
          LET'S GET SERIOUS ABOUT IMMINENCY!
                         by Dave Hunt

     We are witnessing what appears to be an acceleration of the usually
slow process of history.  Within a few months we have seen the Berlin
wall come down, East and West Germany united, the Warsaw Pact dissolved,
the dismantling of the Soviet empire and worldwide discrediting of
Communism, the United Nations at last punishing an aggressor and
imposing peace on a region, the beginnings of a New World Order and an
expansion of the revival of the Roman Empire.  History is seemingly
racing to the climax foretold in the Bible.

     While it will no doubt involve arduous, perilous and lengthy
negotiations. Israel seems to be moving towards that "peace" pact with
its Arab neighbors of which Scripture warns.  This false peace that will
ensure the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem will ultimately be
guaranteed by Antichrist:  "Ye receive me not, but him ye will receive"
(John 5:43)   "...by peace shall (he) destroy many (Daniel 8:25).
Surely that stage is being set for the Second Coming of our Lord,
who will rescue Israel at armageddon.

                CHRIST AND ALL THE SAINTS IN TRIUMPH

     At that climatic battle the redeemed, in their resurrected and
glorified bodies, will accompany Christ.  When our Lord returns from
heaven to destroy Antichrist and to set up His millennial kingdom, we
will be with Him and like Him, sharing in His triumph:  "And so shall we
ever be with the Lord" (1 Thessalonians 4:17).

     Even Enoch knew this fact and prophesied: "Behold, the Lord cometh
with ten thousands of his saints , to execute judgment..." (Jude 14-15).
Zechariah tells us that when the Lord goes forth to destroy the nations
attacking Israel and his feet stand ... upon the mount of Olives, with
Him will be all the saints (Zechariah 14:1-5).  For all His saints to
come with Christ from heaven at His Second Coming, they must have been
taken there previously.  Of course, the souls and spirits of the saints
who have died through the ages are already with Christ.

     The resurrection, however, must have occurred in order for them to
come to Armageddon in glorified bodies.  John refers to those
accompanying Christ as the armies which were in heaven.  He declares
that they are clothed in fine linen, white and clean (Rev 19:14) -
exactly what the bride has been clothed with earlier at her marriage in
heaven to Christ (19:7-8).  It is specifically stated that this is the
clothing of saints.

     All the saints must include those Christians who have not yet died.
Obviously, then, not only must the dead saints have been resurrected,
but the living saints must have been transformed and caught up into
heaven as well, prior to the Second Coming.  This is exactly what is
described in I Corinthians 15:51-52 and I Thessalonians 4:13-18.  That
event, the simultaneous resurrection and rapture, is essential so that
all the saints may be together in heaven in bodies of glory clothed in
fine linen, white and clean, from whence they accompany Christ when He
returns to earth at His Second Coming.

                 DANIEL'S SEVENTY WEEKS

     We must conclude, then, that the resurrection/rapture is distinct
from and occurs prior to the Second coming of Christ.  First of all He
comes for His saints, and only thereafter when He has them all with Him
above can Christ come down from heaven with His saints.  How long prior
to the Second Coming must the rapture occur?  One week of years - ie. 7
years.

   That answer is found in one of the Bible's most remarkable
prophesies:
   "Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people (Israel) and upon thy
holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins,
and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting
righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to annoint
the most Holy.
     ...From the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build
Jerusalem unto the Messaiah the Prince shall be seven weeks and
threescore and two weeks (69 weeks total)...and after...shall Messiah be
cut off... and the people of the prince that shall come (ie. the
conterfeit messiah) shall destroy the city (Jerusalem) and the sanctuary
(temple)...And he (Antichrist) shall confirm the covenant...for one
week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice to
cease... (Daniel 9:24-27).

