Imminency contemplated

The following article is by a man named Thomas Ice.

His article can be found at http://www.according2prophecy.org/perhaps.html

The following article is on the teaching of the imminent return of Christ. Since I don’t believe this is true I feel obligated to state why. I will reply to each verse stated below and how I interpret them. I hope this will be a blessing to all who read. I hope this will help all readers perhaps this will force some to rethink there teachings perhaps others this will help strenthen there teaching. Regardless of your point of view or your point of view after reading this I believe this will be some help with your teaching.

2Ti 3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

1) An imminent event is one which is always "hanging overhead, is constantly ready to befall or overtake one; close at hand in its incidence." ("imminent," The Oxford English Dictionary, 1901, V, 66.)

IMMINENCY IN THE NEW TESTAMENT

The fact that Christ could return, but may not soon, at any moment, yet without the necessity of signs preceeding His return requires the kind of imminence taught by the pre-trib position and is a strong support for pretribulationism.
What New Testament passages teach this truth? Those verses stating that Christ could return at any moment, without warning and those instructing believers to wait and look for the Lord's coming teach the doctrine of imminence. Note the following New Testament passages:

1 Corinthians 1:7-"awaiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ,"

In this verse awaiting simply means to expect fully, this doesn’t have anything to do with imminence. A person can expect someone to come have lunch with them but that doesn’t mean that at breakfast time it is imminent.

1 Corinthians 16:22-"Maranatha."

Again as far as I know this word means the Lord will come but has nothing to do with imminence.

Philippians 3:20-"For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ;"

Again this is the same Greek word as used in 1 Corinthians 1:7 which means to expect fully.

Philippians 4:5-"The Lord is near."

Ok this is a tricky one of the reasons is that in the King James Version at hand is used many times to describe several Greek words. The actual word here in Greek is eng-goos, which simply means near or ready. Now ready sounds somewhat like imminent I agree but these are definitions found in young’s.

Lets look at other Greek word, which is particularly used to describe imminence. en-is'-tay-mee to place on hand, that is, (reflexively) impend, (participle) be instant: - come, be at hand, present. Look at that definition it is clearly the word used to describe imminence. It doesn’t make any sense for a writer wishing to express imminence to use such a word as eng-goos as opposed to en-is'-tay-mee .

1 Thessalonians 1:10-"to wait for His Son from heaven,"

Again what does waiting have to do with imminence? Some people wait for 5 o’clock to roll around doesn’t have anything to do with imminence.

1 Thessalonians 4:15-18-"For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, and remain until the coming of the Lord, shall not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of {the} archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words."

Beautiful verse but is not stated as imminent in these passages.

1 Thessalonians 5:6-"so then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober."

Watching being alert doesn’t mean anything is imminent. You can watch a person driving down the road towards you but that doesn’t mean there approach is imminent. Remember there has to be potentially no time between you and that object which is imminent. In this case the time the car takes to drive the rest of the distance to you prevents that car from being imminent.

1 Timothy 6:14-"that you keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ,"

This verse is irrelevant to justification of the teaching of an imminent return of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Titus 2:13-"looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus;"

Again looking for something doesn’t mean it’s imminent.

Hebrews 9:28-"so Christ . . . shall appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him."

You can wait for something that is not imminent think of a bus train or air plane people wait for these all the time doesn’t mean there arrival is imminent.

James 5:7-9-"Be patient, therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. . . . for the coming of the Lord is at hand. . . . behold, the Judge is standing right at the door."

Again at hand appears often in the New Testament but actually encompasses 3 or 4 Greek words which all have different meaning. Here the Greek word does not mean imminence. eng-id'-zo make near, that is, (reflexively) approach: - approach, be at hand, come (draw) near, be (come, draw) nigh.

1 Peter 1:13 -"fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ."

Good verse.

Jude 21-"waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life."

Revelation 3:11; 22:7, 12, 20-"'I am coming quickly!'"

takh-oo' -shortly, that is, without delay, soon, or (by surprise) suddenly, or (by implication of ease) readily: - lightly, quickly.

At first glance you may be quite convinced this word means imminent. First look at the word delay what does that really mean. Delay - The interval of time between two events.

Now take the word takh-oo’ this word is an adverb, simply put it describes an action word. The action it is describing is coming. The way the verse is structured the quickly part is describing the action of the Lords coming.

Just to give you an analogy of what I am trying to say here. Think of lightning and the nature of it. You may say lighten is sudden and it seems to happen without delay, however are lightning storms imminent? No there not, they can be if the conditions are right but on a sunny day it would be invalid to say a lightning storm is imminent. However on a sunny day you could make a statement “lightning comes quickly” and that would be true.

Revelation 22:17, 20-"And the Spirit and the bride say, 'Come.' And let the one who hears say, 'Come.'"

"He who testifies to these things says, 'Yes, I am coming quickly.' Amen. Come, Lord Jesus."

Here are some verses that are fundamental to my point of view.

2Th 2:2 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.

“at hand” - en-is'-tay-mee -to place on hand, that is, (reflexively) impend, (participle) be instant: - come, be at hand, present.

Look up the word impend it is a synonym for imminent.

I know how some people say that the day of Christ is different and doesn’t apply to the rapture but I am not going to get into that.

2Pe 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

Mat 24:32 Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh:
Mat 24:33 So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.

The Lord Jesus when speaking of his coming says to watch for signs. Directly corresponding with all the verses quoted above which all speak of the Lords coming as approaching.

Heb 10:36 For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.
Heb 10:37 For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.

Heb 10:24 And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:
Heb 10:25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.

Again all these verses I believe mean approaching as well as most of the verses above that were quoted. I can see how people get imminence and approaching mixed up because in the King James Version most of the time words that mean approaching and imminent are translated to at hand the same word. Not only that but it's easy to get mixed up and think something that is approaching fast is imminent. However for something to be imminent there has to be no time between it and the perticular outcome.