Journal: Conservative Theological Journal
Volume: CTJ 06:18 (Aug 2002)
Article: Posttribulationism’s Appeal To Antiquity, Part II
Author: Steven L. McAvoy

CTJ 6:18 (August 2002) p. 235

Posttribulationism’s Appeal To Antiquity,
Part II

Steven L. McAvoy

Director, Institute for Biblical Studies
Portland, OR

With this article the author completes his study of posttribulationism.

Replacement theology holds that the church has replaced Israel in the outworking of God’s plan. Israel has been permanently rejected and set aside as the chosen people of God. The church is the new Israel, and heir to the OT covenant promises which were made to Israel. Generally speaking, this was the presumption of the early church fathers, and was the assumption of those whom Robert Gundry cites as supporting posttribulationism. It would make this paper tediously long to deal with every reference Gundry cites or even more than a few. So I confine my comments to just two examples.7 The two I have chosen are dated among the earliest.

The Didache (c. late first century-second century8 ). Appealing to this document Gundry says:

CTJ 6:18 (August 2002) p. 236

…the saying of Jesus recorded in Matthew 24:30–31 and its parallel Mark 13:26–27 put the gathering of the elect at his coming right after the tribulation. Well, late in the first century already, or early in the second, The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles quoted that saying twice and substituted “the church” for “the elect” (9:4; 10:5). This document went on to tell Christians that they must stand firm through the reign of Antichrist, which as in other early Christian literature is set out in the future, right up to Jesus’ subsequent coming and the accompanying resurrection of the saints [at which point he quotes The Didache 16:1–8].9

But as Gundry’s own citation shows, this document, early as it probably was, clearly assumes a replacement theology view of the church and Israel. The writer(s) of The Didache do in fact replace Israel with the church. Indeed, Matthew 24:30–31 and Mark 13:26–27 do put the gathering of the elect at the posttribulational coming of Christ. But they do not say “church” as does The Didache.

The Evangelists use εκλεκτους (“the chosen ones”). In its quotations of the Evangelists, The Didache substitutes “