The Rapture [RAPTURE CAUCUS]

What is it? Who will it affect? When is it most likely to take place?
by Dr. David R. Reagan
http://www.lamblion.com/about_staff_reagan.php

The promise is that someday very soon, at the blowing of a trumpet and the shout of an archangel, Jesus will appear in the sky and take up His Church, living and dead, to Heaven.

The term "Rapture" comes from a Latin word, "rapio," that means "to catch up, to snatch away, or to take out." It is, in turn, a translation of the Greek word, "harpazo."

So, "Rapture" is a Biblical word that comes right out of the Latin Vulgate translation of the Bible. The word is found in 1 Thessalonians 4:17. In the New American Standard Version, the English phrase, "caught up," is used. The same phrase is used in the King James and New International Versions.

The concept of the Rapture was not revealed to the Old Testament prophets because it is a promise to the New Testament Church and not to the saints of God who lived before the establishment of the Church. Jesus will return as a bridegroom for His bride, and that bride consists only of Church Age saints.

The saints of Old Testament times will be resurrected at the end of the Tribulation and not at the time of the Rapture of the Church. Daniel reveals this fact in Daniel 12:1-2 where he says that the saints of that age will be resurrected at the end of the "time of distress."

The first clear mention of the Rapture in Scripture is found in the words of Jesus recorded in John 14:1-4. Jesus said, "I will come again, and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also."

The most detailed revelation of the actual events related to the Rapture is given by Paul in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. He says that when Jesus appears, the dead in Christ (Church Age saints) will be resurrected and caught up first. Then, those of us who are alive in Christ will be translated "to meet the Lord in the air."

Paul mentions the Rapture again in 1 Corinthians 15 — his famous chapter on the resurrection of the dead: "Behold, I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet" (verses 51-52).

Paul's reference here to being changed is an allusion to the fact that the saints will receive glorified bodies that will be imperishable, immortal, and perfected (1 Corinthians 15:42-44, 50-55 and Isaiah 35:5-6).

To summarize, these passages teach that the shout of an archangel and the blowing of a trumpet will herald the sudden appearance of Jesus in the heavens (1 Thessalonians 4:16). The dead in Christ will be resurrected and rise up to meet the Lord in the sky. Then, those saints who are alive will be "caught up" to the Lord. Paul concludes his description in 1 Thessalonians 4 by encouraging his readers to "comfort one another with these words."

And truly the Rapture is a comforting thought! Consider the promises contained in the concept of the Rapture. Jesus will bring with Him the spirits of those who have died in Him (1 Thessalonians 4:14). He will resurrect their bodies in a great miracle of re-creation; He will reunite their bodies with their spirits; and He will then glorify their bodies, making them immortal. And those believers who are living will not even taste death. Rather, they will be caught up to the Lord, and in transit, they will be translated from mortal to immortal.

All my life I have heard that there are two things no one can avoid: taxes and death. Well, that is not true. According to 1 Thessalonians 4, a whole generation of believers will escape death. Taxes appear to be the only inevitability!

The most controversial aspect of the Rapture is its timing. Some place it at the end of the Tribulation, making it one and the same event as the Second Coming. Others place it in the middle of the Tribulation. Still others believe that it will occur at the beginning of the Tribulation.

The reason for these differing viewpoints is that the exact time of the Rapture is not precisely revealed in scripture. It is only inferred. There is, therefore, room for honest differences of opinion, and lines of fellowship should certainly not be drawn over differences regarding this point, even though it is an important point.

Those who place the timing at the end of the Tribulation usually base their argument on two parables in Matthew 13 and on the Lord's Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24.

In Matthew 24 the Lord portrays His gathering of the saints as an event that will take place "immediately after the tribulation of those days" (Matthew 24:29). This certainly sounds like a post-Tribulation Rapture. But it must be kept in mind that the book of Matthew was written to the Jews, and therefore the recording of Jesus' speech by Matthew has a distinctively Jewish flavor to it as compared to Luke's record of the same speech.

Note, for example, Matthew's references to Judea and to Jewish law regarding travel on the Sabbath (Matthew 24:15-20). These are omitted in Luke's account. Instead, Luke speaks of the saints looking up for deliverance "to escape all these things" when the end time signs "begin to take place" (Luke 21:28, 36). The saints in Matthew are instructed to flee from Judea and hide. The saints in Luke are told to look up for deliverance.

It appears, therefore, that Matthew and Luke are speaking of two different sets of saints. The saints in Matthew's account are most likely Jews who receive Jesus as their Messiah during the Tribulation. The saints in Luke are those who receive Christ before the Tribulation begins. Most of those who accept the Lord during the Tribulation will be martyred (Revelation 7:9-14). Those who live to the end will be gathered by the angels of the Lord (Matthew 24:31).

The parable of the wheat and tares (Matthew 13:24-30) and the parable of the dragnet (Matthew 13:47-50) can be explained in the same way. They refer to a separation of saints and sinners that will take place at the end of the Tribulation. The saints are those who receive Jesus as their Savior during the Tribulation (Gentile and Jew) and who live to the end of that awful period.

The Bible clearly teaches that the Rapture is an event that is separate and apart from the Second Coming. The two simply cannot be combined into one event.

There are variations of the mid-Tribulation Rapture concept. The most common is that the Church will be taken out in the exact middle of the Tribulation, at the point in time when the Antichrist is revealed.

This concept is based upon a statement in 1 Corinthians 15:52 which says that the Rapture will occur at the blowing of "the last trumpet." This trumpet is then identified with the seventh trumpet of the trumpet judgments in the book of Revelation. Since the blowing of the seventh trumpet is recorded in Revelation 11, the mid-point of the Tribulation, the conclusion is that the Rapture must occur in the middle of the Tribulation.

But there are two problems with this interpretation. The first is that the last trumpet of 1 Corinthians 15 is blown for believers whereas the seven trumpets of Revelation 8, 9 and 11 are sounded for unbelievers. The Revelation trumpets have no relevance for the Church. The last trumpet of 1 Corinthians 15 is a trumpet for the righteous. The last trumpet for the unrighteous is the one described in Revelation 11.

Another problem with this interpretation is that the passage in Revelation 11 that portrays the sounding of the seventh trumpet is a "flash forward" to the end of the Tribulation. Flash forwards are very common in the book of Revelation. They occur after something terrible is described in order to assure the reader that everything is going to turn out all right when Jesus returns at the end of the Tribulation.

Thus, the eighth and ninth chapters of Revelation, which describe the horrors of the trumpet judgments, are followed immediately by a flash forward in chapter 10 that pictures the return of Jesus in victory at the end of the Tribulation. The mid-Tribulation action resumes in chapter 11 with a description of the killing of the two great prophets of God by the Antichrist. Then, to offset that terrible event, we are presented with another flash forward, beginning with verse 15. The seventh trumpet is sounded and we find ourselves propelled forward to the end of the Tribulation when "the kingdom of the world becomes the kingdom of our Lord."

