Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 114:453 (Jan 1957)
Article: The Rapture—Precisely When?
Author: Kenneth S. Wuest

BSac 114:453 (Jan 57) p. 60

The Rapture—Precisely When?

Kenneth S. Wuest

[Kenneth S. Wuest is a member of the Faculty of the Moody Bible Institute, Chicago, Illinois, and author of numerous books on New Testament Greek.]

Three questions are confronting the Christian world today with reference to this great event called the rapture. Will the church be caught up before Daniel’s seventieth week begins? Will the church remain on earth during the first three and one half years of that period when universal peace and prosperity will obtain under the benevolent rule of Antichrist, and then be translated just before the great tribulation, which latter period is to occupy the last three and one half years? Will the church remain on earth through the great tribulation and be caught up at its close to return to the earth with the Lord Jesus at His second advent?

The answer to these questions will only be convincing to the reader if it is based upon the rules of Biblical exegesis. Otherwise, it will be merely the opinion of the present writer, and worth just that much—nothing. The writer, when introducing the subject of Greek exegesis to his students, lays down the following basic rule to which they must adhere throughout their exegetical work: “That interpretation of a Scripture passage which is not based upon the historical background of the Bible book in which it is found, the analysis of the book, the context in which it occurs, an intensive study of the Greek words, and the correct application of the rules of Greek grammar and syntax, is to be regarded merely as the opinion of the exegete, and has no more value in the theological classroom than a theory has in the halls of science. That interpretation which is based upon the above rules is to be regarded as correct until it can be shown by the reapplication of the same rules that an error of human

BSac 114:453 (Jan 57) p. 61

judgment has crept in.”

There is such a thing, therefore, as a scientific method of studying the Word. The student who follows the rules of an experiment in chemistry brings that experiment to a successful conclusion. The student who does not ends up with an explosion. Just so, the student who conducts his study of the Bible along the scientific lines noted above arrives at the correct interpretation, and the student who does not at the wrong one. The exegetical method the student uses in answering the question with reference to the time of the rapture will determine whether he believes in a pretribulational or a posttribulational rapture. Both teachings can be gotten out of Scripture; but one will be based upon scientific rules of procedure and be accepted as true, whereas the other must be looked upon as the mere opinion of the exegete.

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