Continuation of Part 2
By Lee Y. Martin, Ph.D. ©2008 |
In
the previous section of this essay on the Rapture, we learned in
the book of First Thessalonians that there is going to be a rapture
of the saints of God [4:16]. Accepting this as true, the next important
question is when will it happen? I wish I could tell you. If I could,
neither one of us would be caught by surprise unprepared for it.
But the Bible explains in several places that the event is going
to come as a thief, suddenly and swiftly, without warning, and hence,
by surprise.
We learn from the first letter to the Thessalonians that they wondered about what was going to happen to loved ones who died before Jesus returned. Paul comforted them with a letter in which he told them that the rapture event would not prevent sleeping loved ones from participating in the marriage feast. In the body of the text of his letter he reminded them that since the rapture event ushers in the Day of the Lord, no one knows when it will happen because the Day of the Lord comes as a thief. False teachers were troubling them with misleading and frightening thoughts that the Day of the Lord had arrived due to growing persecution. Paul responded to their fear in his second letter; but first, let’s look at what he told them in his first letter that perhaps explains why they were worried.
Let’s look at and analyze the verses one by one.
Paul said in verse one, they need not ask about the timing of the rapture which he had talked to them about while there with them in Thessalonica. The times and seasons are in God’s hands. In Acts 1:6 before Jesus’ ascension, the disciples asked Him the same question they had asked Him before He went to the cross – when Lord? When will you restore the Kingdom? In both instances, it was a question about timing. Jesus’ answer to them on Mt. Olive was that only the Father knew the day and the hour, not man, not angels, not even the Son of Man. Hence, because the day was an unknown factor to everyone but the Father, he had to be referring to the rapture. Why? Since the abomination of desolation at the mid-point of the tribulation is a known factor that our Lord referred to in His Olivet Discourse, and since the manifestation of the Kingdom is known to come precisely 1,335 days after the setting up of the abomination [Daniel 12:12], once the Day of the Lord begins, the entire week of seven years has clearly marked events that happen precisely on time. Thus, these scheduled events, having been prophesied in the Old Testament and the book of Revelation, do not happen as a thief coming by surprise. Paul must have meant, therefore, that the timing of the rapture of the church is the unknown factor that no one can pinpoint on a calendar. Moreover, Old Testament prophets knew nothing about a Messianic church distinguished from Judaic synagogues, much less a rapture associated with it. Nevertheless, there are veiled references to it some of which I will enumerate in Part 4 of this essay. |
Knowing Jewish custom helps in understanding that Paul was referring to the rapture in this passage. One of the names associated with the Feast of Trumpets, the feast that yearly rehearses the rapture, is the Day of Hiding. If something is hidden, it is unknown. We have already seen that this feast is the Day of the Awakening Blast, which symbolizes awakening people out of sleep for departure. We have also noted it is named Judgment Day because on this day God judges who makes the rapture. What is the meaning behind it being a hidden day? People in the know, believe this Day of Hiding is hidden so that satan would not know when it would occur. Why? He would like to know when Jesus is coming so he could counter maneuver and seduce Jesus’ bride from being rapture ready in the same way he almost wiped out the entire human race in Noah’s day with unbelief in an imminent flood and/or genetic contamination through transgenic mutations [Genesis 6:1ff]. If he could prevent the rapture, he has caught God in a lie because He has promised to come get her before He cleanses the earth, and a broken promise means He would have to kill Himself in order to keep the oath He made to Abraham when He cut the covenant with him. He swore by Himself that He would destroy Himself if He didn’t keep His Word [Genesis 22:16-18]. That is what oaths are about. Death to the one who breaks it. Wow! Consider how deep and profound His covenant with Abraham was. So if just one promise, one Word, or one prophecy of God is not fulfilled, His existence is on the line!
Let’s look at the details. In orthodox Jewry ritual relating to the feasts, it is customary to blow a trumpet blast every day during the Jewish month of Elul that precedes Tishri to warn people to get prepared for Judgment Day through repentance of sins. Judgment Day, a la the Feast of Trumpets, is the day Jesus decides who has repented fully and is qualified to go in the rapture. Curiously, the last day of Elul, the shofar is not blown. Why? Because God’s people do not want satan alerted to the fact that the next day is rapture day when the righteous are taken to heaven. They do not want to give satan time for possible entrapment of them. Thus, it is known as the Day of Hiding, and it signals the beginning of the ten-day period called the Days of Awe – an awe-somely horrendous time for those people left behind. The worthy ones who escape by rapture are in hiding in heaven during the time of the tribulation on earth.
