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SUBJECT: Rapture
QUESTION: What is your belief regarding the rapture?
What is the origin of this false doctrine?
ANSWER
HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF THE RAPTURE'S ORIGIN
Let us initiate this study with the words of one of today’s
most prolific and anointed writers, J. Preston Eby. Without
his diligent research of these long forgotten facts, the
expose of the Rapture’s Origin would be incomplete, to say
the least. He writes: "It wasn't until the early or mid
1800's that there was any significant group of believers
around the world that looked for a "rapture" of the
Church prior to a seven-year tribulation period [Editor:
actually 3.5 years]. It may come as a shock to some
who read these lines, but it is a fact, nonetheless, that
the "rapture" teaching was not taught by the early Church,
it was not taught by Church of the first centuries, it was
not taught by the Reformers, it was not taught by anyone (except
a couple of Roman Catholic theologians) until
about the year 1830. At the time of the Reformation, the
early Protestants widely held and were convinced the Pope
was the supreme individual embodiment and personification of
the spirit of antichrist, and the Roman Church, the Harlot
System of Revelation seventeen. This understanding was
responsible for bringing millions of believers out of the
Roman Catholic religious system. It therefore became
expedient for certain Romish theologians to turn the
attention of the people away from the Papacy, and this they
endeavored to do by inventing a counter-interpretation to
that held by the Protestants. This new scheme of prophetic
interpretation became known as futurism. Rather than viewing
the drama of the book of Revelation spiritually and
historically, they would consign it all to a brief period of
time at the end of the age. It was a Jesuit priest named
Ribera who, in the days of the Reformation, first taught
that all the events in the book of Revelation were to take
place literally during the three and a half years reign of
the antichrist way down at the end of the age. Thus, Ribera
laid the foundation of a system of prophetic interpretation
of which the secret rapture has now become an integral part.
"Later, Emmanuel Lacunza, also a Jesuit priest, built on
Ribera's teachings, and spent much of his life writing a
book titled "The Coming of Messiah in Glory and Majesty."
Lacunza, however, wrote under the assumed name of Rabbi Ben
Ezra, supposedly a learned Jew who had accepted Christ as
his Saviour. With Jesuit cunning, he thus conspired to get
his book a hearing in the Protestant world (
they would not even permit it
in their homes coming from a Jesuit pen ) but as
the earnest work of the "converted Jew," they would consume
it with avid interest! Within the pages of this elaborate
forgery, Lacunza taught the novel notion that Jesus returns
not once, but twice, and at the "first stage" of His return
He "raptures" His Church so they can escape the reign of the
"future antichrist." His book was first published in Spanish
in the 1812 and soon found its way onto the shelves of the
library of the Archbishop of Canterbury in London, England.
"Now, enter the name of Edward Irving. Born in Scotland in
1792, Irving became one of the most eloquent preachers of
his time, and a leading figure of the Catholic Apostolic
Church of England. In 1828 his open-air meetings in Scotland
drew crowds of 10,000 people. His church in London seated
one thousand people and was packed week after week with a
congregation drawn from the most brilliant and influential
circles of society. There were some among them who by
prophetic declaration announced that the Lord was coming
soon, and this idea became prominent in their prophetic
utterances and teachings. Out of those prophetic
declarations some began to study the scriptures in the light
of a physical, literal coming of the Lord. Up until that
time the coming of the Lord was understood as coming of the
Lord TO His people, and IN His saints, and there was no
sense of His fleshly coming. Irving discovered Lacunza's
book and was deeply shaken by it, in fact, fell in love with
it, translated it into English, and it was published in
London in 1827. At this time Irving heard what he believed
to be a voice from heaven commanding him to preach the
Secret Rapture of the Saints. Irving then began to hold
Bible conferences throughout Scotland, Emphasizing the
coming of Jesus to rapture His Church.
"About this same time there began the emergence of a new
movement which came to be known as the Plymouth Brethren.
The Brethren movement had its beginning in Dublin in 1825
when a small group of earnest men, dissatisfied with the
lethargic condition that prevailed in the Protestant Church
in Ireland, met for prayer and fellowship. Soon others
joined the fellowship and associated groups sprang up in
various places. Though the movement had its beginning at
Dublin, it was Plymouth, England that became the center of
their vast literature outreach, thus the name Plymouth
Brethren became attached. Although there was interest from
the start in prophetic subjects, the center of interest was
on the body of Christ as an organism and the spiritual unity
of Christ of all believers, in reaction to the deadness of
formalism of the organized church systems and the
ecclesiastical hierarchy. A man by the name of John Nelson
Darby was the leading spirit among the Plymouth Brethren
from 1830 onward. Darby was from a prosperous Irish family,
was educated as a lawyer, took high honors at Dublin
University, then turned aside, to his father's chagrin, to
become a minister.
