Page 230 - The Rapture Question by John F. Walvoord

The Rapture in 2 Thessalonians
here. If the Thessalonians had been taught posttribu-
lationism, the beginning of the day of the Lord would have
been to them evidence that the Rapture was drawing near
and should have caused rejoicing. Instead of this, the be­
ginning of the day of the Lord apparently created a panic in
their midst, with the implication that before the false teachers
had come they had understood that they would not enter this
period.
Paul continued, “Don’t let anyone deceive you in any
way, for [that day will not come] until the rebellion occurs and
the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to de­
struction. He opposes and exalts himself over everything that
is called God or is worshiped, and even sets himself up in
God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God. Don’t you re­
member that when I was with you I used to tell you these
things?” (w. 3-5).
Paul asserted here that the Thessalonians were wrong in
thinking that they were already in the day of the Lord because
there was a total lack of evidence for it. Two main evidences
are mentioned: first, what the King James Version calls “a
falling away” (“the rebellion” Niv); second, that “the man of
lawlessness” (niv) or the “man of sin” (kjv) has not been
revealed. Both of these would be necessary before the day of
the Lord could really “come.”
The word translated “a falling away” or “the rebellion”
is the Greek apostasia, from which the English word apostasy is
derived. Some debate has arisen as to the exact meaning of
this word, which could also be rendered “the departure.”
E. Schuyler English and others have suggested that the word
means literally “departure and refers to the rapture itself.”5 If
this interpretation be followed, it would make explicit the
Rapture as occurring before the man of sin is revealed, and it
is understandable that posttribulationists would attempt to
refute this argument.
Gundry argued at length against this interpretation,
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