Who shall be hidden? The righteous meek who have repented and made themselves ready for the rapture escape. Since Jesus knew these ritual symbolisms of Jewry, His remark that no one knows the day or the hour of His return [Matthew 24:36] was an obscure and veiled reference to the Feast of Trumpets known as the Day of Hiding. The symbolism in the title ‘The Day of Hiding’ is to emphasize its unknown sudden arrival as a thief arrives in the dark to cover his covert coming. In truth, no one does know the year Jesus will appear. He did, however, give His disciples signs when the time was near. Considering the signs of the times today, even satan knows his time is short.
Let me make things a little more clear. Every month of the Jewish calendar has 30 days. This is God’s Biblical calendar which must be used to reckon Biblical events. The Gregorian calendar of most countries is a solar calendar having 365 days whereas the Biblical calendar is a lunar one with 360 days in a year. Given that fact, if you look at any chart illustrating the Feasts of Jehovah, you will see that the Feast of Trumpets is Tishri 1 and the feast called the Day of Atonement is Tishri 10. We are told in Scripture that God commanded the Jews when to celebrate His feasts, for these are the Feasts of Jehovah. Even though they are the feasts Israel celebrates, they belong to God, for God emphatically told Moses, …these are my feasts [Leviticus 23:1] and He repeated it in verse four. They belong to God for the simple reason that they are God’s markers staking out human history, milestones pointing out the path to heaven for all ethnic races. So God established ten days between the fifth and sixth feasts. We know that forty is the number of testing or preparation in Scripture, and we also know that God always gives a grace period to repent before judgment. So counting backward from the Day of Atonement, the final day before God closes the gates of heaven, to the first day of Elul, the 11th month of the civil calendar is forty days – 30 days in the month of Elul plus 10 days in Tishri. Each day beginning on the 1st of Elul, the shofar horn is blown to awaken people to repent and prepare for judgment; so by the end of the Day of Atonement, people have had forty days to decide whether to repent or do things their own way. Preparation time is over and judgment begins. Can you see that God does His best to see that everyone makes the rapture and if not the rapture, hopefully heaven? Anyone who interprets the Bible literally and studies the Feasts of Jehovah cannot mistake that there is coming an unprecedented event one day. It was pointed out previously that Judgment Day is one of the names for the Feast of Trumpets because on it God judges who is ‘worthy’ to make the rapture. The people who have repented and stay ready are snatched out of here for the Day of the Lord will have begun. The bride goes to heaven for her rewards before her marriage and the earth begins her march toward holocaust. For those who did not ‘hear’ the joyful sound of the trumpet, the next ten Days of Awe ratchet judgment up a notch each day. The travail on earth escalates as per the seven seals, seven trumpets, and seven bowls judgments enumerated in the book of Revelation. People are admonished with each judgment to repent so they can get into heaven before its gates are closed at the end of the tribulation on the Day of Atonement. Things get worse and worse until Jesus has to shorten the days towards the end or no flesh would survive to populate the Millennium [Matthew 24:22]. During this period, people have opportunity to repent and be saved from eternal damnation but it won’t be easy. Once the rapture occurs, events happen right on schedule at set times; therefore, the unknown factor is when – what year, what day, what hour – will our Lord come to snatch away the righteous from off the earth? That is the unknown factor that the Father has hidden in His bosom. Are you ready? In Acts, Jesus told the disciples that it wasn’t for them to know the times or seasons when He would restore the kingdom again to Israel because they did not need this information. What they needed was power to testify that He indeed was the promised Messiah and that He is coming back to set up His Kingdom. Information regarding times and seasons is for the last generation just before His return. We are the generation that can compute the sealed book of Daniel [12:4] with the unsealed book of Revelation [22:10]. Knowing
that there are fixed and definite dates in Scripture for things
to happen during the seven year Tribulation Period, and knowing
that once the tribulation begins incidents occur at set times fulfilling
Scripture like clockwork, the million dollar question is can we
know the year, the day, and the hour our Lord will rapture His bride?
