Suggested texts: Matt. 24:36-51; 2 Pet. 3:3-13
9. We believe in the personal, bodily and premillennial return of our Lord Jesus Christ. The coming of Christ, at a time known only to God, demands constant expectancy and, as our blessed hope, motivates the believer to godly living, sacrificial service and energetic mission.
- Why is it important to understand the reality of Christ’s return?
- How do we live with a “constant expectancy” concerning Christ’s return?
Click here for sermon notes and discussion questions.
[Right on, Gary. Here a little snippet that came my way while on the web.]
Pretrib Rapture Pride
by Bruce Rockwell
Pretrib rapture promoters like Thomas Ice give the impression they know more than the early Church Fathers, the Reformers, the greatest Greek New Testament scholars including those who produced the KJV Bible, the founders of their favorite Bible schools, and even their own mentors!
Ice’s mentor, Dallas Sem. president John Walvoord, couldn’t find anyone holding to pretrib before 1830 – and Walvoord called John Darby and his Brethren followers “the early pretribulationists” (RQ, pp. 160-62). Ice belittles Walvoord and claims that several pre-1830 persons, including “Pseudo-Ephraem” and a “Rev. Morgan Edwards,” taught a pretrib rapture. Even though the first one viewed Antichrist’s arrival as the only “imminent” event, Ice (and Grant Jeffrey) audaciously claim he expected an “imminent” pretrib rapture! And Ice (and John Bray) have covered up Edwards’ historicism which made a pretrib rapture impossible! Google historian Dave MacPherson’s “Deceiving and Being Deceived” for documentation on these and similar historical distortions.
The same pretrib defenders, when combing ancient books, deviously read “pretrib” into phrases like “before Armageddon,” “before the final conflagration,” and “escape all these things”!
BTW, the KJV translators’ other writings found in London’s famed British Library (where MacPherson has researched) don’t have even a hint of pretrib rapturism. Is it possible that Ice etc. have found pretrib “proof” in the KJV that its translators never found?
Pretrib merchandisers like Ice claim that nothing is better pretrib proof than Rev. 3:10. They also cover up “Famous Rapture Watchers” (on Google) which shows how the greatest Greek NT scholars of all time interpreted it.
Pretrib didn’t flourish in America much before the 1909 Scofield Bible which has pretribby “explanatory notes” in its margins. Not seen in the margins was jailed forger Scofield’s criminal record throughout his life that David Lutzweiler has documented in his recent book “The Praise of Folly” which is available online.
Biola University’s doctrinal statement says Christ’s return is “premillennial” and “before the Tribulation.” Although universities stand for “academic freedom,” Biola has added these narrow, restrictive phrases – non-essentials the founders purposely didn’t include in their original doctrinal statement when Biola was just a small Bible institute! And other Christian schools have also belittled their founders.
Ice, BTW, has a “Ph.D” issued by a tiny Texas school that wasn’t authorized to issue degrees! Ice now says that he’s working on another “Ph.D” via the University of Wales in Britain. For light on the degrees of Ice’s scholarliness, Google “Bogus degree scandal prompts calls to wind up University of Wales,” “Thomas Ice (Bloopers),” “be careful in polemics – Peripatetic Learning,” and “Walvoord Melts Ice.” Also Google “Thomas Ice (Hired Gun)” – featured by media luminary Joe Ortiz on his Jan. 30, 2013 “End Times Passover” blog.
Other fascinating Google articles include “The Unoriginal John Darby,” “X-raying Margaret,” “Edward Irving in Unnerving,” “Pretrib Rapture Politics,” “Pretrib Rapture Secrets,” “Pretrib Rapture Dishonesty,” “Pretrib Hypocrisy,” “Pretrib Rapture Secrecy,” and “Roots of Warlike Christian Zionism” – most from the author of “The Rapture Plot,” the most accurate documentation on pretrib rapture history.
Can anyone guess who the last proud pretrib rapture holdout will be?
(Postscript: For another jolt or two Google “The Background Obama Can’t Cover Up.”)
I was unable to attend the sermon on the coming of Christ last Sunday but as usual in those cases I did listen to it on the internet. I was stunned to put it mildly. The underlying premise to living an expectant life was that that Christ could come at any moment, a standard Dispensationalist concept called the Doctrine of Imminence, a concept which can, and has many times, been shown to be incorrect. You included two scriptural references in your sermon which amazingly supply some of -the very statements denying your underlying premise.
Let’s look at Matthew 24. You reference verses 36-41. However beginning in verse 15, when Jesus states “So when you see the appalling sacrilege [the abomination that astonishes and makes desolate], spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the Holy Place –let the reader take notice and ponder and consider and heed this- then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains ….”
Also verse 21 which states “For then there will be great tribulation (affliction, distress and oppression) such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now – no, and never will be again.” This is a description of the Great Tribulation.
There is much more here I will not mention.