The point is that the seventh trumpet of Revelation relates to the end of the Tribulation and not the middle. It is the same trumpet that is referred to in Matthew 24:31, the trumpet that will be blown to announce the Second Coming of Jesus. It is therefore no basis for an argument in behalf of a mid-Tribulation Rapture.

A variation of the mid-Tribulation Rapture is the pre-wrath Rapture concept that places the Rapture at the beginning of the last quarter of the Tribulation, about five and a half years into the Tribulation.

The argument for this view is that the Church is promised protection only from the wrath of God and not the wrath of Man or of Satan. It is then argued that only the bowl judgments in the last quarter of the Tribulation (Revelation 16) represent the wrath of God.

But the argument for this view disintegrates when you consider two facts. First, it is Jesus Himself who breaks the seals that launch each of the seal judgments recorded in Revelation 6. These judgments occur at the beginning of the Tribulation. Second, the seven angels who blow the trumpets that initiate each of the trumpet judgments are given their trumpets at the throne of God (Revelation 8:2).

All the judgments of Revelation are clearly superintended by God. That is the reason we are told in Revelation 15:1 that the bowl judgments at the end of the Tribulation will finish the wrath of God, not begin His wrath.

I believe the best inference of Scripture is that the Rapture will occur at the beginning of the Tribulation. The most important reason I believe this has to do with the issue of imminence.

Over and over in Scripture we are told to watch for the appearing of the Lord. We are told "to be ready" (Matthew 24:44), "to be on the alert" (Matthew 24:42), "to be dressed in readiness" (Luke 12:35), and to "keep your lamps alight" (Luke 12:35). The clear force of these persistent warnings is that Jesus can appear at any moment.

Only the pre-Tribulation concept of the Rapture allows for the imminence of the Lord's appearing for His Church. When the Rapture is placed at any other point in time, the imminence of the Lord's appearing is destroyed because other prophetic events must happen first.

For example, if the Rapture is going to occur in mid-Tribulation, then why should I live looking for the Lord's appearing at any moment? I would be looking instead for an Israeli peace treaty, the rebuilding of the Temple, and the revelation of the Antichrist. Then and only then could the Lord appear.

This raises the issue of what we are to be looking for. Nowhere are believers told to watch for the appearance of the Antichrist. On the contrary, we are told to watch for Jesus Christ. In Titus 2:13 Paul says we are to live "looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus." Likewise, Peter urges us to "fix our hope completely on the grace to be brought to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 1:13). John completes the apostolic chorus by similarly urging us to "fix our hope on Him" at His appearing (1 John 3:2-3).

Only Matthew speaks of watching for the Antichrist (Matthew 24:15), but he is speaking to the Jews living in Israel in the middle of the Tribulation when the Antichrist desecrates the rebuilt Temple.

Another argument in behalf of a pre-Tribulation Rapture has to do with the promises of God to protect the Church from His wrath. As has already been demonstrated, the book of Revelation shows that the wrath of God will be poured out during the entire period of the Tribulation.

The Word promises over and over that the Church will be delivered from God's wrath. Romans 5:9 says that "we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him [Jesus]." 1 Thessalonians 1:10 states that we are waiting "for His Son from heaven... who will deliver us from the wrath to come." The promise is repeated in 1 Thessalonians 5:9 — "God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ."

Some argue that God could supernaturally protect the Church during the Tribulation. Yes, He could. In fact, He promises to do just that for the 144,000 Jews who will be sealed as bond-servants at the beginning of the Tribulation (Revelation 7:1-8).

But God's promise to the Church during the Tribulation is not one of protection but one of deliverance. Jesus said we would "escape" the horrors of the Tribulation (Luke 21:3-6). Paul says Jesus is coming to "deliver" us from God's wrath (1 Thessalonians 1:10).

There are several prophetic types that seem to affirm the concept of deliverance from Tribulation.

Take Enoch for example. He was a prophet to the Gentiles who was raptured out of the world before God poured out His wrath in the great flood of Noah's time. Enoch appears to be a type of the Gentile Church that will be taken out of the world before God pours out His wrath again. If so, then Noah and his family are a type of the Jewish remnant that will be protected through the Tribulation.

Another Old Testament symbolic type which points toward a pre-Tribulation Rapture is the experience of Lot and his family. They were delivered out of Sodom and Gomorrah before those cities were destroyed.

The Apostle Peter alludes to both of these examples in his second epistle. He states that if God spared Noah and Lot, then He surely "knows how to rescue the godly from trial and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment" (2 Peter 2:4-9).

Another beautiful prophetic type is to be found in the Jewish wedding traditions of Jesus' time. After the betrothal, the groom would return to his father's house to prepare a wedding chamber for his bride. He would return for his bride at an unexpected moment, so the bride had to be ready constantly. When he returned, he would take his bride back to his father's house to the chamber he had prepared. He and his bride would then be sealed in the chamber for seven days. When they emerged, a great wedding feast would be celebrated.

Likewise, Jesus has returned to Heaven to prepare a place for His bride, the Church. When He returns for His bride, He will take her to His Father's heavenly home. There He will remain with His bride for seven years (the duration of the Tribulation). The period will end with "the marriage supper of the Lamb" described in Revelation 19. Thus the seven days in the wedding chamber point prophetically to the seven years that Jesus and His bride will remain in Heaven during the Tribulation.

Speaking of Revelation, the structure of that book also implies a pre-Tribulation Rapture in a symbolic sense.

The first three chapters focus on the Church. Chapter 4 begins with the door of Heaven opening and John being raptured from the Isle of Patmos to the throne of God in Heaven. The Church is not mentioned thereafter until Revelation 19:7-9 when it is portrayed as the "bride of Christ" in Heaven with Jesus celebrating the "marriage supper of the Lamb." At Revelation 19:11 the door of Heaven opens again, and Jesus emerges riding a white horse on His way to earth, followed by His Church (Revelation 19:14).

The rapture of the Apostle John in Revelation 4 appears to be a symbolic type of the Rapture of the Church. Note that it is initiated by the cry of a voice that sounds like the blowing of a trumpet (Revelation 4:1). Since the Tribulation does not begin until Revelation 6, the rapture of John in Revelation 4 appears to be a symbolic type that points to a pre-Tribulation Rapture of the Church.

Some counter this argument by pointing out that although the Church is not mentioned in Revelation during that book's description of the Tribulation, there is constant mention of "saints" (for example, Revelation 13:7). But that term is not used in the Bible exclusively to refer to members of the Church. Daniel uses it to refer to Old Testament believers who lived long before the Church was established (Daniel 7:18). The saints referred to in the book of Revelation are most likely those people who will be saved during the Tribulation, after the Church has been taken out of the world.

