Watch and be Ready

It's obvious that Jesus intended His disciples and the Church in each age to be anticipating His return at any time for them. His word to the disciples was to watch and be ready; for they wouldn't know the day or the hour when He was coming, and He was coming at a time when they wouldn't expect. Therefore, they should always be watching and ready.

If you argue that the Church must go through the Great Tribulation, then you're taking away from the imminency of the return of Jesus Christ. The Church will not be watching, nor do we have any need to be watching for His return, if we must first go through the Great Tribulation. in that case, we'd be watching for the Great Tribulation or the unveiling of the Antichrist. The Church would then have many things to watch for, and we could actually follow the final events rather carefully.

The first major event would be the unveiling of the Antichrist. He would establish his reign and institute his new monetary system. Christians would then have to devise some way to survive without buying or selling. Next, we would watch for the great judgments predicted to come upon the earth. We would be especially watching for the Antichrist to stand in the Holy of Holies of the rebuilt Temple, proclaim himself to be God, and stop the daily sacrifices and prayers. According to Daniel, we know from that point that the Lord would be returning in 1,290 days (Daniel 12:11).

The Bible says that no man knows the day or the hour. This cannot refer to the day Christ returns to reign on earth, because that exact day has been given to us in Daniel's prophecy. No man knows the day or the hour when the Lord will take His Church out of the earth. Therefore, we must be watching - not for the Tribulation or the unveiling of the Antichrist - but for Jesus Christ to come for us at any time!

In Matthew 24:42 Jesus begins His exhortation to watch and be ready by giving a series of parables.

The first is an allegory concerning the goodman of the house. If the man had only known in what hour the thief was going to come, he would have watched and wouldn't have allowed his house to be broken into. "Therefore," Jesus said, "be ready" for in such an hour as you think not the Son of man comes."

Then Jesus gave the parable of the faithful and wise servant. His lord had made him the ruler over the household, and when the lord comes he will find him so doing, that is, watching in readiness.

Jesus warned about the evil servant who would say in his heart, "My lord delays his coming." I believe that any time you teach that the Rapture cannot take place until after the Tribulation or after the revelation of the Antichrist, you're saying that the Lord is delaying His coming.

Jesus warns us that such a belief led to slothfulness by the servant. The lord came in an hour when the servant wasn't expecting him. The servant was given his portion with the unbelievers. The whole concept again is that the Lord wants us to be watching and ready for His coming - not watching for the Tribulation or its beginning, or for the Antichrist or his revelation.

Be watching for Jesus Christ to come for us at any moment. To put any event before the coming of Christ for His Church is, in essence, saying that the Lord will delay His coming until after that event has happened. Teaching this is very dangerous, and Jesus Himself warned.

Through Matthew 25 Jesus emphasizes the necessity of being ready. In the parable of the ten virgins, the five foolish virgins weren't ready for the Lord when He came. When the cry went forth, "Behold, the Bridegroom cometh," those who were ready went in. In verse 13 Jesus said, "Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh."

We firmly believe that the coming of Christ is imminent, that not one single prophecy must be fulfilled before He catches up His Church, and that He has intended the Church of every generation to be watching and waiting for His return. In Mark 13:35-37 Jesus said, "Watch ye therefore: for you know not when the Master of the house cometh, at evening, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: lest, coming suddenly, He finds you sleeping. And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch."