[Ed. Note: As of 24 June 2011, the article below has been found to be unreliable. Therefore, I have removed identifying information. Should you wish to read the correction, please go to a later post in my blot. You can find it here.]
Well, the time set by Mr. Camping has passed by, and yet again another end-times prediction has come and gone. Perhaps it might be good to review how the end-times rapture theology came about. I have permission to re-publish the article which you find below. It comes from the XXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXX.
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Rapture Theology’s Ominous Origins
by Fr. XXXX XX XXXX
Origins of the Rapture actually don’t go back that far, but farther than you may have been taught (if you were taught!).
First of all, the word ‘rapture’ is not even included in the Scriptures, and was unknown as a theology or a doctrine by the Church for well over 1,800 years.Where then did it come from and when did it begin?
Its origins are in the counter reformation move of Papal Rome in the 16th century after Martin Luther nailed his 95 thesis to the church door in Wittenberg on October 31, 1517. It is less well known that Pope Leo X authorized three Jesuit Priests to reinterpret Daniel’s 70 weeks of prophecy; the Book of Revelation; and Ezekiel. The goal of these jesuits was to take the heat of the reformation away from the papacy and the protestant association of the Anti-Christ with the pope. The three Jesuits were:
- Francisco Ribera (1537-1591) of Salamanca,
- Luis de Alcazar (1554-1621) of Seville, and
- Cardinal Roberto Bellarmine (1542-1621).
The rapture doctrine originated and was submitted by Francisco Ribera in 1585. His Apocalyptic Commentary was on the grand points of Babylon and the Anti-Christ which are now known as the rapture doctrine. Ribera’s published work was called “In Sacram Beati Ionnis Apostoli & Evangelistate Apocoalypsin Commentari” (Lugduni 1593). You can still find these writings in the Bodleian Library in Oxford England. The work was considered flawed and faulty, and was ordered buried in the Church archives, out of sight, by the pope himself.
Unfortunately, over 200 years later a librarian to the Archbishop of Canterbury by the name of S. R. Maitland (1792-1866) was appointed to be the Keeper of the Manuscripts at Lambeth Palace, in London, England. In his duties, Dr. Maitland came across Francisco Ribera’s rapture theology and he had it republished for the sake of interest in early 1826 with follow ups in 1829 and 1830.
This was spurred along with the Oxford Tracts that were published in 1833 to try and deprotestantize the Church of England. John Nelson Darby (1800-1882) (A Leader of the Plymouth Brethren) became a follower of S.R. Maitland’s prophetic endeavors and was persuaded. Darby’s influence in the seminaries of Europe combined with 7 tours of the United States changed the eschatological view of the ministers which had the trickle down effect into the churches.
Another contributor to the rapture ideology came through Emmanuel Lacunza (1731-1801), a Jesuit priest from Chile. Lacunza wrote the “Coming of Messiah in Glory and Majesty” around 1791. It was later published in London in 1827. The book was attributed to a fictitious author name Rabbi Juan Josafat BenEzra.
Edward Irving (1792-1834) contended that it was the work of a converted Jew and proved that even the Jewish scholars embraced a pre-tribulation rapture line of thought. It wasn’t long until he had persuaded others to follow his line of thought which gave birth to the Irvingites. However, when chaotic disturbances arose in Irving’s services during the manifestations of these “gifts”, the Church of Scotland took action, dismissing Irving from his position as minister in 1832.
In 1830 during one of Irving’s sessions before his dismissal, a young Scottish girl, named Margaret MacDonald, fell into a trance. After several hours of “vision” and “prophesying” she revealed that Christ’s return would occur in two phases, not just one. Christ would first come visibly to only the righteous, then He would come a second time to execute wrath on the unrighteous in the nations. This rapture was promoted by Irving claiming he, too, had heard a voice from heaven commanding him to teach it. In March 1830, in Port Glasgow, Scotland, 15 year old Margaret McDonald made claim of her visions. Robert Norton published Margaret’s visions and prophecies in a book entitled, “The Restoration of Apostles and Prophets in the Catholic Apostolic Church” (London, 1861).
The ultimate result of Irving’s dismissal was the formation of the Catholic Apostolic Church, which still exists until this day. Irving’s movement grew and became the basis of modern day pentecostalism.
