The Any-Moment Rapture Model: Is it Really Biblical?
In Part 1 of this two-part series, I described the Any-Moment rapture model defined by adherents of pretribulationism. The reader was introduced to a clear, unambiguous understanding of this theological concept prevalent in many Christian circles.
In Part 2, I will challenge the biblical basis of the Any-Moment rapture model and propose instead the Any-Generation rapture model that represents a more plausible and biblical understanding of our posture in expecting the return of Jesus.
There Is More to the ‘Fact’ That Jesus Is Returning
Why does it matter whether we believe Jesus can return either at any moment or within any generation? Isn’t the only thing that matters the fact that Jesus is returning? This sentiment – and often-heard slogan – implies biblical prophecy is pure speculation. Another version of this platitude goes like this, “All that matters is that you are right with God.” This may sound pious, but underneath it, there is a flaw.
The biblical writers, including Jesus himself, focused not on the “fact” that Jesus is coming back, but on the conditions when He comes back. Jesus taught that a means by which we prepare to be right with God is by understanding and obeying His end-time instruction. Jesus is coming back, and there is no question that knowing this truth should propel us to holy living. But for the biblical writers, such events as the Great Tribulation, the Rapture, the Day of the Lord, and the coming earthly kingdom would be pivotal events; therefore, we should understand them as they did.
In the Olivet Discourse, Jesus places more emphasis on how to live during the Great Tribulation than on His return itself. We too, then, must model Jesus’s example by emphasizing the ramifications of Antichrist’s great tribulation upon the saints. The task of the student of prophecy is not just to affirm that Jesus is returning, but to understand and obey the instructions concerning the events surrounding His return. In this way, we will be refined in faith for His arrival. Jesus implied in His ominous statement that many will lose faith before He returns: “… when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8). No wonder Jesus warned, “Behold, I have told you before” (Matthew 24:25). And in the context of the mark and image of the beast, the book of Revelation warns, “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus” (Revelation 14:12).
It is true that being right with God matters when Jesus returns, but it does not happen in a vacuum. God designed biblical prophecy as a means of becoming right with God. Jesus and the biblical authors did not give us prophecy to tantalize us or give us mere head knowledge. Rather, biblical prophecy matters because God is preparing us for difficult times and drawing us closer to Him. It is then imperative that every believer study biblical prophecy and take
its commands seriously. This will foster a love for the Lord’s return and vigilance for what will happen before His return.
It is incumbent upon the student of biblical prophecy to understand more than the “fact” that Jesus is returning. The stakes are high to understand biblical prophecy accurately. The major event the Bible warns God’s saints to look for before Jesus’s return is the revelation of the Antichrist and his killing program – the period when the faithful Church will have her faith tested before Jesus returns.
Any Moment or Any Generation?
Jesus instilled into His disciples expectancy for His delayed coming. In turn, His disciples taught their disciples how to expect His future coming. Jesus and the biblical authors taught that biblical expectancy results in a three-fold character: spiritual vigilance, longing hope, and discerning signs. If Christians practice these three strands of expectancy, they will rightly fulfill the Lord’s instruction to watch for His return. Not every biblical passage treats each strand with equal attention. Sometimes one is emphasized over the other. But on balance, these three strands weave the biblical picture of expectancy for our Lord’s return.
Practicing this expectancy of Jesus’s delayed return will substantially change how we conceive and prepare for the return of Jesus. I believe the teaching of imminence (Any-Moment rapture) theology by Pretribulationists weakens vigilance, diminishes hope, and fails to discern signs. Pretribulational teacher John MacArthur maintains that our sanctification depends on imminence: “The hope of Christ’s imminent return is therefore the hinge on which a proper understanding of sanctification turns” (emphasis mine).1
While I deeply respect MacArthur as a godly Bible teacher whose contribution to the Christian community has been incalculable, I believe he is mistaken on this issue. The Bible never teaches that a supposed imminent rapture is a means of sanctification, let alone “the hinge” of it. If anything is an “any moment” and sanctifying agent, it is the reality of death, or more specifically, the certainty of judgment after death: “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27; see also Acts 17:24-28). Whether we die in the next breath or in the next decade, it is this reality of death that sanctifies us with its resultant blessings or judgment (see also Luke 12:20; 16:19-31; 23:43).