An interesting argument in behalf of the pre-Tribulation timing of the Rapture can be found in 2 Thessalonians. The church at Thessalonica was in a turmoil because someone had written them a letter under Paul's name stating that they had missed the "gathering to the Lord" and were, in fact, living in "the day of the Lord" (2 Thessalonians 2:1-2).

Paul attempted to calm them down by reminding them of his teaching that the day of the Lord would not come until after the Antichrist is revealed. He then stated that the Antichrist would not be revealed until a restraining force "is taken out of the way" (2 Thessalonians 2:3-7).

There has been much speculation as to the identity of this restraining force that Paul refers to. Some have identified it as the Holy Spirit. But it cannot be the Holy Spirit because there will be people saved during the Tribulation, and no one can be saved apart from the testimony of the Spirit (John 16:8-11 & 1 John 5:7).

Others have identified the restrainer as human government. It is true that government was ordained by God to restrain evil (Romans 13:1-4). But the governments of the world are in rebellion against God and His Son (Psalm 2), and they are therefore a contributor to the evil that characterizes the world. Furthermore, the Tribulation will not be characterized by a lack of government. Rather, it will feature the first true worldwide government (Revelation 13:7).

In my opinion that leaves only one other candidate for Paul's restrainer — and that is the Church. It is the Church that serves as the primary restrainer of evil in the world today as it proclaims the Gospel and stands for righteousness. When the Church fails in this mission, evil multiplies, as Paul graphically points out in 2 Timothy 3:1-5. Paul says that society in the end times will be characterized by chaos and despair because "men will hold to a form of religion but will deny its power." When the Church is removed from the world, all hell will literally break loose.

The pre-Tribulation concept of the Rapture has often been condemned as "escapism." I think this criticism is unjustified. The Bible itself says that Christians are to "comfort one another" with the thought of the Rapture (1 Thessalonians 4:18). Is it a comfort to think of the Rapture occurring at the end of the world's worst period of war instead of at the beginning?

Regardless of when the Rapture actually occurs, we need to keep in mind that the Bible teaches that societal conditions are going to grow increasingly worse the closer we get to the Lord's return. That means Christians will suffer tribulation whether or not they go into the Great Tribulation. And that means all of us had better be preparing ourselves for unprecedented suffering and spiritual warfare.

If you are a Christian, you can do that on a daily basis by putting on "the full armor of God" (Ephesians 6:13), praying at all times in the Spirit that you will be able to stand firm against the attacks of Satan (Ephesians 6:14-18).

If you are not a Christian, your only hope is to reach out in faith and receive the free gift of God's salvation which He has provided through His Son, Jesus (John 3:16).

To All for discussion here...

Quix posted the following (the item below) as a Free Republic article -- Setting the Record Straight on Rapture [Disproving Darby nonsense].

He said it was the most important posting that he had done in ten years. And since it does pertain to the Rapture (which seems to be denied by many, Christians and non-Christians alike), I thought it good to post it here, too..., in our Rapture Caucus.

[The article below was cleaned up a bit in layout and some positioning of items, from the original web page, as it appears there...]

Setting the Record Straight on Rapture

By Holly Deyo

The purpose of the following material is not to debate the existence of Rapture or when that event would occur, as it is to establish that this is a doctrine of long-standing. A well-circulated notion says that John Darby was the first to begin teaching Rapture in 1828. This may be an effort to discredit Rapture, to remove people's hope and dispirit them, or it may be perpetuated through ignorance. Whatever is the case, it is simply incorrect.

Consider that while the word "rapture" was not used until Jerome in 400 AD with the Latin word rapimur, the Dead Sea Scroll concept of Rapture pre-dates the birth of Christ!

As frequently seen with things posted on the Internet, people grab a thought and run with it without performing due diligence. It is our hope that the following documentation will put the Darby rumor to rest.

"In 1 Corinthians 15:51-54, the Apostle Paul tells the church at Corinth,

“Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory."

And to the church in Thessalonica in 1 Thessalonians 4:16,

“For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. 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 clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”

The mystery being spoken of here is a truth that had not previously been revealed in the Old Testament but is now being revealed in the New Testament. Although the idea of the resurrection is clearly taught in the Old Testament, the teaching of the Rapture is not. This is the first mention of the Rapture of the Church.

The context of what Paul is talking about is the resurrection and the order of the events taking place at the time of the resurrection. Paul says that before the Rapture, the dead in Christ will rise first. These are those who have died from the time after the death and resurrection of Jesus until today. And then, we who are still alive at the time of the rapture will be caught up together to meet the Lord in the air. And in that moment our mortal bodies will be changed in the "twinkling of an eye" * and we will receive our new glorified bodies.

Paul makes this very clear. Corruption putting on incorruption is a reference to the saints who have died and decaying and that their bodies are corrupt. Then the mortal putting on immortality is referring to those alive when He comes.

Now, look at the immanency of Christ’s return. Notice how Paul expects to see the Lord in his lifetime. Verse 52 shows the immanency. Notice how he uses the word “we”. He was including himself in the event of the Rapture. He lived his life in the light that Jesus could return and rapture the church at any moment. Paul’s take on it shows that the Rapture was of course a Pre-Tribulation rapture because he felt that it was so imminent.

Now listen to what Jesus tells his disciples in Luke 17:26-30 (Amplified Bible).

“And [just] as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the time of the Son of Man. [People] ate, they drank, they married, they were given in marriage, right up to the day when Noah went into the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. So also [it was the same] as it was in the days of Lot. [People] ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; But on the [very] day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed [them] all. That is the way it will be on the day that the Son of Man is revealed.”

Jesus is making a reference to the Rapture. He is telling the disciples that it will happen much as the days of Noah and Lot were. Taking place as it was in the days of Noah, how they were caught surprised. They were going about their normal day to day business. Then when Noah and his family stepped onto the ark, the flood came. As with Lot, the people of Sodom and Gomorrah were going about their own sinful ways as well and when Lot and his family were removed from the city, then God’s judgment came down upon the cities. Likewise will it be with the Rapture. Once the Lord removes His Church from the sinful world, then the Tribulation will begin.

He mentions that He will come as a thief in the night indicating that he will not be seen by everyone. But when talking about the Second Coming, He says that every eye will see Him. Notice some are sleeping and some are working indicating that it will be night some places and daytime in others. No one will see Jesus at that time except for those who meet Him in the air. Carrying on with life as usual until the Lord comes and disrupts their scene.

God has not appointed His church to wrath. The wrath of God is the Tribulation period. The Bible tells us that we have tribulation now but that comes from the world and Satan. The Tribulation period is the wrath of God, and God is not going to punish His bride.

You'll notice that the Rapture takes place at the sound of a trumpet. The trumpet sounding is what signals the Rapture. Notice also that it is called the LAST trumpet. Now having said that we know that there are 7 angels that are given 7 trumpets to sound and when they do sound there are 7 judgments that come upon the earth. There are those that say that the last trumpet is the 7th trumpet being spoken of in 1 Corinthians 15:52. That would mean that the Rapture does not take place until the middle of the Tribulation. So in order for the church to hear the last trumpet the church must go through the first half of the Tribulation.

This is just simply not true.

The church is not going through the Tribulation. Why would God the Father want to punish His bride? The Tribulation is referred to as a time of Jacob’s trouble. It has to do with the Jews. It's at that time that God wakes up the Jewish people and brings them to salvation. When will the rapture take place? When will the trumpet sound? At the end of the church age. When the last person who needs to get saved, gets saved.

Revelation 2-3 is an overview of church history. Even though they were written to 7 churches existing at that time, each of these has a secondary application as often does in Scripture, especially prophecy. They actually are a reference to the 7 different stages of church history as God sees them from beginning to end.

Then John says in Revelation 4:1, once he is finished writing about the churches,

“After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.”

After these things (pertaining to the church), after the church ages are over, a door in heaven was opened and a voice that sounded like a trumpet saying come up hither and I will show you things AFTER this. After the church age. I believe this is the Rapture right here.

Does this ring a bell?

When the church ministry on earth is complete a door will open and a trumpet will sound and the church will be caught up. Paul wrote in Romans 11:25,

“For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.”

Until the fullness of the Gentiles comes in. Since the Jews rejected Jesus as Messiah, God is now working among the Gentile nations to bring a bride unto Himself. Once that last Gentile who needs to be saved comes to salvation, God will focus His energy on Israel.

Many claim that the whole concept of a Pre-Tribulation rapture was never even heard of until 1828 when John Darby first began teaching it. Well, these people are wrong who believe this because there is ample evidence of the Church teaching the Rapture 1100 years before John Darby." ¹

Many others believed and taught this long before John Darby

150BC - 70AD Rapture Mentioned in the Dead Sea Scrolls

"A Newly Discovered Dead Sea Scroll Has Revealed Who Will be Left Behind When the Rapture Comes a Leading Scholar Reports" from the journalist David Augustine. (Jack van Impe Ministries, June 16, 2005)

In this article Dr. William Harold, professor of Canon Law, at the Theological Seminary of Essex, GB wrote:

"Without doubt, this is the most important discovery in the history of Biblical archeology. The scroll, written in Aramaic, the language spoken in the Holy Land during Jesus time on earth, was found in a cave on the shores of the Dead Sea by geologists conducting a survey for the Israeli government."

The scrolls read:

"The Rapture will occur suddenly. And countless thousands will vanish from the earth. Swept up to heaven to live with Jesus and escape the torment of the Tribulation, the others will be left behind." — The Dead Sea Scrolls

95-150 AD, the Rapture idea was preached by the Shepherd of Hermas. ²

"You have escaped from great tribulation on account of your faith, and because you did not doubt in the presence of such a beast. Go, therefore, and tell the elect of the Lord His mighty deeds, and say to them that this beast is a type of the great tribulation that is coming. If then ye prepare yourselves, and repent with all your heart, and turn to the Lord, it will be possible for you to escape it, if your heart be pure and spotless, and ye spend the rest of the days of your life in serving the Lord blamelessly." (documented by Larry V. Crutchfield) ³

270-303 AD, Victorinus, the Bishop of Pettau, a Catholic ecclesiastical writer preached it.

Victorinus said he saw another great and wonderful sign in his commentary on Book of Revelation in AD 270:

"Seven angels having the last seven plagues, for in them is completed the indignation of God. And these shall be in the last times when the church shall have gone out of the midst."

No doubt about it, St. Victorinus proclaimed the pretrib Rapture. ⁴

306-373 AD Ephrem the Syrian. One of the most important evidences for rapture is an apocalyptic sermon from the 4th century titled “Sermon on the End of the World”. It is credited to Ephrem the Syrian, a Syriac deacon, theologian, and hymnographer of the 4th century who wrote many biblical commentaries. Some suggest it may not have been written until a later date of 565-627 A.D. The exact date doesn’t matter. Even if it were as late as the 7th century, it is still 1100 years prior to John Darby. Ephrem wrote:

“Why therefore do we not reject every care of earthly actions and prepare ourselves for the meeting of the Lord Christ, so that he may draw us from the confusion, which overwhelms all the world? Believe you me, dearest brother, because the coming (advent) of the Lord is nigh, believe you me, because the end of the world is at hand, believe me, because it is the very last time. Or do you not believe unless you see with your eyes? See to it that this sentence be not fulfilled among you of the prophet who declares: “Woe to those who desire to see the day of the Lord!” For all the saints and elect of God are gathered, prior to the tribulation that is to come, and are taken to the Lord lest they see the confusion that is to overwhelm the world because of our sins.” ⁵

400 AD, Jerome in the Latin vulgate (in the Catholic Bible) used the word rapimur which means "rapture", or "caught up" to describe the Rapture. Jerome is actually the man who first coined the term – Rapture. ⁶

Why has the Pre-Tribulation doctrine emerged so prominently over the past 200 years?

The Bible, prior to 200 years ago, was kept out of the hands of the common people. It was locked in museums and monasteries for 1000 years during the Dark Ages. It wasn’t until the Bible was translated into the common people's language and that then the hope (the Blessed Hope – the Rapture) of the pre-millennial return of Christ was once again established in the Church. When the Scriptures were available to everybody the ancient truth of the Rapture – before the Tribulation period – was again discovered.

Pre-Tribulation Rapture beginning around the end of the Dark Ages

1304 AD, Reverend Dolcino

Francis X. Gumerlock believes that Brother Dolcino and the Apostolic Brethren taught pretribulationism documented by the following statement:

"Again, [Dolcino believed and preached and taught] that within those three years Dolcino himself and his followers will preach the coming of the Antichrist. And that theAntichrist was coming into this world within the bounds of the said three and a half years; and after he had come, then he [Dolcino] and his followers would be transferred into Paradise, in which are Enoch and Elijah. And in this way they will be preserved unharmed from the persecution of Antichrist.And that then Enoch and Elijah themselves would descend on the earth for the purpose of preaching [against] Antichrist. Then they would be killed by him or by his servants, and thus Antichrist would reign for a long time. But when the Antichrist is dead, Dolcino himself, who then would be the holy pope, and his preserved followers, will descend on the earth, and will preach the right faith of Christ to all, and will convert those who will be living then to the true faith of Jesus Christ." ⁷

1400 AD, Bible translations in the native tongues led to a new propagation of the Pre-trib Rapture.

1627 AD, Joseph Mede ** , a literalist, used the word "rapture." ⁸

1639-1723 AD Increase Mather, pastor, scholar, and the first President of Harvard College. Paul Boyer has noted that this Puritan scholar proved "that the saints would be caught up into the air beforehand, thereby escaping the final conflagration." This teaching from Mather was an early formulation of the rapture doctrine. ⁹

1687 AD, Peter Jurieu; in his book Approaching Deliverance of the Church (1687) taught that Christ would come in the air to rapture the saints and return to heaven before the battle of Armageddon. He spoke of a secret Rapture prior to His coming in glory and judgment at Armageddon.