There is good evidence that John Nelson Darby, the father of modern dispensationalism, visited Margaret Macdonald in her home during her ecstatic episodes. He began to teach the rapture as a result, provided the idea with theological underpinings necessary for it to be considered legitimate, and his teachings were embraced by the Plymouth Brethren.
Darby’s teachings were embraced radically by Cyrus Ingerson Scofield (1843-1921). Scofield adopted Darby’s (Ribera’s) school of prophetic thought into the Scofield Reference Bible of 1909 which was heralded at that time as the “book of books”, and continues to legitimize this false teaching in the eyes of many protestants.
The natural evolution of this movement has resulted in the recent emergence of the “Toronto Blessing” (Laughing Spirit) phenomenon, a bizarre experience of uncontrollably ‘laughing in the Spirit.’
Although the modern day view of every believer being taken away in a rapture is different from all of the thoughts that came before it, there is little doubt to it’s error.
- Lacunza asserted that only those believers that partake of the sacrament of the Eucharist would be raptured;
- Margaret McDonald said the rapture would only take those that were filled with the Holy Spirit; and
- Norton claimed that only those that had been sealed with the Holy Spirit by the laying on of hands would be raptured.
As you might imagine, confusion ensued.
Today’s common belief among believers in the rapture is that only ‘true believers’ will be raptured – a form of the invisible Church teaching so common to protestant ecclesiologies. Belief in the rapture has become so widespread among today’s “evangelicals” and “fundamentalists” that many sitting in the pews assume that the teaching dates back to the apostles themselves.
The Rapture as a topic has been a big money maker. The Left Behind series of 16 books by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, dealing with Christian dispensationalist End Times and focus, not surprisingly, on the Rapture. The series was first published 1995-2007 by Tyndale House, a firm with a history of interest in dispensationalism. This series has been adapted into three action thriller films, and three PC video games.
Of course, Harold Camping who has also profited greatly from his teachings on the Rapture, is not the first false prophet to set a date for the Rapture, nor will he be the last. He declared previously that the Rapture would take place on September 6, 1994.
Regardless of whom one regards as the originator of the teaching — whether Ribera, Lacunza, Irving, Darby, or Margaret MacDonald – one thing is obvious; the “rapture” theory is of recent heterodox origin, has no basis in Scripture, the Fathers, is mentioned nowhere in antiquity, nor was it ever a teaching of the Christ, or His Apostles.
It is not now, nor has ever been, an Orthodox Christian teaching – and that is saying something.
Compiled from various sources, including:
Catholic Origins of the Futurism and Preterism
A History of the Foundations of Futurism and Preterism (this source cites the book by LeRoy Edwin Froom,The Prophetic faith of Our Fathers, The Historical Development of Prophetic Interpretation, Vol. 2, Review and Herald, Washington, D.C., 1948, excerpted, pp. 464-532.)
Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Denver website
© 2011, Preachers Institute. All rights reserved.
I was not aware of the remote history, that prior to McDonald and Darby. Fascinating. Thanks to Fr. John for writing this and to you, Fr. Ernesto, for posting.
Ok, now what? 12/21/12 according to the Mayan doomsday prediction? And will it be a massive solar flare that could annihilate everyone? Maybe we must prepare now or just look for Superman to save the world.
Maybe we must prepare now or just look for Superman to save the world.
We found Superman in 2008, remember? His name was Barack Obama. Built his entire Presidential campaign on hopey-changey Messiah Politics and (unlike Ross Perot) had the personal charisma to pull it off.
Father, Thank You for this. Most informative, indeed!
I am seeking to understand further and hope you can help. I am most certainly not of the pre-trib-rapture-dispensationlist sort, but in my studies I have come across the following and would like to know what the Orthodox answer to this might be, since there seems to me to be some evidence here that cannot be disregarded:
(1) Dr. William Harold, professor of Canon Law, at the Theological Seminary of Essex, GB wrote:
“Without doubt, this is the most important discovery in the history of Biblical archeology. The scroll, written in Aramaic, the language spoken in the Holy Land during Jesus time on earth, was found in a cave on the shores of the Dead Sea by geologists conducting a survey for the Israeli government.”
The scrolls read:
“The Rapture will occur suddenly. And countless thousands will vanish from the earth. Swept up to heaven to live with Jesus and escape the torment of the Tribulation, the others will be left behind.” — The Dead Sea Scrolls
(2) The Shepherd of Hermes – “You have escaped from great tribulation on account of your faith, and because you did not doubt in the presence of such a beast. Go, therefore, and tell the elect of the Lord His mighty deeds, and say to them that this beast is a type of the great tribulation that is coming. If then ye prepare yourselves, and repent with all your heart, and turn to the Lord, it will be possible for you to escape it, if your heart be pure and spotless, and ye spend the rest of the days of your life in serving the Lord blamelessly.”
