Rapture

The Rapture:

The history of the New Testament is a fascinating story. It began two thousand years ago. Three centuries later, the word of God became trapped inside the Latin language. Also, the history of the (rapture) teaching or catching away of the bride of Christ. Let me begin this article with a short list of denominations and cults who do not believe in the rapture.

Catholic; Episcopal; Anglican; Presbyterian; Lutheran; Church of Christ; some Baptist; Jehovah’s Witnesses; Mormons; Scientologist; Islamist; Buddhist; Atheist, and many others.  

Now we know there are a lot of people who say there is no rapture. So, what are their arguments? Anti-rapturists claim John Nelson Darby invented the pre-tribulation rapture doctrine around 1830 AD. They also claim all attempts to find evidence of this wild doctrine before 1830 have failed.

Ok, let us test that theory; until the 17th century, the Roman Catholic church threatened anyone with prison, torture, or death for possessing a Bible, especially one not written in Latin.

So, we ask, does the Catholic Church believe in the rapture? No, Catholics never believed in or taught the rapture doctrine. Because they controlled the placement of Bibles and dictated doctrine up until the 16th and earth 17th century, no one dared to disagree with them. But a few courageous men did have the courage to teach and write on doctrines that disagreed with Catholic teaching.  

Paul spoke of the church being caught up in the air between 52 and 65 A.D. Peter wrote the following between 65 and 67 A.D. concerning Paul’s comments on the catching away of the church?

2 Peter 3:15-16, “Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him has written unto you; in his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to understand.”

“Things hard to understand.” Would it have been wise for early Christians to know the time of the catching away of the church 2000, 1000, or 200 years into the future? Of course not; it would have done a great deal of harm, it would have been discouraging. It would be like telling your kids, were going to Disneyland, 20 years from now.  

In the early years, from the time of the apostles to Constantine in 325 A.D., Christians were under persecution by the Romans and Jews. How bad was it? 

The Catacombs were used extensively by Christians during the various harassments and persecutions from the time of Nero to that of Diocletian. The catacombs consisted of 500 miles of tunnels, and estimated to have contained over 6 million bodies. Then we need to consider the Roman Colosseum, thousands were murdered in the Roman games. 

From Christ until the 16th century, few dared stand up against the Church of Rome. The power of the Pope had instilled fear in the people, preventing any personal study of scripture. They were brutal with anyone or any group that dared defy them; no one was safe, their threats backed by brutality and murder, free-thinking bound with chains.  

One of the first men to take center stage was John Wycliffe, a Catholic priest, professor, philosopher, master, and dean. His Bible translations from Latin to English were handwritten and first produced in the 1380s A.D. He opposed Catholic teaching and continually butted heads with them concerning correct doctrine. With the help of the Lollards and others, he produced dozens of English-language manuscript copies of the scriptures. He translated from the Latin Vulgate, his only source. The Pope was infuriated with his English translation of the Bible. 

Wycliffe died a natural death, years after his death, the Church ordered his bones dug up, crushed, and scattered in the river. What was the depth and degree of hatred except that it came from hell?  

Latin had become so corrupt it no longer preserved the message of the Gospel. Yet the Popes threatened to kill anyone who read the scripture in any other language, even though Latin was not an original language of the Bible. Bibles were chained to the pews, and the general population was ordered not to own, read or interpret scripture. The church of Rome was a dictatorship, run by dictators.  

Thomas Linacre was born in Brampton, Derbyshire England in 1460, and died October 20th, 1524. Linacre was an English humanist scholar and physician who took no part in political or theological questions, his career as a scholar was characteristic of the critical period in the history of learning through which he lived. A personal physician to King Henry the 7th and 8th, he decided to learn Greek, and after reading the Gospels in Greek and comparing it to the Latin Vulgate, he wrote in his diary, 

“Either this (the original Greek) is not the Gospel… or we are not Christians.” 

Then there was Desiderius Erasmus, born October 27, 1469, trained as a Catholic priest, and died July 12, 1536. He was an important figure in classical scholarship writing in a pure Latin style and called the greatest of scholars of the northern renaissance and the first editor of the New Testament. 

