Page 252 - The Rapture Question by John F. Walvoord

The Rapture in the Book of Revelation
docs not mention the church as being in heaven either.5 This,
of course, hangs on the question as to whether the twenty-four
elders represent the church that Gundry assumed he had re­
futed. It seems much more important if the church is to be
mentioned as actually in the Tribulation that it be found in
these chapters than that it be referred to as in heaven, al­
though this may be indicated by the twenty-four ciders. Gun­
dry also glossed over the significant fact that, while local
churches arc mentioned in chapters 2 and 3, there is no men­
tion of any local church anywhere in Revelation 4-18. Ac­
cordingly, posttribulationists have to face not only the fact
that the body of Christ, or the universal church, is not men­
tioned but also that there is no local church on earth.
Gundry countered by pointing out that the church is not
mentioned in a number of other books of the Bible. None of
these books, however, are dealing with end-time events as
such, with the possible exception of 2 Peter 3, and Peter’s
omission of the church harmonizes with pretribulationism.
Other objections that Gundry raised are of similar character.
The problem is that when all is said and done, there is really
no way to explain the total absence of any mention of either a
local church or the universal church in a detailed account of
end-time events. The description of the saved as saints of both
Jewish and Gentile backgrounds is quite in contrast to the
reference to them as combined in one body, the church, in
most of the New Testament.
Revelation 7:1-8; 14:1-5
One of the major problems that posttribulationists face is
the designation of the 144,000 of Revelation 7:1-8 and 14:1-5.
Most posttribulationists spiritualize this reference and regard
these as representative of the church. Ladd, after considering
all the possibilities and confessing that the natural interpreta­
tion would be to regard the 144,000 as the Jewish people,
finally concluded, “There are good reasons to believe that by
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