Page 10 - The Rapture Question by John F. Walvoord

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THE PROMISE OF HIS COMING

Revival of Interest in Prophecy
More questions are being asked today than ever before ’
concerning the return of the Lord. The Second Coming has
always been prominent in fundamentalist literature, but the
surprising revival of interest on the part of the modern liberal
and the neoorthodox writers is something new. For instance, ,
even before the first edition of this book, Emil Brunner con­
tributed his book Eternal Hope. H. H. Rowley wrote The Rele­
vance of the Apocalyptic. John Wick Bowman ventured a new
translation of the Book of Revelation entitled The Drama of the
Book of Revelation. Even more specifically, Paul S. Minear pub­
lished his book Christian Hope and the Second Coming. These
works were not isolated illustrations but signs of a major trend
of increasing attention to the scriptural doctrine of the second
coming of Christ.
It is not safe to conclude, however, that this resurgence of
interest is necessarily a new and vital interpretation of scrip­
tural teaching. The inspired prophecy of Peter, which states
that skeptics would ask the question “Where is this ‘coming’
he promised?” (2 Peter 3:4), is still being fulfilled. While
increasing realism is being manifested in the discussion of the
Second Advent, the tendency of liberalism to explain away
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