St. Ephrem the Syrian – “Why therefore do we not reject every care of earthly actions and prepare ourselves for the meeting of the Lord Christ, so that he may draw us from the confusion, which overwhelms all the world? Believe you me, dearest brother, because the coming (advent) of the Lord is nigh, believe you me, because the end of the world is at hand, believe me, because it is the very last time. Or do you not believe unless you see with your eyes? See to it that this sentence be not fulfilled among you of the prophet who declares: “Woe to those who desire to see the day of the Lord!” For all the saints and elect of God are gathered, prior to the tribulation that is to come, and are taken to the Lord lest they see the confusion that is to overwhelm the world because of our sins.”
St. Diadochus of Photiki (On Spiritual Knowledge, text 100, Philokalia Vol. I) – “If we do not confess our involuntary sins as we should, we shall discover an ill-defined fear in ourselves at the hour of our death. We who love the Lord should pray that we may be without fear at that time; for if we are afraid then, we will not be able freely to pass by the rulers of the nether world. They will have as their advocate to plead against us the fear which our soul experiences because of its own wickedness. But the soul which rejoices in the love of God, at the hour of its departure, is lifted with the angels of peace above all the hosts of darkness. For it is given wings by spiritual love, since it ceaselessly carries within itself the love which ‘is the fulfilling of the law’ (Rom. 13:10).
At the coming of the Lord those who have departed the present life with such confidence as this will be ‘caught up’ together with all the saints (1Thess: 4:17); but those who feel fear even for an instant at the moment of their death will be left behind with the rest of mankind to be tried by the fire of judgement (1 Pet. 1:7), and will receive from our God and King, Jesus Christ, the lot due to them according to their works. For He is the God of justice and on us who love Him He bestows the blessings of His kingdom through all the ages. Amen.”
An interpretation of the phrase in text 100, ‘tried by the fire of judgement’, given by St. Maximos [the Confessor] at the request of certain brethren:
“Those who have acquired perfect love for God and have through their virtues risen with the wings of the soul, will be ‘caught up in the clouds’, as the Apostle says, and will not be brought to judgement. On the other hand, those who have not acquired love in all its perfection, but have both sins and virtues on their account, will appear before the court of judgement. There they will be tried as it were by fire; their good actions will be put in the balance against the bad, and if the good outweigh the bad they will be delivered from punishment.”
Now, I would be far more disposed to believing in this sort of “rapture” than the evangelical protestant version, yet the article by Fr. Peck does not touch on this at all. Clearly, this evidence from the Scrolls and more importantly from The Tradition and of course the two most prominent verses of Scripture (Mt. 24:40-44 and 1 Thess. 4:16-18) would seem to indicate a separation of the righteous from the wicked as our Lord described by way of parable in Mt. 25.
I am fully convinced that the emphasis should rightly be on just being ready, preparing our hearts to see Our Lord and not on trying to discern details of how and when. But I think it also useful to be able to give a concise Orthodox answer to our evangelical brethren, since they know most of what I have included above and use it to support their errant theory.
Your response is appreciated, Father!
Let’s look back at those quotes keeping in mind that millenarianism was declared to not be according to the Fathers. When the Church Fathers wrote, they did not deny that the Christians would be taken up to meet Our Lord. That is written in Scripture and the Fathers. But, their perspective was that the Lord was going to return once more and only once more. That is why the interpretation of an earthly millenial kingdom was rejected. To believe in the millenial kingdom would mean that one essentially has to believe in three comings and two “final” battles. The first coming is to take only the Christians, the second coming is after the tribulation in order to set up the millenial kingdom, when the first “final” battle takes place. The third coming is at the end of the millenial kingdom when the second “final” battle takes place.
Without further context, I will leave the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Shepherd of Hermes quotes alone. There was much apocalyptic writing happening before and after the coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ. I will simply point out that the whole point of the papal project was to try to find some foundation that would enable the Roman Church to deny the charge that they were the fulfillment of the great whore of Babylon. So, that there are some writings that would appear to support some such interpretation is not surprising. Think of the Montanists, for example.
