Page 163 - The Rapture Question by John F. Walvoord

The Rapture Question: Revised and Enlarged Edition
with it, namely: 1 Thess. iv. 17, 2 Thess. ii. 1, and John xiv. 3;
but there are many passages in both the O. and N. Testa­
ments that speak of the resurrection of the holy dead, which,
Darbyists assure us. takes place in immediate connection with
the Rapture.’-38 Reese then proceeded to pile up proofs that
the resurrection of the Old Testament saints occurs after the
tribulation period.
Ladd, like Reese, finds in the doctrine of resurrection,
particularly as revealed in Revelation 20. an explicit proof of
posttribulationism. Ladd stated that it is the only explicit state­
ment of posttribulationism in the Bible: “With the exception of one
passage, the author will grant that the Scripture nowhere
explicitly states that the Church will go through the Great
Tribulation. God's people are seen in the Tribulation, but
they are not called the Church but the elect or the saints. Nor
does the Word explicitly place the Rapture at the end of (he
Tribulation. Most of the references to these final events lack
chronological indications. . . . However, in one passage, Reve­
lation 20, the Resurrection is placed at the return of Christ in
Glory. This is more than an inference.”39
The answer to Ladd and Reese on this point is bound up
in a larger question of which both seem unaware, namely, the
question of whether there may not be a resurrection both at
the beginning and at the end of the Tribulation. While many
pretribulationists have attempted to defend Darby’s view,
there is a growing tendency to review the question of whether
the Old Testament saints are, after all, raised at the same time
as the church. Most of the Old Testament passages of which
Daniel 12:1-2 is an example do indeed seem to set up a
chronology of Tribulation first, then resurrection of the Old
Testament saints. On the other hand, the passages dealing
with the resurrection of the church in the New Testament
seem to include only the church. The expression “the dead in
Christ will rise first” (1 Thess. 4:16) seems to include only the
church.
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