"Thus Irving and Darby were contemporaries, though
associated with different spiritual movements. Another
series of meetings were in progress at this time. A group of
seeking Christians were meeting in the castle of Lady
Powerscourt for the study of Bible prophecy. Many clergymen
attended, and quite a few who were Irvingites. The
Irvingites came to the meetings obsessed with the ideas of
the "Secret Rapture" and the "future antichrist," imbibed
from the Jesuit teaching of the Secret Rapture and the
futurist interpretation of prophecy, as well as the famous
book by Rabbi Ben-Ezra, or, actually, Jesuit priest Emmanuel
Lacunza! Darby was himself a prolific writer and from the
time a constant stream of propaganda came from his pen. His
writings on biblical subjects number over 30 volumes of 600
pages each. Darby developed and organized "futurism" into a
system of prophetic teaching called "dispensationalism."
Darby's biographers refer to him as "the father of
dispensationalism." And the crown jewel in the kingdom of
dispensationalism is, of course, the so-called SECRET
RAPTURE!
"The Secret Rapture teaching was introduced into the United
States and Canada in the 1860's and 1870's though there is
some indication that it may have been taught as early as the
1840's. Darby himself visited the United States six times.
The new teaching was spreading. A Congregationalist preacher
by the name of C.I. Scofield came under the influence of
Darby and the Plymouth Brethren. The Scofield Reference
Bible was destined to have a tremendous impact upon the
beliefs of may, when, three million copies were published in
the first 50 years. Through this Bible, Scofield carried the
teaching of the Secret Rapture into the very heart of
evangelism. Some ignorant souls look on the notes in this
Bible as the Word of God itself. I do not doubt for one
instant that many who read these lines have been influenced
somewhere in their spiritual lives by the footnotes in the
Scofield Bible.
"There is one final link in the chain of the development and
spread of the rapture theory that should be mentioned in
passing. I would draw your attention again to the source,
the origin, of the rapture doctrine and the chain of contact
by which it has been brought down to this day. It began as a
Roman catholic invention. The Jesuit priest Ribera's
writings influenced the Jesuit priest Lacunza, Lacunza
influenced Irving, Irving influenced Darby, Darby influenced
Scofield, Scofield and Darby influenced D.L. Moody, and
moody influenced the Pentecostal Movement. How? you ask. The
Assemblies of God is today by far the largest Pentecostal
denomination in the world. When the Pentecostal movement
began at the turn of the century, and the Assemblies of God
held their first general council in 1914 in Hot Springs,
Arkansas, they were a small movement and didn't have their
own publishing house. They needed Sunday School and study
materials for their churches, so where do you suppose they
got it? They bought it from Moody Press and had their own
cover stitched on it! So what do you think the Assemblies of
God people believed? They believed what Moody Bible
Institute taught! This had its impact on Pentecostal
theology, because in the early years there were practically
no pre-millenialists in the Pentecostal movement. Most of
the ministers in those early days came from Presbyterian,
Methodist, or other historic denominations; men who, being
baptized in the Holy Spirit and leaving their denominations,
joined themselves to the Assemblies of God or one of the
other emerging Pentecostal denominations. That is how the
Pentecostal movement became influenced and saturated with
the "Secret Rapture" doctrine by a direct chain right back
to THE ROMAN CHURCH." —End quote.
MARGARET MACDONALD'S ACCOUNT
The doctrine of the "PRE-TRIB RAPTURE" can also be credited
to what began in Port Glasgow, Scotland in 1830. A young
Scottish lass named Margaret MacDonald had a revelation of
the coming of the Lord before the great tribulation. Several
noted Bible teachers of that day picked up on this thought,
but it was Edward Irving and John Darby who were responsible
for it being popularized in Scotland and England. It is said
of Darby that he borrowed from Margaret MacDonald's
revelation, modified her views, and then taught them under
his own name without giving her credit. He visited the U.S.
at least five times, and his dispensationalism became part
of the Scofield Reference Bible (1909), as quoted
above. It was the notes in Scofield's Bible that caused this
new teaching to find favor in this country.
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