So, let’s look at the rest of the quotes. Both St. Diadochus of Photiki and St. Maximus the Confessor are speaking about the time of death. Even when they speak of those who have died being gathered with those who are still alive at the Second Coming, notice that both assume that there is an immediate judgment. In neither of those authors is there any mention of any time of tribulation, and, of course, no mention of any earthly millenial kingdom.
That leaves St. Ephrem the Syrian, whose quote does indeed point to a tribulation period from which the Christians should be spared. But, notice that both St. Ephrem and St. Maximus point out that only the blameless Christians will be spared, the Christians who really have not tried to purify themselves are going to go through it with the rest. In fact, the quote from St. Maximus gives me pause as he says that if you have not tried hard enough to be blameless, then you will be subject to judgment on the basis of your works alone. That seems to contradict at least one of the anathemas that is read during the Sunday of Orthodoxy. But, again, note that neither saint says that all Christians will avoid the fire, but only those who have trod the path of striving for holiness. That is the emphasis of both saints, not on what may happen afterward.
More than that, look at the quote from St. Maximus again because it is one of the quotes that is also used to back up the idea of Purgatory. Nothing in his quote speaks about a tribulation period. He talks about what happens after death. St. Diadochus is speaking of the “toll house” theology and, again, is not speaking about a tribulation period. In fact, St. Diadochus does better than St. Maximus at pointing out that even those who must go through a fire will very probably be rescued from it after they are purified precisely because God on us who love him, “bestows the blessings of his Kingdom.” But again, these are both “purgatory” quotes, not tribulation quotes.
Nevertheless, up through the fourth century one can quote a minority of the Church Fathers as supporting some form of millenianism. But, they were never a majority, and millenianism was condemned in the 380’s. Notice that St. Ephrem lived before the period of definition. So, he could very well have been part of that minority.
There is a not quite as good as I would like article here http://www.orthodoxresearchinstitute.org/articles/dogmatics/cozby_rapture1.htm. Also, look up the online thesis of EUGENIA SCARVELIS CONSTANTINOU, called ANDREW OF CAESAREA AND THE APOCALYPSE
IN THE ANCIENT CHURCH OF THE EAST: Studies and Translation, It was her Ph.D. candidate thesis.
Also, Father Ernesto, I am pretty sure that the alleged quote from the Dead Sea Scrolls is simply made up. I cannot even verify the existence of the scholar in question or the seminary. It seems to stem from Jack Van Impe or a source close to him.
The Ephrem quote is definitely pseudo-Ephrem from the Sixth Century and, in context, pretty clearly refers to be people going to heaven by way of dying.
Obviously, I should have looked up the quotes first to make sure that they were fully kosher and of their content. GRIN.
[Later edit: I looked for William Harold and could not find him in this century, except for quotations on websites in favor of a pre-tribulation rapture. I also could not find a current Theological Seminary at Essex or in fact any theological degree granting school there, though there very well may be. I did find a William Harold who indeed did write a pamphlet to a “Catholic layman,” but that Harold was born in the 1820’s and died long before the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. So, as far as I also can tell, that quote is made up. Can anybody substantiate that quote from an original source? I do not mean from a secondary quote from a pre-tribulation rapture source, but a source quote or the existence of such a seminary?]
Did some more checking, and yes, the quote from Saint Ephrem is NOT from Saint Ephrem, but rather from the Apocalypse of Pseudo-Ephraem, which is a 7th century Syrian tract. And, yes, again the use of it in the rapture controversy traces back to an American in Texas.
“A translation of a late Latin text of what is purported to be a sermon of Pseudo-Ephraem, by a professor at Tyndale Theological Seminary, Ft. Worth, Tx., Cameron Rhoades, is cited by some, to support an early church reference to the rapture. However, this support is questionable. The Latin text is not ‘early’ (later than 8th century) and is a conflated text, and not translated directly from either the Syriac or Greek texts. For perspective, according to Frazier, ‘Collections of works ascribed to Ephrem exist in several languages, the largest body of texts being Greek. Nearly all the surviving texts attributed to Ephrem in languages other than Syriac and Armenian are derived from this Greek corpus, including the Latin corpus.’
“Importantly, according to Reeves, ‘The Latin pseudo-Ephrem and the Syriac pseudo-Ephrem are not the same text, and the nature of their relationship to one another has yet to be satisfactorily explained. What does seem to be clear is that the Latin text borrows from the Pseudo-Methodius apocalypse (and is thus later than circa 700 CE), whereas the Syriac text seems to be older and does not betray such influence.’
