Is Christ's Return Imminent — Tim Conway

And I want you to biblically try to discern this, try to answer this. Is Christ's return imminent? So I think we have to ask this question. What is imminent? There's also the word eminent. There's a couple words that are very close.

The Meaning of Christ’s Imminent Return

What does imminent mean? So it's going to happen very soon. Yes, something is going to happen very soon. So does the Bible anywhere say that Jesus is going to return soon? Yeah, Revelation says, I am coming soon.

Right, let's look at it. Revelation. We'll start in chapter 3 because it says it more than once.

Revelation 3. Revelation 3 .11.

Here he is speaking to the church at Philadelphia. He says, Revelation 3 .11, I am coming soon. Is that imminent? That's imminent. Imminent is something that's going to happen soon. He says, I'm coming soon.

And so, look, a thousand days with the Lord or a thousand years with the Lord. And I mean, we know that the Lord's timing is not always our timing. We know that what can be long for us is short to Him.

What can seem short to us can be long to Him. Soon has to do with perspective. And according to God's perspective, according to Christ's perspective, He's coming soon. And He doesn't just say it there.

“I Am Coming Soon” in Revelation

Let's go to Revelation 22. We see it again. Revelation 22 and verse 7. He says, behold, I am coming soon. Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book. And then he says it again down a little further.

Go down to 12. Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me to repay. There it is again. To repay everyone for what he has done. Then he says it again, verse 20. He says, he who testifies to these things says, surely I am coming soon.

Amen. So I need to make a mark here in my Bible. So there's no question about it. His return is imminent. But here's the question that's actually posed. Paul, Peter, James, and John, all seem to indicate in their writings that Christ's second coming is very soon.

Okay, that's right. And that would be consistent with what we just saw in Revelation. Perhaps during their own lifetime. Or at least the lifetime of their original audience. And he uses the example of we who are alive and remain.

So he's speaking to the Thessalonians as though, you know, it could very well be them who are alive and remain at Christ's second coming. Be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord, etc. That's from James.

This suggests that they expected Christ's return to be imminent. Perhaps today. At the same time, other places in Scripture suggest that there are certain signs which must happen before Christ's return.

Most notably, 2 Thessalonians 2. For that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction. Unless my interpretation of these verses is inaccurate, how can one both expect Christ's coming today, yet at the same time believe that there are certain perceivable signs which would precede it?

The Rebellion and the Man of Lawlessness

So, what do we do with that? Let me ask you this. What are the two signs that Scripture seems to indicate must happen before Christ can come? What two events? Man of lawlessness. Yeah, I mean, everybody turn to 2 Thessalonians if you're not already there.

Let's look at it. 2 Thessalonians 2. So, everybody always likes eschatology. And it seems to be interesting. I mean, I'm interested. Eschatology is a part of theology. I mean, God has lots to say, and so we don't want to be ignorant to it.

But at the same time, we do recognize that good men have differed in a lot of these prophecies concerning the end. You know, you probably all heard the name Conrad Merle before. If some of you are out there who have never heard that name, well, my friends Mack Tomlinson and Charles Leiter and Bob Jennings, these guys really looked up to Conrad Merle.

Now, he's gone to be with the Lord, but they really looked up to him. He was a mentor to them. Really had insights. I've read some of his things, listened to some of his preaching. He really had tremendous insights into Scripture.

You know one of the observations he makes? He made the observation that when it came to the Old Testament prophecies concerning Christ and the church, almost nobody had it right. He points out that John the Baptist even got to the place where he was questioning Jesus about whether he was really the one.

His own disciples were repeatedly asking, is it now Lord? Is it now? Is the kingdom coming now? In other words, what Conrad was pointing out is it shouldn't surprise us if almost nobody has it figured out.

Because you know you've got all these different perspectives. You've got amill and postmill and premill. You've got people that are taking up all sorts of different positions. You've got people that basically believe that the vast majority of things were fulfilled in 70 AD.

