THE
ORIGIN OF THE PRE-TRIBULATION
RAPTURE DOCTRINE (The
following
information has been compiled from various
sources )
The "Secret" Rapture Throughout Church
History
“…No hint to such
belief can
be found in any
Christian literature from Polycarp down.... Surely,( this
doctrine) finds no exponent or advocate in the whole history
and
literature of Christendom, for eighteen hundred years after the
founding of the Church - a doctrine that was never taught by a Father
or Doctor of the Church in the past ... until the middle of
the
Nineteenth century, ” (Robert Cameron, Scriptural Truth About
The
Lord’s Return, .
The first person to whom the
doctrine
concerning a rapture prior to the second coming of Jesus
Christ,
can be traced to was a Roman Jesuit named Ribera in
1591
AD. Then Emmanuel
Lacunza
Lacunza
claimed to be a
converted Jew named "Rabbi Ben Ezra." Under that alias, he
theorized that the Church would be "raptured" before
Jesus'
return to Earth. Later in 1827 his book was
translated into
English by a Scottish radical named Edward Irving. He
published
Lacunza's view in his paper, "The Morning Watch."
In 1830, a 15 year
old charismatic girl
named Margaret
Macdonald,
claimed that she had a vision of a "secret rapture." A year
later
in, Robert Norton, a charismatic Irvingite evangelist, meets Margaret
Macdonald and popularizes her "secret rapture" vision around England.
Dr.
Samuel Prideaux Tregelles
(1813-1875), a prominent English theologian and biblical scholar, wrote
a pamphlet in 1866 tracing the concept of the rapture through the works
of John Darby back to Edward Irving
(www.wikipedia.org/ )
In 1870, John N. Darby,
founder of the
Plymouth Brethren, began to partake in many of the Irvingite meetings
and at one point he wrote that he had "come to an understanding of a
new truth." Later in his own letters, Darby admitted that he had been
influenced by the writings of the Jesuit De Lacunza. While in
the
States, Darby met C. I. Scofield.
"The person most responsible for the
rather
widespread acceptance of Pretribulationalism and Dispensationalism
among Evangelicals is Cyrus Ingerson Scofield (1843-1921). C. I.
Scofield published his Scofield Reference Bible in 1909. This Bible,
which espoused the doctrines of Darby in its notes, became very popular
in Fundamentalist circles. In the minds of many a Bible teacher,
fundamentalist pastor and multitudes of professing Christians,
Scofield’s notes were practically equated with the word of
God
itself". (Brian Schwertley)
So Scofield included many and
various things
from Lacunza-Macdonald-Darby and he went on to
include them
in an annotated Bible.
Sound Bible scholars of the day such as A. J. Gordon, W. G. Moorhead,
Charles R. Eerdman, and others tried to dissuade him. Three noted
members of Scofield's own revision committee even resigned because of
Scofield's unswerving support for the Lacunza-Macdonald-Darby view, but
their voices were not heard.
" Dr. Harry Ironside of Moody Bible
Institute,
himself an ardent supporter of the Lacunza-Darby-Macdonald-Scofield
eschatological scheme, admitted in his book Mysteries of God, p. 50
:…Until brought to the fore through the writings
of…Mr.
J. N, Darby, the doctrine taught by Dr. Scofield (the Seven-Year
Tribulation) is scarcely to be found in a single book throughout a
period of 1600 years. If any doubt this statement, let them search, as
the writer has in measure done, the remarks of the so-called Fathers,
both pre-and post-Nicene, the theological treatises of the scholastic
divines…the literature of the reformation…the
Puritans.
He will find the 'mystery' conspicuous by its absence."Brian Schwertley
I think we need to be
careful not to speak
ill of the brethren who
taught and have proliferated the erronious doctrine
of the
"secret
rapture" unwittingly. Yet Christ and the Apostles
warned us
to "take
heed that no one leads you astray ", that a great deception (believing
the lie ) will come and "many will fall away ", and that there would be
"'every sort of evil that decieves " (Matt. 24 , 2Thess 2, 1 Tim4 .)
2 Tim 4:3-4 warns us about doctrines that will
have
destructive
results for the body of a Christ. Perhaps the greatest
danger of
this doctrine is that it doesn't prepare God's people for the greatest
time of testing to come, the "great tribulation"
"The great irony is that many teachers of
eschatology may
actually be
setting up the very conditions and have inadvertently
participated in
the very deception of the end (that they teach about)."(A
Warning to Those who Teach on " End times " Issues )
May God help us to seach out and arrive
at the
truth concerning this most important matter.
(1731–1801), a Jesuit priest, (under the pseudonym
Juan Josafat Ben Ezra) wrote an apocalyptic work entitled (The
Coming of the Messiah in Glory and Majesty). The book appeared first in
1811. Ten years after his death in 1827, it was translated
into
English by the Scottish minister Edward Irving
" (www.wikipedia.org/
)