     Daniel delineates a period of 70 weeks (of years) that will include
the first coming of Christ, His murder (a cutting off, and the coming of
one who will pretend to be Messiah the Prince, called the prince that
shall come - ie. Antichrist.  The 70 weeks will end with Christ's Second
Coming and the establishment of His millenial kingdom (to anoint the
most Holy).  Moreover, these 70 weeks specifically pertain to Israel
(upon thy people).  Daniel's amazing prophecy also foretells the exact
time of Messiah's coming:  7 + 62 = 69 weeks of years (69 * 7 = 483)
after the commandment to rebuild Jerusalem.  Daniel also declared that
after Messiah was cut off, the temple and Jerusalem would again be
destroyed, this time by the people of the prince who shall come
(Antichrist).  This was fulfilled in A.D. 70 by the armies of Rome under
Titus.  Therefore  the Roman Empire must be revived in order for its
people to become the people of the Antichrist.

           CLARIFYING SOME COMMON CONFUSION

     Writing in Gary North's Biblical Chronology, December 1990, James
B. Jordan tries to date Daniel's 70 weeks from the decree given by Cyrus
to Ezra (2 Chronicles 36:23; Ezra 1:2-4).   However, that decree
authorized the rebuilding of the temple, whereas Daniel was told that
the 70 years would be counted from the going forth of the commandment to
restore and to rebuild Jerusalem (Daniel 9:25).  That authority was
given to Nehemiah by Artaxerxes (Nehemiah 3:8,9) in response to his
explicit request to "send me unto Judah, unto the city of my
fathers...that I may build it" (Nehemiah 2:5).

     It is true that Jeremiah 25:10, Isaiah 44:28 and 45:13 state that
Cyrus will allow the Jews to return to rebuild both the temple and the
city.  Such credit to Cyrus, however, for the rebuilding of Jerusalem
was based, no doubt upon his decree allowing Jews to return to Jerusalem
to rebuild the temple, which thus paved the way for Artaxerxes to
authorize Nehemiah to rebuild the city.

     The Bible is quite clear that Cyrus only gave Ezra specific
authorization to rebuild the city.  Therefore, we must begin counting
the 70 weeks of years from the latter date.

     In addition to starting with the wrong date, Jordan fails to
recognize that one week is missing.  This he calculates the entire 70
weeks (490 years) from Cyrus's decree to Ezra, which he dates at a
"revised 457 B.C. .  Cyrus, however, cannot be the Artaxerxes in
Nehemiah, because he only reigned about 9 years, whereas Nehemiah tells
us that he made his petition and it was granted in the month Nisan in
the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king (Nehemiah 2:1), thus giving us
a crucial date.

     Artaxerxes Longtimanus (the only Artaxerxes who ruled long enough
to fit Nehemiah's description) ruled from 465-425 B.C. Sir Robert
Anderson established the exact date of the authorization and the fact
that precisely 483 years of 360 days later to the day, by the Jewish and
Babylonian calendars, Jesus rode the donkey into Jerusalem, was hailed
by crowds along his route as "Messiah the Prince," and a few days later
was crucified as prophesied.

                     SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT

     Recently I listened to a tape by the late Walter Martin arguing
against a pre-tribulation rapture.  He raised the standard objection
that the pre-trib position had not been held by the church for centuries
until the early 1800s.  He neglected to explain that belief in the
rapture was lost under roman Catholicism and the Reformers failed to
recover it, yet there was always Christians who held this hope (the
Anabaptists in the 1500s, for example).

     Like Jordan, Martin dated the 70 weeks from Cryus's command to
Ezra, which he, to, set at 457 B.C..   Then he stated: "If you go from
457 (B.C.) 489 years will arrive at 27 A.D. and then you will
arrive at the crucifixion of Jesus Christ 3 1/2 years later.  In 70
A.D., Titus the Roman Emperor besieged Jerusalem ... destroyed the
Temple... He (Titus) was the Prince that came..."

     So Martin also had the wrong starting date, the wrong number of
years to add to it (489) instead of 483, and arrived the wrong time
- the beginning of Christ's ministry (which he erroneously dated at 27
A.D.)  Actually the 69 weeks ended with Messiah's triumphant entry into
Jerusalem, which occurred in 32 A.D..  Nor could Titus have been the
prince that shall come, for he made no covenant that he broke in the
midst of the week.  That will be done by the real prince who shall come
- i.e. Antichrist.

