Page 71 - The Rapture Question by John F. Walvoord

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The Rapture Question: Revised and Enlarged Edition

A Ground for Comfort
In addition to the exhortation “Do not let your hearts be
troubled,” there is coupled with the doctrine of the coining of
the Lord in John 14:1 the charge “Therefore encourage each
other with these words” (1 Thess. 4:18). The doctrine of the
coming of the Lord was a comfort or encouragement to the
Thessalonian Christians. This comfort was not merely that
their loved ones would be raised from the dead, a doctrine
with which they no doubt were already familiar, but the larger
truth that they would be raised in the same event as Christians
would be translated. This they had been taught as an immi­
nent hope. In 1 Thessalonians 1:10 they are described as those
who “wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the
dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.” Their
hope was the coming of Christ and they had been delivered
from all wrath to come, including the wrath of the future
tribulation period. At the end of both chapter 2 and chapter 3,
there arc renewed assurances of the hope of Christ’s return.
A Basis for Exhortation
Most of the immediate significance of this hope would be
lost if. as a matter of fact, the coming of Christ was impossible
until the Thessalonians had passed through the tribulation
period. In 1 Thessalonians 5:6, they are exhorted to “be alert
and self-controlled,” hardly a realistic command if the coming
of Christ was greatly removed from their expectation. In
1 Corinthians 1:7, Paul exhorted the Corinthians to “eagerly
wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed,” which is
another mention of the coming of the Lord when He will be
revealed in His glory’ to the church. In Titus 2:13 our future
hope is described: “While we wait for the blessed hope—the
glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.”
While the appearing of the glory of Christ to the world and to
Israel will not be fulfilled until the Second Coming to establish
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