You have full preterists. You have partial preterists. You've got all sorts of different takes. You've got the pre-tribulational rapture people and the post-tribulation and mid-trib. You've got all sorts of things going on.

People are all over the place in these things. And good men. We know good men who are postmill, good men who are amill, good men who are preterists, good men who are premill. I mean, the reality is why are people all over the place?

One of the reasons can be that we simply have really difficult passages. There is no question about it. I've waded through it. I've preached a series on it. And I've read fairly largely on different views and takes on different passages.

And listen, what we know is this. We know that Christ is coming soon. And we know that two things do have to happen before Christ comes. 2 Thessalonians 2 tells us that the man of lawlessness must be revealed.

That's the second thing in verse 3 of 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 3. But that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed. Now, let's just think for a moment.

That day. What does that mean? For that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first. Well, if you back up here, I think you can see. Go back one verse. Go back to verse 2. We see what that day is.

What is that day? Verse 2 says, Not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed either by a spirit or a spoken word or a letter seeming to be from us to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. So what is the day of the Lord?

Well, back up one more verse to verse 1. Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now this is very interesting. The word coming right there is that very famous and well-known word, Perusia.

You often hear that term, Perusia. What I want to point out is this. Just a very basic and casual look at our Bibles ought to tell you this. The coming of the Lord Jesus, the Perusia. Listen, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together with Him.

We ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed either by a spirit or a spoken word or a letter seeming to be from us to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Now you see what He's doing.

He is calling the Perusia. He is calling the coming of Christ, the day of the Lord. There's no getting around that. They're one in the same. You get these guys that want to define all these things as being different things and you've got different comings and Christ secretly comes and raptures the church and then He comes another time.

It starts getting crazy. One of the things we want to do is we want to be able to look at texts like this and recognize, okay, this is speaking about the coming of the Lord. When we will be Christians, we'll be gathered together with Christ.

And He doesn't want us to be shaken or alarmed to the effect that that day has already come. See, somebody was teaching that. When He says a spirit, a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, somebody was impersonating Paul and basically sending false teaching to this church at Thessalonica, indicating that the day had already come.

Kind of like, it's come and you missed it. And in fact, if Paul's able to write to them, he must have missed it too. I mean, somebody was teaching that kind of teaching. And He says, look, don't let anybody deceive you in this way.

He says, I was there with you. I taught you this. He said, don't be deceived. That day cannot come unless two things happen first. One, the rebellion must come. Two, the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.

So, okay, we can recognize those two events must happen first. That's got to happen before Christ comes. There's got to be some kind of future global apostasy, a falling away, a rebellion, and the man of sin.

Christ’s Return and the Days of Noah

But, okay, as soon as we say that, let me ask you something. Does the Bible tell us anywhere else what it's going to be like when Christ returns?

It's going to be like a lightning strike.

When He returns, yes, every eye is going to see. It's going to be like lightning going from the east to the west. But what are the days going to be like that lead up to that?

Worse, and people's hearts are going to grow cold. There's going to be an increase of sin. Well, I don't know if this is the thing, because it talks about last days, but the last days being evil. Is that what you're referring to?

What I'm referring to is this. Like the days of Noah. We get specifically told it's going to be just like the days of Noah. What was happening in the days of Noah? People were drinking. People are marrying and giving in marriage, and they're building.

They're just basically going on with life until the day Noah went in. Did Jesus say, I'm going to come like a thief? He did. Now, here's the thing. We are so programmed to think that the man of sin, the man of lawlessness, we're so programmed to think of a guy that we call beast, like his middle name is Beast, and he's got 666 stamped on his forehead.

We are so programmed by the left behind and the dispensational crowd. This has been propagated for, oh, brethren. And you know, this doesn't have a long history. This thinking has only been propagated for like the last 200 years.

Before that, you cannot find this craziness of all this. Yes, there was a historic pre-mill position, but this dispensationalism is new. It does not have historical roots. You can trace it out. You can do the research.

