Page 214 - The Rapture Question by John F. Walvoord

The Rapture in 1 Thessalonians 5
judgment on the nations is concerned, comes at Armageddon
and is furthered by the destruction of the armies at the Second
Coming in Revelation 19. Many believe it is brought to its
climax in the judgment of the nations after the Second Com­
ing, as recorded in Matthew 25:31-46. The question remains
whether this is ail that is involved in the judgments.
Even a casual reading of the Book of Revelation will soon
disclose that the divine judgments of God do not begin at the
end of the Tribulation but certainly include the entire period
of the Tribulation itself. While Gundry attempted to re­
arrange the Book of Revelation so that the major judgments
fall at its close, it is quite cicar, for instance, that the fourth
seal described in Revelation 6:7-8—where one-fourth of the
earth’s population is destroyed—is not at the end but in the
earlier phase of the Great Tribulation. Certainly the destruc­
tion of one-fourth of the population would qualify as the day of
the Lord for the earth.
The sixth seal describes in vivid detail the very things the
Old Testament attributes to the day of the Lord. It states, “I
watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earth­
quake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat
hair, the whole moon turned blood red, and the stars in the
sky fell to earth, as late figs drop from a fig tree when shaken
by a strong wind. The sky receded like a scroll, rolling up, and
every mountain and island was removed from its place” (Rev.
6:12-14). This can be compared to Joel 2:30-31, as well as to
Joel 2:10-11. Unless the seals are twisted out of chronological
sequence, this is not the end of the Great Tribulation; rather,
the Great Tribulation is in progress.
Gundry attempted to make all the catastrophic judg­
ments of the seals, trumpets, and bowls as if they were in some
way simultaneous. The very order of events described in the
seven trumpets, however, as well as in the seven bowls, indi­
cates that there is chronological sequence and that all these
judgments cannot be thrown together. The implication is clear
223