Page 178 - The Rapture Question by John F. Walvoord

The Rapture Question: Reviseel anti Enlarged Edition
While some expositors have found that the entire passage
deals with the end of the age, there is some indication that
Matthew 24:4-14 reveals the general signs leading up to
the second coming of Christ—signs that can be observed
throughout the entire age. Beginning with Matthew 24:15,
however, a specific sign is given, that is, the beginning of the
Great Tribulation, which, according to Daniel 7:25; 9:27;
12:11; and Revelation 13:5, will be a period of forty-two
months or three and one-half years. Details on the Great
Tribulation are provided later in Revelation 4—18.
In His discourse. Christ did not reveal a prctribulational
Rapture, and posttribulationists raise the question why this
important subject was omitted. The answer, of course, is that
up to this time the Rapture had not even been revealed, and
the subject matter did not concern itself with the Rapture. It is
not unusual in presenting prophetic events for only selected
events to be included. In the Old Testament, for instance, the
first and second comings of Christ are presented in such a way
that few, if any, of the Old Testament saints understood that
there would be a long period between the two events. The
questions the disciples raised did not relate to the Rapture but
rather to the specific signs leading up to the second coming of
Christ. At this point in their spiritual education the disciples
would not have understood the subject of the Rapture any
more than they understood the subject of the death and resur­
rection of Christ. Accordingly, pretribulationists believe that
the silence here is understandable. Most pretribulationists
agree that the Rapture is not mentioned in Matthew 24.
Posttribulationists, however, pose the question as to
where the Rapture should be placed in the sequence of events.
Gundr}’, for instance, asked, “Where in the Olivet Discourse
are we to place the rapture? There is no mention of a rapture
prior to the tribulation.”5 Pretribulationists agree that there is
no pretribulational Rapture mentioned in this passage. The real
question which challenges the posttribulationists is whether in
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