You can see where it came from. And, you know, I'm sure George knows about this. I mean, basically, it's got roots back to the brethren movement and to guys like Darby and Schofield propagated this. And it is short-lived.

Now, listen to me. It's going to be like the days of Noah. What were the days of Noah like? Were they wicked? They were very wicked. They were so wicked that God sent a flood to wipe everybody out. Every imagination of their hearts was only evil continuously.

There was violence. There was bloodshed. But listen, in the midst of it, they were living like normal, as were the days of Noah. And what were the days like? Look at Matthew 24. Matthew 24, verse 37. Matthew 24, 37.

See, but concerning that, this is verse 36. Concerning that day. And he's talking about the second coming here. Concerning that day, that hour, no one knows. Not even the angels of heaven nor the Son, but the Father only.

And we talked about this on this last Lord's Day. For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. So we see what we're talking about. The parousia. For as in those days before the flood they were eating, drinking, marrying, giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.

Like I said, it's going to be like a thief. He comes like a thief. So here's my point. Is the world going to be to the point where atomic bombs blew up and we're basically living on a planet that's been totally ruined and there's just desert and everything's fallout and radiation and the Antichrist is sitting on a throne somewhere in a newly built temple over in Jerusalem.

Is that really the picture that we have? What sort of picture do we have? I don't know how you've imagined it. I don't know what you even think about when you think of an Antichrist or the man of perdition or the man of sin or the man of lawlessness.

But there's that squirrel again. That thing keeps coming back. But here's the thing, brethren. It's going to be like people are going to be married. I mean, life is not going to be where they're not eating and drinking and in the pubs and planning a wedding for this weekend.

So here's the thing. Here's the thing I really want you to think about. What we're told is it's an hour when we don't expect he's going to come like a thief. It's going to be sudden. Scripture talks about it being destruction of unbelievers.

Is the Man of Lawlessness a Specific Individual?

But let me ask you this question. What does rebellion look like? I mean, a great falling away has to happen first. In other words, what is falling away? Away from what? A rebellion to what?

What does rebellion look like? Well, firstly, is this something that takes place amongst professing Christians? Is this the context that this falling away, this rebellion is going to take place amongst those who profess Christ?

Or is this totally... I mean, even if you take it that way, so basically what we're talking about is when the church is in rebellion. When the outward church, when it appears that basically the churches have abandoned the truth.

What about 2 Timothy 3? Things growing worse and worse? Well, yeah, it just gives a whole list of like...

But let me ask you this. Would that list describe everything right now? Yeah. See, that's the issue. Now, let me just... Okay, I would just say this. If we just simply look at the rebellion part, can we see the church apostatizing even back with the Catholic Church?

I mean, even if you go back 1 ,000 years or 1 ,500 years, can you see seasons when this world... They called it the dark ages for a reason. I mean, could somebody have thought with the coming of the Pope and the whole Catholic system that the whole church had gone just apostatizing and the end must be here?

They've always thought that. Because the thing is, things are growing worse and worse all the time. I mean, you have the rare interruptions where revival, reformation, some kind of great awakening has happened.

But the basic flow of the history of mankind is that we become worse and worse. The thing is, if you look around at what's happening right now, I mean, homosexuality, the whole gender thing, children can basically use whatever pronoun they want.

I mean, the attack on marriage, the attack on sexual identity, people not marrying and just living together, the drunkenness, the drugs, the pleasure-seeking, the riches people go after, money-hungriness.

I mean, if you just basically look at men, they're liars. You talked about on this last Lord's Day. If we look at mankind, your country is hard. Your country is moving quickly away from the days of Spurgeon, from the days when Hudson Taylor was able to raise support in this land the way he was, from the days of Martyn Lloyd-Jones, when you could pack several thousand people there in Westminster.

There was a day here in this city when you had Alexander McLaren. I mean, we're constantly on this path of rebellion. But okay, let's talk about the man of sin for a second, the man of lawlessness. Who's to say that's a specific individual?

