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The
Secret Rapture of the Church
When
I first accepted Jesus as my personal savior, I believed in the secret
rapture of the Church. The reason why I believed this teaching was
because the good people at my church believed it. After all, they were
the source of the life-changing message of salvation. I assumed that the
Church always believed the secret rapture and that it was the only view.
But I had made a commitment to Jesus and His Word, not a denomination or
a minister. As I searched the Scriptures and talked with other
Christians I learned something about the secret rapture teaching which
prompted me to rethink this important doctrine. Have you ever wondered
where this idea came from and why? I would like to share with you what I
have learned. (The following narrative is not original but has been
pieced together from many sources - books, pamphlets and Internet
searches.)
During
the Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther and the other reformers used a
system of prophetic interpretation called the Historicist Method.
Basically it taught that the beast, of Revelation 14:9:
-
Was
active in the past.
-
Is
active in the present.
-
And
would be active until Jesus' second coming.
The
Catholic Church became concerned over the success of the Protestant
Reformation. It began a Counter Reformation to meet the Protestant
challenge. The Counsel of Trent (1545-63) was called and, in one of its
first decrees, rejected the Protestant principle of "Scripture
alone" as the foundation of all doctrine. The Jesuit order (Society
of Jesus) helped reconvert large areas of Poland, Hungary, and southern
Germany. Their method of operation was "subtle casuistry" a
specious or excessively subtle reasoning intended to rationalize or
mislead. In 1558, after 19 years of preparation, a Jesuit priest named
Ribera published a 500-page documentary on Futurism, which became the
thrust of the Counter Reformation. In response to the Historicist method
of Luther, Ribera taught that:
-
The
beast with the mark was not active in the past.
-
It
is not active in the present.
-
It
would not be active until the "end of the age."
-
Revelation
chapters 4-18 would not be fulfilled until the "end of the
age."
-
The
Jews would be converted at the "end of the age."
-
The
Jews were the remnant who would encounter the beast and the
antichrist.
Ribera
was the first to teach 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. Later, Emmanuel Lacunza,
also a Jesuit priest, built on Ribera's teachings. He wrote a book,
"The Coming of Messiah in Glory and majesty." He used the
assumed name of Rabbi Ben Ezra, supposedly a Jew who had accepted
Christ. He 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." This book was first published in Spanish
in 1812. It was accepted in the Protestant world and even found its way
onto the shelves of the Library of the Archbishop of Canterbury in
London, England.
A
leading figure of the Catholic Apostolic Church of England and a most
eloquent preacher, Edward Irving, translated Lacunza's book into English
in 1827. Irving heard what he believed to be a voice from heaven
commanding him to preach the Secret Rapture of the Saints. He began to
hold Bible conferences throughout Scotland, emphasizing the coming of
Jesus to rapture His Church. The question remained as to when was the
"end of the age." The answer came through Margaret McDonald, a
member of the Plymouth Brethren Church, in the 1830s. While in a trance
she supported Ribera's system of interpretation and added that an event
called the secret rapture would mark the "end of the age."
John
Nelson Darby, a fellow church member of McDonald, borrowed from her
revelation. He modified her views and then taught them under his own
name. He developed and organized "futurism" into a system of
prophetic teaching called "dispensationalism" with the
so-called secret rapture at its center. He passed his teachings along in
later years to a friend named C. I. Scofield, a Congregationalist
preacher. In the early1900s these notes were published in the Scofield
Reference Bible, still used by many Protestants. They had a tremendous
impact upon the beliefs of many. 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.
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. The
Assemblies of God, the largest Pentecostal denomination in the world,
had no publishing house in the beginning. They bought their Sunday
School study materials from the Moody Press.
Since
the 1830s Ribera's system of prophetic interpretation has been making
inroads into America. After World War II the Protestant churches adopted
this teaching. Today it has almost universal acceptance, with movies and
books dramatizing its end time ideas. So what's the big deal? Does it
really matter?
What
happened in Christ's day is an illustration of the danger in false
prophetic interpretation. At that time there were two beliefs about the
coming of the Messiah:
-
The
minority believed that the messiah would suffer as the Lamb of God.
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The
majority believed that the messiah would reign in power on David's
throne and break the Roman yoke.
Five
hundred years before Jesus came; it didn't matter which view you held.
In fact, even 50 years before He came, it didn't matter, but when Jesus
actually came, it made all the difference in the world. People who held
the wrong view were the ones who ended up crucifying the Son of God.
Jesus said to this group: "Ye know not the time of your
visitation." They were mixed up in their interpretation of
prophecy. Obviously, being alert when prophecy is actually being
fulfilled is a matter of life or death.
Because
prophecy is being fulfilled today, we must make a very important
decision. Which method of interpretation. concerning the Second Coming
of Christ, will we accept?
-
Ribera's
view (Futuristic) taught by the Roman Catholic Church and most
Protestant churches today.
-
The
secret rapture comes first.
-
Beast
with his mark is future (after the rapture).
-
The
Jews will be the commandment-keeping remnant of Revelation
12:17.
OR
B.
Luther's view (Historicist) - taught by the Protestant Reformers.
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The
beast with the mark is here now.
-
He
is expanding his influence worldwide.
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The
remnant people are here now.
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They
keep the commandments and know what the mark of the beast and his
image is.
-
They
are Christians with a message for the end time (Revelation 14:6 -
12)
False
teaching regarding the manner of Christ's Second Coming is a dangerous
deception. It can prepare the way for unwitting support of the
antichrist, and enforcement of the mark of the beast. They may say
"We can't be enforcing the mark of the beast because it is a future
event, after the secret rapture, which hasn't occurred yet." The
Bible teaches that such a counterfeit coming will take place and that,
"if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect."
Matthew 24:24. Will you be deceived? Or will you be like the Bereans who
"searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so."
Acts 17:11
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