Page 245 - The Rapture Question by John F. Walvoord

The Rapture Question: Revised and Enlarged Edition
One of the ma jor weaknesses of posttribulationists is their
handling of the doctrine of the Rapture in relationship to the
Book of Revelation. Their problem is that the Rapture is not
mentioned in relation to the Second Coming. If the Rapture
occurs at the second coming of Christ, it would be a major
feature of end-time events; and the fact that it is not related to
the Second Coming is most strange if posttrihulationism is
correct. In the description of the second coming of Christ in
Revelation 19. neither translation or resurrection as related to
the process of Christ’s coming from heaven to the earth is
indicated.
Posttribulationists. if they follow 1 Thessalonians 4, must
place the rapture of the church in the sequence of events as
Christ is coming from heaven to the earth. Instead, the only
mention of resurrection is found in Revelation 20:4. long after
the Second Coming is an accomplished fact, and the specifica­
tion of the passage limits the resurrection to those who died in
the Great Tribulation. There is absolutely nothing in Revela­
tion 19-20 to support the idea that there is a rapture of the
church involved in the second-coming process.
Posttribulationists attempt to turn the argument against
the prctribulationists by saying that if there were a pretribula­
tion Rapture, it ought to be stated in the Book of Revelation.
The opposite, rather, is the truth. If. as a matter of fact, the
Rapture has taken place earlier before the Great Tribulation
ever comes upon the earth, then there would be no need to
discuss the Rapture in the sequence of later events. If, on the
other hand, the Rapture is a part of the events of the Second
Coming, the strange absence of any mention of it certainly is a
devastating blow to posttribulationists.
The best posttribulationists can do to cover this lack of
evidence for a posttribulational Rapture is to dispute certain
passages that seem to imply a pretribulation Rapture and to
read into other passages what they do not say in an attempt to
insert a resurrection where they' feel it should be.

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