After considering Linacre and Colet’s experiences, Erasmus was moved to correct the corrupt Latin Vulgate in 1516. With the help of printer John Froben, he published a Greek-Latin Parallel New Testament. The Latin part was not the corrupt Vulgate but his fresh rendering of the text from the more accurate and reliable Greek. He then translated them into the languages of the people, English, German, or any other language; his work was the first ever to come off a printing press. 

Pope Leo X declared, “the fable of Christ was quite profitable for Erasmus,” this infuriated the people against Erasmus; he became a target of suspicion from loyal partisans and a beacon for those who valued liberty more than orthodoxy.

Let me now touch on the life of one more person, William Tyndale, an English scholar who became a leading figure in the Protestant Reformation in 1530. He said, ‘I perceived how that it was impossible to establish the lay people in any truth except the Scripture be laid out before their eyes and in their mother tongue.’

A copy of his work, ‘The Obedience of a Christian Man,’ fell into the hands of Henry VIII. This provided him the rationale to break the Church of England away from the Roman Catholic Church in 1534.

In 1535, Tyndale had been betrayed by a friend, Henry Phillips to the imperial authorities, seized in Antwerp in 1535, and held in the castle near Brussels.

In the end was caught, then incarcerated for some 16 months before being strangled and his corpse burned at the stake. Tyndale’s last words were, “Oh Lord, open the King of England’s eyes.” 

His prayer was answered three years later in 1539, when King Henry VIII finally allowed, and even funded, the printing of an English Bible known as the “Great Bible.” 

Everything looked good for an English version of the Bible until Edwards death. Evil came to the throne, and Queen “bloody” Mary became the next obstacle to printing the Bible in English. Her quest was to return England to the Roman Catholics. 

In 1555,  John Thomas Matthew, Rogers, and Thomas Cranmer were burned at the stake. The Popes of Rome continued to burn reformers by the hundreds for the “crime” of being a Protestant. Bloody Mary’s era was known as the Marian Exile, and the refugees fled from England with little hope of ever seeing their home or friends again.

Knowing the above, are there any questions about why there was no teaching on the rapture? But the time did come for breaking out of the dungeons of the Catholic church’s hell. 

Another major enemy for any early teaching of the rapture and other in-depth studies, WAR! From the 14th century until World War 1, war raged throughout Europe, Asia, and America. 

In 1337 the 100-year war.

In 1636 the Pequot war in the New World.

In 1642, the English civil war. 

The French and Indian war of 1754. 

The American Revolution in 1775.  

French Revolution of 1789.

The Napoleonic war with Russia in 1805. 

The American war of 1812 

It was in this relatively quiet period, 1830es John Nelson Darby with others Christian men he was associated with, wrote on the rapture. The 1830s were considered the age of democracy in America. 

Mexican war of 1836.

The civil war of 1854.

World war 1 in 1914

World war 2 in Europe from 1937 until 1945.

In between the above wars, 100es of other lesser wars raged. 

Ask yourself how many Christian young men and women were killed in these wars. How many displaced? How great was starvation while the masses ran from the terror of war? How many books were burned or destroyed in homes and libraries? Is there any wonder there was little to no mention of the rapture?  

Some claim the word rapture is not in the Bible, but neither is the word Bible found in the Bible nor is the phrase “spiritual Israel,” as are other words and phrases used by the Christian community. 

Forty days after Jesus’ resurrection, we find him standing on the Mount of Olives with his disciples. Suddenly, 

Acts 1:9-11, He “was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. — Two men (in white apparel) stood by them (the apostles); that said, you men of Galilee, why stand you gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you have seen him go into heaven.”

So, when was the doctrine of the rapture made known? It had its beginning in 57 A.D. with the writings of Paul. He wrote the following around 52 A.D. of mysteries, things unknown but now to be made known. He did not say, ‘these mysteries would be understood.’ He said he would show us these mysteries. He wrote the following. 

1 Thessalonians 4:15-16-17, “I show you a mystery.” What was the mystery? 

“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the cloud: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” 

Concerning his bride or any saved person from going into the tribulation, it is written; 

1 Thessalonians 1:10, “Jesus, delivered us (his bride) from the wrath to come.” 

1 Thessalonians 5:9, “God has not appointed us (His bride) to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we would live together with Him.” 

Romans 5:9, “We shall be saved from wrath through Him.”

