It has always amazed me that the group of people, pretribulationists, who have been more enamored by what the Bible teaches about end-time events are the same group of people who are so dogmatic that the church will not be here to experience most of these events.
There are two other inconsistencies in their belief system that I would like to briefly discuss: How the concept of imminency contradicts 1) Date Setting and 2) Their omnipresent citing of Matthew 24:36 to refer to the rapture (this latter point will be picked up in Part 2 of the next article).
Imminency and Date Setting?
In the 1970s, just when Pretribulationism was beginning to fade, a spate of popular “Left Behind” style pretrib books appeared in bookstores galvanizing this position once again.
One of these was called The Late Great Planet Earth by Hal Lindsey. The book was written on a popular level and attempted to read current international events and world conditions into the prophetic Biblical texts. Needless to say this 1970 “Da Vinci Code” became a bestseller.
It is important to note that the author Hal Lindsey is a committed pretribulationist who affirms “imminency.” Imminency is defined as “that teaching which affirms that Christ’s return to rapture the church can occur at any moment; and that no prophesied events must occur before his return, though these events may happen, but not necessarily will.”
Here is Hal Lindsey’s (and pretribulationism as a whole) contradiction. The thesis of Lindsey’s book is predicated on the fact that particular world events have happened and certain world conditions now exist, therefore Christ can come back to rapture the church soon.
These events he listed were: The Jews now govern the state of Israel; Russia has fulfilled Biblical prophecies of the Old Testament; moral conditions of the world exist; etc. In other words, Lindsey suggests that Christ could not come back if these events have not taken place.
You will hear often from pretribulationists that since the Jews have reclaimed Israel in 1948, Christ can return soon. For example, Lindsey says,
Another important event that had to take place before the stage would be fully set for the “seven-year countdown” was the repossession of the ancient Jerusalem. (emphasis mine) p. 54
I ask, how could Christ have come back at “any moment” before the “repossession of Jerusalem”?
If this contradiction to their fundamental belief in imminency is not enough, Lindsey actually goes a step further and predicts (falsely) the very year that he believes Christ will come back. He writes,
When the Jewish people, after nearly 2,000 years of exile, under relentless persecution, became a nation again on 14 May 1948 the “fig tree” put forth its first leaves.
Jesus said that this would indicate that He was “at the door,” ready to return. Then He said, “Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place” (Matthew 24:34 NASB).
What generation? Obviously, in context, the generation that would see the sign–chief among them the rebirth of Israel. A generation in the Bible is something like forty years. If this is a correct deduction then within forty years or so of 1948, all these things could take place. Many scholars who have studied Bible prophecy all their lives believe that this is so. pp. 53-54
In other words, Lindsey started with the assumption that Jesus’ use of the term “fig tree” was applied to the starting date of 1948. Then he assumed that a Biblical generation of 40 years should be added to 1948, which would take us to 1988. And in Lindsey’s pretrib system, Christ raptures the church 7 years earlier, which would be 1981.
How can Christ come back at “any moment” before 1981? How could Christ have came back before 1948 if in fact Israel as a nation must exist again first?
This prophetic statement by Hal Lindsey in itself made him a false prophet since it did not come to fruition; its ramifications sadly lead many believers astray in the 70’s and 80’s.
The sensationalism of his book and other works like it began a deluge of pretrib books in the 70’s and 80’s; and not surprisingly we would find new titles by Lindsey such as The 1980’s, Countdown to Armageddon.
Other pretrib teachers would join the pantheon of false prognosticators such as Harold Camping, Jack Van Impe, et al..
Even in recent days, I ran across a pretrib blog in which this person was stressing the “imminency” of Christ’s return, and in the same blog post he was advocating that Christ will return in 2007.
He says,
I believe the Lord has put us on notice. I believe the Lord is saying to my spirit that the rapture will occur sometime during this new year, the Jewish year which is between this past Rosh Hashanah and next one which is Jewish Year 5768 : sunset September 12, 2007 – nightfall September 14, 2007. We all know the Lord’s voice and how He speaks to us as individuals. The Lord has put me on alert for the year, not the day or the hour. [Mt 24:36-39]
I can tell you that the one word in my mind right now is IMMINENT. It’s so close we can almost touch it (emphasis his).
In reality, most pretribluationists will not go as far as Lindsey and others and set dates for the rapture. However, you will still find the contradiction in most pretrib beliefs that the reclamation of Israel in 1948 was an event that must have happened before Christ can come back. And on this point you can reveal their contradiction.
In part 2, which I will post next week, I will address the second major common contradiction in affirming imminency with citing Matthew 24:36 to refer to the rapture.