1700 AD, John Asgill, who wrote a book in 1700 about the possibility of translation (i.e. rapture) without seeing death. ¹⁰

1738 AD, Philip Doddridge

Philip Doddridge's commentary on theNew Testament (1738) and John Gill's commentary on the New Testament (1748) both use the term "rapture" and speak of it as imminent. It is clear that these men believed that this coming will precede Christ's descent to the earth and the time of judgment. The purpose was to preserve believers from the time of judgment.

1748 AD, John Gill **

Dr. John Gill was one of the most brilliant scholars of his day. This Calvinist Baptist theologian wrote a full commentary set on the Bible in 1748. In this commentary he made a statement in his notes on 1 Thessalonians 4 that supported a time difference between the rapture of the saints and the coming of Christ to earth. He said:

....here Christ will stop and will be visible to all, and as easily discerned by all, good and bad, as the body of the sun at noon-day; as yet He will not descend on earth, because it is not fit to receive Him; but when that and its works are burnt up, and it is purged and purified by fire, and become a new earth, He'll descend upon it, and dwell with his saints in it: and this suggests another reason why He'll stay in the air, and His saints shall meet Him there, and whom He'll take up with Him into the third heaven, till the general conflagration and burning of the world is over, and to preserve them from it.... ¹¹

1763 AD, James McKnight **

1744 AD, Morgan Edwards The clearest reference to a pretrib rapture before Darby comes from American Baptist pastor, educator and historian, Morgan Edwards. He is also founder of the Ivy League school, Brown University. Edwards saw a distinct rapture 3½ years before the start of the millennium. Edward wrote about his pretrib beliefs as a student in 1744 and then later published them in 1788 in an essay titled, Two Academical Exercises on Subjects Bearing the following Titles; Millennium, Last-Novelties. His pro-Rapture stance is impossible to dismiss. He taught the following:

II. The distance between the first and second resurrection will be somewhat more than a thousand years.

I say, somewhat more-, because the dead saints will be raised, and the living changed at Christ's "appearing in the air" (Thess. 4:17); and this will be about three years and a half before the millennium, as we shall see hereafter: but will he and they abide in the air all that time? No: they will ascend to paradise, or to some one of those many "mansions in the father's house" (John 14:2), and disappear during the fore said period of time. The design of this retreat and disappearing will be to judge the risen and changed saints; for "now the time is come that judgment must begin," and that will be "at the house of God" (IPet. iv. 17) . . . (p. 7; The spelling of all Edwards quotes have been modernized.) ¹²

Thomas Ice further explains:

"Edwards clearly separates the rapture from the second coming by three and a half years. He uses modern pretrib rapture verses (1 Thess. 4:17 and John 14:2) to describe the rapture." ¹³

1792 AD, Thomas Scott **

James MacKnight (1763) and Thomas Scott (1792) taught that the righteous will be carried to heaven, where they will be secure until the time of judgment is over. ¹⁴

And then in 1830 AD, John Darby enters the picture. Without question, John Darby was not the originator of the Rapture doctrine.

* "twinkling of an eye" (I Corinthians 15:52). Scientists at General Electric Company have timed the twinkling of a human being's eye, and it amounts to eleven one-hundredths of a second.

** Peter Jurieu in his book Approaching Deliverance of the Church (1687) taught that Christ would come in the air to rapture the saints and return to heaven before the battle of Armageddon. He spoke of a secret Rapture prior to His coming in glory and judgment at Armageddon. Philip Doddridge's commentary on the New Testament (1738) and John Gill's commentary on the New Testament (1748) both use the term rapture and speak of it as imminent. It is clear that these men believed that this coming will precede Christ's descent to the earth and the time of judgment. The purpose was to preserve believers from the time of judgment. James MacKnight (1763) and Thomas Scott (1792) taught that the righteous will be carried to heaven, where they will be secure until the time of judgment is over. ¹⁵

Signs of the Times

Signs pointing to the End of this Age have never been more abundant than they are in today's headlines. They herald a time of great change, which has been promised for millennia. But today is different.

What is unique about this time revolves around Israel and man's intellectual evolution.

First, Israel has always been God's prophetic clock. In Matthew 24:32, Jesus tells us to watch for the rebudding (re-establishment) of the fig tree – a symbol of Israel. He warns two verses later when this happens, that generation who sees Israel once again attain statehood "will not pass" until the judgments and the Lord's return take place. This is THE key and often overlooked.

Israel became a nation once again in 1948 and they finally recaptured all of Jerusalem in June 1967. This is quite a feat since Jews were dispursed throughout the world for 2,534 years, managed to hold onto their language and their heritage. When this has happened to other people, they have assimilated into the culture where they live and their heritage becomes just a memory.

Israel's re-establishment set the Lord's clock in motion and He warns that "when you see these signs, all taken together, coming to pass, you may know of a surety that He is near, at the very doors." (Matthew 24:33). So while that we may know only "the times and the seasons", not a specific date, the Lord could arrive literally at any moment.

The second puzzle piece unique to this time is man's scientific advancements. We literally could not have designed and built cars, planes or atomic bombs 200 years ago. We needed computers to effectively distribute the Gospel worldwide and the Internet to disseminate vast amounts of information. Computers and chips are critical to accomplish the global 666 numbering system waiting in the wings and to keep track of those who will allowed to buy or sell when they take this chip. These are all new technologies compared to using horseback for your main means of travel.

Individually many of the signs listed in the Gospels have always been present. It's when ALL these things happen after the formation of the State of Israel that they become truly prophetically significant.

SIGNS:

Airplanes – Isaiah 31:5 and Isaiah 60:8
Horseless carriages or automobiles – Nahum 2:3-4
Israel's deserts will bloom "as a rose" – Isaiah 35:1
Alignment of the European Union – Daniel 2 & 7
Explosion in knowledge, technology and science – Daniel 12:4
Great increase in travel – Daniel 12:4
Rise of false christs and false prophets – Matthew 24:5, 11 and 24
Wars and rumors of wars – Matthew 24:6 and Revelation 6:3-4
Famines – Matthew 24:7
Earthquakes in different places – Mark 13:8
Pestilences – Luke 21:11
Injustice and discrimination flourish – Matthew 24:12 and 2Timothy 3:13
Lawlessness – Mark 13:12 and 2Timothy 3:1-4, 6
The Gospel of Kingdom will be preached worldwide – Matthew 24:14
Signs in the Sun, moon, space – Luke 21:25-26
Rise of evil spirits, cults and apostates – 1Timothy 4:1-2
Hoarding of gold and silver – James 5:1-3
False prophets denying Christ's deity – 2Peter 2:1-2
Scoffers mocking the Second Coming – 2Peter 3:3-4
Invention of the atomic bomb – 2Peter 3:10-12
Lethargy and indifference among God's people – Revelation 3:15-18
Jerusalem emerges as an international bone of contention – Zechariah 12:2-3 (Jerusalem become a cup of trembling)
Rise of anti-semitism – Psalms 83:4
Russia's new military power and its alliance with the Islamic world – Ezekiel 38 & 39 and Joel 2 & 3 Daniel 11:40 (alignment with Islamic world) and Ezekiel 30:5-6 and Psalm 83:4-7
Emergence of a mighty world power in Asia or China – Revelation 16:12, Revelation 9:14-18

In closing, we are taught in 1 Thess. 5:10-11 to encourage one another:

He died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.