Sanctification is at stake, indeed. But it is not because of a supposed imminent rapture. We will encounter Jesus whether we’ve died or we are living at the time of His return. God uses this certainty to sanctify us. Our motive should be to please God and delight in Him for all He has done for us – namely, redeeming us from sin and giving us eternal life. For believers, Jesus is coming back as Savior; for the ungodly, as Judge. Therefore, we need to reclaim biblical expectancy. His warnings to be vigilant and watchful are given not because His return is imminent, but because it is delayed. Jesus warned of the temptations that will come for believers during His delayed return, lest they become spiritually complacent and apostatize. We should maintain vigilance during this delay. The Christian’s attitude of expectancy is not diminished because intervening prophetic events must take place before His return.
In fact, these events should heighten our expectancy and vigilance.
While Jesus’s return is not imminent, He may return during any generation. By this I mean the future prophesied events associated with His return can unfold within a single generation. Jesus’s return is delayed until the season of a cluster of discernible, prophesied events occurs:
Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors (Matthew 24:32-33).
Robert H. Gundry rightly captures the purifying role that intervening events before the Rapture should have on us:
Our whole life will pass in review before the Lord. … The character and consequences of an event determine its motivating force much more than the time of its occurrence. Although we recognize the necessity of an intervening period, the delay does not lessen our anticipation.
The certainty, the character, and the blessedness of our Lord’s return make for us a glorious prospect which no interval of time can dim. Must we stop looking for Christ Himself, then, and begin to look for the intervening events? Hardly, because looking for a preceding series of events does not exclude looking likewise for Jesus’ personal return immediately following. Expectancy of the parousia depends, not upon the temporal factor, but upon an eagerness to see our Lord face to face, an eagerness intervening events cannot diminish if our love for Him is genuine. Besides, the intervening events play a positive role in our looking for Jesus Himself. Rather than diverting our attention from the second coming, they direct our attention to it. For they are guideposts, warnings, confirmations of faith, incitements to readiness, encouragements for our anticipation. The return of Christ is the goal toward which they point. The coming to pass of definite signs that harbinger His return will intensify expectancy more than a vague “any moment” which has lain dormant for almost two thousand years (emphasis his).2
There is a strong word of caution here. With any biblical truth, it can be misunderstood, abused, and wrongly applied. For example, the Bible teaches that believers have been saved by grace. But the apostle Paul warns us in light of this truth:
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? (Romans 6:1-2).
Similarly, when Jesus teaches His return is delayed (Matthew 25:4-31), He warns this is not a permit to live slothfully and become spiritually lethargic:
But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming … The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of
(Matthew 24:48, 50).
We see the consequences of this lethargy and slothfulness in the parable of the five foolish virgins: “While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept” (Matthew 25:5). They presumed upon the bridegroom’s delay and became complacent. For Christians, then, it is perilous and sinful to think that because certain events must still take place, we can afford to take our eyes off Jesus and diminish our vigilance.
Do not fall into this fallacious mindset, lest you find yourself unprepared, as Jesus warned. Possessing correct doctrine is important, but it is not enough. We must put it into diligent practice.
Since prophetic events associated with Jesus’s return could happen within a gener-
ation, be careful not to think these events necessarily will occur over an entire generation. It is more likely they will unfold rapidly over a short period of time. Once those events begin to occur, they will not unfold piecemeal or over a protracted period. They will unfold in rapid succession – like a row of falling dominoes. Jesus makes the point in His Olivet Discourse that if you
are not spiritually prepared for a particular season within your life, His return may occur during that unwatchful period. At that point, it will be too late for you to get ready. This is why Jesus ominously warned, “Behold, I have told you before” (Matthew 24:25, emphasis added).
The evil slave and the five foolish virgins became mired in slothfulness and deception within the period of delay. This serves as a warning for us. This is why Jesus alerts us to be ready now, lest “in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh” (Matthew 24:44). There will be no consolation, no taking the next flight out, no recourse. It will be too late. Jesus, in His
own words, prophesies:
… and the door was shut. Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you,
I know you not (Matthew 25:10-12).
They will be “cut … asunder” and “appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 24:51).
Thus the Lord admonishes us to be spiritually vigilant and active in His work, lest we are blindly overtaken by His return. Some of the most severe warnings in the New Testament concern preparing the Church to be spiritually watchful. These warnings are not clichés nor amorphous platitudes disconnected from future concrete events. Rather, Jesus grounds these warnings in the context of end-time events, particularly within the awful time when the Church faces Antichrist’s great tribulation.
The sobering reality is that unprecedented difficulty will come upon the Church, but I hope this short commentary has encouraged you to live with vigilance, hope, and discernment, and galvanized a renewed biblical hope for the saints of God to live afresh in the beautiful promise of Jesus’s return. Jesus is returning, but not today. His return is expected, but not imminent. Jesus can return during any generation, but not at any moment.