“Thus, different translations from different underlying texts (Syriac text, Greek, and Latin) are confusedly cited as the same Pseudo-Ephraem sermon and popular writers do not point out these important differences, e.g., that the Latin text is much later and borrows from Pseudo-Methodius.”
Another way to put it is that both the Dead Sea Scrolls text and the Saint Ephrem text are fakes. And, I got caught by them, sadly.
Fakes that became Millinearian Urban Legends, accepted as genuine within that group (probably because it backs up their beliefs and the origins were not known to those popularizing them).
Thank you Fr. b/c, as you are well familiar with my background, I had the very same questions (ok, not all the older references-I’m on vacation lol)..however, I didn’t see your answer to the Thessalonians verse as well as the verse that references “2 will be working in the fields and only one will be left, etc.” (can’t remember where it is).
Look closely at 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18. It says nothing about a tribulation of any type. It simply says that when the Lord comes back that those who are his will join him forever. But, go on to 1 Thessalonians 5, which contains the rest of that passage. It goes on to speak that on the day that the Lord comes back, there will be destruction for those who are not ready, and the encouragement is the same as the Lord’s parable of the virgins, 5 were ready and went in to be with their bridegroom and 5 were not ready. So, Saint Paul says, do not rely simply and only on the fact that you call yourself Christian. But, the passage itself actually pictures the Lord coming back and the Judgment as all happening on the same day, not over any time period.
Oddly enough, the second passage to which you referred was the Matthew 24 passage, in which Jesus says at the beginning, “Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name . . . and will deceive many.” Certainly Mr. Camping quite fits that description. But, carefully read that entire passage. The passage assumes that there will be believers present throughout the entire process. That is why those days will be cut short, as it specifically says. Were the elect not present, it is implied that God would let those days play out even longer. Second, the entire process is the history of the world. It simply says that there will be wars, earthquakes, famines and warns us to NOT use those to try and forecast the end. There is a specific warning that those who forecast the end are NOT actually acting in God’s name. And, finally, when the end comes, it comes suddenly and all is over right away. There is NO mention of a period following the Lord’s appearing, rather he comes and then judgment.
father- do you think that the rapture people like to shoehorn the book of revalation into modern day events
Fr. Ernesto,
As I may have noted before, I was converted to Christianity through Harold Camping’s radio ministry (at one time he did preach the true gospel) and his church was the first church I attended back in 1994. I experienced the fallout of his original end of the world prediction and left there a while later after failed attempts in confronting him and his teachings. As a result, I have watched with interest over the years as he has swerved further from the truth.
I also wanted to make a couple of technical corrections to Fr. Peck’s article. Actually Camping didn’t hold to a rapture until relatively recently in his theological (de)evolution, with this most recent prediction. He was a Reformed amillennialist who preached to great extremes against rapture theology and dispensationalism. His prediction for September 6, 1994 was that the final tribulation was over on that day (it started May 21, 1988) and the salvation of sinners was complete. On that day (immediately after the tribulation of those days), the sun would go out, the moon would turn to blood and the stars would travel through space and fall from the sky to earth. Earthquakes, tidal waves and cosmic events of biblical proportions (ahem!) would take place until somewhere between Sept 15 and 22, when Christ would finally return to end the world, cause the resurrection, judge the world, separate the sheep from the goats and usher in the eternal state. The unbelievers would call for the mountains and hills to cover them, etc, etc, etc. BUT, true believers would be experiencing this same universal apocalypse along with the unbelievers, without being raptured. Of course, he figured that experiencing cosmic upheaval would be some kind of joyous event for believers, but this teaching proved to be a major source of terror for even some of his most ardent followers.
Interesting! His 1994 view would actually be closer to what some of the Early Church Fathers taught. And, he may very well still hold to that view. I now see that he still had predicted that the world would end in six months.
Father,
Thank You for taking the time to address my questions.
I apologize for the false quotes I included. My intention was not to deceive. The Dead Sea Scroll, Shepherd of Hermes and pseudo-Ephrem quotes was sent to me by someone I know who was attempting to convince me of the validity of the rapture teaching. The quotes from St. Diadochus and St. Maximos came from my own copy of the Philokalia, which I cited.
