This is DAY FORTY ONE of the daily devotional.

I am releasing a 50 day daily devotional about the end-times as revealed in Scripture. Along with the text, I will be providing a video where I cover the text of the day, and Hive account@verbal-d will be providing an audio version of it. That way, whether you want to read, watch, or listen, you'll be able to enjoy this study as you wish.

The plan is to release this devotional over the next 50 consecutive days, but life may "get in the way." We will do our best, but please be patient with me if I fall behind.

The SoundCloud Audio from Hive account@verbal-d

The YouTube Video from Hive account@papa-pepper

The Text I Originally Shared on the Hive account@narrowminded Account

DAY 41 - IMMINENT : Part 1

As I reasoned through these issues and attempted to discuss them with pretribulational church leaders, I was left wondering exactly what they had to support their view. I determined that if it could be proven from Scripture that the rapture was actually an imminent event, then all of my reasoning and attempted understanding of this issue would need to be found flawed. Since other arguments exist besides “not knowing the day or hour”, I will evaluate them now. Some of these will seem like a stretch, but I did not claim these verses taught imminency; the pretribulationists told that to me.

“And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.” (Acts 1:7)

Jesus had just spent forty days after His resurrection teaching His disciples about the kingdom of God. They had asked “wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6b). Obviously the disciples were still concerned with when Rome would get kicked out and Israel would get her freedom. Somehow they were still hoping that Jesus was the Conquering Ruler and not the Heavenly, Sacrificial Saviour. Even if this teaching pertained to His return, not knowing “the time or the seasons” only necessitates ignorance, and not imminence.

“And now little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.” (1 John 2:28)

This passage obviously shares nothing about either timing or the lack of it. It simply commands us to “abide in him” that we may “not be ashamed before him at his coming”. The only way for us to “not be ashamed before him” is to “abide in him”, which is why we are often commanded to do so. Whether we meet Him via death or the rapture, we should always strive for sacrificial, effective, God-honoring living by the power of the Holy Spirit. To say that this passage is given to encourage all to expect His any moment return is not based upon what this verse actually says. This verse does say that “he shall appear… at his coming”, but nothing in regard to the timing of that event.

“Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.” (1 John 3:2)

This proof text is even worse than the last to attempt to prove an imminent rapture return. It doesn’t even mention how one should live so as to be prepared whenever He does come. Here we are simply told that though “it doth not yet appear what we shall be… we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is”. When He arrives we will be like Him and see Him as He is. This is true. Yet, again, no timing, or lack of timing is given, and certainly no “Doctrine of Imminence”, only a statement that “he shall appear”.

“When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.” (Colossians 3:4)

This verse, though views always vary, is pretty much the same as the previous verse. I find no imminency here, since it is only mentioned that he “shall appear.” He indeed will, but no reference to when (or when not) is made here.

Point #1: If the rapture can be shown to be imminent from the Bible, then all my reasoning thus far must be wrong, at least about the timing of events.

##Point #2: No verse evaluated so far has shown this to be true.

CLOSER

If anyone is really interested, I did post the entire volume through an alt account over a year ago. I did so as an experiment to see how hard it would be for a new user to get noticed on steemit, so I didn't let anyone know that I was doing it. You can click here to a post that has links to the entire 50 days of this devotional if you really want to read ahead. That information has always been available there since I first posted it. It is not the purpose of this series to just copy all of my previous work, but instead to transform it into some new outlets by releasing it in an audio and video format, to broaden the reach that this work has.

Again, though I will certainly never claim to know it all, I do believe that many are being lead astray by some popular beliefs. I hope that this project will be able to help many others understand the end-times more accurately. Thanks!

Just in case you are new to this series and wanted to check out the previous audio or videos, here are links to the posts from each day of this series.

Also - A special thanks to Hive account@allforthegood for helping design my cover image!

Until next time…

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GIF provided by Hive account@orelmely

50 DAYS TO UNDERSTANDING THE END-TIMES MORE ACCURATELY - DAY 41 - IMMINENT : Part 1 - AUDIO & VIDEO