Jul
14
Is the secret Rapure imminent? No
July 14, 2008 | 1 Comment
The imminency doctrine teaches that: Jesus can come at any moment in time. In this doctrine, no prophetic events have to be fulfilled before Jesus can come back. Grant R. Jeffrey, a pretribber, describes “imminent” this way:
The word `imminent’ simply means that Christ could translate His Church to heaven without the necessity of the fulfillment of any intervening prophetic events. In other words, imminency meant that His coming for the Church was an impending event that could happen without warning at any time following the birth of the Church on the day of Pentecost. (Grant R. Jeffrey,
Apocalypse, page 100.)
This is the standard teaching for the pretribulation doctrine. Most or all pretribbers believe this doctrine. In his book, Grant Jeffrey wrote many pages explaining how the early church authors believed the Lord could come back at any time. Then, he contradicts what he believes and wrote by writing that the early church authors also taught there would be six thousand years of man’s history before Jesus would come back. Jeffrey writes this:
As indicated in my earlier book Armageddon: Appointment with Destiny, the early Christians and Jewish writers believed that the Bible taught that Christ would return to set up His kingdom at the end of six thousand years from the creation of Adam. During the first three hundred years of the Christian Era it was virtually the universal opinion of the early Christian writers that the Apostles and the Bible taught that six days of creation were a microcosm of the Great Week of six thousand years of man’s history. (Grant R. Jeffrey, Apocalypse, page 123.)
This statement is dealing with an exact time, no imminent return here. Grant Jeffrey, in his quote defining imminency, wrote that Jesus could come at any time after the day of Pentecost. Now here in the same book he writes that the Apostles expected Jesus at the end of six thousand years. These are contradictory statements. It’s either one or the other, but both doctrines cannot be right. The reason why the Apostles and the early Christian writers believed Jesus would come at the end of six thousand years is because it’s scriptural. The Bible taught it. The early Christian writers knew about this wonderful prophecy about Jesus in Hosea 5:15 to 6:2.
Then I will go back to my place until they admit their guilt. And they will seek my face; in their misery they will earnestly seek me.” HOS 6:1 “Come, let us return to the LORD. He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us; he has injured us but he will bind up our wounds. HOS 6:2 After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will restore us, that we may live in his presence. (NIV)
This prophecy declares that Jesus went back to heaven to wait for the Jewish people to admit their guilt. They admit their guilt when they realize they are guilty of following the antichrist after he turns against them at Armageddon. Jesus will come again after two days, which is about two thousand years. On the third day, which is the millennium, they will live with Him. There were four thousand years of recorded history before Christ and there has been two thousand years after Christ (the two days). The third day will be Christ’s reign here on the earth during the millennium. This is “the Great Week of six thousand years of man’s history” that Grant Jeffery says the Apostles believed.
Here is one of those early Christian writers (whom Grant Jeffrey references many times in his book) who taught the six thousand year period of time. This quote is from “The Epistle of Barnabas 13:4-6.”
Consider, my children, what that signifies, he finished them in six days. The meaning of it is this: that in six thousand years the Lord God will bring all things to an end. For with him one day is a thousand years; as himself testifieth, saying, Behold this day shall be as a thousand years. Therefore, children, in six days, that is, in six thousand years, shall all things be accomplished. And what is that he saith, And he rested the seventh day: he meaneth this; that when his Son shall come, and abolish the season of the Wicked One, and judge the ungodly; and shall change the sun and moon, and the stars; then he shall gloriously rest in that seventh day. (The Lost Books of the Bible and The Forgotten Books of Eden, published by World Bible Publishers, Inc. page 161.)
When you consider what the apostle believed and this powerful prophecy in Hosea, it proves the imminency doctrine is false. It tells us that about two thousand years have to go by after Christ’s ascension before He can come back again. Remember, the secret Rapture is suppose to save Christians from the Tribulation Period which is suppose to be only seven years before Jesus’ public coming. Therefore, Jesus cannot come at any time.
Actually there are five prophetic events that have to take place before Jesus can return, which destroys the pretribbers’ imminency doctrine. Let’s take a look at them.
(1) In order for the Lord to come back in a so-called secret Rapture, the prophecy of Peter’s death had to be fulfilled. Jesus prophesied that Peter would die for the glory of God in John 21:18-19. This had to be fulfilled before Jesus could come back otherwise Jesus would be a false prophet.
“I tell you the truth, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” 19 Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God.” (NIV)
Could Jesus come back before Peter’s prophesied death? No, of course not. If He did, Peter would have been Raptured without experiencing death.