This question gives rise to the question of imminency. |
A Point Of Eschatology: Doctrine of Imminence There are not many things in the study of theology that I think are worth spending time learning. The reason I don’t think so is because most of it is tied to letters and is dry, unusable, human mumbo jumbo that impresses men. Eighty-five percent of it is unusable as one retired highly visible seminary president has confessed. Paul said in his letter to the Corinthians that he was made a minister of the New Testament to help people come alive, indicating it is impossible to revive people without the spirit. There is no life outside the Spirit of God. He wrote…The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life [3:6]. |
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The point Paul was making is that letters are tied to book knowledge, i.e., the law, teachings which are perfunctory rituals that cannot save. It is the Spirit of God that produces the revitalizing power to give life to dead bodies. Without the Spirit, hope for eternal life is gone. Commandments and ordinances of the law are letters on parchment explaining about God. They divulge things about God but they are merely shadows. They have form but no substance. They cannot reach into the cells of the body and regenerate them. It takes Holy Spirit power to do that. And this is the reason Jesus could not reach the Pharisees and educated people of His day. He could not get past their book learning into their innermost being. Their “letters” killed them. They were puffed up with pride and were unreachable because they were unteachable. Today we have the same phenomena. The majority of seminary professors are not saved and a good part of Christian pastors are dead spirits as well. It seems like the more letters one has behind his name, the less likely it is that he moves in the Spirit and knows how to bring healing and life to people who desperately need it.
The reformists spent more time with theology than they did with training people how to use Jesus’ teachings to change circumstances. They encapsulated the light of the Scriptures into ever newer theological terminology and people were bogged down with obtaining more ‘letters’. With more light came more divisions within the partitions of theology as knowledge of the Bible became widespread. Denominations mushroomed to unbelievable numbers until today there are tens of thousands of denominations – most of which arose for the sake of inessential points of doctrine. The ‘letters’ have increased to where if someone doesn’t have 6 or 8 ‘letters’ behind his name, few people will listen to him and he has a hard time getting published. The church at Sardis is pictured in the book of Revelation as dead. Because she represents the church existing at the time of the Reformation, she embodies a church having form without substance. She became entrapped by letters that kill. However, Jesus did give one commendation about her that I want to mention here. Our Lord said there were a few names in her whose garments were not defiled, and those people were going to walk with him in white …for they are WORTHY! Does that ring a bell? Being a word Jesus used in our opening text indicates that believers should be wary of deception in the guise of false doctrine. Systems of theology and schools of catechism rarely produce life if at all. Simple faith in Jesus for salvation is lost in a maze of rhetoric. Without the anointing of the Holy Spirit, systematic theology has had the effect of producing formal, dead churches. Jesus did say, however, that there were …a few names which have not defiled their garments [3:4]. How many is a few? Peter wrote by the Holy Spirit that only a few people, that is eight souls, were saved from the flood [1 Peter 3:20] in a world populated by a couple of billion people.
And in another place He said, … many be called, but few chosen [Matthew 20:16]. Is Jesus trying to tell us that there is going to be a huge deception luring the last generation into the Days of Awe and only a few will be worthy of escape? Anyone looking at denominational churches today can readily see that they are compromising their doctrines to hold hands with the world, hence they are defiling their garments. Given that truths are concealed within theological terminology, there is one concept in eschatology called the doctrine of imminence which I would like to bring up because it teaches that Christ could return and rapture His church at any moment without prior signs or warning. It is the factor that definitively demands that Jesus has to come back twice in His Second Advent. Hopefully it is clarifying and not gobbledygook. |
Imminence means the state of something about to happen at any moment. It defines any situation threatening immediate harm or disaster. Because it is a powerful argument for pre-tribulationism, it is one of the most fiercely attacked by opponents of the pre-trib position. Imminence embodies the idea that an event can occur at any time because nothing must take place before it can happen. If something must happen first, then the concept of imminence is destroyed. Imminence is included in the notion that a thief strikes at an opportune moment, a moment when he is not expected. Knowing a date or a time for an event to occur eliminates the meaning of imminence because if time MUST pass in order to reach the event, it is not imminent even if the event is only a matter of hours or moments away. Having explained imminence, let’s look at how the Bible reveals that the rapture must happen at the start of the Tribulation Period because nothing must happen before the church can be taken away. Back to our analysis in First Thessalonians 5, Paul clearly said that…
Throughout the New Testament we are admonished to eagerly await and anticipate our Lord’s coming – looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus [Titus 2:13]. Twice Jesus said in the last chapter of the Bible, …I come quickly [Revelation 22:12,20]. Strong’s Concordance defines the word ‘quickly’ as ‘without delay’, ‘suddenly’, or ‘by surprise’. Could ‘imminent’ also define quickly? Considering that the Bible attests in several places that Jesus’ coming is as a thief in the night, it is safe to say that He was indicating His coming is imminent, suddenly, surprisingly, and without delay. Just so there would be no question about the fact that he is coming as a thief, twice Jesus said point blank in Revelation He is coming as a thief. Let’s look at these.
