From: David Winfrey (dwinfrey@cgms.dade.k12.fl.us)
Date: Wed Feb 26 1997 - 15:37:16 EST
Carl,
That APOSTASIA may mean "departure", as Wuest and E.S. English,
point out in their efforts to reconcile 2 Thess. chp. 2 with the pretrib
view of the rapture, can be demonstrated by a reference in the "Assumption
of the Virgin."
The context makes it clear that the departure of Mary and the apostles unto
Jerusalem was by a rapture. Let me know if you would like a copy of the
Greek text.
If you would like, I would include a booklet written a few years
ago entitled AN EXAMINATION OF THE PRETRIBULATION RAPTURE INTERPRETATION OF
2 THESS.2:6-7. In this booklet I examine several reference to EK MESOU
GENHTAI in classical literature. As you know pretribulationists find in
this phrase a reference to the departure of the Spirit embodied church into
heaven at the rapture. And, I might add, many posttribulationists, find in
the same phrase a reference to appearance of the antichrist on the scene.
For them the phrase refers to the arrival of the antichrist "out of the
midst" (of humanity). Both pretribulationists and posttribulationist must
read something into the phrase.
Although I am a pretribulationist*, I do not believe that APOSTASIA
refers to a rapture, as it unquestionably does in the "Assumption of the
Virgin," nor do I believe that the phrase EK MESOU GENHTAI in 2 Thess.2:6
refers to a pretribulational rapture of the church. I believe both pre and
post tribulationists have been guilty of reading into the passage.
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