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Premillennialism and the Tribulation
Pretribulationism
John F.Walvoord

     Argument from imminency of the return of Christ. One of the precious promises left as a heritage to His disciples was the announcement of Christ in the Upper Room, "I come again." The literalness of this passage, though often asailed, is obvious. Christ said: "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I come again, and will receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also" ijohn 14:3). Just as literally as Christ went to heaven, so He will come again to receive His disciples to Himself and to take them to the Father's house.
     It is rather strange that the literal interpretation of this passage should be even questioned. It is perfectly obvious that Christ's departure from earth to heaven represented in the expression, "if I go," was a literal departure.  He went bodily from earth to heaven. By
the same token, "I come again" should be taken as a lit· eral and bodily return.  While the present tense is used in the expression, "I come again," its meaning is an emphatic future. The Authorized Version accordingly translates it, "I will come again." A.T. Robertson describes it, "Futuristic present middle, definite prom­ise of the second coming of Christ." As in English, a present tense is sometimes used in the Greek of a cer­tain future event pictured as if already coming to pass. A similar instance is the word of Christ to Mary in John 20:17, "I ascend unto my, Father and your Father, and my God and your God." The present is used for an emphatic future action.
     The revelation given in John 14 is to the point that the departure of Christ from earth to heaven is required in order to prepare a place for them in the Father's house, used here as an expression equivalent to heaven. The promise to come again is connected with the return of Christ to heaven with the disciples. Christ is promising to take His disciples to the Father's house when He comes again.
     It should be carefully determined just what takes place at the time of the event here described: Christ returns to the earthly scene to take the disciples from earth to heaven. This is in absolute contrast to what takes place when Christ returns to establish His king­dom on earth.  On that occasion, on one goes from earth to heaven. The saints in the millennial kingdom are on earth with Christ. The only interpretation that fits the statements of John 14 is to refer it to the time of the translation of the church. Then, indeed, the disci­ples will go from earth to heaven, to the place prepared in the Father's house.
     The idea of going to the Father's house in heaven was quite foreign to the thinking of the disciples. Their hope was that Christ would immediately establish His kingdom on earth and that they would remain in the earthly sphere to reign with Him. The thought of going to heaven first was a new revelation, and one that apparently was not comprehended. In Acts 1:6 they  were still asking about the restoration of the kingdom to Israel. In making the pronouncement in John 14, Christ is holding before His disciples an entirely different hope than that which was promised to Israel as a nation. It is the hope of the church in contrast to the hope of the Jewish nation. The hope of the church is to be taken to heaven; the hope of Israel is Christ return­ing to reign over the earth.
     The passage so clearly teaches that the disciples will go from earth to heaven that those who deny the pret­ribulation translation of the church are forced to spiri­tualize this passage and make the expression "I come again" a coming of Christ for each Christian at the time of his death. Marcus Dods states, "The promise is ful­ filled in the death of the Christian, and it has changed the aspect of death." It is certainly desperate exegesis to dream up not only a spiritualization of the term, "I come again," but to postulate a personal coming of Christ at the death of each saint, a teaching which is never found explicitly in the Scriptures'. Dods himself admits this is strange doctrine when be adds weakly, "The personal second coming of Christ is not a fre­ quent theme in this Gospel." The point is that a com­ ing of Christ to individuals at death is not found in John's Gospel at all, nor in any other Scripture. Here again is an illustration of the fact that spiritualization
of Scripture goes hand in hand with denial of the pret­ ribulation raptµre. Certainly, the hope set before the disciples cannot be reduced to the formula, "When you die you will go to heaven." This would not have been new truth. Rather, Christ is promising that when He comes He would take them to heaven where they would be forever with Him, without reference to death.
The ultimate objective of the return of Christ is that the disciples may be with Christ forever, "that where I am, there ye may be also." It is true that saints who die are immediately taken to heaven as far as their immate­ rial nature is concerned. In Scripture, however, the hope of being with Christ is connected with the transla­ tion of the church as if the intermediate state is not a full realization of what it means to be with Christ.