I do appreciate your expounding on these, though, since (with the exception of St. D and St. M) are widely wielded about by protestants (and even some catholics) who are solid believers in the Rapture.
My purpose behind bringing this to you was to gain a greater Orthodox perspective for purposes of apologetics.
Again, I very much appreciate your time and insight.
PAX
“It is less well known that Pope Leo X authorized three Jesuit Priests to reinterpret Daniel’s 70 weeks of prophecy”
Pope Leo X was dead before the “three Jesuits” supposedly commissioned were even born, and before the Society of Jesus was formed.
ROFL, you are ever so correct. That is what I get for not checking out each and every fact in the article I quoted. The two possible popes, given the time period, were Pope Gregory XIII or Pope Sixtus V for the submission in 1585, and Pope Clement VIII for Fr. Ribera’s published work. Since the date of the published work is two years after Fr. Ribera’s death, it assumes that his two collaborators continued his work. What is interesting is that his two collaborators were younger and lived during the reign of Pope Leo XI, so there might have been a misprint as to which Leo was intended. Nevertheless, it was impossible for either Leo to have commissioned the study.
The Society of Jesus was approved by Pope Paul III in 1540, so they were certainly around at the time cited in the article.
I think I will do a blog post on this!
Check out my blog post on 25 June 2011 and you can see how I have investigated the whole article I posted.
It’s nice to see that you care enough to get to the bottom of things, Fr. 🙂
On a side note, what interests me is how and why – after centuries of neglect by the Catholic Church – Ribera’s document was discovered anew and espoused (so enthusiastically, it seems) by certain groups of Protestants. … It blows my mind that this manuscript has never been translated from Latin.
It is all too common in American nowadays to rely on reports of someone who said that they read someone who said that they read … the original author. Thus, there is no need to translate a document when one can rely on someone else to have read it, digested it, and summarized it for one.
Moreover, I have the sneaking suspicion that there is a subtle relief that it is not translated as then no one can dispute one’s take on it.
Many others believed and taught this long before John Darby
95-150 AD, the Rapture idea was preached by the Shepherd of Hermas. 2
“You have escaped from great tribulation on account of your faith, and because you did not doubt in the presence of such a beast. Go, therefore, and tell the elect of the Lord His mighty deeds, and say to them that this beast is a type of the great tribulation that is coming. If then ye prepare yourselves, and repent with all your heart, and turn to the Lord, it will be possible for you to escape it, if your heart be pure and spotless, and ye spend the rest of the days of your life in serving the Lord blamelessly.” (documented by Larry V. Crutchfield) 3
270-303 AD, Victorinus, the Bishop of Pettau, a Catholic ecclesiastical writer preached it.
Victorinus said he saw another great and wonderful sign in his commentary on Book of Revelation in AD 270:
“Seven angels having the last seven plagues, for in them is completed the indignation of God. And these shall be in the last times when the church shall have gone out of the midst.”
No doubt about it, St. Victorinus proclaimed the pretrib Rapture. 4
306-373 AD Ephrem the Syrian. One of the most important evidences for rapture is an apocalyptic sermon from the 4th century titled “Sermon on the End of the World”. It is credited to Ephrem the Syrian, a Syriac deacon, theologian, and hymnographer of the 4th century who wrote many biblical commentaries. Some suggest it may not have been written until a later date of 565-627 A.D. The exact date doesn’t matter. Even if it were as late as the 7th century, it is still 1100 years prior to John Darby. Ephrem wrote:
“Why therefore do we not reject every care of earthly actions and prepare ourselves for the meeting of the Lord Christ, so that he may draw us from the confusion, which overwhelms all the world? Believe you me, dearest brother, because the coming (advent) of the Lord is nigh, believe you me, because the end of the world is at hand, believe me, because it is the very last time. Or do you not believe unless you see with your eyes? See to it that this sentence be not fulfilled among you of the prophet who declares: “Woe to those who desire to see the day of the Lord!” For all the saints and elect of God are gathered, prior to the tribulation that is to come, and are taken to the Lord lest they see the confusion that is to overwhelm the world because of our sins.” 5
400 AD, Jerome in the Latin vulgate (in the Catholic Bible) used the word rapimur which means “rapture”, or “caught up” to describe the Rapture. Jerome is actually the man who first coined the term – Rapture. 6
You guys oughta learn how to Google your questions. You Rapture bashers really should get some “New Talking Points”. Darby invented the Rapture is a bunk Statement. If you don’t believe in the Rapture, you probably won’t go because you didn’t Study The Bible Enough and lack faith in what it says.
