Page 135 - The Rapture Question by John F. Walvoord

Varieties of Posttribulationism
his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his
elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the
other.”22
While much more could be said about the various views
of semiclassic posttribulation interpretation, their major
problem is that they arc not agreed as to how far to interpret
prophecy literally. Most of them do not use the literal method
in passages where to do so would lead to the pretribulational
rapture view. Posttribulationists, of course, are also largely
amillcnnial and also reject a literal millennium. Further con­
sideration will be given to these arguments as they are met in
the exposition of various arguments and passages.
The scmiclassic posttribulational interpretation is at its
worst, however, in attempting to affirm any reasonable se­
quence of events relating to the Second Coming. This common
problem of posttribulationism surfaces in almost every one of
the major views of posttribulationism. The fact is, there is no
clear reference to the rapture of the church in any of the
prophetic passages in Matthew 24, Jude, or Revelation 19 that
specifically deal with the Second Coming. A further problem
surfaces when the resurrection of Revelation 20:4 is spe­
cifically limited to saints who have been martyred in the
Tribulation as contrasted to the church and is placed in an
order following the Second Coming instead of being a part
of it.
Another major problem left unresolved by semiclassic
posttribulational interpretation is the question as to why there
is a rapture at the Second Coming. Especially for post­
tribulationists who are premillennial, the insertion of a rap­
ture at the time of the Second Coming does not fit well with
the events that follow, and the omission of any specific refer­
ence to it in detailed passages dealing with the Second Advent
constitute an impressive argument that posttribulationists
have not answered. The exegetical problems that face semi­
classic posttribulational interpretation along with other views
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