So be encouraged! Maranatha!

Endnotes:

1] Behold, I Shew You A Mystery – The Beginning of Wisdom, Daniel, August 2008; http://jesusmessiah.wordpress.com/2008/08/21/behold-i-shew-you-a-mystery/

2] The Shepherd of Hermas 1.4.2.

3] Sermon entitled Sermon on The Last Times, The Antichrist, and The End of the World. For more information on this see Timothy J. Demy and Thomas D. Ice, "The Rapture and an Early Medieval Citation," Bibliotheca Sacra (Vol. 152, No. 607; July-Sept. 1995), pp. 306-17.

4] Dr. Jack Van Impe, "The Moment After" in Perhaps Today, March-April 2000, http://www.jvim.com/pt/2000/00004.html

5] Larry V. Crutchfield, "The Blessed Hope and the Tribulation in the Apostolic Fathers", in Thomas Ice & Timothy Demy, editors, When The Trumpet Sounds (Eugene, OR: Harvest House Publishers, 1995), pp. 88-101.

6] Dr. Jack Van Impe, "The Moment After" in Perhaps Today, March-April 2000, http://www.jvim.com/pt/2000/00004.html

7] Francis X. Gumerlock, "Before Darby: Expanding the Historical Boundaries of Pretribulationism", paper presented on November 14-16, 2001 to the 53rd Annual Meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society in Colorado Springs. http://www.pre-trib.org/article-view.php?id=76

8] Mede is considered the “father of English pre-millennialism,” having written Clavis Apocalyptica (“Key of the Revelation”) in 1627 in which “he attempted to construct an outline of the Apocalypse based solely upon internal considerations. In this interpretation he advocated pre-millennialism in such a scholarly way that this work continued to influence eschatological interpretation for centuries.”

9] Mal Couch, Thomas Figart, Arnold Fruchtenbaum, Thomas Ice, Russell L. Penney A Biblical Theology of the Church, p. 141, August 1, 2006

10] The entire title of Asgill's work is as follows: An argument proving, that according to the covenant of Eternal Life revealed in the Scriptures, Man may be translated from hence into that Eternal Life, without passing through Death, although the Human Nature of Christ himself could not be thus translated till he had passed through Death.

11] http://www.essentialchristianity.com/pages.asp?pageid=21918

12] Thomas Ice, "Morgan Edwards: Another Pre-Darby Rapturist"; http://www.tribulation.ws/featured/tt3.html

13] Morgan Edwards, "Two Academical Exercised on Subjects Bearing the following Titles; Millennium, Last-Novelties" (Philadelphia: self-published, 1788). See Thomas Ice, Morgan Edwards: Another Pre-Darby Rapturist, Pre-Trib Perspectives (Vol. II, No. 4; Sept/Oct 1995), pp. 1-3. http://www.pre-trib.org/article-view.php?id=76#_edn7

14] Paul N. Benware, Understanding End Times Prophecy: A Comprehensive Approach (Chicago: Moody Press, 1995), pp. 197-98.

15] Ibid.

To All for discussion here...
Quix posted the following (the item below) as a Free Republic article — Setting the Record Straight on Rapture [Disproving Darby nonsense].

[The article below was cleaned up a bit in layout and some positioning of items, from the original web page, as it appears there...]

Setting the Record Straight on Rapture
By Holly Deyo

Consider that while the word “rapture” was not used until Jerome in 400 AD with the Latin word rapimur, the Dead Sea Scroll concept of Rapture pre-dates the birth of Christ!

“In 1 Corinthians 15:51-54, the Apostle Paul tells the church at Corinth,

“Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.”
And to the church in Thessalonica in 1 Thessalonians 4:16,

“For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. 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 clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”
The mystery being spoken of here is a truth that had not previously been revealed in the Old Testament but is now being revealed in the New Testament. Although the idea of the resurrection is clearly taught in the Old Testament, the teaching of the Rapture is not. This is the first mention of the Rapture of the Church.

The context of what Paul is talking about is the resurrection and the order of the events taking place at the time of the resurrection. Paul says that before the Rapture, the dead in Christ will rise first. These are those who have died from the time after the death and resurrection of Jesus until today. And then, we who are still alive at the time of the rapture will be caught up together to meet the Lord in the air. And in that moment our mortal bodies will be changed in the “twinkling of an eye” * and we will receive our new glorified bodies.

Now listen to what Jesus tells his disciples in Luke 17:26-30 (Amplified Bible).

“And [just] as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the time of the Son of Man. [People] ate, they drank, they married, they were given in marriage, right up to the day when Noah went into the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. So also [it was the same] as it was in the days of Lot. [People] ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; But on the [very] day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed [them] all. That is the way it will be on the day that the Son of Man is revealed.”
Jesus is making a reference to the Rapture. He is telling the disciples that it will happen much as the days of Noah and Lot were. Taking place as it was in the days of Noah, how they were caught surprised. They were going about their normal day to day business. Then when Noah and his family stepped onto the ark, the flood came. As with Lot, the people of Sodom and Gomorrah were going about their own sinful ways as well and when Lot and his family were removed from the city, then God’s judgment came down upon the cities. Likewise will it be with the Rapture. Once the Lord removes His Church from the sinful world, then the Tribulation will begin.

This is just simply not true.

Then John says in Revelation 4:1, once he is finished writing about the churches,

Does this ring a bell?

When the church ministry on earth is complete a door will open and a trumpet will sound and the church will be caught up. Paul wrote in Romans 11:25,

“For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.”
Until the fullness of the Gentiles comes in. Since the Jews rejected Jesus as Messiah, God is now working among the Gentile nations to bring a bride unto Himself. Once that last Gentile who needs to be saved comes to salvation, God will focus His energy on Israel.

