Eric Douma is a pretribulational pastor in the Twin Cities. He has taught against prewrath for a couple of years now. I have read his articles and listened to his teachings and, until now, I have not had the time to respond to his teachings. In a recent sermon he gave on the Day of the Lord, it became my conviction that his exposition of the Scriptures is flawed. And it is my hope that he will reconsider his conclusions in light of the critique I am offering him.
In the next few articles starting with this one, I will be responding to his sermon on April 3rd 2011, “The Day of The LORD: A Look at the Imminent Day of Salvation and Judgment” – Pastor Eric Douma
Douma utilizes several arguments to support his contention that the Day of the Lord is imminent. We shall examine his arguments in subsequent parts of this series. In this article, I want to point out his misunderstanding of the image of a “thief”.
Using 2 Peter 3:10 as a basis, Douma argues:
“He will come like a thief, this idea that we see here is that Jesus Christ in the Day of the Lord will happen imminently. This is an overhanging threat that can break out at any moment.”
As a preface I want to make a few comments about this concept of “imminence”. Pretribulational theology teaches that Christ can rapture the Church to heaven at any moment (a.k.a. imminency). The definition for imminence, as defined by their own supporters is: there cannot be any prophesied events that must occur before the rapture. For if the Bible predicts that an event must occur before the rapture, then Christ’s return to rapture his Church cannot be imminent.
Pretribulational imminency, however, is relatively new in Church history. It was first taught around the year 1830 by the Plymouth Brethren theologian John Nelson Darby (you will not find it taught in the Church before Darby). And if it is found in other parts of the world today, it is only because it has been exported by American or British pretribulational missionaries and their literature.
Prewrath eschatology, on the contrary, affirms that the Bible teaches expectancy not imminency of our Lord’s return. That is, we believe that Christ could come back in any generation of the Church, not at any moment, which is consistent with the teachings of the Church Fathers.
Getting back to the thief concept, Douma misunderstands the meaning of the thief concept to mean “imminency”, that is, no prophesied events happening before Christ’s return. This is a case of importing a theological system into the text. Instead, the intended meaning of the image of a “thief” is to indicate that if you are not spiritually ready for Christ’s return it will come upon you suddenly, with negative consequences. So the imagery relates not to whether there will be signs to the return of Christ, but rather the spiritual readiness of the person.
How is Christ’s return imminent in 2 Peter 3:10? Douma insists that the thief concept on its face means imminence. It seems he just assumes that we should accept his word. I would like to offer biblical support that the thief image is about spiritual readiness, not imminence.
In the verse 9, 10, and 11, Peter explains that the thief image is about sanctification in being ready for our Lord:
(9)The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some regard slowness, but is being patient toward you, because he does not wish for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. (10) But the day of the Lord will come like a thief; when it comes, the heavens will disappear with a horrific noise, and the celestial bodies will melt away in a blaze, and the earth and every deed done on it will be laid bare. (11) Since all these things are to melt away in this manner, what sort of people must we be, conducting our lives in holiness and godliness,” (2 Pet 3:9-11)
It should be quite clear that Peter has spiritual readiness in mind, i.e. expectancy, not imminence. Verse 9 concludes Peter’s statement that the Lord delays his return to bring about repentance. Verse 10 begins with the adversative “but” (de) to contrast God’s delay against his sudden thief-like appearance for judgment. For Peter, the Day of the Lord should not be unexpected for the repentant-ready.
Why do you think the apostle Paul can say that Jesus is not coming back as a thief in the night for believers? Because spiritually vigilant believers will be ready!
“For you know quite well that the day of the Lord will come in the same way as a thief in the night. (3) Now when they are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction comes on them, like labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will surely not escape. (4) But you, brothers and sisters, are not in the darkness for the day to overtake you like a thief would.” (1 Thess 5:2-4)
And notice the line of reasoning that Paul follows his thief imagery with: not imminence, but spiritual readiness:
“For you all are sons of the light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of the darkness. (6) So then we must not sleep as the rest, but must stay alert and sober. (7) For those who sleep, sleep at night and those who get drunk are drunk at night. (8) But since we are of the day, we must stay sober by putting on the breastplate of faith and love and as a helmet our hope for salvation.” (1 Thess 5:5-8)
Jesus is consistent as well:
“Therefore stay alert, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have been alert and would not have let his house be broken into.” (Matt 24:42-43)
Do you see that? Jesus is teaching to stay alert so that he does not come back as a sudden unexpected thief. And this context is all about spiritual readiness—-not imminence. In fact, Jesus just finished teaching about all the signs that will precede his return! (vv 1-31). And naturally, Jesus follows it up with spiritual application (vv. 32ff).
In conclusion, the thief motif is used to express “unexpectedness” and “suddenness,” particularly with spiritual readiness. Peter, Paul, and Jesus all taught that since we belong to Christ we are to live with an attitude of expectancy. Obedience eliminates any possibility that our Lord’s return will be as a thief to those who are watchful.
To read into the thief image the theological system of imminency is to import onto the text a recent tradition that developed in the early 19th century. I am afraid that Douma’s statements are more his presuppositions than exposition.
We will continue our series responding to Douma in part 2.