/ Just ran across this interesting bit on the net. Reactions, anyone? /
Catholicism Invented the Rapture? C’mon!
Many web sites claim that a 16th century Jesuit Catholic priest named Francisco Ribera taught an early form of the famous evangelical “rapture” that reportedly precedes and is disconnected from the final Second Coming.
To see the actual thrust of this claim, Google “Francisco Ribera taught a rapture 45 days before the end of Antichrist’s future reign.”
But no one ever quotes even one sentence from Ribera’s monumental commentary on the Book of Revelation which is said to be the source of the 45-day rapture claim.
Claimants are challenged to produce Ribera’s own words on this matter. If they cannot, their names should be blazoned on the web as hysterical historians! (BTW, no other Catholic leader, including Jesuit priest Manuel Lacunza, has ever taught a prior rapture.)
Curious about the real beginnings of the same mystical “fly-away” belief (a.k.a. the “pre-tribulation rapture”) that has captivated many evangelical leaders including Darby, Scofield, Lindsey, Falwell, LaHaye, and Hagee? Google “Pretrib Rapture Dishonesty.”
The Partial Rapture View
“church” RAPTURE “church”
(present age) (tribulation)
Hal Lindsey’s “The Rapture” (1983, p. 26) says partial rapturists see only “spiritual” church members in the rapture and only “carnal” members of the church in the tribulation. John Walvoord’s “The Rapture Question” (1979, p. 97) refers to partial rapturists as “pretribulationists.” Leading partial rapturists including Pember and Govett see all of the “church” on earth before a pretrib rapture and only part of the “church” left behind to be tried by the Antichrist – truly the “church-splitting” view as shown in the above chart!
In the spring of 1830 Scottish lassie Margaret Macdonald was first to teach a pretrib rapture. It was actually an early version of partial rapturism because she said that after the rapture of “church” members “filled with the Spirit,” the “church” members “who had not the Spirit” would be left behind to be tried by “THE WICKED” one (Antichrist). In Sep.1830 Edward Irving’s journal “The Morning Watch” (hereafter: TMW) was the first to publicly echo her novel view when it stated that “Philadelphia” (the “spiritual” part of the universal church) is raptured before “the great tribulation” while “Laodicea” (the “carnal” part of that universal group) is left on earth.
John Darby, the so-called “father of dispensationalism,” was still defending the historical posttrib rapture (“Christian Herald,” Dec. 1830) which he described as Christ’s coming for “His judging of the nations.”
Pretrib didn’t spring from a “church/Israel” dichotomy, as many have assumed, but from a “church/church” one, as we’ve seen, and was based only on symbols!
But innate anti-Jewishness soon appeared. (As noted, TMW (Sep. 1830) saw less worthy “church” members left behind.) Two years later (Sep. 1832) TMW said that “Jews” and less worthy Christians would miss the rapture. But by Mar. 1833 TMW was sure that only “Jews” would face the Antichrist!
As late as 1837 the non-dichotomous Darby saw the church “going in with Him to the marriage, to wit, with Jerusalem and the Jews.” And he didn’t clearly teach pretrib until 1839. His basis then was the Rev. 12:5 “man child…caught up” symbol he’d “borrowed” (without giving credit) from Irving who had been the first to use it for the same purpose in 1831!
For related articles Google “X-Raying Margaret,” “Edward Irving is Unnerving,” “Pretrib Rapture’s Missing Lines,” “The Unoriginal John Darby,” “Pretrib Rapture Dishonesty” and “Scholars Weigh My Research.” The most detailed and accurate book on pretrib rapture history is “The Rapture Plot” (see Armageddon Books online) – a 300-pager that has hundreds of disarming facts (like the ones above) not found in any other source.
It looks to me like the ancient eschatological (apocalyptic?) sermon attributed to Ephrem the Syrian has a pre-trib rapture. As to the word rapture occuring in the NT, 1 Th 4:17: harpag?sometha = rapiemur = we shall be raptured (caught up). And I find about 10 raptures in the Bible.
Your word processor mutilated harpagesometha after I put a macron over the e for eta.
