Page 232 - The Rapture Question by John F. Walvoord

The Rapture in 2 Thessalonians
alarm was that the new teaching they had heard contradicted
what Paul had taught them before, that is, that they would not
enter this period.
As a posttribulationist, Gundry attempted to divert at­
tention from this obvious problem of posttribulationism, ad­
vancing the contention that the pretribulational rapture view
here is impossible. Under the circumstances, Paul, in cor­
recting their error, would have made “a categorical statement
to the effect that the rapture will take place before the tribula­
tion. Such a statement nowhere appears.”8 Here, once again,
Gundry argued from the silence of the passage.
The fact is that as the passage continues, Paul was not
silent about the Rapture intervening, if his teaching is rightly
interpreted. Nevertheless, Gundry went on speculating for
several more pages about the nature of the error of the Thes­
salonians. Such speculation is unnecessary. Obviously their
error was that they thought they were in the day of the Lord
and the Tribulation, and because this had been contradicted
by Paul’s earlier teaching, they were confused and filled with
fear.
Gundry’s statement that Paul should have stated that the
Rapture takes place before the Tribulation is, in effect, what
Paul did, beginning in verse 6. Paul reminded them what he
had previously taught them, that an event had to occur first
before the man of sin could be revealed and the day of the
Lord begin. Pretribulationists find in this a direct reference to
the Rapture, demonstrating that the Thessalonians had
adopted the wrong point of view. Paul wrote, “And now you
know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at
the proper time. For the secret power of lawlessness is already
at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do
so till he is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will
be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the
breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his com­
ing” (2 Thess. 2:6-8). What Paul was saying is that the day of
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