It’s often said by biblical prophecy teachers that there are no preconditions to the rapture. It can happen at any time. This is called the doctrine of imminence, the imminent return of Jesus Christ for His church which will be taken from the earth in an instant, and at a time when we least expect him.

Therefore you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.

Matthew 24:44

I do believe in the doctrine of the rapture which was well developed by the Apostle Paul in both of the Thessalonian letters which are focused on end times teaching. Also, 1 Corinthians describes what will happen to born again believers at the moment of the rapture.

Listen, I will tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a moment, in the blinking of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.

1 Corinthians 15:51-52

I also believe the doctrine of imminence. But the way it is presented sometimes can be a little misleading in my opinion. It’s usually taught that there are no prerequisites for the rapture – we can go at any moment, and its always been that way. But in fact there are prerequisites identified in scripture that I believe define the season of imminence – in other words, don’t expect that the rapture will happen until the prerequisites are met.

I believe the season of imminence or the timeframe when we should expect the Lord at any time, is defined by the Lord in the Olivet Discourse. In this lengthy passage of scripture, the Lord identifies certain signs that he refers to as “birth pangs”. Other indications can be found primarily in the writings of the Apostle Paul. But the key verse in the Olivet Discourse that defines the “season of imminence” or the season in which we can expect that the Lord will come for His church at any moment, is as follows:

so, you too, when you see all these things, recognize that He is near, right at the door.

Matthew 24:33 (NASB)

Now there is only one timeframe in history in which this “season of imminence” will happen. That would be the end times as characterized by ALL the signs given by Jesus in the Olivet Discourse. I’ve presented and discussed these signs at length in this blog site, but here are the 14 signs again for your reference:

• Deception
• Wars and rumors of wars
• Disturbances (akatastasia – instability, a state of disorder, disturbance, confusion
• Nation rising against nation
• Kingdom rising against kingdom
• (Great) earthquakes in various places
• Famine in various places
• Plagues in various places
• Terrors
• Great signs from Heaven
• Persecution and hatred of true biblical Christians
• Betrayal
• Deception from false prophets, false messiahs
• Lawlessness will cause love to grow cold

Please go back and read these previous posts. Just select the category “end times” to filter the posts down a bit.

The apostasy or rebellion is another sign of the season:

Now regarding the arrival of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to be with him, we ask you, brothers and sisters, not to be easily shaken from your composure or disturbed by any kind of spirit or message or letter allegedly from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord is already here. Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not arrive until the rebellion comes and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction.

2 Thessalonians 2:1-3

The final point I will make is this: the church is a mission organization. We were given a very simple, very focused mission and the expectation is that we are to accomplish the mission (again, I am 20 years USAF, so I understand mission). Nobody is goin anywhere in a rapture until the mission is over. There are only 3 conditions in which the commanding officer will extract soldiers with a specific mission from the field: 1) the mission is complete or 2) the mission is no longer being accomplished or 3) the mission has failed. The second two options are not good. The goal is to focus like a laser beam on the mission and get it done. Is your church doing the mission? Do we really want to face the commanding officer if we fail? I look around at churches in our country today and wonder if they remember what the mission is.

Are we in the season of the Lord’s imminent return? Yeah, we are. Let’s get it done.