The Rapture Promise: Its History and Fulfillment at Christ's Return: A Defense of Post-Tribulationism

Over the past two hundred years, the Church has probed and quibbled how to understand the events leading up to the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Perhaps no other issue has generated as much heat and debate as the topic of the Rapture of the Church. The historic view of the Church is that the Rapture–involving the resurrection of believers–is a unique event occurring at the time of the second coming of Christ. That is, the Rapture that is promised in such passages as 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 will be post-tribulational. Now in a ground-breaking new study of over 300 pages, the author provides one of the most thorough and technical studies of the Rapture to date.Following a careful review of the teachings of the early Church fathers, the author carefully surveys the development of eschatological thought throughout the Middle Ages and the Reformation, as well as the renewal of premillennial belief in England from the late 1500s to the early 1800s. Relying on original source material, the author carefully identifies the origin and circumstances that gave rise to the pre-tribulational rapture theory and its gradual spread from the 1830s to its popular embrace today. With this historical analysis as a backdrop, the author goes on to carefully analyze every relevant passage having a bearing on the subject of the Rapture, as well as theological arguments that are sometimes appealed to (e.g., the any-moment view of "imminency").The author–once an adherent himself of the pre-tribulational view–shares the research that caused him to change his mind and eventually embrace the post-tribulational view of the Rapture. The author, J. Paul Tanner, is well-acquainted with prophetic studies. He is the author of the highly acclaimed commentary on Daniel in the Evangelical Exegetical Commentary series, has authored the commentary The Book of Revelation; The Return of Christ to Reign Victoriously, and has had a number of articles dealing with eschatological studies published in leading evangelical journals. Dr. Tanner holds a PhD in Hebrew Literature and Culture from the Univ of Texas at Austin in addition to a ThM from Dallas Theological Seminary. He and his wife have been married for fifty years. Read more