95. Q - How near is the return of Christ?

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A friend asked me the subject question, but in the context of the nearness of the year -- wondering if it might be in 2011 or 2012? I suspect her question was prompted by all the seemingly negative things going on currently upon the earth. Also, the short discussion we had indicated she was really asking about the nearness of the rapture, where Jesus Christ comes from heaven to take his church (true believers) to heaven before the Tribulation, a period of catastrophe and chaos upon the Earth.

I have addressed the subject of when Christ will return many times before, and I particularly recommend you read this Post#42 before you continue here.

Presuming you have now read the earlier post, first, a word about date setting. Post #42 teaches us that no one can know the day and hour of His coming. Yet in the same context we are told to watch, so that we will not be surprised by His coming. That we should pay attention to the signs and warnings going on around us, that we should be better prepared for that day and hour. And to do that, we gain help by understanding the times and the seasons.

In 1988, Edgar Whisenant, a writer/researcher published a book called "88 Reasons why the Rapture will be in 1988". Here is the link to the Wikipedia entry, which is worth reading.
By almost all accounts, Edgar Whisenant was a honest man, a man greatly desiring for the Lord to come, a student of the Bible -- yet where did he go wrong (besides in trying to set a date)?

One of his primary calculations occurred thus: Israel became a nation on May 13-14th, 1948. The Bible says that a generation will not pass away until all these things (the catastrophic things around His coming) are accomplished. The Bible generally speaks of a generation as being about 40 years, thus 1948 + 40 = 1988. This was one of his 88 reasons, but a major one!!

While I do not hold entirely to this following analyzation, I put it here as a matter of record as to an illustration of the latest thinking:

Many evangelical scholars, pastors, and teachers, think the first part of his argument may be correct, that the prophetic clock started ticking again in 1948. The wrong part was thinking that "a generation" was 40 years long. Instead, it may be 70 years long, the "3 score and 10" (three twenties & ten) that the Bible mentions as a reasonable, normal life of a person.

If you add the 70 years to the 1948, you get 2018. There are a few bible prophecy teachers that teach 2018 as a possible date of the Lord's return. But is this the date of the Rapture, or of the date of the ending of the tribulation where the Lord will come back in splendor and glory? If the latter, then the rapture would be 7 years earlier, in 2011.

There is a great danger to date setting, for (almost) all dates come and go without the predicted events occuring. But, there IS a date, a day and a hour, known only to God where the Lord will come for his church. We are to get ready, and to be ready and watchful! Perhaps it will be soon! Even so, come Lord Jesus.
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