Many others believed and taught this long before John Darby
150BC - 70AD Rapture Mentioned in the Dead Sea Scrolls

“A Newly Discovered Dead Sea Scroll Has Revealed Who Will be Left Behind When the Rapture Comes a Leading Scholar Reports” from the journalist David Augustine. (Jack van Impe Ministries, June 16, 2005)

In this article Dr. William Harold, professor of Canon Law, at the Theological Seminary of Essex, GB wrote:

“Without doubt, this is the most important discovery in the history of Biblical archeology. The scroll, written in Aramaic, the language spoken in the Holy Land during Jesus time on earth, was found in a cave on the shores of the Dead Sea by geologists conducting a survey for the Israeli government.”
The scrolls read:

“The Rapture will occur suddenly. And countless thousands will vanish from the earth. Swept up to heaven to live with Jesus and escape the torment of the Tribulation, the others will be left behind.” — The Dead Sea Scrolls
95-150 AD, the Rapture idea was preached by the Shepherd of Hermas. 2

“You have escaped from great tribulation on account of your faith, and because you did not doubt in the presence of such a beast. Go, therefore, and tell the elect of the Lord His mighty deeds, and say to them that this beast is a type of the great tribulation that is coming. If then ye prepare yourselves, and repent with all your heart, and turn to the Lord, it will be possible for you to escape it, if your heart be pure and spotless, and ye spend the rest of the days of your life in serving the Lord blamelessly.” (documented by Larry V. Crutchfield) 3
270-303 AD, Victorinus, the Bishop of Pettau, a Catholic ecclesiastical writer preached it.

Victorinus said he saw another great and wonderful sign in his commentary on Book of Revelation in AD 270:

“Seven angels having the last seven plagues, for in them is completed the indignation of God. And these shall be in the last times when the church shall have gone out of the midst.”
No doubt about it, St. Victorinus proclaimed the pretrib Rapture. 4

306-373 AD Ephrem the Syrian. One of the most important evidences for rapture is an apocalyptic sermon from the 4th century titled “Sermon on the End of the World”. It is credited to Ephrem the Syrian, a Syriac deacon, theologian, and hymnographer of the 4th century who wrote many biblical commentaries. Some suggest it may not have been written until a later date of 565-627 A.D. The exact date doesn’t matter. Even if it were as late as the 7th century, it is still 1100 years prior to John Darby. Ephrem wrote:

“Why therefore do we not reject every care of earthly actions and prepare ourselves for the meeting of the Lord Christ, so that he may draw us from the confusion, which overwhelms all the world? Believe you me, dearest brother, because the coming (advent) of the Lord is nigh, believe you me, because the end of the world is at hand, believe me, because it is the very last time. Or do you not believe unless you see with your eyes? See to it that this sentence be not fulfilled among you of the prophet who declares: “Woe to those who desire to see the day of the Lord!” For all the saints and elect of God are gathered, prior to the tribulation that is to come, and are taken to the Lord lest they see the confusion that is to overwhelm the world because of our sins.” 5
400 AD, Jerome in the Latin vulgate (in the Catholic Bible) used the word rapimur which means “rapture”, or “caught up” to describe the Rapture. Jerome is actually the man who first coined the term – Rapture. 6

Why has the Pre-Tribulation doctrine emerged so prominently over the past 200 years?

Pre-Tribulation Rapture beginning around the end of the Dark Ages

1304 AD, Reverend Dolcino

Francis X. Gumerlock believes that Brother Dolcino and the Apostolic Brethren taught pretribulationism documented by the following statement:

“Again, [Dolcino believed and preached and taught] that within those three years Dolcino himself and his followers will preach the coming of the Antichrist. And that theAntichrist was coming into this world within the bounds of the said three and a half years; and after he had come, then he [Dolcino] and his followers would be transferred into Paradise, in which are Enoch and Elijah. And in this way they will be preserved unharmed from the persecution of Antichrist.And that then Enoch and Elijah themselves would descend on the earth for the purpose of preaching [against] Antichrist. Then they would be killed by him or by his servants, and thus Antichrist would reign for a long time. But when the Antichrist is dead, Dolcino himself, who then would be the holy pope, and his preserved followers, will descend on the earth, and will preach the right faith of Christ to all, and will convert those who will be living then to the true faith of Jesus Christ.” 7
1400 AD, Bible translations in the native tongues led to a new propagation of the Pre-trib Rapture.

1627 AD, Joseph Mede ** , a literalist, used the word “rapture.” 8

1639-1723 AD Increase Mather, pastor, scholar, and the first President of Harvard College. Paul Boyer has noted that this Puritan scholar proved “that the saints would be caught up into the air beforehand, thereby escaping the final conflagration.” This teaching from Mather was an early formulation of the rapture doctrine. 9

1687 AD, Peter Jurieu; in his book Approaching Deliverance of the Church (1687) taught that Christ would come in the air to rapture the saints and return to heaven before the battle of Armageddon. He spoke of a secret Rapture prior to His coming in glory and judgment at Armageddon.

1700 AD, John Asgill, who wrote a book in 1700 about the possibility of translation (i.e. rapture) without seeing death. 10

1738 AD, Philip Doddridge

Philip Doddridge’s commentary on theNew Testament (1738) and John Gill's commentary on the New Testament (1748) both use the term “rapture” and speak of it as imminent. It is clear that these men believed that this coming will precede Christ's descent to the earth and the time of judgment. The purpose was to preserve believers from the time of judgment.

1748 AD, John Gill **

....here Christ will stop and will be visible to all, and as easily discerned by all, good and bad, as the body of the sun at noon-day; as yet He will not descend on earth, because it is not fit to receive Him; but when that and its works are burnt up, and it is purged and purified by fire, and become a new earth, He'll descend upon it, and dwell with his saints in it: and this suggests another reason why He'll stay in the air, and His saints shall meet Him there, and whom He'll take up with Him into the third heaven, till the general conflagration and burning of the world is over, and to preserve them from it.... 11
1763 AD, James McKnight **

II. The distance between the first and second resurrection will be somewhat more than a thousand years.

I say, somewhat more-, because the dead saints will be raised, and the living changed at Christ's “appearing in the air” (Thess. 4:17); and this will be about three years and a half before the millennium, as we shall see hereafter: but will he and they abide in the air all that time? No: they will ascend to paradise, or to some one of those many “mansions in the father's house” (John 14:2), and disappear during the fore said period of time. The design of this retreat and disappearing will be to judge the risen and changed saints; for “now the time is come that judgment must begin,” and that will be “at the house of God” (IPet. iv. 17) . . . (p. 7; The spelling of all Edwards quotes have been modernized.) 12
Thomas Ice further explains:

“Edwards clearly separates the rapture from the second coming by three and a half years. He uses modern pretrib rapture verses (1 Thess. 4:17 and John 14:2) to describe the rapture.” 13
1792 AD, Thomas Scott **

James MacKnight (1763) and Thomas Scott (1792) taught that the righteous will be carried to heaven, where they will be secure until the time of judgment is over. 14

And then in 1830 AD, John Darby enters the picture. Without question, John Darby was not the originator of the Rapture doctrine.