In fact, go back to 2 Thessalonians 2. I want to show you something. There's something that people tend to overlook when dealing with 2 Thessalonians that I think is worth pointing out. Now look, people have all sorts of theories on this man of lawlessness.

But let me just tell you this. This man of lawlessness is often called the antichrist and the beast. Now let me go through those terms with you. Beast is really a horrible word because I think that the way you want to interpret beast is exactly the way Daniel interprets beast for us.

Beasts in Daniel are kingdoms. They represent kings. There was a ram, and that ram had power over all the beasts. When you read there, you can read from Daniel 8 through 10. These beasts are kingdoms.

They're nations. They're powers. They're kings. I believe that that's exactly the same way that word is used in the book of Revelation. And so I think that in itself does not lend us to believe that this is one specific person.

Where are they getting that term from in this portion of Scripture, like beast?

Well, it comes from Revelation. It comes from their interpretation there. They've just come to think that that's the antichrist. Right, okay. But then think about the term antichrist. Who is the only author in Scripture that uses that terminology?

John. Yeah, and very quickly, let's look at John. Go to 1 John. Let's just see how he uses that terminology. 1 John. Chapter 4. Yeah, we get several references to it. 1 John 2 is the first place you want to go to.

1 John 2. And anyways, you can see in verse 18, children, it's the last hour. As you have heard that antichrist is coming. So now many antichrists have come. Therefore, we know that it is the last hour.

Now, I know you can say, well, see, it says antichrist is coming. So now many antichrists have come. But you see, the whole point is this. I would just want to make the point that even John himself is giving us an indication there.

That antichrist is not a singular. Even though he's talking future and saying you've heard. It's almost like the corrective he's wanting to bring in is this. That what you really need to understand is that there's many antichrists.

Now, he doesn't really refute that an antichrist is coming. But what he seems to be doing is wanting to give clarification that, look, we're not just looking for a certain individual here. This is farther reaching than that.

And I think, look at 2 .22. Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ. This is the antichrist. He who denies the Father and the Son. So, again, you've got it. Well, who is the antichrist?

Well, it's anybody that fits that description. Anyway, we could keep going here in John because he, well, I mean, let's do it. Let's look at all the passages that are relevant. 4 .3 would be the next one.

In chapter 4, verse 3, every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist. Now, isn't that interesting? See, antichrist has more to do with a spirit, like a demonic spirit, than it does a specific human individual.

That's key. That is really key here. Now, the last reference would be over in 2 John 7. 2 John 7. Many deceivers have gone out into the world. Those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh, such a one is a deceiver and the antichrist.

Now, isn't that interesting? The article is there. The antichrist. So, it's like he's saying not just an antichrist, he is the antichrist. So, what I'm saying is John seems to indicate that this has far more to do with the spirit of antichrist than just the fact that there is one historical figure.

I hope you can see that. Okay, now we go back to the man of lawlessness in 2 Thessalonians 2. I would just say this. I think antichrist does not point to one individual. I don't think beast points to one individual.

I think you can prove these things from Scripture. So, here's the thing that I would have you notice about the man of lawlessness. What if the man of lawlessness is not a specific individual? What if it's describing basically mankind that is associated with the rebellion that comes before the return?

What he's saying is the man of lawlessness is revealed. In other words, it's a stereotypical title. And it's the character of this culminating manifestation of evil. It's an anti-theistic power because you see what it does.

He takes a seat in the temple of God. And I don't think you want to see like the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem like the dispensationalists say. Basically, the temple of God is the dwelling place of God.

It's mankind putting himself in the place of God. That's the real picture. He usurps the place of God in the world. And brethren, we are seeing it happen right now more and more. The government putting themselves in the place of God.

The Mystery of Lawlessness and the Restrainer

Now, here's the thing. I'm still going somewhere with all this. Notice verse 6. You know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. Now, that's the way the ESV reads in verse 6.

