READING TIME: 2-3 MINUTES
Oct 3, 2019
Imminent Return, Part 2
1 Corinthians 1:7 — this is referring to the Corinthians (and us) waiting for the Rapture to happen.
Titus 2:13 — the blessed hope (our ultimate hope) is the Rapture, which is called a “glorious appearing” (this phrase can also be legitimately translated “the glory that appears”). This “glorious appearing” is used to describe both the Rapture (here in this verse) and also the Second Coming, which ends the future seven-year Tribulation. In this verse, Paul presents Christ’s appearing (at the Rapture) as a joyous expectation apart from signs or tribulation.
The fact that Paul exhorted the readers to look for Jesus’s coming as the “happy,” blessed hope (confident expectation) for the church, without ANY mention of preceding signs or Tribulation, is a very strong argument for the imminence of His return — that it can occur at any time. The exhortation to “watch” or “look” for what is the hope of the church loses its significance if it may not arrive “at any moment.” If there WERE specific prophesied signs before the Rapture, in reality, we would not be looking for Christ’s rapture, but for the revelation of the “man of sin” (the Antichrist) and the coming of the Tribulation, etc.
1 John 3:2-3 (also see 2:28) – let us say our wives are away, and we expect them to return “at any moment.” That is a great motivation (this should not be the only motivation, but it is an important motivation) to be busily engaged in cleaning the house and make every possible preparation for her arrival (if we are smart:). The hope is realistic and motivational in proportion to the imminence. Does that make sense? As Walvoord puts it, “The teaching of the coming of the Lord for the church is always presented as an imminent event which should occupy the Christian’s thought and life to a large extent” (Walvoord, The Rapture Question, 75).
John in 1 John 3:2 established a sequence of events: (1) Jesus will appear, (2) believers will see Him just as He is, and (3) we will become like Him. This is a description of the main elements of the Rapture.
Revelation 22:7, 12, 20 — John’s main point is the Rapture is imminent and ready to occur “at any moment.” Christ’s coming will be sudden, whenever it occurs.
I like what Feinberg says: “there is no mention of any signs or events that precede the rapture of the church in any of the rapture passages. The point seems to be that the believer before this event is to look, not for some sign, but the Lord from heaven” (Feinberg, “The Case for the Pretribulation Rapture Position,” in Three Views on the Rapture, 80).