Even though the Bible itself never states the rapture is imminent, it has now been almost 2000 years that the church has been watching for the imminent coming of the Lord.

Reasons for belief in imminency include: scriptural admonitions to watch; Paul’s inclusion of himself in rapture scriptures; and the absence of any signs in direct rapture passages.

God has always known exactly when the rapture would occur: it has a set time. I believe the teaching of imminency, even though not actually stated in scripture, was within the will of God because it would reinforce that the church was to be purifying itself and living for and serving God on a day to day basis in preparation for her meeting with the Lord. While the rapture has not yet occurred, individual members of the body of Christ have been keeping their appointed meetings with the Lord, through death, on a daily basis. The point has always been individual preparation for this meeting with the Lord.

Imminency and knowing the time are not necessarily contradictory concepts. Imminence means ‘could’ while knowing means ‘will’. For us humans, it was to be the final generation that would KNOW that prophecy was about to be fulfilled, and while that generation COULD have begun at any time after the resurrection of Jesus, it WOULD not begin until the time set by God.

The book of Daniel, which is essential to understanding prophecy, was closed up (Dan. 12:4) until the time of the end: the beginning of the final generation. While the actual prophesied events would not occur until the seals are removed from the book (Rev. 6), it was to be the final generation, which began on June 7, 1967, that would fully understand the prophecies, particularly those who live while those prophecies are being fulfilled. Today we KNOW we are in the final generation and the rapture really COULD happen at any time, but it will not happen until the coming of the exact set time, which is KNOWN and preordained by God. The scripture contains information concerning that set time.

As for me personally, I expect to meet the Lord at the rapture. If I should die before that day, then I will meet Him at death. Either way, I meet the Lord face to face. And that is the burning desire of my heart and the thing that motivates my daily life and conduct. It has been my personal experience that the closer we come to the actual time of his coming, the more we are able to know if we only search it out.  There have been several dates in the past few years that have appeared to be more likely than others for the rapture to occur. As those days passed I had to go back to the scripture to determine what I had missed or misunderstood. That process will continue until the Lord comes. My personal interest is not in being right, but in knowing the truth. For that reason I must remain teachable – I never allow myself to think I have finally arrived at full understanding of the matter, and I must always be willing to adjust my belief when the Lord or a fellow Christian shows me something in scripture that I had not seen previously.

While I do believe there is a set time for the rapture and that we can learn about it through study and observation as the time draws closer, I also watch for the coming of the Lord on an imminent, moment by moment basis.