Journal: Journal of Ministry and Theology
Volume: JMAT 03:1 (Spring 1999)
Article: A Comparison of J. Oliver Buswell’s Mid-Trib Position with the Pre-Wrath Rapture View
Author: Michael D. Stallard

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JMAT 3:1 (Spr 99) p. 84

A Comparison of J. Oliver Buswell’s Mid-Trib
Position with the Pre-Wrath Rapture View

Mike Stallard

Associate Professor Of Systematic Theology
Baptist Bible Seminary, Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania

A little over a year ago, I was reading through Buswell’s A Systematic Theology of the Christian Religion in preparation for a lecture on the mid-tribulational rapture position.1 I was immediately struck by some of the similarities between Buswell and the more recent pre-wrath rapture view advanced by Robert Van Kampen and Marv Rosenthal. After asking a friend to review Buswell to make sure the correlation was not just in my imagination, I thought it fruitful to present a comparison of the two views. The significance of such a correlation might mean that (1) the pre-wrath rapture position is not so new since the general framework for it exists in the classical mid-trib position of Buswell, and (2) it has essentially been refuted in the past long before its own formal presentation. This is especially noteworthy in light of the claims by proponents of the pre-wrath view that it is eclectic in its choosing of what is good from most other rapture positions.

The Mid-Trib Position Of J. Oliver Buswell

J. Oliver Buswell was a professor and the third president of Wheaton College (1926–1940). This tenure was followed by a brief stay at Faith Theological Seminary. From 1941 to 1956 he served

JMAT 3:1 (Spr 99) p. 85

as President of what was to become Shelton College in New York City. From 1956 until the later years in his life, Buswell held the position of Dean of the Graduate Faculty at Covenant College and Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri. Throughout his ministry he taught philosophy and theology. Although the author of several books, he is best known for his original two-volume systematic theology which was mentioned earlier. He earned a Ph.D. from New York University but also received honorary doctorates from the Evangelical Theological College (later Dallas Seminary) in 1927 and Houghton College in 1936.2

Buswell was a leader among conservative Presbyterians who championed a premillennial yet mid-tribulational view of the rapture of the Church. His presentation is sometimes difficult to follow. Nonetheless, he shows a deep and abiding love for the details of the Word of God. He is usually careful to tell you when he is speculating and when he is exegeting what he believes to be a clear text. For our purposes here, several points emerge in his basic scheme for the mid-trib rapture:

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