Hence in 1Thessalonians both the living and the resur­ rected dead shall "be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord" (1 Thess. 4:17-18). It is true, however, that the intermediate state is described as being "with Christ," (Phil 1:23), and as being "at home with the Lord" (2 Cor. 5:8). Nevertheless, the full expression of fellow· ship with Christ and being with Him wherever He goes is conditioned on the resurrection of the body for the dead in Christ and the translation of the living saints.
The hope of the return of Christ to take the saints to heaven is presented  in John 14  as a imminent hope.
There is no teaching of any intervening event. The prospect of being  taken to heaven as the coming of Christ is not qualified by description of any signs or prerequisite events. Here, as in other passages dealing with the coming of Christ for the church, the hope is presented as an imminent event. On this basis, the dis­ ciples  are  exhorted  not to be  troubled.   If the  teaching of Christ has been  to the intent that His coming for  them was after the great tribulation, it is difficult to see how this message would have been a source of solace  to their troubled hearts. Contrast the message of Christ to those living in the tribulation to flee their persecutors (Matt. 24: 15-22).
Other erltortations in relation to the return of Christ for the church also lose much of their meaning if the doctrine of imminency is destroyed. It should be obvi­ ous that only flagrant spiritualization of the tribulation passages which predict the program of events during the tribulation period can possibly save the doctrine of imminency for the posttribulationist. Ifthere are defi­ nite events of horrible suffering and persecution yet ahead before the return of Christ to establish His king­ dom, in no sense can this coming be declared immi­ nent.  When Calvin anticipated  the imminent coming of Christ, it was on the ground that the tribulation was already largely past-a deduction which depended upon spiritualization of the tribulation passages. Most post­ tribulationists today oppose the doctrine of imminency and regard the coming of Christ as approaching, but not immediate. For the most part, Scriptural evidence for imminency today is equivalent to proof of the pretribu­lation viewpoint
     In addition to  the  exhortation, "Let not your heart be troubled,'' there is coupled with the doctrine of the coming of the Lord in John 14:1 the charge, "Wherefore comfort one another 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 imminent hope. In 1 Thessalonians 1:10, they are described as those who ''wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, who deliv­ered us from the wrath to come." 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 chapter 2 and chapter 3 (1 Thess. 2, 1 Thess. 3), there are renewed assurances of the hope of Christ's return. Most of the immediate sig­nificance of this hope would be lost if, as a matter of fact, the coming of Christ was impossible until they had passed through the tribulation period. In 1 Thessalonians 5:6, they are exhorted to "watch and be sober," hardly a realistic command if the coming of Christ was greatly removed from their expectation. In 1 Corinthians 1:7, Paul speaks of the Corinthians as ''waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ," 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 as "looking  for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of the great God and our Saviour 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 the kingdom on earth, the church will see the glory of   Christ when she meets Him in the air.  This is the  express teaching  of  1John  3:2:  ''but we know  that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is" (AV) Again, it is difficult to make realistic a command to "look" for the glory of Christ if,  as a matter of fact, the event is separated from us by  great trials and persecutions which in all probability would  cause our destruction.
     The passage in John 3:1-3 adds the exhortation: "And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure" (1John 3:3, AV). The hope of seeing Christ as He is and being like Him is a purifying hope.  Again, the hope is realistic in proportion to its imminency. Housewives engage in special efforts of preparation when guests are expected momentarily, while the tendency would be unconcern if visitors were far removed.  The teaching of the coming of the Lord for the church is always presented as an imminent event which should occupy the Christian's thought and life to a large extent.
