Page 195 - The Rapture Question by John F. Walvoord

The Rapture Question: Revised and Enlarged Edition
“the Lord’s own word” (1 Thess. 4:15). This is a problem for
the posttribulationists as they want the Rapture to be a phase
of the Second Coming and, accordingly, not a new doctrine.
Gundry went into a rather complicated explanation, claiming
that Paul received this truth from the oral tradition of Jesus'
teaching on the Mount of Olives in the Olivet Discourse. This
far-fetched point of view is contradicted by all the facts we
have, especially Galatians 1:15-19. where Paul claimed he did
not receive information from the apostles. If Galatians was
written after 1 Thessalonians, as most scholars believe, it
would rule out any claim for having transmitted information
on this point. The Gospel of John, of course, had not yet been
written. The purpose of Gundry's discussion is to deflate as
much as possible the concept dial the Rapture is a new doc­
trine, distinct from the Second Coming. From a pretribula-
tional point of view, it is most significant that Paul did not
quote any of the Old Testament passages on the second com­
ing of Christ, but rather he claimed that the Rapture was a
direct revelation. Gundry, here, was grasping at a straw. Even
Ladd, a fellow posttribulationist, had no difficulty accepting
the concept that this is a new doctrine. The entire problem
arises because Gundry is a posttribulationist.
According to 1 Thessalonians 4, at the time of the Rap­
ture, saints will rise from the earth and meet the Lord in the
air. As there is no other passage that clearly states the same
truth, this has become a focal point for discussion between
posttribulationists and pretribulationists. Pretribulationists
have a simple explanation, that it is an amplification of what
has been previously revealed in John 14:2-3 and that saints are
taken from the earth in the process of taking them to heaven to
the Father’s house.
Posttribulationists, however, have a problem of har­
monizing this with the passages relating to the second coming
of Christ. After all, if Christ is coming to the earth to set up
His kingdom, why do saints have to leave the earth to meet the

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