Page 229 - The Rapture Question by John F. Walvoord

The Rapture Question: Revised and Enlarged Edition
relation to the man of sin. It opens with a reminder to the
Thessalonians of their expectation of “the coming of our Lord
Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him.” Apparently
some false teachers had come to them, teaching that they were
already in the day of the Lord (v. 2). The Kingjames Version
refers to it as the day of Christ, but as practically all manu­
scripts read “Lord” instead of “Christ,” there is general
agreement that this is the proper reading. It is most significant
that Paul here was writing because they had become alarmed
at the thought that they were actually in the day of the Lord.
The situation described in 2 Thessalonians 2 indicates
that the teaching that the church would go through the
Tribulation was already being advanced by certain teachers
whom Paul opposed in this passage. It is sometimes assumed
that in the early apostolic period only pure and accurate doc­
trine was taught. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
Paul had to write his Epistle to the Galatians to correct the
error of legalism. He wrote most of 1 Corinthians to correct
doctrinal and moral errors in die Corinthian church. It seems
quite clear dial most of the heresies that later emerged in the
second and third centuries had their small beginnings in the
apostolic church.
Most students of history agree that there was post-
tribulationism in the second century. Here in 2 Thessalonians
2, however, it becomes evident that there were already those
who taught that the church would go through the Tribulation,
or as it is here described, the day of the Lord. It is most
important to observe that Paul labeled this a false doctrine
and urged the Thessalonians not to be deceived by' this
teaching. The passage clearly implies that Paul had taught
them that they would not enter the day of the Lord and that
the Rapture would come before the final persecutions of the
saints. Paul here was refuting this early form of posttribu-
lationism.
At the outset, posttribulationists have a real problem
238