Page 158 - The Rapture Question by John F. Walvoord

General Posttribulational Arguments
lion from the return of Christ to earth permits each of the two
events, so different in character, to have its own place. It
solves the problem of the confusing and contradictory details
in the posttribulational interpretation illustrated in the
difficulty of the posttribulationists themselves to work out a
harmony of prophecies related to the Second Advent.
The doctrine of the church is, then, determinative in the
question of whether the church will go through the Tribula­
tion. All agree that saints will be found in the Tribulation.
Pretribulationism necessarily requires a distinction between
these saints and the saints of the present age forming the
church. This difference of opinion has seldom had a fair han­
dling from posttribulationists who usually adopt a “tut, tut, of
course the church includes all saints” attitude. The pretribu-
lational position is dismissed as “dispcnsational,” as if that
was the coup de grdee of pretribulationism. Not only is pre-
tribulationism dependent on an ecclesiology that recognizes
the unique place of the church of the present age, but it is also
true that premillennialism locally stems from distinguishing
Israel and the church much on the same theological basis.
Agreement must be reached first on the pertinence of eccle­
siology to eschatology before any significant debate can be
held on the relative merits of posttribulationism versus pre­
tribulationism.
Denial of Imminency of the Return of Christ
The teaching that Christ could come for His church at
any moment is a doctrine of pretribulationism often singled
out for attack by posttribulationists. Obviously, if the church
must go through the Tribulation, the imminent translation is
a vain hope. Posttribulationists, therefore, labor either to deny
imminency or to invest the word with a different meaning that
does not require immediacy. Their denial of imminence is a
major aspect of their argument against pretribulationism.
Posttribulationists are wont to give considerable space to
165