Introduction
“But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night” (1Thessalonians 5:1-2).
The phrase “thief in the night,” as I expound upon in An Examination of the ‘Day of the Lord’, always refers to the rapture of the church. But why is the rapture of the church related to “a thief in the night”? Shouldn’t we know when the Lord will be coming for His bride? Yes and no.
For those of us in the church who are watching and waiting, we won’t be caught off guard, just as our brothers and sisters in Christ who were watching and waiting in their generations wouldn’t have been caught off guard had the rapture occurred in their lifetimes. This is Paul’s appeal to us in 1 Thessalonians 5:2, that we ourselves should “know perfectly that the day of the Lord,” which begins with the rapture of the church, will “cometh as a thief in the night.” It is the Lord’s coming for His church, “as a thief in the night,” that results in the world and those Christians who are not watching and waiting to be caught totally by surprise!
We made the following statement in Imminence, Signs, and Feasts – Oh My!
If signs were required, then imminence ceases. One could say that the rebirth of Israel is a sign that must have been fulfilled before the rapture could occur; but this is faulty logic. The nation of Israel had to be reborn before the Tribulation but was not essential for the rapture of the church.
For instance, there has been a presence of Jews in the land of Israel for the past 2,000 years before Israel officially became a nation. If at any time during those 2,000 years, the rapture was to have happened, it doesn’t mean that God couldn’t have rapidly caused events to commence in order to birth the nation of Israel in the time between the rapture and Antichrist’s covenant with Israel and the many (Daniel 9:27). In fact, we know that Israel was to be born in one day (Isaiah 66:8) – and so she was! He’s God, and nothing is impossible or too hard for Him.
Even when it comes to the prophecies that we can see fulfilled through man-made technologies in these last days – prophecies that were confusing to our brothers and sisters down through the centuries and that make total sense to us now – were not necessary to them because they knew that God could supernaturally accomplish those prophecies that they didn’t fully comprehend. Their lack of understanding of how a prophecy could have been achieved in their day and age was never a deterrence to their Biblical belief in The Imminency of the Rapture.
For 2,000 years, the bride of Christ has been living as if the rapture could have occurred in their lifetimes. And even though there are some generic prophecies – such as apostasy in the church, persecution, moral depravity in society and the church, wars and rumors of wars, wickedness, lawlessness, etc. – these prophetic characteristics within the world and the church have always been present throughout church history and can never be known to what extent they will prevail before the coming of our Lord for His bride. In fact, much of the persecution the early church endured is equal to, or exceeds, the persecution many Christians face today. Therefore, this imminency that they partook in was just as viable for them as it is for us today.
Granted, we see the signs more clearly and understand prophecy to a much greater degree than they did, just as God told Daniel we would (Daniel 12:4, 8-9), but this never negated their Scriptural belief that the rapture could have occurred in their lifetimes. In reality, as we shall see, it was the Lord Himself and the Apostles themselves that encouraged them to do just that – watch and wait for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ at all times!
The remainder of this article will seek to demonstrate to the reader that, indeed, the rapture has always been imminent – and for good reason, as imminency has a purifying effect on the believer to live a life of holiness and righteousness in eager expectation of our blessed hope!
The Lord Jesus Christ Taught The Imminency of the Rapture
Our Lord and Savior Himself couldn’t be more emphatic on The Imminency of the Rapture.
“Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come… At such an hour as you think not, the Son of man cometh” (Matthew 24:42, 44).
Though we should understand to a certain extent the times and seasons we are living in, the truth is that most won’t know because the rapture happens “at such an hour (divinely set time) as [we] think not.”
“But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only” (Matthew 24:36).
When it comes to the phrase “day and hour,” we had this to say in Imminence, Signs, and Feasts – Oh My!
In all of these verses we have been looking at that speak of the “hour,” we need to note that the Greek word is 5610 ὥρα “hora” and means “a time, or period, or hour. Properly, an hour; (figuratively) a finite ‘season’; limited time or opportunity to reach a goal (fulfill a purpose); a divinely pre-set time period; a limited period to accomplish the Lord’s specific purpose, i.e. ‘the hour’ in which specific characteristics prevail exactly like that for a limited time.” [Definitions Biblehub.com] (emphasis mine)
The context, when it comes to future prophecy, is evident and requires, in my humble opinion, the translation of “a divinely set time period, or period in time.” For, if a man doesn’t know the “day,” then he obviously isn’t going to know the literal “hour.” This is one area in which I disagree with some of the translators. Although, I wouldn’t be surprised if they thought that they were using the definition of “a figurative ‘hour,’ denoting a period in time,” and expected that the reader would so interpret it in this way.