* “twinkling of an eye” (I Corinthians 15:52). Scientists at General Electric Company have timed the twinkling of a human being's eye, and it amounts to eleven one-hundredths of a second.

** Peter Jurieu in his book Approaching Deliverance of the Church (1687) taught that Christ would come in the air to rapture the saints and return to heaven before the battle of Armageddon. He spoke of a secret Rapture prior to His coming in glory and judgment at Armageddon. Philip Doddridge’s commentary on the New Testament (1738) and John Gill's commentary on the New Testament (1748) both use the term rapture and speak of it as imminent. It is clear that these men believed that this coming will precede Christ's descent to the earth and the time of judgment. The purpose was to preserve believers from the time of judgment. James MacKnight (1763) and Thomas Scott (1792) taught that the righteous will be carried to heaven, where they will be secure until the time of judgment is over. 15

Signs of the Times
Signs pointing to the End of this Age have never been more abundant than they are in today's headlines. They herald a time of great change, which has been promised for millennia. But today is different.

What is unique about this time revolves around Israel and man's intellectual evolution.

First, Israel has always been God's prophetic clock. In Matthew 24:32, Jesus tells us to watch for the rebudding (re-establishment) of the fig tree – a symbol of Israel. He warns two verses later when this happens, that generation who sees Israel once again attain statehood “will not pass” until the judgments and the Lord's return take place. This is THE key and often overlooked.

Israel's re-establishment set the Lord's clock in motion and He warns that “when you see these signs, all taken together, coming to pass, you may know of a surety that He is near, at the very doors.” (Matthew 24:33). So while that we may know only “the times and the seasons”, not a specific date, the Lord could arrive literally at any moment.

SIGNS:

Airplanes – Isaiah 31:5 and Isaiah 60:8
Horseless carriages or automobiles – Nahum 2:3-4
Israel's deserts will bloom “as a rose” – Isaiah 35:1
Alignment of the European Union – Daniel 2 & 7
Explosion in knowledge, technology and science – Daniel 12:4
Great increase in travel – Daniel 12:4
Rise of false christs and false prophets – Matthew 24:5, 11 and 24
Wars and rumors of wars – Matthew 24:6 and Revelation 6:3-4
Famines – Matthew 24:7
Earthquakes in different places – Mark 13:8
Pestilences – Luke 21:11
Injustice and discrimination flourish – Matthew 24:12 and 2Timothy 3:13
Lawlessness – Mark 13:12 and 2Timothy 3:1-4, 6
The Gospel of Kingdom will be preached worldwide – Matthew 24:14
Signs in the Sun, moon, space – Luke 21:25-26
Rise of evil spirits, cults and apostates – 1Timothy 4:1-2
Hoarding of gold and silver – James 5:1-3
False prophets denying Christ's deity – 2Peter 2:1-2
Scoffers mocking the Second Coming – 2Peter 3:3-4
Invention of the atomic bomb – 2Peter 3:10-12
Lethargy and indifference among God's people – Revelation 3:15-18
Jerusalem emerges as an international bone of contention – Zechariah 12:2-3 (Jerusalem become a cup of trembling)
Rise of anti-semitism – Psalms 83:4
Russia's new military power and its alliance with the Islamic world – Ezekiel 38 & 39 and Joel 2 & 3 Daniel 11:40 (alignment with Islamic world) and Ezekiel 30:5-6 and Psalm 83:4-7
Emergence of a mighty world power in Asia or China – Revelation 16:12, Revelation 9:14-18
In closing, we are taught in 1 Thess. 5:10-11 to encourage one another:

He died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.
So be encouraged! Maranatha!

Endnotes:

1] Behold, I Shew You A Mystery – The Beginning of Wisdom, Daniel, August 2008; http://jesusmessiah.wordpress.com/2008/08/21/behold-i-shew-you-a-mystery/

2] The Shepherd of Hermas 1.4.2.

3] Sermon entitled Sermon on The Last Times, The Antichrist, and The End of the World. For more information on this see Timothy J. Demy and Thomas D. Ice, “The Rapture and an Early Medieval Citation,” Bibliotheca Sacra (Vol. 152, No. 607; July-Sept. 1995), pp. 306-17.

4] Dr. Jack Van Impe, “The Moment After” in Perhaps Today, March-April 2000, http://www.jvim.com/pt/2000/00004.html

5] Larry V. Crutchfield, “The Blessed Hope and the Tribulation in the Apostolic Fathers”, in Thomas Ice & Timothy Demy, editors, When The Trumpet Sounds (Eugene, OR: Harvest House Publishers, 1995), pp. 88-101.

6] Dr. Jack Van Impe, “The Moment After” in Perhaps Today, March-April 2000, http://www.jvim.com/pt/2000/00004.html

7] Francis X. Gumerlock, “Before Darby: Expanding the Historical Boundaries of Pretribulationism”, paper presented on November 14-16, 2001 to the 53rd Annual Meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society in Colorado Springs. http://www.pre-trib.org/article-view.php?id=76

9] Mal Couch, Thomas Figart, Arnold Fruchtenbaum, Thomas Ice, Russell L. Penney A Biblical Theology of the Church, p. 141, August 1, 2006

10] The entire title of Asgill’s work is as follows: An argument proving, that according to the covenant of Eternal Life revealed in the Scriptures, Man may be translated from hence into that Eternal Life, without passing through Death, although the Human Nature of Christ himself could not be thus translated till he had passed through Death.

11] http://www.essentialchristianity.com/pages.asp?pageid=21918

12] Thomas Ice, “Morgan Edwards: Another Pre-Darby Rapturist”; http://www.tribulation.ws/featured/tt3.html

13] Morgan Edwards, “Two Academical Exercised on Subjects Bearing the following Titles; Millennium, Last-Novelties” (Philadelphia: self-published, 1788). See Thomas Ice, Morgan Edwards: Another Pre-Darby Rapturist, Pre-Trib Perspectives (Vol. II, No. 4; Sept/Oct 1995), pp. 1-3. http://www.pre-trib.org/article-view.php?id=76#_edn7

14] Paul N. Benware, Understanding End Times Prophecy: A Comprehensive Approach (Chicago: Moody Press, 1995), pp. 197-98.

15] Ibid.

369 posted on Friday, November 20, 2009 8:51:53 AM by Star Traveler (The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is a Zionist and Jerusalem is the apple of His eye.)
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To: LiteKeeper; smokingfrog; MississippiMan; GOP Poet; marbren; Quix; Luke21; yellowhorse; ...
One nice thing about this Rapture Caucus is that it never gets old, no matter how long we may be away from it.
It's been talked about and written about for almost two thousand years among Christian believers and has been in the mind of God since before the beginning of creation and time.

There's a new posting up above that might interest some participants in the Rapture Caucus

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