maranatha, p. 127.
3 John F. Walvoord, The Rapture Question: Revised and Enlarged
Edition (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1979), p. 273.
