Page 159 - The Rapture Question by John F. Walvoord

The Rapture Question: Revised and Enlarged Edition
this argument—more than can be allowed in rebuttal.31 The
following arguments arc usually included in the posttribula-
tional statement: (1) the promise of Christ to Peter that he
would die in old age (John 21:18-19); (2) various parables
that teach a long interval between the time the Lord leaves
and the time He returns (Matt. 25:14-30); (3) intimations that
the program for the present age is extensive (Matt. 13:1-50;
28:19-20; Luke 19:11-27; Acts 1:5-8); (4) Paul’s long-distance
plans for missionary journeys and his knowledge of his ap­
proaching death, a tacit denial that he believed in the immi­
nent return of Christ; (5) the prophecy of the destruction of
Jerusalem, preceding the Second Advent (Luke 21:20-24);
(6) the specific signs of the Second Advent given to the disci­
ples (Matt. 24:1-25:30). The problem is further complicated
for the pretribulationist in that nineteen hundred years have
elapsed, indicating that it was, after all, die purpose of God to
have an extensive period before the coming of the Lord. How
then can these objections be answered?
At the outset it must be observed that most of the hin­
drances to the coming of the Lord at any moment in the first
century no longer exist. A long period has elapsed; Peter and
Paul have gone home to the Lord; only the specific signs of
Matthew 24—25 remain to be fulfilled. Most of the difficulties
to an imminent return have been resolved.
However, the question is whether the first-century
Christians believed and taught the imminent return of Christ
in the sense that it could occur at any moment. Most of the
difficulties raised by posttribulationists dissolve upon examin­
ation. Peter was middle-aged at the time the prophecy ofjohn
21:18-19 was given. By the time the teaching of the imminent
translation of the church was fully preached and received in
the church, he was already well past middle life. The prophecy
as recorded in John 21 apparently was not common property
of the church until long after he died anyway and constituted
no obstacle to beliefin the imminency of the Lord’s coming for
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