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By: Dr. Renald Showers
John Ankerberg Show
Does the Bible
indicate that it’s possible for the Lord Jesus to return even today to rapture
His Bride the Church out of the world?
Even back in New
Testament times He could have returned at any moment.
Now, He hasn’t yet,
but it was possible back then.
And the imminency
concept carries with it the idea that there may be many things that WOULD
happen before Christ comes, but biblically there’s nothing that HAS to happen
before the Lord Jesus would come to rapture the Church out of the world to be
with Him in the Father’s house in Heaven.
Now, where do we
get this concept that the Lord could come at any moment, maybe even today?
Well, there are a
number of passages in the New Testament that really convey that concept and I’d
like to deal perhaps with just three of them for our study today.
First, in 1 Corinthians 16:22, the Apostle Paul
said to the Corinthian Christians, “If any man love not the Lord Jesus
Christ, let him be anathema.”
And then Paul
interjected at the end of this verse, interesting expression, “Maranatha!”
Now, what does that
term mean?
Well, it’s very
interesting to note that that word was derived from the Aramaic language.
Let me explain.
The Aramaic
language was the language that was spoken in the land of Israel during Jesus’
day.
From all we can
discern, that was even the language the Jesus spoke while He was here in the
world.
This was an Aramaic
expression.
In fact, “Maranatha”
is made up of three Aramaic words: the first one is the word MAR
which meant “Lord,” and then the next one is ANA which
means “Our,” and the third was THA which means “Come.”
So, putting it together, Maranatha means “Our Lord,
come.”
The interesting
thing is, this was in the form of a petition so that when Christians would make
that statement, as Paul did here, he was actually petitioning the Lord to come.
Now, the question is, “Why petition the Lord to come if He
can’t come at any moment?”
If you know that He
can’t come until a year from now, or ten years from now, or a hundred or a thousand
years from now, it would really be useless to be petitioning the Lord as if He
could come right now.
Another intriguing
thing about this is that, although this is an Aramaic expression which apparently
began with Jewish believers in the Lord Jesus in the land of Israel during the
first century, here Paul uses this word to Greek speaking people at a Greek
Church in the city of Corinth.
And he’s writing it
in a letter that he wrote in the Greek language.
So, scholars have asked the question: “Why would Paul throw
out an Aramaic term at people who knew the Greek language and in a Greek book
that he’s writing?”
Even though they
may not have known any other expression in the Aramaic language, they learned
what this one meant, so they used it as a byword.
Some feel they even
used it as a greeting when they would see each other to identify themselves as
believers.
They would say, “Maranatha”
(Our Lord, come.)
But again, it’s
conveying a concept that the Lord could come at any moment, otherwise, why
petition Him to come?
It’s imminency
that’s being conveyed here.
A second
significant passage out of many others in the New Testament on the imminency of
the Lord’s return is 1 Thessalonians 1:10.
Here the Apostle
Paul is in this context is talking about commendable attitudes or deeds which
were characteristic of the Thessalonians Christians of this time.
Now, some
fascinating things about the verb form translated “wait.”
That word literally
meant “to wait up for,” and it was used back in the ancient world for people
who were waiting up for the arrival of a person whom they were expecting to
come.
Now, the idea
behind that is, they were waiting up for this arrival.
It’s the idea that
they didn’t go to bed at their normal time.
And the reason they
wouldn’t go to bed at their normal time was because they were expecting this
person could arrive at any moment.
If they knew that
this person couldn’t arrive, say, for another four, five, six hours, the normal
thing for them would not be to wait up but to go to bed for the four, five or
six hours, set the alarm clock (if they had alarm clocks at that time), and
then wake up at the time that they knew the person would arrive.
.
So the very fact that Paul says that the Thessalonian Christians had the attitude of waiting up for God’s Son to come from Heaven tells us that they were expecting Him to come from Heaven at any moment.
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So the very fact that Paul says that the Thessalonian Christians had the attitude of waiting up for God’s Son to come from Heaven tells us that they were expecting Him to come from Heaven at any moment.
Another interesting
thing about this term, and scholars point this out, is that this indicates
patience and confidence.
And in addition,
it’s in the present tense and normally in the original language of the New
Testament the present tense, unless the context tells us otherwise, has the
idea of a continuous action.
Again, the idea is,
they believed in the imminent return of the Lord Jesus.
Now, a question we
could ask at this point was this: Where did they get this idea from, that the
Lord could return at any moment?
Well, when you read
the book of Acts, which records what Paul did when he went to the city of
Thessalonica on one of his missionary journeys, we find that Paul is the one
who taught them what they knew about the Scriptures and the truth of God.
When you read 1
Thessalonians there are several indications.
Paul reminds them
of things that he had taught them when he was with them.
So if the Apostle
Paul had been their major teacher of God’s truth, to my way of thinking, that
implies that Paul was the one who had taught them of the imminent coming of
Christ, that He could come from Heaven at any moment for His believers to take
them home to glory to be with Him.
It’s very
intriguing to notice as well that Paul did not rebuke them or correct them for
having this expectation and this attitude and there’s no indication that he
rebuked them or corrected them at all.
In fact, when you
read the context, he seems to be commending them for having this attitude.
So, I get the
distinct impression that Paul was fully convinced himself that the Lord come
return at any moment, and therefore they were right in having this expectancy.
Then, a third
passage that I’d like to focus our attention upon for the imminency of the
Lord’s return is in James 5.
We want to begin with verse 7: “Be patient, therefore,
brethren, unto the coming of the Lord; behold the husbandman waits for the
precious fruit of the earth and has long patience for it until he receive the
early and latter rain. Be you also patient; establish you hearts, for the
coming of the Lord draws nigh. Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest
you be condemned. Behold, the Judge stands before the door.”
I’d like to draw
your attention to two verb forms that James uses here.
At the end of verse he says, “the coming of the Lord draws
nigh.”
And then in verse 9, “the judge stands before the door.”
A very important thing
to note here is that, in the original language that James wrote, both of those
verbs are in what the Greeks called the perfect tense.
And the
significance of the Greek perfect tense was that it is referring to an action
that was completed in the past, but then there is a resultant state that
continues on from that action.
It just continues
on indefinitely.
What James is
indicating there is this: that the Lord’s coming had already drawn near before
James wrote this letter and the Lord’s coming continues to be near at hand,
even while James wrote the letter and it would continue thereafter.
And as well, “the judge stands before the door.”
He was saying that
there’s a sense in which Jesus Christ as the Judge of believers took His
position of the door of Heaven and was standing there.
He even took that
position and began to stand there before James wrote this epistle and He
continues to stand at the door of Heaven.
A number of
scholars that I researched on this said James is trying to emphasize to his
readers the imminency of the Lord’s return.
The idea is, the
Lord could come as the Judge of Heaven through that door of Heaven at any
moment and then immediately, Christians would stand before Him at the Judgment
Seat of Christ.
They have their
works as believers evaluated by the Lord.
It’s imminency that
he’s talking about here. And I’m convinced that just as it was imminent back
then, the Lord could have stepped through the door of Heaven at any time.
The same is true
today — Christ could step through the door of Heaven at any moment, and we who
are believers in Jesus Christ would be ushered into His presence and then would
stand before Him at the Judgment Seat of Christ to have our works evaluated by
the Lord.
Real Answers to Real Questions
For more than 37 years The John Ankerberg Show has
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