1 John MacArthur, “Is Christ’s Return Imminent?” The Master’s Seminary Journal 11 (2000): 18
2 Robert H. Gundry, The Church and the Tribulation: A Biblical Examination of Posttribulationism (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1973), 40-41.
Why does it matter whether we believe Jesus can return either at any moment or within any generation? Isn’t the only thing that matters the fact that Jesus is returning? This sentiment – and often-heard slogan – implies biblical prophecy is pure speculation. Another version of this platitude goes like this, “All that matters is that you are right with God.” This may sound pious, but underneath it, there is a flaw.
The biblical writers, including Jesus himself, focused not on the “fact” that Jesus is coming back, but on the conditions when He comes back. Jesus taught that a means by which we prepare to be right with God is by understanding and obeying His end-time instruction. Jesus is coming back, and there is no question that knowing this truth should propel us to holy living. But for the biblical writers, such events as the Great Tribulation, the Rapture, the Day of the Lord, and the coming earthly kingdom would be pivotal events; therefore, we should understand them as they did.
In the Olivet Discourse, Jesus places more emphasis on how to live during the Great Tribulation than on His return itself. We too, then, must model Jesus’s example by emphasizing the ramifications of Antichrist’s great tribulation upon the saints. The task of the student of prophecy is not just to affirm that Jesus is returning, but to understand and obey the instructions concerning the events surrounding His return. In this way, we will be refined in faith for His arrival. Jesus implied in His ominous statement that many will lose faith before He returns: “… when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8). No wonder Jesus warned, “Behold, I have told you before” (Matthew 24:25). And in the context of the mark and image of the beast, the book of Revelation warns, “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus” (Revelation 14:12).
It is true that being right with God matters when Jesus returns, but it does not happen in a vacuum. God designed biblical prophecy as a means of becoming right with God. Jesus and the biblical authors did not give us prophecy to tantalize us or give us mere head knowledge. Rather, biblical prophecy matters because God is preparing us for difficult times and drawing us closer to Him. It is then imperative that every believer study biblical prophecy and take
its commands seriously. This will foster a love for the Lord’s return and vigilance for what will happen before His return.
It is incumbent upon the student of biblical prophecy to understand more than the “fact” that Jesus is returning. The stakes are high to understand biblical prophecy accurately. The major event the Bible warns God’s saints to look for before Jesus’s return is the revelation of the Antichrist and his killing program – the period when the faithful Church will have her faith tested before Jesus returns.
Any Moment or Any Generation?
Jesus instilled into His disciples expectancy for His delayed coming. In turn, His disciples taught their disciples how to expect His future coming. Jesus and the biblical authors taught that biblical expectancy results in a three-fold character: spiritual vigilance, longing hope, and discerning signs. If Christians practice these three strands of expectancy, they will rightly fulfill the Lord’s instruction to watch for His return. Not every biblical passage treats each strand with equal attention. Sometimes one is emphasized over the other. But on balance, these three strands weave the biblical picture of expectancy for our Lord’s return.
Practicing this expectancy of Jesus’s delayed return will substantially change how we conceive and prepare for the return of Jesus. I believe the teaching of imminence (Any-Moment rapture) theology by Pretribulationists weakens vigilance, diminishes hope, and fails to discern signs. Pretribulational teacher John MacArthur maintains that our sanctification depends on imminence: “The hope of Christ’s imminent return is therefore the hinge on which a proper understanding of sanctification turns” (emphasis mine).1
While I deeply respect MacArthur as a godly Bible teacher whose contribution to the Christian community has been incalculable, I believe he is mistaken on this issue. The Bible never teaches that a supposed imminent rapture is a means of sanctification, let alone “the hinge” of it. If anything is an “any moment” and sanctifying agent, it is the reality of death, or more specifically, the certainty of judgment after death: “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27; see also Acts 17:24-28). Whether we die in the next breath or in the next decade, it is this reality of death that sanctifies us with its resultant blessings or judgment (see also Luke 12:20; 16:19-31; 23:43).
Sanctification is at stake, indeed. But it is not because of a supposed imminent rapture. We will encounter Jesus whether we’ve died or we are living at the time of His return. God uses this certainty to sanctify us. Our motive should be to please God and delight in Him for all He has done for us – namely, redeeming us from sin and giving us eternal life. For believers, Jesus is coming back as Savior; for the ungodly, as Judge. Therefore, we need to reclaim biblical expectancy. His warnings to be vigilant and watchful are given not because His return is imminent, but because it is delayed. Jesus warned of the temptations that will come for believers during His delayed return, lest they become spiritually complacent and apostatize. We should maintain vigilance during this delay. The Christian’s attitude of expectancy is not diminished because intervening prophetic events must take place before His return.