The question of who is coming as a thief is indisputably answered here. It is not satan. It is the Lord Jesus. Notice He did not say He was a thief but that He was coming as a thief. A thief comes to steal away what does not belong to him. Contradistinctively, Jesus is coming for what He has paid for. He paid a ransom for His bride [Mark 10:45] and He is coming to get her. He will return with her to take possession of the earth which He also bought with His death. He is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world [1 John 2:2]. Jesus’ return, then, is to collect His belongings. Acknowledging He has a right to take what belongs to Him, it is His privilege to come when He chooses. We know, though, that the Father will tell Him when because this is customary in Jewish marriages, and Jesus always submits to the Father.
Thieves comes suddenly and unexpectedly. Since Jesus comes as one, His appearance is unknown. However, we know from verse 3 in 1 Thessalonians 5 that it will be when people are saying peace and safety. There is a movement afoot in the world initiated by a large Christian group trying to spread the gospel through social reform. This is not a new thing. It was tried in the 19th and 20th centuries and it turned Christianity into a haven of liberal scholars promoting Modernism. It emptied the gospel of spiritual power to save. It filled our seminaries with professors who deny Jesus’ deity, His virgin birth, and His bodily resurrection. Many Christians realized the stripping of the power of the gospel and pulled out of it. But others stayed inside its confines where it produced a dead universal church. Ecumenism that is welcoming all faiths and promoting a One World Religion is moving down the same road today, but it is doomed to failure. The reason I am bringing it up is because the new movement is promoting a global P.E.A.C.E. plan and is gaining power. P.E.A.C.E. is the slogan for its initiative. Could this be the ‘peace’ Paul was saying would make people think they were now safe? This question is worth pondering. Working with political regimes and corporate groups, the P.E.A.C.E. initiative is trying to eliminate poverty and empower third world countries to rise above their lack through secular humanism. It is a marriage of Biblical concepts with cosmic Babylon. The idea is noble, but unfortunately it is marrying purity with secularism which Jesus never promoted. Separation and purity has always been the Biblical mandate. I believe the movement could be the final push toward bringing about God’s judgment because this Christian movement fits all the characteristics of the Laodicean church which ends the Church Age [Revelation 3]. The suddenness with which the rapture occurs for righteous believers, parallels the suddenness with which the unrighteous will be trapped in the tribulation. Verse 3 of First Thessalonians indicates that the ensnarement will be a surprise just like a woman ready to give birth is surprised by the first labor pain. There is no turning around from the prospects of the appearance of a baby once a pregnant woman starts labor. The travail will happen as will pain and anguish upon those left behind who miss the rapture. The Bible indicates there will be a temporary deceptive time of relative peace sort of like the calm before a storm. People will be thinking we can have peace now for we have all agreed to respect each other and not promote Jesus as the only way to heaven. At that point there is a unified world government and an ecumenical religion that makes all men brothers. People will say, “safe at last”. But the Bible indicates otherwise. When people think they are safe, then sudden destruction comes upon them…(and) they shall not escape the coming judgment on sin. Verse 4 -- …brethren are not in darkness…………..(Continued in Part 3)
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Updated:
Friday, April 4, 2008 7:09 PM
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