Page 101 - The Rapture Question by John F. Walvoord

The Rapture Question: Revised and Enlarged Edition
It is commonly accepted by pretribulationists that the
resurrection to which Paul referred was indeed a “select resur­
rection,” but Govctt’s translation is interpretation rather than
a literal translation. A literal translation would be “to attain
to the resurrection the one out of the dead." It is clear that the
passage refers to a resurrection which includes only the right­
eous dead, though this is usually denied by amillenarians. The
resurrection in view is undoubtedly the resurrection of the
“dead in Christ” (1 Thess. 4:16). Paul’s ambition was not,
however, that he might die and then perchance be accounted
worthy of resurrection at that time. His hope was that he
might attain to it in the sense of being still alive when the
event took place, meaning that he would be translated rather
than resurrected. Paul had no doubt that he would be in­
cluded in the event. Later he wrote Timothy, “Yet I am not
ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am
convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to
him for that day” (2 Tim. 1:12).
The resurrection of which Paul spoke is not of reward as
Govett argued. Govett wrote: “It is evident at a glance, that
the resurrection which the apostle so earnestly sought, was not
the general resurrection. The wicked shall partake of that,
whether they desire it or not. Paul then could not express any
doubts of his attaining to that, or speak of it as an object of
hope. It remains then, that it be a peculiar resurrection: the
resurrection of reward, obtained by the just, while the wicked
remain in their graves.”12
In refutation of this error, 1 Thessalonians 4:16 is plain:
the resurrection will include all the dead in Christ, all who by
grace through faith have trusted Christ and have even now
been given this new position in Christ in place of their old
estate in Adam. There is no justification for building on Paul’s
hope a resurrection of reward to be attained only by a small
portion of the church of Christ born of the Spirit and washed
in the blood of the Lamb. Resurrection is a part of the gift of
106