I was thinking about famous broadcasters and their trademark sign-offs. See if you can remember these four:
Walter Cronkite: “And that’s the way it is.”
Dick Clark: “For now, Dick Clark, so long,” followed by a military salute.
Paul Harvey: “Paul Harvey [pause] good day!”
Dennis Miller: “That’s the news and I’m outta here!”
(OK, Dennis Miller isn’t really in their league… But I wanted to seem moderately culturally relevant).
If Calvary Hanford had a “sign-off” it would be, “Ready or not, Jesus is coming!” I’ve been saying it every Sunday for at least the last 300 Sundays in our weekly prophecy update segment.
We are committed to the position that Jesus will return to resurrect and rapture the church at any moment prior to the Great Tribulation.
We use the word “imminent” to describe the the rapture.
1) An imminent event is one which is always “hanging overhead, is constantly ready to befall or overtake one…” Imminence carries the sense that it could happen at any moment. Other things may happen before the imminent event, but nothing else must take place before it happens. If something else must take place before an event can happen, then that event is not imminent. In other words, the necessity of something else taking place first destroys the concept of imminency.
2) Since a person never knows exactly when an imminent event will take place, then he cannot count on a certain amount of time transpiring before the imminent event happens. In light of this, he should always be prepared for it to happen at any moment.
3) A person cannot legitimately set or imply a date for its happening. As soon as a person sets a date for an imminent event he destroys the concept of imminency because he thereby is saying that a certain amount of time must transpire before that event can happen. A specific date for an event is contrary to the concept that the event could happen at any moment.
4) A person cannot legitimately say that an imminent event will happen soon. The term “soon” implies that an event must take place “within a short time (after a particular point of time specified or implied).” By contrast, an imminent event may take place within a short time, but it does not have to do so in order to be imminent.
A.T. Pierson has noted that, “Imminence is the combination of two conditions, certainty and uncertainty. By an imminent event we mean one which is certain to occur at some time, uncertain at what time.”
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. Here are a few New Testament passages:
1 Corinthians 1:7 “awaiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ,”
Philippians 3:20 “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ;”
Philippians 4:5 “The Lord is near.”
1 Thessalonians 1:10 “to wait for His Son from heaven,”
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.”
300 Sundays have come and gone, as well as 2,000 years since The Lord rose from the dead.
Sometimes even Christians must wonder, “Where is the promise of His coming?”
Peter asked and answered that question and we want to take a quick look at what he said as our sunrise devotional.
2 Peter 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.
The “Day of the Lord” is the whole period of time during which God prepares the world for final judgment.
It will “come as a thief in the night” upon any who are unprepared for it. This doesn’t necessarily mean they won’t know it is coming – only that they refused to prepare.
The final moment in which “the heavens will pass away” is described. It reads like a description of a nuclear catastrophe. It won’t be men pushing the button; it will be God letting go of the atoms that make-up matter.
Peter wasn’t wondering whether or not this would occur. He was telling you it will occur; it is inevitable. So he said,
2 Peter 3:11 Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness,
2 Peter 3:12 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?
This is not a question; it’s an exhortation. Thinking backward from the future, knowing you are living in the Last Days of human history and that men are going to perish for all eternity… You ought to be holy and hastening.
“Holy conduct and godliness” describes your daily activities.
“Holy” means set apart. It is keeping yourself away from sin.
“Godliness” is the more positive way of looking at it – deliberately living in a way that is pleasing to God.
“Looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God” is an incredible phrase that has to do with your attitude in all your activities.
First, you are “looking for… the coming day of God.” You are to really expect today to be your last day – whether it’s the day Jesus raptures His church or the day He takes you home through death.
Second, you should have the attitude that you can “hasten” His coming. One of the meanings of the word is to accelerate. You should think you can accelerate the coming of the Lord.
The Lord is longsuffering, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. You can accelerate therefore His coming by telling more people about Him. Someone will be the last person saved before the resurrection and rapture of the church.
I don’t want to club people over the head for slacking-off, as if God can’t come back because they are pew-potatoes. It’s an attitude Peter wanted us to adopt toward the unsaved, not toward each other.
Holiness and hastening fill you with hope:
2 Peter 3:13 Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
God knew Adam and Eve would sin, bringing sin into and upon His creation. He had a plan of redemption and has been working it out throughout human history. He is still working it out; it is right on His schedule.
In the end there will be “new heavens and a new earth” for eternity “in which righteousness” dwells permanently, with no possibility of sin. Believers have this hope – a certain hope based upon the “promise” of God Who cannot lie, Who never changes, and Who loves us.
Peter suggested you think backward, beginning with your meeting the Lord at His Reward Seat:
2 Peter 3:14 Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless;
“Looking forward” to eternity enables you to look backward to the present and make spiritual adjustments. The Bible speaks of a glorious day in which believers (you) will appear individually before Jesus to have their lives examined and rewarded. You should think backward from that meeting and “be diligent to be found by Him in peace…” and with purity (“without spot and blameless”).
While on the one hand it is the work of the Holy Spirit to make you more like Jesus; and at the Reward Seat it is Jesus Who will fully and finally make you spotless; you should strive to be at “peace” with the Lord and live in purity before the Lord as you anticipate seeing Him.
2 Peter 3:15 and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation…
The Lord is only waiting in order for more souls to be saved. The unsaved perish for all eternity. It ought to motivate us to be about the work of the Lord.
Each of us is going to ‘sign-off’ one day.
I might die before the rapture; so might you. If so, “Ready or not, Jesus is coming,” not only takes on a whole new significance for me and you, but it preaches to others who survive us.
All of us might be raptured, at any moment. If so, what better sign-off than “Ready or not, Jesus is coming,” because it will prove true of us, and He will be coming again at the end of the Great Tribulation.
So, let’s say it together:
“Ready or not, Jesus is coming!”