Page 191 - The Rapture Question by John F. Walvoord

The Rapture Question: Revised and Enlarged Edition
meet Him. It should be understood, however, that the Thes­
salonians were young in the faith, that they probably had no
written Scriptures to read, and that their entire knowledge of
the Christian faith was what Paul, Silas, and Timothy had
taught them. There seems to be no evidence of a prophet in
their midst who could be the special channel of revelation.
Under these circumstances, it is only natural that they should
have questions concerning the order of events and how the
Rapture fit into their total hope.
The question of how the Rapture fit into the prophetic
program had been raised by the fact that some of the Thes­
salonians had died in the few weeks since Paul had left. Paul
had come just in time to lead them to the Lord. Their death,
however, posed a new problem to the Thessalonians, who
apparently had had such a view of the imminency of the
Lord's return that the possibility of death seemed remote.
Their instruction had covered a wide gamut of doctrines, in­
cluding election (1:4). the Holy Spirit (1:5-6; 4:8; 5:19), con­
version (1:9), assurance and salvation (1:5), sanctification
(4:3; 5:23). and many other doctrines relating to the Christian
life. They apparently understood also the doctrine of resurrec­
tion and die doctrine that some would be translated without
dying.
What the Thessalonians did not understand, however,
was how the event of the resurrection of Christians who died
related to the translation of living Christians. Their question,
accordingly, was whether, if the Lord translated them before
death, they would have to wait until a later time, namely, after
the Tribulation, before those who had died would be resur­
rected.
Some of them had come out of a pagan background where
resurrection had been questioned. There does not seem to
have been, on their part, any question of the fact of resurrec­
tion, but they did have a problem as to when it would occur in
relation to the rapture of living Christians. On this point, they

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