Romans 1:18, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness.” This verse appears to remove his bride from his wrath. 

When the church meets Christ in the air, it will be the first time he comes down from heaven, and from there, he and his bride will return to heaven. 

After the church is caught up, then what? 

Matthew 24:21, “For there shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.” 

World War 2 was as bad as it has ever been, yet a time is coming when Jesus will fulfill these words, 

Hebrews 10:27-30, “But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.” A far worse punishment for those “who have trampled under-foot the Son of God.” — Vengeance belongs unto me, I will (repay), — The LORD shall judge his people.”  

After seven years of tribulation, Jesus will return a second time, but this time, Zachariah tells us, 

Zechariah 14:3-4, “His (Jesus) feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east.” And on that day, “Then shall the LORD go forth and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.

This fulfilled the words of Acts 1:11, “This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you have seen him go into heaven.”

Who will be with him when he returns the second time?

Isaiah 63:1-2-3-4-5, “Who is this that cometh from Edom (the area of modern-day Jordan), with dyed garments from Boz-rah? this that is glorious in His apparel, traveling in the greatness of His strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. 

Wherefore art thou red (blood-stained) in your apparel, and your garments like him that treads in the winepress? I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people, there was none with me: For I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment. For the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come. And I looked, and there was none to help.” 

Verse 3, “I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me.”

Verse 5, “And I looked, and there was none to help.” 

Revelation 19:13-15, “And he was clothed with vesture (a robe) dipped in blood: And his name is called the Word of God.”

When he sets foot on the Mt. of Olives, he will be alone. He will go it alone. 

“Out of his mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it he shall smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of the Almighty God.”  

Let me end this with a third question. “Are any of Christ’s messengers going to be in the tribulation? The answer, yes, the two witnesses of God, Revelation 11:3-8, and the 144,000 of Revelation 7.  

Why are they going to be in the tribulation? 

They will finish what Jesus had started. Jesus was to have seven years to spread the message of his new covenant, but was cut off. The two Witnesses will finish what Jesus started, preaching the new covenant to all those who were left behind.  

And when the seven years of tribulation ends, we see Jesus and the 144,000 standing on Mount Zion, Revelation 14. Mt. Zion is not the Mount of Olives where Zachariah said Jesus will be standing when he returns. Mt. Zion and Mt. Olives are two different places. 

There is another argument that no rapture theorist presents. We find it in Revelation 19:14, they will say, what about “the armies which were in heaven followed him.” 

They will ask, who or what is this army that follows Christ out of heaven? I’m going to quote two verses that will give us the answer when Christ returns to take vengeance on his enemies. First, there will be war in heaven, 

Revelation 12:7, “There was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon fought and his angels, Verse 9, “The great dragon (the prince of the power of the air) was cast out (of heaven), —he was cast into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.” 

Take note of the word ‘into.’  

The second verse comes from Revelation 12:4, “And his (the devil) drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth.” 

Take note, “to the earth, not into the earth. In and into are two different Greek words. 

The word ‘to:’ the sense is obvious; it means to move toward a place, as opposed to moving away from a place. Lucifer first came down from his place in heaven, Jude 6, and given the title, ‘prince of the power of the air.’ 

After the tribulation, his war with Michael the archangel will be lost. He will then be cast into hell for a thousand years.  

Now compare the word ‘into’ with the word ‘to’: Into implies passing from the outside of a place to its interior parts. This verse supports Revelation 20:1-2, “I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. He laid hold of the dragon and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him.” Note he is cast into the interior of the earth, not on the earth.  

So, what army comes with Jesus? An army of angels led by Michael, it will not be the bride of Christ. Michael’s war will take place in the heavens, and Jesus’ war with Israel’s enemies here on the earth.

The armies of heaven will be victorious, as will Jesus war on earth. To conclude, why didn’t the rapture doctrine come up until the 19th century?

First, what good would it have done to tell believers it would be 2000 years before the church is taken? They would have become depressed, abandoning all hope, and possibly dispersed. 

Secondly, wars throughout Europe, Asia and the Americans prevented any serious study of the Bible for centuries. 

Thirdly, persecutions against Christians likely hindered any study of scripture.  

Phillip LaSpino  seekfirstwisdom.com