But no matter what translation you have, don't you find this interesting? If Paul is writing about somebody that wouldn't be born for at least 2 ,000 years or 3 ,000 years, why is he talking about this man being restrained?

He's just a human that's going to be born in the future. What is that? You see, the picture that you get is more like what you had with the Antichrist. It's like Satan is chained for 1 ,000 years from deceiving the nations.

And at the end, he is going to be released for a season. It seems like this is what it's all about. Satan is released at the end, and that's when the man of lawlessness is revealed. It's a characteristic term that has been restrained for millennia.

There has been a restraint. And undoubtedly, God is the restrainer. He is the one keeping the evil subdued. And then what's going to happen? Men are going to break out. And the man of lawlessness, much like Sharif described.

Anyways, I'm suggesting that interpretation to you. Because, listen, if I'm right, and that's how that's supposed to be interpreted, which, by the way, numerous Amil guys are going to view it that way.

I would not be the first to invent that notion of the man of lawlessness. That it's more figurative. It's more of a motif of man as he gets worse and worse in this rebellion. Sitting in the temple, claiming to be God.

That's used to just express the opposition of this evil that's upon the earth at that time. Their evil towards God. It's a graphic way of saying that this man of lawlessness, which is a characteristic expression, is just usurping the authority of God.

And so, if this man is actually an individual human being, who is not to be born or revealed or released for thousands of years, what possible reason would there be for Paul to even talk this way? I mean, why doesn't Paul just say, well, he's not born yet.

And until he's born, I mean, none of this can come to pass. Instead, he uses this language. He says, verse 6, You know what is restraining him now, so that he may be revealed in his time. So, see, he can't be revealed as long as he's being restrained.

For the mystery, here it is. This is like John. John says the Antichrists are already here. The spirit of Antichrist is already here. Paul's talking exactly the same way. The mystery of lawlessness is already here.

It's already at work. Only he who now restrains. Well, what's he restraining? Well, he's restraining this principle of darkness. This mystery of lawlessness is being checked. And he who now restrains it will do so until he is taken out of the way.

Until the restrainer is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed. Whom the Lord will kill with the breath of His mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of His coming. My point is simply this.

If that is indeed a proper interpretation of that concept, who's to say... See, I think this is where Conrad Murrell is right. You know why so much of that took those men by surprise? You know why Christ took people by surprise?

Because they didn't understand the prophecies. The thing about the kingdom, why His disciples were always wondering, are you going to establish it now? It's because they didn't understand. There's so much that they didn't understand.

The Danger of Predictive End-Times Systems

And I think what happens a lot today is we get a lot of misunderstanding. And so people say, well, you know, Jesus can't come until the man of sin is revealed. And, you know, if anybody's going to be able to identify the antichrist, it's going to be us Christians.

I mean, if there's any guy with 666 stamped on his forehead and running around in Israel, basically wanting to unite all the nations of Europe and 10 nation union and one world government. And, you know, I'm telling you, all this left behind garbage and all this dispensationalism has the world, even many professing Christians, so brainwashed into this mindset that it's almost like you'd say, oh, well, he can't come today.

He can't come tomorrow. I mean, he can't come. This hasn't happened yet. Well, I'm just saying this, the way this world is in decline. And if that is more of just a motif expression for the state of man at the time when Christ comes, the state of man in this, you know, this mystery of lawlessness is basically released and the spirit of antichrist.

And that becomes the prevalent spirit upon the face of this earth. As men move more and more into putting themselves in the place of God, usurping his authority. Brethren, I'm telling you, if he came today and said all that was fulfilled, I think we'd hardly be able to argue the case that it hadn't been.

If that interpretation is proper. And my point is this, he's coming as a thief in the night. He says, you don't know the day and you don't know the hour. And he says this, it's going to happen just like in the days of Noah.

And what were the days of Noah like? Well, yeah, he had this crazy guy out there building the boat. But basically, otherwise than that, people were marrying, people were giving in marriage, people were planning, you know, the marriage celebration next weekend.