The point being is that here are two events which must proceed the coming of the Lord. For the antichrist to appear in the temple there must be a temple. And that must be proceeded by the existence of Israel. And Christ then continues on to state in verses 29-31 that immediately after the tribulation of those days will He return. So obviously the Great Tribulation must occur first before He will return.
You also mention II Thessalonians. II Thessalonnians was written by Paul because the church at Thessolanika misunderstood Paul and thought the Lord was going to return immediately. Chapter 2 of II Thessalonians puts things in perspective. Paul states beginning at verse 1, “But relative to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah) and our gathering together to [meet] Him…” This is referring to the only corporate gathering of the saved, the rapture, same as Matthew.
Paul continues in verse 3, “Let no one deceive or beguile you in any way, for that day [My note: Which day? This day of corporate gathering, the rapture] will not come except the apostasy comes first [unless the great falling away of those who have professed to be Christians has come], and the man of lawlessness (sin) is revealed, who is the son of doom (of perdition), who opposes and exalts himself so proudly and insolently against and over all that is called God or that is worshiped, [even to his actually] taking his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming that he himself is God.”
Another two precedents. Actually only one since Christ also mentioned the entering and seating of the Antichrist in the temple of God.
Conclusion: While Christ can come at any moment because He is God and sovereign, He won’t. He has clearly tied himself to a series of preceding events. The Doctrine of Imminence is clearly wrong. Christ won’t come at any momemt.
Well then, what about living in expectancy?
When you read verses 36-41 in Matthew you forgot several very important things. Christ was describing a set of events at the end, centuries away in history. You can make a very excellent case that Christ was speaking about the generation who would be alive to see all these things. Go back a few verses to say verse 32. “From the fig tree learn this lesson: as soon as the young shoots become soft and tender and it puts out its leaves, you know of a surety that summer is near. So also when you see these signs, all taken together, coming to pass, you may know of a surety that He is near, at the very doors. Truly I tell you, this generation (the whole multitude of people living at the same time, in a definite, given period) will not pass away till all these things taken together take place.”
This is the context of verses 36-41. Obviously, this is an admonition for that specific period of time, not yet but soon. Certainly not for the time of the disciples. I feel this will occur in my generation. Why this admonition? When you are in the middle of a battle you can lose sight of your priorities, what’s really important.
Should we then not live expectantly? No. The scriptures require that we do, even though on a corporate basis we still have a period of time before Christ’s return. Living expectantly conforms our behaviors, our goals, our aspirations. It prepares us to meet God and give an accounting of the time we were given. On an individual basis Christ can come at any moment. I can die in the next moment. I can have a totally unforeseen heart attack. I can leave church and be in a fatal car accident. I don’t know.
One final item. When does Christ come? You cautiously left if ill defined. Daniel 9 says that the antichrist enters the holy of holies at the middle of the seven year period. Christ in Matthew 24:15 [Mark 13 and Luke 21] says that when that happens to flee because the Great Tribulation is beginning. And verses 29-31 of Matthew clearly state that immediately after the Tribulation He will come and gather His elect. Does the tribulation extend to the end of the seven years? No. Christ indicates that so that His church would not be overcome completely he would cut the Tribulation short. What happens then between the shortened Tribulation of man and the end of the seven years? The Wrath of God. Refer to Revelation 6.
In a nutshell. Revelation refers to Wrath. First man’s [the antichrist] and then God’s.
Revelation 6:1-11 refers to the wrath of man, the antichrist, culminating in the Great Tribulation. These are the opening of the six seals. Verses 12,13, and 14 describes the unique environmental signals of the coming of the Lord. Verses 15-17 are interesting. “Then the kings of the earth and their noblemen and their magnates and their military chiefs and the wealthy and the strong and [everyone, whether] slave or free hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains. And they called to the mountains and the rocks, fall on (before) us and hide us from the face of Him Who sits on the throne and from the deep-seated indignation and wrath of the Lamb. For the great day of His wrath (vengeance, retribution, indignation) has come and who is able to stand before it?”
What is this saying? It’s saying that obviously the opening of the seals were not part of God’s wrath. Only in verse 17 does scripture state that the wrath of God has come. It’s pretty obvious that the coming of the Lord begins the wrath of God [man’s wrath is over, now it’s God’s turn]. But the coming of the Lord also means the rapture of the saved, the Church. Chapter 7 of Revelation describes those who were removed from the earth. Read Verses 13 and 14. “Then addressing me [My note: the ‘me’ here is John] one of the elders [of the heavenly Sanhedrin] said, Who are these [people] clothed in the long white robes? And from where have they come? I replied, Sir you know. And he said to me, These are they who have come out of the great tribulation (persecution) and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”
The rest of Revelation describes the wrath of God in the Trumpets and Bowls and eventually His return to earth to establish the millennium.
This is not difficult. Hopefully you will provide some clarification online or in a future service. Thanks for your time. Maybe we can get together for lunch sometime and talk.