This Generation Becomes Awakened to the Rapture
Posted 3/22/25
End-time prophesy concerning the catching away of the church followed by seven years of tribulation has always been in Scripture, but before the 18th century, these subjects were rarely the main topic in Christian churches. Why, because it wasn’t the time; people did not understand. Lack of understanding is not a new thing, it happened to both Daniel, and John.
Daniel 12:8, “And I heard, (from the Holy Spirit) but I understood not: then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things?” Daniel had heard these prophesies and wrote them, but did not understand the things he wrote. Why, because the history of the Greeks; Romans; the Christian Church, and the return of the Jews to their homeland were hundreds of years in the future. Daniel asked, “Lord what does all this mean?” The Lord replied, “Daniel, close the book, it’s not for you to know.”
Again, in Daniel 12:9 we read, “And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.” But now, today, many theologians think we have reached that “time of the end.”
From 400 A.D. until about the middle 1800’s there was little understanding in Christendom concerning end-time prophecy. The subject was rarely considered or discussed, so few understood the connection between the Rapture, Tribulation, and the Lord’s second coming. What confused those who studied prophesy was, until May 14, 1948, Israel did not exist as a nation, and because the Jews had been scattered to the four corners of the earth for over 1900 years, the false teaching of spiritual Israel grew. Israel is now 77 years old, 80 being one generation. Matthew wrote, “This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.
So, for 1400 years, few Christians because of their faith in God’s promises were able to understand these Old Testament prophesies. And to those with little faith, they understood none of these things.
In the middle 1800’s, the term “Rapture” or catching away of the church first became popular in the United States through the teachings on premillennialism and dispensationalism by John Nelson Darby, an Irish evangelist. The understanding of the rapture continued to grow largely due to another preacher named William Eugene Blackstone (1841-1935). It was then Christians began to fully understand end-time prophesy, and the doctrine of the Rapture of the church.