Kay Arthur
“Jesus is coming soon.”
Christ’s return “imminent” since 2002.
Kay Arthur studies and teaches the Bible using the inductive method. She says, “Inductive Bible Study shows you how to discover God’s Truth for yourself.” In her outline explaining the inductive method, she writes that it “brings you directly to the Word of God apart from another’s understanding or interpretation of the text.” Using her three steps, observation, interpretation and application, one should be able to discover the intended meaning. This sounds like just the tool she could use to prove that Jesus predicted a first-century return. Unfortunately, the inductive method has failed her.
The author of the letter to the Hebrews wrote that Christ’s first coming took place in the “last days” (Heb. 1:1-2). However, Arthur wrote a book in 2002 claiming that we are living in the last days. But if Jesus lived in the last days, and we are still living in the last days, then this period referred to as “days” has dragged on for almost 2,000 years. Furthermore, Jesus said the time of his return was “near” in the first century (Rev. 1:3; 22:10). But in Arthur’s description of her book, she ignores this, predicting instead, a future return of Christ. She says, “Jesus is coming soon,” and even describes his return as “imminent.” The New Testament authors did teach that Christ’s return was imminent, but they were writing in the first century. How could something imminent then still be imminent today?
Futurists don’t define the word imminent according to the dictionary definition, which essentially defines it as referring to something that will take place very soon. Modern prophecy teachers have simply hijacked this word for their own purposes. They appear to define imminent as follows:
Function: adjective
referring to something that could take place at any moment, but not
necessarily soon : covering an indefinite period that could span thousands of years
So according to the futurists, the return of Christ is always imminent. But the problem for Kay Arthur is if Christ’s return is always imminent, and has been for almost 2,000 years, how does she know it will take place soon? It might not occur for thousands of years. Futurists have a standard answer for this. They claim that the reason they know Jesus will return soon is because the signs are all around us. They think the world is so bad today that Jesus simply must come soon to rapture his people off the earth to protect them from the perilous times coming upon the world. They often refer to war and the persecution of Christians.
But now they face another hurdle. Problem: the world is probably more peaceful today than at anytime since the time of Jesus. Futurists seem to forget the record of the last 19 centuries. At many times, conditions might have seemed desperate enough for Jesus to return, but he never did. For instance, the slaughter of Christians during the inquisition by the Roman Catholic Church dragged on for 600 years! By contrast, most Christians today live in a dream world of peace and prosperity. Since Jesus chose to stay right where he is in heaven through such horrific times, why should he return to rescue us?
It would be comforting to know the future; to be confident that Jesus is going to rescue us from our troubles. However, he isn’t going to; not now, not soon, not ever. The promise of his second coming was fulfilled in the first century. Christians today need to walk by faith not knowing the future.
Video: Catholic Inquisition and the Torture Tools. WARNING! Elaborate torture tools displayed and torture methods described in graphic detail. If you wish to proceed, click here.
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