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Can Jesus Come At Any Moment?
Posted : 29 Nov, 2010 07:50 PM
The only prophecy teaching more appealing than a pretrib rapture that saves us from going through the dreaded Great Tribulation, is this one. It simply says that Jesus can come back "at any moment" with no prerequisite event. Supposedly the early church believed and taught this. I sure hope not as the passing of almost 2000 years makes that doctrine suspect. Yet it does not matter who believes a doctrine, only whether the Bible supports it. Once again you will be amazed at how easy it is to debunk yet another perennially popular teaching. Just a couple clear verses will suffice.
For example, Paul warned "that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand" (2The 2:2). Robertson's Word Pictures says "imminent" would be a fine translation of "at hand".
Likewise, in the Olivet Discourse Jesus declared to his listeners that many things must yet happen including wars and rumors of wars and yet the "end was not yet" or "won't come right away" (Mt 24:6-10; Mk 13:7-8; Lk 21:9-11). After those prelude events, he said only the "beginning of sorrows" would finally commence with earthquakes, famines, and pestilences. Luke 21:11 adds the additional detail of terrors and great signs from heaven to the rest of these beginning sorrows. Together they well summarize the 6th seal of Revelation which describes an indisputably yet future time when all these things significantly begin to happen at once (great earthquake, all grasses burned up and one third of the sun blocked resulting in famine and pestilences). This aligns the "beginning of sorrows/birth pains" with the future 6th seal through 4th trumpet preceding the Great Tribulation at the 5th trumpet. So if these things are yet future and the "end is not yet" then Jesus' coming has never been imminent, just unknown.
There are so many prophecies of events to precede the Second Coming, the idea of his return being imminent with no prerequisite is impossible. A list would include at least:
1.The cosmic signs mentioned above and in Joel 2:30-31; Isa. 13:9-11; Matt. 24:29-31; Acts 2:19-20.
2.The coming of Elijah before the great and dreadful day of the Lord (Mal 4:5-6) which Jesus and John both implied was a dual prophecy only partially fulfilled by John the Baptist (Luke 1:17; John 1:19-23; Mt 17:10-13).
3.Paul said the great apostasy or falling away followed by the revealing of the Antichrist as God sitting in the Temple of God must come "first" before the Day of Christ and our gathering to him at the rapture (2The 2:1-4).
If Jesus was never going to come "at any moment", what is the plan? The Bible implies that he would come after 6000 years or six millennial days from when man's self-rule began. This is what the six days of creation foreshadow, much as just about everything in the Torah is prophetic or "a shadow of good things to come". The seventh day when God rested, later the basis for the sabbath day commandment given to Israel, pictures the Millennial reign of Christ and his saints on earth (Rev 20).
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