(Part 1)

JBTM Book Reviews
150
conclusions:
• a rapture and 7-year interval in 1 Cor 15:23–24 (126)
• Paul’s statement “Death, where is your sting?” corresponds to the final trumpet,
thus indicating Christian victory over death at the time of the rapture (135)
• the promise of a resurrected body in 1 Cor 4:14 with the phrase “the dead through
Christ will rise first” revealing this resurrection as the rapture (150)
• the term apostasy in 2 Thess 2:3, rendered by most translators as “rebellion”
or “falling away,” should be translated “the departing” and applied to raptured
Christians (181)
Chapters 8–10 focus on the book of Revelation. In chapter 8, “John and the Rapture,”
Andrew Woods mines the seven letters of Rev 2–3 for evidence of the rapture, emphasizing
Rev 3:10 as the key verse that shows this concept, while highlighting other evidence prior
to the tribulation moments that begin in Rev 4. In chapter 9, “What Child is This?” Michael
Svigel provides insight into the modern pretribulation movement by highlighting one of the
earliest arguments by J. N. Darby concerning the child of Rev 12 as an image of Christ and
thus, through proxy, the Church raptured. Michael Rydelnik closes the book by aruging for
the necessity of a rapture of the Christian Church in order to allow Israel to fulfill its Godgiven
task of blessing humanity.
For the interested pastor or lay person who accepts the pretribulation rapture as a
reasonable interpretation, this book is a gold mine of creative scholarship that can be used to
affirm this particular view of New Testament eschatology. The value of this book is found in
its evaluation of the key eschatological New Testament texts as well as its outlines of some
of the key cogs in the pretribulationists system of belief, including:
• the concept of imminence of both rapture and final judgment
• the idea that pretribulationism originating in Jesus himself and was captured by
various biblical authors
• the Day of the Lord as an essential concept for understanding all New Testament
prophecy, which is all future-oriented
• any reference to judgment or tribulation occurs after the rapture—thus there are
not rapture references in Rev 4–19 because those verses reveal the Day of the Lord
• Israel must play a role in the future in order for God to show his faithfulness to his
promises to Israel in the Old Testament
It is unfortunate that this system is not stated explicitly in the book. Even so, the authors
are thorough in their approach. They are keenly aware of the objections to their position and
methodically attempt to provide a defense of the pretribulationist position in each biblical
text addressed.