Invention of the ‘Rapture’ idea

Featured Video: Pre-Tribulation Jesuit Rapture debunked (with Kent Hovind)

 Perhaps a short true history of who, how, and when the pre-tribulation rapture doctrines originated would be helpful for you to help those whom you know to be in denial or failing to prepare because of this JESUIT DOCTRINE. Jesuit? Yes, two Jesuit priests laid the foundations of the pre-trib rapture doctrine, largely unknown in the history of the Church, prior to the Reformation. At the time of the Reformation, the vast majority of Protestants were convinced that the Pope was the personification of the antichrist. Most today, now understand the pope to be the ―second beast‖, the ―false prophet‖ of the antichrist prince. However, at the time of the Reformation, it was universally believed by all Protestants, that the Roman Church was the Harlot Religion System of Revelation seventeen. Today there is still good cause to see the Roman Church as the religious component of Babylon. This understanding that the Roman Church is the ―Religious Babylon‖ brought millions of believers out of the Roman Catholic religious system during the Reformation period. Because of how many, during the Reformation, saw the Roman Church as the Babylon harlot of Religion, it became expedient for certain Roman theologians to turn the attention of the people away from the Papacy. Indeed the Jesuits were responsible for the popularization and propagation of the pre-tribulation rapture doctrines. It was two Jesuit priests who rightly deserve the title as the founders of pre-tribulation rapture doctrines. These two Jesuits invented a counter-interpretation to that that was held unanimously by the Christians. In the entire history of the Church prior to the writings of these two Jesuit priests virtually all Christians believed that the eminent Resurrection, Rapture, and Return of the Lord was a single simultaneous event, happening in the twinkling of an eye, on the last day, at the last trump. When is the Last Day? When is the Last Trump? Before we expose the these two Jesuits. The first concept of the rapture, in connection with premillennialism, was expressed by the 17th-century American Puritan father and son Increase and Cotton Mather. They held to the idea that believers would be caught up in the air, followed by judgments on the Earth, and then the millennium.[13][14] The term rapture was used by Philip Doddridge[15] and John Gill[16] in their New Testament commentaries, with the idea that believers would be caught up prior to judgment on the Earth and Jesus' second coming.

The PDF goes much deeper than the movie and exposes the pre-trib doctrine laid by two jesuits who are the foundation of it. PDF by Dr Scott Johnson from www.contendingfortruth.com  DOWNLOAD HERE - http://st4.divshare.com/

Invention of the ‘Rapture’ idea

Rapture-removal is not the historic teaching of the Church. One of the more astonishing facts in the history of eschatological thought, and one that most Christians are unaware of, is that the idea of “a secret pre-tribulation, Rapture removal from the earth of the Church” is a fairly recent theory in Church history. In theological circles, it’s a “Johnny come lately.” Even the historic creeds, conspicuously, don’t mention it. In fact, it was relatively unheard of and never taught until the early 19th century, and it didn’t become widespread until the 20th century. Since then, it has spread like wildfire. But the many failed predictions of its coming have made it an embarrassment.

The first known reference may have appeared in two obscure but contestable sentences from a 4th century A.D., 1500-word sermon written in Latin by someone called “Pseudo-Ephraem.” If so, this idea went essentially unknown and undeveloped for fourteen centuries. According to most researchers, the idea of a Rapture-removal from planet Earth prior to a “great tribulation” period began to surface in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Possible but only slight and vague mentions of it may have been published in the writings of a famous Calvinist theologian Dr. John Gill (1748), an early American Baptist pastor Morgan Edwards (1788), a Jesuit priest Emmanuel Lacunza (1812), and Edward Irving, who translated Lucunza’s book (1826).

Most scholars, however, agree that the secret Rapture theory was launched into prominence around 1830 by a group of people in Scotland who had become known as the Plymouth Brethren. Under the direction of John Nelson Darby (1800-1882) and others, they began to hold Prophetic Conferences. Supposedly, during one of those conferences, or from a sick bed during those conferences, a charismatic utterance came forth as a prophetic message from the Lord through a young, fifteen-year-old Scottish girl named Margaret Macdonald. While in a trance, she received a private vision and revelation that only a select group of believers would be removed from the earth before the days of the Antichrist. But she also saw other believers enduring the tribulation¾something most rapturists nowadays do not teach.

Soon thereafter, Darby coupled this highly questionable vision of a secret, pre-tribulation Rapture with another idea originated by the Jesuit priest, Francisco Ribera. In 1585 A.D., Ribera was the first to introduce the idea of interrupting Daniel’s 70-week, end-time prophecy and inserting a “gap” between the 69th and 70th weeks. This was done to deflect apocalyptic heat from the Reformers who were fueling reformation fervor by claiming the Pope was the Antichrist and the Catholic Church the beast of Revelation. Ribera surmised that the first 69 weeks (483 years) concluded at the baptism of Jesus in 27 A.D., but God had extended the 70th week into the future. Therefore, the Pope and the Catholic Church could not be so accused. Darby grabbed hold of Ribera’s severance idea, connected his “Rapture” to the beginning of that final week, and changed that week from a 7-year period of covenantal confirmation to one of tribulation¾big difference! (Notably, the Bible never mentions a future 7-year period of tribulation.) He then introduced this now fully developed, pre-tribulation Rapture view (theory) in Europe and later in America. It was popularized in American by inclusion in the notes of the Scofield Reference Bible in 1917 and by elaborate End Time event charts published in Clarence Larkin’s Dispensational Truth in 1918.

Of course, the relative newness of the “Rapture” theory in Church history (180 some years ago) neither proves nor disproves its biblical correctness. But it certainly shouldn’t be blindly accepted nor excluded from being questioned and tested (1 Thess. 5:21). Ultimately, the truth can only be found in the Scriptures. But what began as a result of one woman’s private vision and charismatic utterance became widely taught, accepted as the truth, and popularized in the thinking of millions. It has become so deeply entrenched that many pastors and Christian leaders assume it is an essential teaching of Church history extending back to apostolic times. It is not. What’s more, it is not believed by the majority in the Church today, and with good reasons.

Sources:

1 Shattering the ‘Left Behind’ Delusion by John Noē (out-of-print)

2 Unraveling the End (future book – est. 2012) by John Noē

3 End Times Fiction by Gary DeMar

4 Last Days Madness by Gary DeMar

5 The Rapture Plot by Dave MacPherson

6 Rapture Fever by Gary North

This post is originally from ( youtube video is not included) - http://prophecyrefi.org/rapture/invention-of-the-rapture-idea/