Page 18 - The Rapture Question by John F. Walvoord

The Promise of His Coming
position, which holds that Christ will come for His church
before the entire seven-year period predicted by Daniel. The
church in this point of view does not enter at all into the final
tribulation period. This teaching was espoused by Darby and
the Plymouth Brethren and popularized by the famous
Scofield Reference Bible. Generally speaking, the pretribula-
tional view is followed by those who consider premil-
lenarianism a system of Bible interpretation, while the post-
tribulational and midtribulational positions characterize those
who limit the area of premillennialism to eschatology.
An offshoot of pretribulationism, though seldom recog­
nized as an orthodox point of view, is the partial rapture
concept that only the godly Christians expecting the return of
Christ will be translated before the Tribulation. The rest will
continue through it until the return of Christ to establish His
earthly kingdom. It is obvious that only one of these four
possible positions is correct, and it is the duty of the student of
Scripture to determine which is the proper interpretation of
related Scriptures.
Doctrine of the Church in Relation
to the Rapture Question
In determining the question of whether the church will
go through the Tribulation, a most important factor is the
definition of the term church. It is characteristic of post-
tribulationism to assume, usually without any proof whatever,
that the word church is an all-inclusive term that is synony­
mous with the terms elect and saints. In brief, they hold that
saints of all past, present, and future ages are included in the
church. This definition makes impossible any other view than
the posttribulational concept. All parties agree that there are
saints in the Tribulation and that even during this time of
unprecedented trouble many will turn to Christ for salvation.
If these believers in the Tribulation are properly described as
members of the church, it leads inevitably to the conclusion

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