            AN IRREFUTABLE PRE-TRIB ARGUMENT

     We know that 69 of the 70 weeks (483 out of 490 years) involving
Israel elapsed between the command to restore Jerusalem and Christ's
triumphal entry into that city when He was hailed as the Messaiah.  At
that time, quite clearly, the 70 weeks of years were interrupted.  One
week (7 years), the last, never ran its course.  It is to this week that
Daniel undoubtedly refers as the time period of Antichrist's covenant
with Israel, in the midst of which he will break it and seat himself in
the temple (2 Thessalonians 2:4).

    Much that verse 24 declares was to have been fulfilled within the 70
weeks has not yet occurred.  It is clear, therefore, that the 70th
week remains to this day in abeyance, and must yet be future.  That
conclusion cannot be honestly rejected as a dispensational theory
dreamed up by Darby or Scofield.  On the contrary, we are driven to that
conclusion by Scripture and logic.

     Why has the 70th week been deferred?  There is only one
explanation:  Israel's rejection of Christ and the birth of His church
interrupted God's dealings with Israel.  Thus the existence of the
church continues to hold the last week of years in abeyance.

     Only by the removal of the church could the final 7 years begin to
run their course for Israel.  God will then deal with her in that period
known as the time of Jacob's trouble (Jeremiah 30:7) and the Great
Tribulation (Matthew 24:22).  Here we have an irrefutable argument for
the imminent, pre-tribulation rapture of the church.

     Their imminent rapture to heaven was the great hope of the early
Christians.  To this fact the New Testament bears undeniable witness.
That hope, however, was largely lost during the Dark Ages of Roman
Catholic domination, and only a fraction of the church recovered it and
kept it alive since the Reformation.  Sadly, that blessed (Titus 2:13)
is being lost  again in the flood of ecumenism and false teaching that
is inundating the church today.

                WARNING AND HOPE

     We return to this topic often because, first of all, it is a major
theme of the New Testament, which repeatedly declares that Christians
"serve the living and true God; and wait for his Son from heaven
(1 Thessalonians 1:9-10)...[continually] look for the Saviour [from
heaven] (Philippians 3:20, Hebrews 9:28).

     Secondly, the notion that the rapture could be delayed at all
(post-any-thing) is presented as having an evil effect upon those
embracing that idea:  "If that evil servant shall say in his heart, My
Lord delayed his coming; and shall begin to smite his fellow servants,
and to eat and drink with the drunken...(Matthew 24:48-49).

     Thirdly, the Bible indicates that nothing has such a powerful
motivating and purifying effect upon Christians as the hope of an
imminent rapture:  "Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth
himself (1 John 3:3).

     The purifying hope John wrote of could not have been a
post-millennial coming at least 1,000 years away, for that would have no
motivating impact upon our lives.  Nor could he have meant a post-trib
rapture, for most if not all those who come to Christ during the Great
Tribulation will be slain by Antichrist (Revelation 13:7,15).  That
prospect could hardly be a unique blessed hope (Titus 2:13).

     Christ exhorts us:  "Let your loins be girded about, and your
lights burning; and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord
... blessed are those servants whom the Lord when he cometh will find
watching.... Be ye therefore ready...for the Son of man cometh at an
hour when ye think not (Luke 12:35-40).

     Such language doesn't fit a post-anything rapture, for it would be
foolish to watch and wait for One who will not come until after
Antichrist appears of the Great Tribulation or Millennium have come and
gone.

     Let's get serious about imminency!  How tragic that those of us who
claim to believe that Christ could return at any moment so often deny
this hope by our lives.  That doesn't mean that we don't build a house
or plan for business or church expansion - but we hold such things
loosely.

     Our real interest is in heaven, our longing to be with Christ, and
our passion to live and witness for Him, winning souls, knowing that He
could come at any moment.  May this blessed and glorious hope transform
our lives!      MARANANATHA!

     (Dave Hunt is an internationally known author and lecturer.  He has
written 11 books including "Peace, Prosperity, and the coming
Holocaust," " The Seduction of Christianity," and "The Archon
Conspiracy."  This article is reprinted by Information Bureau. PO Box
7349, Bend, OR 97708.)

    Taken from:
The Omega Letter, October 1991
4429 Queen St. Niagara Falls, Ont L2E 2L2