Did Peter believe the Lord would come back before he was killed? No! Did Peter believe in the imminence doctrine? No! Peter always knew he was going to die before Jesus came back. In John 13:36, Simon Peter asked Jesus, “Lord where are You going?” Jesus answered, “Where I go, you can not follow Me now; but you shall follow later.” Jesus was going to heaven for “two days.” “Later” means when Peter died. Many years later Peter writes, “…knowing that the laying aside of my earthly dwelling is imminent, as also our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me…” (2 Peter 1:14; NASB).
There is no way Jesus could have returned twenty years after the day of Pentecost and secretly raptured Peter. If He did, Jesus would have been a false prophet. Therefore, the imminency doctrine is false. This truth contradicts what the pretribbers teach: that Jesus can come back at any time or any moment after the day of Pentecost.
(2) In order for the Lord to come back in a so-called secret Rapture, the prophecy of the destruction of the temple had to be fulfilled. Jesus prophesied the temple would be destroyed in Luke 21:5. Some of his disciples were remarking about how the temple was adorned with beautiful stones and with gifts dedicated to God. But Jesus said, 6 “As for what you see here, the time will come when not one stone will be left on another; every one of them will be thrown down (NIV).
The Disciples asked when would this happen? Jesus said in Luke 21:20-24:
“When you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, you will know that its desolation is near. 21 Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those in the city get out, and let those in the country not enter the city. 22 For this is the time of punishment in fulfillment of all that has been written. 23 How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! There will be great distress in the land and wrath against this people. 24 They will fall by the sword and will be taken as prisoners to all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled (NIV).
This happened in A.D. 70 after most of the disciples were dead. Could Jesus come back before the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 without being a false prophet? No, of course not. The temple had to be destroyed. Therefore, contrary to the imminency doctrine, Jesus could not come until specific prophetic events were fulfilled.
(3) In order for the Lord to come back in a so-called secret Rapture, the prophecy that Israel would be punished until 1948 had to be fulfilled. We just read in Luke 21:22, “For this is the time of punishment in fulfillment of all that has been written” (NIV). Grant Jeffrey discovered an amazing prophecy in Ezekiel 4:3-6 in combination with Leviticus 26, that predicts punishment until Israel’s rebirth in May 15, 1948. Grant Jeffrey writes:
In other words, if Israel failed to repent of her disobedience, the punishments already decreed by God would be multiplied or extended seven times. Since the majority of Israel refused to repent of her sin after the Babylonian Captivity ended, the period of 360 years of further punishment declared by Ezekiel 4:3-6 was multiplied by seven times. This meant that the Jews would remain without an independent nation for another 2,520 biblical years from 536 B.C., the beginning point of the prediction (360 * 7 = 2,520 years biblical years). (Grant Jeffrey, The Signature of God, pages 167-168.)
Grant Jeffrey continues to explain that these prophetic years of punishment were fulfilled on May 15, 1948 when Israel became a nation again. Could Jesus come back before this punishment was fulfilled? No, of course not. According to Grant Jeffrey, Israel had to be punished for 2520 years. From 536 BC to 1948, Israel was under punishment put in place by God. How could the Lord come before this punishment ended? The answer is: He could not. Therefore, Grant Jeffrey unwittingly proved his and the pretribbers’ imminency doctrine to be a false doctrine.
(4) In order for the Lord to come back in a so-called secret Rapture, the prophecy in Ezekiel 37 of the regathering of the Jews back to their own land of Israel from the heathen countries had to be fulfilled. “Behold, I will take the sons of Israel from among the nations where they have gone, and I will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land…” (Ezekiel 37:21). The pretribbers teach we will be secretly raptured to be saved from the seventieth week of Daniel. In order for the seventieth week to begin the Jews have to be living in their own land. Now just before the 2520 years of punishment was over, God brought the Jews back to their own land. This began in the Zion Movement in the late eighteen hundreds until they were made a nation in 1948. Could Jesus come back before this regathering? No, of course not! No land, no nation.
That seems clear enough, but let’s go deeper. The reason the Lord comes back at His public coming is to save Israel from complete annihilation from the nations who come against it in the Battle of Armageddon, which happens at the end of the seventieth week. If there were not any Jews in Israel before the late 1800′s, how can the Lord come back to secretly Rapture us and save them? The only reason we have a secret Rapture is to save Christians from the Tribulation Period. If there are no Jews in Israel, how could the seventieth week of Daniel begin? How could Jesus secretly rapture His church from the seventieth week when Israel doesn’t exist? The Jews did not start coming back until the late eighteen hundreds. So it has been impossible for the Lord to come from 70 A.D. to the late 1800’s because there were no Jews in the land of Israel to save. This prophecy of the Jews regathering had to be fulfilled first. Therefore, Jesus couldn’t come at any moment to save us Christians from the seventieth week because no Jews lived in Israel to start the seventieth week of Daniel.