So, it has to be a “divinely set time, or period in time” that the Greek word is conveying and would make total sense within the context of future prophecy.
In any case, it is extremely clear that Messiah Yeshua gave insistence that no man would know when He would be coming back to fetch His bride. His return for His church was always to be imminent!
“But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is” (Mark 13:32-33).
In The Trinity: Examining the Triune God, I discuss how it is that even the Son of God doesn’t know “that day or that hour” when He will come back to fetch His bride.
Needless to say, when it comes to the timing of the rapture, Christ Himself doesn’t know the day or the divinely set time! This is all in the hands of our heavenly Father.
“Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately.
“Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them. And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants. And this know, that if the good man of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through. Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not” (Luke 12:35-40).
Again, Messiah Yeshua tells us within this parable that we should be “therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when [we] think not.” Here’s what I said about these conditions in Imminence, Signs, and Feasts – Oh My!
Even though that “divinely pre-set period in time” of Christ’s return should not come on us as a thief, He will come “in such an hour as [we] think not the Son of man cometh.” Is this a contradiction? No. There are two aspects we should consider here.
First, the church is made up of individuals, and there will be some that are waiting expectantly, knowing that the time is at hand, and others that will be sleeping and somewhat ignorant that the day of Christ is near. Not to mention those Christians who don’t believe in the pre-Tribulation rapture of the church.
Secondly, there is a very real indication that the church, in general, may experience a kind of “rapture fatigue” and/or will have become somewhat lethargic and apathetic when the rapture actually occurs. This makes sense when one considers “birth pangs.” Right now, there are so many indicators of the soon-approaching Tribulation period that true rapture expectations are very high – this would be comparable to a woman’s contractions increasing in frequency and intensity. After a contraction, though, comes a short period of relief and rest, or in the case of the last days, a “sense” of relief and remission.
People are funny. It doesn’t take long for us to forget and move on with our lives. This is why we must always be alert and sober, watching and waiting.
“Watch therefore!”
“Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 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 14:1-3).
Quite possibly every true believer’s favorite passage in Scripture, we see, here again, Christ preaching imminence to such an extent that He declares that He would be coming personally for His disciples! Was Christ lying, beings they have since passed away before the rapture? No. He, as He always did, was speaking to His disciples as representing all generations of His church – including the last generation that would be alive on earth at His coming for His bride.
The Apostles Taught The Imminency of the Rapture
Peter spoke of the Lord’s coming for us.
“That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls“ (1 Peter 1:7-9). (emphasis mine)
Though Peter didn’t teach the details on the rapture as Paul did (that was entrusted to Paul by the Lord Himself), he does speak of “the appearing of Jesus Christ” when those alive at His coming for His bride will be “receiving the end of [their] faith, even the salvation of [their] souls,” which is obviously at the resurrection/rapture of the church!
Those who have died in the Lord will have already received the “salvation of [their] souls” at death, as they will be with the Lord only to await their new, glorified, and everlasting bodies at the resurrection/rapture.
The structure of Peter’s words in these verses clearly shows an imminence to this event and an expectation that his readers could very well be alive at the Lord’s return for His bride.
“So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many, and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation” (Hebrews 9:28).
Only those who are truly born again and alive on earth at the rapture of the church will be those “that look for Him” when “He appears the second time without sin unto salvation.” Again, those who have died no longer have to be looking for Christ as they will be with Him in heaven, and their sin natures will have ceased upon their deaths.
John said the same in his first epistle to the church:
“And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming” (1 John 2:28).
Just as Peter did, we see John speaking to his readers as though they could very well be those who will see Him “when He shall appear… and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.” This, again, cannot apply to those who have already died in Christ and are with Him in heaven awaiting their return with Christ to earth to put on their new, glorified, and everlasting bodies at the resurrection/rapture of the church and return with Him and those alive back to heaven. There, obviously, can be no shame possible for those who have died in the Lord.
Paul Taught The Imminency of the Rapture
Paul encouraged Timothy with The Imminency of the Rapture:
“That thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Timothy 6:14).
Paul clearly taught Timothy that he could very well be alive “until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.” As Peter and John delineated above, if Timothy would have died before the rapture, he would have been in heaven until the resurrection/rapture of the church and would not have had to keep himself “without spot, unrebukable” because he would have been with Christ awaiting the blessed event.
