Is the rapture imminent? The believers in Thessalonica were addressed by God through the apostle Paul on that very subject. The Thessalonians thought that the Day of the Lord/rapture was ready to occur or had already occurred and they missed it.
1. Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, 2. That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. 2 Thes 2:1,2
Paul was trying to comfort their shaken mind regarding the timing of the rapture--"the coming of the Lord and our gathering together unto him." Paul's response...
3. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; 4. Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. 5. Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?
Here Paul clearly tells them that the day--day of Christ/the rapture--cannot come unless a couple of things happen first;
1. A falling away.
2. The man of sin--the antichrist--is revealed, worshipped as God and sits in the temple as God.
The falling away is a time when Christians in large numbers will suddenly forsake the faith. The man of sin sits in the temple as God at the abomination of desolation which happens near the middle of the last 7 years.
With that in mind let me state the verse more plainly; let no man deceive you by any means: for the rapture shall not come, except there come a falling away first and the antichrist performs the abomination of desolation. So how can the rapture be imminent if those things have to happen first? It can't be. The rapture cannot be imminent until these things are fulfilled. BTW without imminency the pre tribulation rapture theory cannot stand.
So to answer the question; Is the rapture imminent? No, it will not be imminent until the great falling away and abomination of desolation occurs--let no man deceive you by any means.
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