     By contrast, the exhortation to those living in the tribulation is to look for signs first and then, after the signs, to look for the return of Christ to establish His kingdom. Accordingly, in the Olivet Discourse, describ­ing the tribulation, they are exhorted to look for the sign of the abomination of desolation (Matt 24:15),   and to anticipate the announcement of false Christs.Then, the exhortation to them is to ''watch," that  is,
after the signs have all appeared  (Matt 24:42; Matt
25:13). Watching for the return of the Lord to establish the kingdom is related to the preceding signs, while the exortation to the church is without this context, and the coming of the Lord is regarded as an imminent event The only concept which does justice to this atti­tude of expectation of the church is that of the immi­nent return of Christ For all practical purposes, aban­donment of the pretribulational return of Christ is tan­tamount to abandonment of the hope of His imminent return. If the Scriptures present the coming of the Lord for His church as imminent, by so much they also declare it as occurring before the predicted period of tribulation.
     Argument from the nature of the work of the Holy Spirit in this age. In the Upper Room Discourse, our Lord predicted, among other important prophecies, the coming of the Holy Spirit While the Holy Spirit had been immanent in the world and active in creation, providence, inspiration, and salvation, a new order of the Spirit was foretold. This truth is gathered up in the momentous declaration recorded in John 14:16-17: "And I Vvil! pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may be with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth: whom the world cannot receive; for itbeholdeth him not, neither knoweth him: ye know him; for he abideth with you, and shall be in you."  In the distinction made in the last phrase, "abideth with you, and shall be in you," there is pre­dicted the tremendous change to be effected at Pentecost While formerly the Spirit was "with you," thereafter He would be "in you." The indwelling pres­ence of the Holy Spirit was to be one of the outstanding dispensational changes effected at Pentecost. While for­merly the Spirit was with the saints and only in extraordinary cases indwelled them, now His
indwelling all believers was to mark the wider extent of grace in the new age. The present age is the dispensa­ tion of the Spirit  Just as Christ was omnipresent in  the Old Testament, incarnate and present in the world in the Gospels, and returned to heaven in the Acts, so the Holy Spirit, after His period of ministry on the earth in the present age, will return to heaven.  The
chief proof text concerning the return of the Holy Spirit to heaven is found in 2 Thessalonians 2: 6-8, in connec­tion with  the revelation of the coming lawless  one, described :1.s "the man of sin," and "the son of perdi­tion." This character is·usually identified with the coming Antichrist or world-ruler of the tribulation peri­ od. The passage of Scripture dealing with this subject states that the man of sin cannot be revealed until the restrainer is "taken out of the way." But who is the restrainer?  Expositors of all classes have had a field day in attempting to identify this restrainer- Ellicott cites Schott as suggesting Paul himself. As another sug­gestion, Ellicott refers to Wieseler who identifies it as a collection of the saints at Jerusalem. Still more "plausi­ble," according to Ellicott, is that it refers to "the suc­ cessor of Roman emperors," which he traces to Wordsworth. His final suggestion, which he thinks is best, is that it is merely a "personification" of "what was previously expressed by the abstract to katechon." Thiessen notes that a popular view_is one which identi­fies the restrainer with the Roman Empire. Thiessen states, "Denney, Findlay, Alford, Moffatt, hold that this refers to law and order, especially embodied in the Roman Empire."  Another suggestion given by Thiessen, but discarded, is that of Mrs. George C. Needham who identifies the restrainer as Satan him­self.