[Just saw this shocking claim on the web!:]
John Nelson Darby is not the ‘father of dispensationalism’ (the favorite feature of which is an imminent pretrib rapture)!…Incredibly, Darby wasn’t first or original with any aspect of the same system including this bedrock known today as the church/Israel dichotomy!…Darby’s own words at the time prove that he was posttrib from 1827 through 1838 and that he had no clear pretrib teaching before 1839 – nine years after Irving and his group had begun the clear teaching of it [in 1830]….After Darby’s death in 1882, one of his influential disciples wrote and published a series of articles in his own journal supposedly detailing the history of the Irvingites as well as that of his own group, the Darbyist Brethren. His aim was to give Darby lasting fame. He accomplished this by furtively adding, subtracting, and changing many words in the earliest, hard-to-locate “rapture” documents – Irvingite as well as Brethren – thus giving the false impression that Irving and his followers had not been first to teach pretrib dispensationalism. By dishonestly covering up and eliminating the Irvingites who truly had been the first in everything, he was able to deceitfully and wrongfully elevate Darby as the “father of pretrib rapture dispensationalism”!
[To see all of this explosive article, which names all the names and dates in this long-covered-up fraud, Google “John Darby Did Not Invent the Rapture – by Dave MacPherson (March 19, 2015)”]
I published your comment. But, a claim by a person who wrote a book that is not peer-reviewed does not go very far with me. Sadly, people make their fame (whether scholarly or popular) by claiming to be the ones who have discovered something that has not been discovered before. The claim made by the author requires that no Irvingite ever object to the change of the words nor any person notice the change in wording in journals, etc. This is not too different from scholars who claim that the words of Jesus were deliberately changed after his death. It is a claim that can only be made when all the witnesses are dead, and you trust that no documentary evidence will be found to gainsay you.
A couple of points I would like to make. I find the ibera/Lacunza story questionable. The whole thing sounds like it came out of the The Da Vinci Code movie. Conspiracies, Catholic cover-ups, come on! As far as Margaret MacDonald, John Darby developed his ideas about the rapture three years “before” MacDonald’s vision. And have you actually read MacDonald’s vision? It’s hard to find anything pre-trib about, in fact she says, “The trial of the Church is from Antichrist.” and “This is the fiery trial which is to try us. – It will be for the purging and purifying of the real members of the body of Jesus.” Those are not pretrib statements. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_MacDonald_%28visionary%29
There is someone who talked about a pre-trib some 86 years before Darby, his name was Morgan Edwards. He wrote, ““II. The distance between the first and second resurrection will be somewhat more than a thousand years. I say, somewhat more—, because the dead saints will be raised, and the living changed at Christ’s “appearing in the air” (I Thes. iv. 17); and this will be about three years and a half before the millennium, as we shall see hereafter: but will he and they abide in the air all that time? No: they will ascend to paradise, or to some one of those many “mansions in the father’s house” (John xiv. 2), and disappear during the foresaid period of time. The design of this retreat and disappearing will be to judge the risen and changed saints; for “now the time is come that judgment must begin,” and that will be “at the house of God” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgan_Edwards
People talk of how the pre-trib is recent, but do you realize all the rapture positions are modern? For example, Mid-tribulationalism emerged in 1941 with the publication of the book, “The End: Rethinking the Revelation” by Norman B. Harrison. Prewrath was conceived in the 1970’s by Robert Van Kampen and only came to public attention in 1990 with Marvin Rosenthal’s book “The Pre-Wrath Rapture of the Church”. And there are a number of posttribulation views developed in the 19th and 20th centuries:Classic post-tribulationism by J. Barton Payne (1855 – 1935), Semi-classic post-tribulationism by Alexander Reese (1881-1969), Futuristic post-tribulationism by George E. Ladd (1911 – 1982), and Dispensational post-tribulationism by Robert H. Gundry. (1932 – Present)
As you can see they all emerged in the last two centuries. Sure you can find “elements” of every rapture position in the writings of the early church fathers, but elements does not a doctrine make. The early Church did not have a codified doctrine\consensus concerning the rapture.
Regarding Pseudo-Ephraem, I do believe it represents an early version of a pre-trib rapture. It’s not exactly like modern pre-trib, but it has many of the elements, immanency, gathering of the church before judgement, etc. Yes it is not the same Ephraem the Syrian, but by all accounts it was greatly influenced by his works, hence the name Pseudo-Ephraem. The point that should not be missed however is that it represent an early version of the pre-trib rapture at least as far back as the 8th century.