In fact, these events should heighten our expectancy and vigilance.
While Jesus’s return is not imminent, He may return during any generation. By this I mean the future prophesied events associated with His return can unfold within a single generation. Jesus’s return is delayed until the season of a cluster of discernible, prophesied events occurs:
Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors (Matthew 24:32-33).
Robert H. Gundry rightly captures the purifying role that intervening events before the Rapture should have on us:
Our whole life will pass in review before the Lord. … The character and consequences of an event determine its motivating force much more than the time of its occurrence. Although we recognize the necessity of an intervening period, the delay does not lessen our anticipation.
The certainty, the character, and the blessedness of our Lord’s return make for us a glorious prospect which no interval of time can dim. Must we stop looking for Christ Himself, then, and begin to look for the intervening events? Hardly, because looking for a preceding series of events does not exclude looking likewise for Jesus’ personal return immediately following. Expectancy of the parousia depends, not upon the temporal factor, but upon an eagerness to see our Lord face to face, an eagerness intervening events cannot diminish if our love for Him is genuine. Besides, the intervening events play a positive role in our looking for Jesus Himself. Rather than diverting our attention from the second coming, they direct our attention to it. For they are guideposts, warnings, confirmations of faith, incitements to readiness, encouragements for our anticipation. The return of Christ is the goal toward which they point. The coming to pass of definite signs that harbinger His return will intensify expectancy more than a vague “any moment” which has lain dormant for almost two thousand years (emphasis his).2
There is a strong word of caution here. With any biblical truth, it can be misunderstood, abused, and wrongly applied. For example, the Bible teaches that believers have been saved by grace. But the apostle Paul warns us in light of this truth:
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? (Romans 6:1-2).
Similarly, when Jesus teaches His return is delayed (Matthew 25:4-31), He warns this is not a permit to live slothfully and become spiritually lethargic:
But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming … The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of
(Matthew 24:48, 50).
We see the consequences of this lethargy and slothfulness in the parable of the five foolish virgins: “While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept” (Matthew 25:5). They presumed upon the bridegroom’s delay and became complacent. For Christians, then, it is perilous and sinful to think that because certain events must still take place, we can afford to take our eyes off Jesus and diminish our vigilance.
Do not fall into this fallacious mindset, lest you find yourself unprepared, as Jesus warned. Possessing correct doctrine is important, but it is not enough. We must put it into diligent practice.
Since prophetic events associated with Jesus’s return could happen within a gener-
ation, be careful not to think these events necessarily will occur over an entire generation. It is more likely they will unfold rapidly over a short period of time. Once those events begin to occur, they will not unfold piecemeal or over a protracted period. They will unfold in rapid succession – like a row of falling dominoes. Jesus makes the point in His Olivet Discourse that if you
are not spiritually prepared for a particular season within your life, His return may occur during that unwatchful period. At that point, it will be too late for you to get ready. This is why Jesus ominously warned, “Behold, I have told you before” (Matthew 24:25, emphasis added).
The evil slave and the five foolish virgins became mired in slothfulness and deception within the period of delay. This serves as a warning for us. This is why Jesus alerts us to be ready now, lest “in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh” (Matthew 24:44). There will be no consolation, no taking the next flight out, no recourse. It will be too late. Jesus, in His
own words, prophesies:
… and the door was shut. Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you,
I know you not (Matthew 25:10-12).
They will be “cut … asunder” and “appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 24:51).
Thus the Lord admonishes us to be spiritually vigilant and active in His work, lest we are blindly overtaken by His return. Some of the most severe warnings in the New Testament concern preparing the Church to be spiritually watchful. These warnings are not clichés nor amorphous platitudes disconnected from future concrete events. Rather, Jesus grounds these warnings in the context of end-time events, particularly within the awful time when the Church faces Antichrist’s great tribulation.
The sobering reality is that unprecedented difficulty will come upon the Church, but I hope this short commentary has encouraged you to live with vigilance, hope, and discernment, and galvanized a renewed biblical hope for the saints of God to live afresh in the beautiful promise of Jesus’s return. Jesus is returning, but not today. His return is expected, but not imminent. Jesus can return during any generation, but not at any moment.
1 John MacArthur, “Is Christ’s Return Imminent?” The Master’s Seminary Journal 11 (2000): 18
2 Robert H. Gundry, The Church and the Tribulation: A Biblical Examination of Posttribulationism (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1973), 40-41.
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