I don't intend to do an extensive study of all the scripture involving the return of Christ or to rehash all the arguments for the pre, mid and post positions. My only goal in the article is to hopefully present a logical argument. Simply put this is the premise: If Christ's return is imminent then there can be no signs that would precede it, therefore His return must precede the tribulation since signs fill the tribulation.
First does the Bible teach the imminent return of Christ? By imminent we don't mean immediate we mean that Christ could return at any time, therefore His coming would be imminent at any and all times. If Christ coming is not and always has been imminent then the apostles were mistaken in their beliefs and teachings that the church should always be ready for Christ return.
Notice the following scriptures.
1Pe 4:7 But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer.
Re 1:3 Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.
Re 22:10 And he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand.
Php 4:5 Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.
1Th 4:15 For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
1Co 15:51 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
In all these scriptures the sense is that the Lord's coming was imminent. The specific phrase is “The Lord or the time is at hand.” If the Lord's return was at hand it meant either shortly or it meant at any time. Obviously it wasn't shortly as it has been 2000 years since these words were written therefore it must mean at any time unless the scripture is wrong. The preparedness of the Christians is encouraged in either sense but only one means that the apostles and even Christ were not mistaken in their expectation of Christ's second coming.
1Ti 6:14 That thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukeable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ:
1Co 1:7 So that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ:
John McCarthur on this point states “All those texts suggest that in the early church expectation of Christ’s imminent return ran high. A solid conviction that Christ could return at any time permeates the whole NT.”
We of course are to live our lives in the same readiness, believing that the Lord may return at any time. Now here is where the logic impossibility of the mid and post-tribulational positions exhibits itself. If we are to believe as the NT writers told us to be ready at all times because the coming of Christ is “at hand” then we can't instead be looking for signs to precede that coming. If that were the case then we should be waiting for signs that are the landmarks of the tribulation and then we would look for His parousia and apokalupsis. Unfortunately that is exactly what many Christians are doing because of the misunderstanding of the imminent return. The tribulation begins with the the sign of the creation of the covenant that give Israel universal peace, its midpoint is marked by the sign of the covenant's breaking. It is filled with wars, pestilence, disease, earthquakes and death all these we are told are signs but not for us as New Testament believers but for the nation of Israel to know that their Messiah will save them. For us the only sign given is that which was given, the sign of Jesus risen from the grave and promising us “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. - John 14:3”
We are told to walk by faith not by sight until “...the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.” 1 Thess 4:16-18
To be logically consistent we either live in readiness of the Lord's imminent and therefore sign-less return or we live looking for signs and then make ourselves ready. One position walks in the principle of faith, the other looks for signs. You can't have both an imminent return and a return heralded by signs else it is not imminent, therefore any position that looks for the return of Christ for his church after the signs of the tribulation begin is logically flawed.
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[Thanks, First Vision. Saw this item on the net recently.]
Christ's return is NOT imminent !
by Bruce Rockwell
(Pretrib rapturists claim that Christ's return is imminent, that is, capable of occurring at any moment. Theologian and pastor Norman MacPherson, in his excellent book "Triumph Through Tribulation," offers proof that the Bible has never taught an any-moment return of Christ. Here are the points brought out and discussed at length by MacPherson:)
1. Great Commission fulfillment implies a long period of time.
2. Seed growth in Matthew 13 is a time-consuming process.
3. Paul expected death, not rapture, in II Timothy 4:6-8.
4. Jesus predicted Peter's martyrdom in John 21:18-19.
5. Matthew 24 teaches that signs must come first.
6. Many passages speak of a large interval between Christ's ascension and return: Jewish dispersion into "all nations" (Luke 21); "man travelling into a far country," "after a long time the lord of those servants cometh" (Matthew 25).
7. Apostasy of last days takes time to develop.
8. Bridegroom tarried in parable of virgins.
9. Pastoral epistles teach Church's continuing ministry, which involves time.
10. Paul says Christ's coming is not imminent (II Thessalonians 2:1-3), for apostasy and Antichrist must come first.
11. View of seven phases of church history (seven churches of Revelation) involves big lapse of time and imminence difficulties for pre-tribs; could Christ have come before the last phase?
12. Exhortations to watch and be ready are tied to what pre-trib teachers regard as the second stage (which is necessarily non-imminent) in Matthew 24 and 25, I Corinthians 1:7, Colossians 3:4, I Thessalonians 3:13, II Thessalonians 1:7-10, I Peter 1:13 and 4:13, and I John 2:28.
(How can an "imminent" return of Christ have a greater practical effect on us than the indwelling of the Holy Spirit already has, or should have, on us? Acts 2:34-35 and Acts 3:21 are further proof that Christ's return is NOT imminent! For more info on pretrib rapture beliefs and history, Google "Pretrib Rapture Secrecy," "Pretrib Rapture - Hidden Facts," "Pretrib Rapture Diehards," and "Pretrib Rapture Dishonesty.")
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