Paul, similarly, spoke to Titus in the same manner in one of Christendom’s favorite rapture verses:
“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13).
Paul wouldn’t have told Titus to be “looking for that blessed hope, and glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ” if Paul knew that Titus would have died long before Christ came back for His church. Again, Paul was clearly teaching The Imminency of the Rapture.
In Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians – believed to be his first epistle – Paul had much to say in regard to the rapture:
“For they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come” (1 Thessalonians 1:9-10).
Obviously, Paul is encouraging all believers who have “turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God” to “wait for His Son from heaven” – something only people who are living on earth at the resurrection/rapture are able to do!
The Mystery and The Imminency of the Rapture
In my article Instantly Changed and Caught Up, we noted the following.
“Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep [die], but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed“ (1 Corinthians 15:51-52). (emphasis mine)
We need to take into consideration that Paul is referring to two separate groups within 1 Corinthians 15:51-52, which he expounds upon in more detail in 1 Thessalonians 4. The two different people groups – both members of the bride of Christ – are as follows:
- “… the dead shall be raised incorruptible“ – These are those who have died in Christ that He will bring back with Him to be united with their resurrected, glorified bodies. Simply put, these Christians will put on their new bodies at the resurrection.
- “… we shall not all sleep [die]… we shall be changed” – Paul, as he often did, is speaking to those saints who are alive when he groups himself within the “we” context. The Greek word for “we” is 2249 ἡμεῖς “hémeis” and means us, we, ourselves, used only in the emphatic. Therefore, Paul is speaking of those alive at Christ’s coming for His bride. Paul always spoke (until he realized that he would be martyred – 2 Timothy 4:6-7) as if he would be alive at the rapture of the church. Every Christian for 2,000 years has been to be watching and waiting for the rapture, as it has a purifying effect on the believer.
Then, we looked at Paul’s other teaching in 1 Thessalonians 4.
“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. For 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” (1 Thessalonians 4:15-17). (emphasis mine)
In both 1 Corinthians 15:51-52 and 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17, Paul spoke of himself and those who he was writing to as those who would be alive at the rapture of the church, as “we.” If Paul, at this time, knew that the rapture of the church wouldn’t happen for at least 2,000 years, he would have never lumped himself and his readers in with those who would be alive at Christ’s return for His bride.
If this were the case, the verses would have read as such:
“Behold, I shew you a mystery; Some shall not all sleep [die], but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and they who are alive shall be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:51-52). (emphasis mine)
“For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that those which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For 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 those which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with us in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:15-17). (emphasis mine)
But Paul didn’t use these words in this way because, until he knew that he would face a martyr’s death, he always believed and taught his disciples that they could be the generation that would see the Lord come back to resurrect/rapture His church and take them back to heaven with Him.
Let us, again, remind ourselves of how Paul taught his disciples of The Imminency of the Rapture:
“Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep [die], but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed“ (1 Corinthians 15:51-52). (emphasis mine)
“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. For 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” (1 Thessalonians 4:15-17). (emphasis mine)
And, for almost 2,000 years, the church has been comforting each other with these glorious Words (1 Thessalonians 4:18)!
Conclusion
I realize that most Pre-Millennialists already understand The Imminency of the Rapture. But recently, it has come to my attention that some are having a difficult time with this Biblical doctrine, which is why I was compelled to write this article. I desired to pull together portions of previous articles with additional information and attempt to present this topic as clearly as I possibly could. If for whatever reason, others still find themselves not comprehending this vital teaching, then I must confess that I’m at a loss for words.
The general societal conditions of the last days have always been with the church. How intense it would get before the Lord fetches us home has always been the question. The truth is, we have been in the last days for almost 2,000 years since Christ ascended back into heaven.
“Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time” (1 John 2:18).
Remember, dear Saint, we aren’t waiting for Antichrist; we are watching and waiting – as our brothers and sisters before us – for our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!
“Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure” (1 John 3:2-3).
What a glorious truth, that “now are we the sons of God” and “we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is” at the rapture of the church! May we all have “this hope in [us] and purifieth [ourselves], even as He is pure!”
“For our conversation [citizenship] is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself” (Philippians 3:20-21).
May we all continue to be Answering the Call of The Great Commission and giving an answer to every man and woman who so desperately needs Jesus and asks us, “Why Am I Here and What Is It All About?”
Keep reaching the lost for Christ while we still have time.
Love, grace, mercy, and shalom in Messiah Yeshua, and Maranatha!
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