Page 180 - The Rapture Question by John F. Walvoord

The Rapture Question: Revised and Enlarged Edition
tion is the Father’s house, which most expositors recognize as
a reference to heaven.
Posttribulationists have never answered these major ob­
jections to making Matthew's gathering of the elect equivalent
to the Rapture. Instead of the burden of proof falling on the
pretribulationists to prove that Matthew's prediction is not
the Rapture, as Gundry would propose, actually the burden of
proof is on the posttribulationists to prove that it is the Rap­
ture.
A more explicit reference to the Rapture is found by post­
tribulationists in Matthew 24:40-41. In the preceding verses,
the coming of Christ is compared to the days of Noah. Mat­
thew 24:37-39 reveals, "As it was in the days of Noah, so it will
be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the
flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving
in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they
knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came
and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of
the Son of Man. " Then follows the statement of Matthew
24:40-41: “Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and
the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill;
one will be taken and the other left.” Posttribulationists find
this a clear indication of a Rapture, and the time of the event is
after the second coming of Christ.
The context, however, clearly argues against this. In the
illustration from “the days of Noah,” those who are taken
away by the flood are the ones who are drowned, and the ones
who are left are ones who are left in safety' in the ark. It would
be strange to have a clear illustration like this be completely
reversed in the application of verses 40-41.
As Reese pointed out. however, two different Greek
words are used, with paralambano in verses 40-41 in contrast to
a different word airo in verse 39. In connection with paralam-
band, Reese stated, "Darby, in one of the few instances where
he allowed private views to influence (and mar) his admi-
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