They were thinking about the wine and what they were going to eat and what they were going to drink. And life was going on. They were building. They had their lives. They had their jobs. They had their work.

They were going about their business. And then the flood came. And that's what Scripture tells us it's going to be like. Listen, brethren, I'll tell you this. Christ caught them by surprise when he came the first time.

And I guarantee you he is going to catch most people by surprise, even a lot of professing Christians, when he comes the second time. Because people have so convoluted and confounded and misinterpreted so many of these expressions in Scripture.

They've developed this system, and Schofield basically put it in his Bible, and it's become the popular thing over the last 200 years. But I believe a vast majority of it is deception. I know some good men hold to this.

But I think that by and large it doesn't stack up with Scripture, and I think we need to beware. We need to beware of all this rapture talk and all this seven-year tribulation talk and this thousand-year earthly kingdom talk.

I just think we need to really beware. Brethren, what you want to do is you do not want to live your life like Christ could not come tomorrow. Because I think everywhere in Scripture the idea is he's going to come as a thief in the night, and you better be ready for him to come.

Because you don't know the day, and you don't know the hour, and it's not like we're going to have all these... You know, basically that's one of the things that dispensationalism does. It has so boiled this thing down to a specific science that they do know when he's coming.

Well, they would say they don't. But the fact is they would say they don't only for one reason, because that Scripture says that you don't know the time. You don't know the day. You don't know the hour.

So they would basically say, well, see, we don't know. But they really say they do know. I mean, they know that, well, when the rapture takes place, then you've got three and a half years until this happens, and then you've got three and a half more years until this happens, and then Christ's going to come, and He's going to set up this thousand-year camp.

See, they do have it figured out. They've nailed it down. But Scripture doesn't talk like that. And so I think the reality is we need to be very careful that we don't just think we've got all this so perfectly figured out that we rule out the fact that Christ could come tomorrow.

I see a world that is... I mean, we live in a world that is greatly in rebellion against God. Now, could it get a whole lot worse? Yes, I imagine it could get a whole lot worse. How bad is the Lord going to allow it to get?

I don't know. Do I think He's coming tomorrow? I don't think so. But listen, He says in a day when you think not. And so I don't think so. But see, I've just described the very fact that I'm showing myself to actually be indicating He might likely come tomorrow.

Hasten the Day Through Holy Living and Mission

And then you know what Scripture says? Peter tells us to hasten the day. How do you hasten the day? What does hasten mean? Quicken? How do I quicken the day of His coming? You can't. But Peter says to hasten the day of His coming.

Is it like pray for it? I would say we could pray for it, but I'll tell you another thing that has to happen before He comes. People from every tribe and every tongue and every nation and every people, all the elect have to be gathered in.

And so you know what? We've got a great commission. We're to make disciples of all the nations. We're to go. Brethren, if you want to hasten the day of His coming, you know what you ought to be doing?

Everything you possibly can to get the elect into the kingdom. Now I just think, isn't that an interesting statement for Scripture to make? That you can hasten the day of His... You all want to see it?

Let's look at it. 2 Peter 3. We should end that question with this text most prominently upon our brains. 2 Peter 3. Verse 12. What a statement. Verse 11. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved.

In other words, when Christ comes, the whole thing is going to be burned up, dissolved. The earth and the works that are done in it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness?

Waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God. Because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolve, and heavenly bodies will melt as they burn. So we wait, but we also hasten the coming of the day.

Is that like the attitude that we have towards it? A bit like when John says, come Lord Jesus, come quickly. It's like a kind of inner spirit of wanting to come fast.

Right. Even so, Lord, come. The Spirit and the Bride are telling people to come, but then we also tell the Lord to come. But hastening the day. It means we want to be about the business. Certain things do have to happen before He comes, and we're integral.

His church is very integral. Because I'll tell you one other thing that has to happen. Have you ever read this in Ephesians 2, verse 10? Anybody know what it says? It's right after the two very famous verses.