(5) In order for the Lord to come back in a so-called secret Rapture, the prophecy about Israel becoming a nation again and the prophecy of Israel becoming a nation in one day had to be fulfilled. “Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Can a land be born in one day? Can a nation be brought forth all at once?” (Isaiah 66:8) Grant Jeffrey writes: “Isaiah prophesied that Israel would come into existence in ‘one day.’ The prophecies of Isaiah and Ezekiel were fulfilled precisely as predicted on May 15, 1948.” (Grant Jeffrey, The Signature of God, page 185.)
Could Jesus come back in a so-called secret Rapture before Israel became a nation again? No, of course not! This is another prophetic event that had to be fulfilled. Why? Because the pretribbers teach we will be secretly Rapture just before the seventieth week of Daniel starts. Why? To save us from that Tribulation Period! It’s a time of wrath and destruction. Hal Lindsey explains it like this: “The purpose of this coming of `the Lord from heaven’ is to deliver the true Church from `the wrath to come.’ Not from just any wrath, but from the predicted wrath of the Tribulation.” (Hal Lindsey, Vanished Into Thin Air The Hope of Every Believer, page 239.)
Despite what the pretribbers teach and believe “that Jesus can come at any time,” they believe in a distinct time for the so-called secret Rapture. It’s just before the Tribulation Period begins. Tim LaHaye writes, “…Jesus is coming in the air to rapture His church and take her back to His Father’s house before the greatest time of tribulation in all of history, called by the Hebrew prophets ‘the time of Jacob’s trouble.’” (Tim LaHaye, Rapture [Under Attack], page 14.)
Ed Hindson writes, “No one knows the date of the Rapture. But once the Rapture occurs, we know that seven years of Tribulation are going to follow. This is the seventieth week of Daniel’s prophecy, the time of trouble for Jacob, or Israel (Jeremiah 30:7).” (Ed Hindson, Countdown to Eternity, The Final Steps of Mankind, page 20.)
It needs to be pointed out that the seventieth week of Daniel is the Tribulation Period. They are the same period in time and they are identical in meaning. They are interchangeable phrases. According to the pretribbers’ doctrine, the only purpose for the secret Rapture is to save Christians from the seventieth week of Daniel when God deals with Israel once again. Now this causes a problem with their imminency doctrine. The pretribbers teach two contradictory teachings: (1) That Jesus can come at any time after the day of Pentecost without fulfilling any prophetic events, and (2) that He is coming to save us from the seventieth week, which has to be after most of the prophetic events are in place. In order to be saved from the Tribulation Period, the Jews have to come back to the land and Israel has to be a nation again. Don’t they recognize this truth? Yes and no, they want it both ways. They turn a blind eye to this truth. However, these are contradictory statements. They cannot have it both ways. It’s either / or.The prefix “pre” in the word “pretribulation” means “before.” Just before the Tribulation Period, not hundreds of years before it like one of their versions of the imminency doctrine teaches. This is a huge contradiction. Israel has to be a nation before God can deal with Israel in the seventieth week. And according to the pretribbers, the only reason there is a secret Rapture is to save the church from the seventieth week of Daniel. Even if the pretribulation doctrine were true, if the nation of Israel doesn’t exist (and it hasn’t existed for over eighteen hundred years), the Lord cannot rescue us from the seventieth week of Daniel. It’s just that simple. The only possible time the seventieth week of Daniel could start is after 1948. And we are still waiting for it to take place.
Do you see the contradiction? In order for the church to be secretly Raptured, all of these five prophetic events have to be fulfilled and in place. The so-called imminent return of the Lord is dependant on Israel first becoming a nation. Therefore, the imminent return of Jesus has been impossible for 1,948 years, until Israel became a nation again in one day.
Notice the progression of prophetic events that have to take place before the Lord can come back: (1) God, through punishment, dispersed the Jews into the nations of the world. The 2,520 biblical years of judgment against Israel had to be fulfilled. (2) After the worldwide dispersion, the Jews came back to the land to form a nation–no people, no nation. The prophecy of Ezekiel’s bones in Ezekiel 37 had to be fulfilled first, in order to form a nation. (3) The Jews had to declare they were a nation once again, which they did in 1948 in one day, which fulfilled the prophecy in Isaiah 66:8. (4) Now, as a nation once again, after the 2520 years of punishment, God can deal with Israel when the seventieth week begins (which is still in the future). Therefore, Jesus could not have come back until these prophetic events were fulfilled. The pretribber’s imminency doctrine is completely false.
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