     All of  these  suggestions break  down upon careful examination, however. Ifstudents of prophecy  are cor­  rect that a revival of the ancient Roman Empire is pre· dieted for the coming tribulation  period,  it should be clear that the Roman  Empire could hardly be conceived  of as being taken away as a prelude to the establish­   ment of  its supreme head as the man of sin.  Instead of  the Roman Empire or law and order in general being  taken  away during the  tribulation period,  it is revealed as an era of absolute government in which everything social,  religious,  and  economic is regimented.   If restraint of sin is taken away, it must be  traced to a   divine removal of the release of satanic evil. Certainly Satan himself does not restrain evil though he may dis­ guise its manifestation. The great tribulation has this characteristic  inpart because  Satan is cast from heaven  to earth and is more active than ever because he knows his time is short  (Rev  12:9).  The power and success of the Antichrist, or man  of sin himself,  is traced  to satan­ ic power (Rev. 13:4). Governmental agency as well as satanic power is insufficent to account for a significant removal of restraint of sin.  The exegesis of the key   words of the passage, while in themselves indecisive, is easily harmonized with the concept that the restraining power is that of the Holy Spirit Himself. One of the principal difficulties which have puzzled  expositors  is the change in gender from  the neuter  in 2 Thessalon­  ians 2:6, "that which restraineth," to the masculine in 2 Thessalonians 2:7, "one that restraineth." This is,  however, easily explained. It may be the difference between the power of God in general as a restraining  force in contrast with the person  of the  restrainer. Another possible explanation is that the change in gen­der is a recognition of the fact that pneuma, the word spirit in Greek, is grammatically neuter but is some­times regarded as a masculine in recognition of the fact that it refers to the person of the Holy Spirit. Hence in John  15:26  and John  16: 13-14 the masculine  is deliberately  used  in reference  to the Spirit.  In  Ephesians 1:13-14 the relative pronouns are used  in  the  masculine.
     The ultimate decision on the reference to the restrainer goes back to the larger question of who after all is capable of restraining  sin  to such an extent that the man of sin cannot be revealed until the restraint is removed. The doctrine of divine providence, the evi­dence of Scripture that that Spirit characteristically restrains and strives against sin (Gen. 6:3), and the teaching of Scripture that the Spirit is resident in the world and indwelling the church in a special sense in this age combine to point to the Spirit of God as the only adequate answer to the problem  of identification  of the  restrainer. The failure  to identify the  restrainer as the Holy Spirit is another indication of the inade­ quate understanding  of  the doctrine  of the Holy  Spirit in general and His work inrelation to the larger provi­ dential movements of God in human   history.
Ifthe Spirit be identified as the restrainer, a chronol­ ogy is set up which unmistakably places the translation  of the church before the tribulation. The passage teach­es that  the order of  events  is as follows:(1)  the restrain­er is now engaged in restraining sin; (2) the restrainer, will be  taken away at a future  point of time;  (3) then the man of sin can.be revealed. In as much as the man of sin is identified  with  the world  ruler, the  "prince that shall come" of Daniel 9:26, it should be clear to students of prophecy that the restrainer must be taken away before the beginning of the last seven years of Daniel's prophecy.  The very fact that the convenant   will be made with the head of the revived  Roman  Empire will be-an unmistakable token. A covenant involving the regathering of Israel to the land of Palestine and their protection from their foes could not be a secret covenant. Its very nature is a public matter requiring public declaration. A believer in Scripture would be able to identify the man of sin at once when this covenant is made. The chronology, therefore, requires the removal of the restrainer before the mani­festation of the man of sin by the very act of forming   the covenant with  Israel.
     It should also be evident that, if the Spirit of God characteristically indwells the church as well as the individual saint in this age, the removal of the Spirit would involve a dispensational change and the removal of the church as well While the Spirit will work in the tribulation period, He will follow the pattern of the  period before Pentecost rather than this present age of grace. The Spirit of God will return to heaven after accomplishing His earthly work much as the Lord Jesus Christ returned to heaven after completing His earthly work.   In both cases, the work  of the Second Person  and the Third Person  continues, but in a different  set­ting  and in a  different way.
     If,therefore, the restrainer of 2 Thessalonians 2 be identified as the Holy Spirit, another evidence is pro­duced to indicate the translation of the church before the final tribulation period will begin on earth. While in the realm of debateable conclusions if left unsupport­ ed by other Scriptual evidence, it constitutes a confir­ mation of the teaching that the church will be translat­ ed before the tribulation .





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