Short History of Pre-Trib Rapture Doctrine
Most of us know people who believe in a pre-tribulation rapture. As a result, such are not building up their most holy faith to endure to the END of this Antichrist War on the Saints. Thinking one will be raptured BEFORE the antichrist war on the saints is NOT good preparation to endure to the END of such a war. The Lord made it explicit that IMMEDIATELY AFTER the Tribulation is when He sends His angels for His elect. Matt 24:29-31. Perhaps a short true history of who, how, and when the pre-tribulation rapture doctrines originated would be helpful for you to help those whom you know to be in denial or failing to prepare because of this Jesuit doctrine. Jesuit? Yes, two Jesuit priests laid the foundations of the pre-trib rapture doctrine, unknown in the history of the Church, prior to the Reformation.
At the time of the Reformation, the vast majority of Protestants were convinced that the Pope was the personification of the antichrist. Most today now understand the pope to be the second beast, the false prophet of the antichrist prince. However, at the time of the Reformation, it was universally believed by all Protestants, that the Roman Church was the Harlot Religion System of Revelation seventeen. Today there is still good cause to see the Roman Church as the religious component of Babylon, meaning confusion, in the antichrist war on the saints.
This understanding that the Roman Church is the Religious Babylon brought millions of believers out of the Roman Catholic religious system, during the Reformation. Understanding that the Roman Church is the religious component of the confusion of Babylon, in the antichrist war on the saints in these last days, will also bring millions from the bondage of the Roman Church to freedom in Christ.
Because of how many during the Reformation saw the Roman Church as the Babylon harlot of Religion, it became expedient for certain Roman theologians to turn the attention of the people away from the Papacy. Indeed the Jesuits were responsible for the origin of the pre- tribulation rapture doctrines. It was two Jesuit priests who rightly deserve the title as the founders of pre-tribulation rapture doctrines. These two Jesuits invented a counter-interpretation to that held unanimously by the Protestants. They taught that the revelation of the antichrist was at some far distant date. In the entire history of the Church prior to the writings of these two Jesuit priests all believed the eminent Resurrection, Rapture, and Return of the Lord was a single simultaneous event, happening in the twinkling of an eye, on the last day, at the last trump. When is the Last Day? When is the Last Trump?
It was a Jesuit priest named Ribera who, in the days of the Reformation, first taught the basic ideas of the pre-tribulation rapture. Just putting the revealing of the antichrist way off in the future was a very effective way of taking the heat off of the Papacy during the Reformation. Then another Jesuit priest named Emmanuel Lacunza, built on Ribera's teachings and wrote a book called The Coming of Messiah in Glory and Majesty. True to Jesuit style and stealth, Lacunza knew the Protestants were not going to widely receive a book written by a Jesuit priest. The Jesuit, Lacunza, therefore wrote his book under the assumed name of Rabbi Ben Ezra. This fictitious Rabbi Ben Ezra, was presented in Lacunza's book as a scholarly Jewish Rabbi who had accepted Christ as his Savior. By this ploy the Jesuit Lacunza was able to get his book to have a good reception in the Protestant world. No Protestants in the Reformation era would have allowed a copy of The Coming of Messiah in Glory and Majesty in their homes if they had any idea that the book was written by a Jesuit.
Because Lacunza presented the book as written by a scholarly Jewish Rabbi who had become a Christian believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, he knew the Protestants would love and receive his Jesuit book. The Jesuits certainly have not gotten less subtle, and it does not seem the Church has gotten more discerning. Lacunza's book, The Coming of Messiah in Glory and Majesty, was a very successful, elaborate forgery. In his book, Lacunza taught the new idea that Jesus returns TWICE, or TWO Second Comings. The Jesuit Lacunza was the first in all history to teach two second comings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Lacunza taught that at the first stage of His return He raptures His Church so they can escape the reign of the future antichrist. His book was first published in Spanish in the 1812.
Shortly after Lacunza's book was published, a Protestant leader in England by the name of Edward Irving discovered Lacunza's book. Edward Irving translated Lacunza's book into English in 1827. The Encyclopedia Britannica, volume 12, 1966 issue, pages 648-649, describe Edward Irving and the controversy over his teachings in Scotland and England in the early 1800's. He was excommunicated by the London presbytery, and in 1833 was condemned and deposed from the ministry of the Church of Scotland because of his teaching concerning "the sinfulness of Christ's humanity". He also began to teach a "rapture of the Church", after a young Scottish girl by the name of Margaret MacDonald went into a trance and described a vision in which she said she saw the Saints leaving the earth at the return of the Lord, before the tribulation. Her trance and vision took place in the spring of 1830, while living in Port Glasgow, Scotland. Her "revelation" was recorded in a book written by R. N. Norton and printed in London in 1861.
John Nelson Darby was a leader and prolific writer among the Plymouth Brethren. Darby was part of the Irvingite movement. He was strongly influenced by Irving, and Lucunza's book which Irving had translated into English, and particularly by the book by Norton, of the vision of Margret MacDonald. By 1850 John Darby had organized the Jesuit fraud of TWO second comings of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the pre- tribulation rapture fraud, into a system of prophetic teachings called dispensationalism.
In 1860's John Darby was put on the payroll of the British East India company. The British East India Company has historically been held by the Illuminati blood lines of European royalty, (Greek kings as Daniel would call them). John Darby was sent to America with the specific Illuminati goal of weakening the strong faith of American Christians. Darby's dispensationalism was sure to be successful in America in that purpose for which he was put on the Illuminati payroll.
Americans were and have been proven to be particularly easy to be taken by the Jesuit originated, non-scriptural, doctrines of pre-trib lala land. The reason is because of what is the make up of the people group known as Americans. Perhaps the best way of describing the American people group is one which came from a stock of hard working, risk taking, God fearing, people, who delight in making plans and take special delight in having their plans come together. Americans are good planners. As a people group they do not even want God messing up their plans, unless He would pouf them out in a fabled pre- trib rapture to heaven before anything bad would happen to otherwise mess up their plans.
In America in the 1860's Darby's dispensational TWO SECOND COMINGS dispensational interpretations met with wide open reception across the entire spectrum of American Protestant and biblical Christianity. A lawyer of very dubious character who had become a Congregationalist preacher, named C.I. Scofield came under the influence of Darby and the Plymouth Brethren. That brought the Scofield Reference bible and most know the history from that point certainly has led to the great apostasy, not the rapture, but the great falling away from The Faith.
For a good, short, clear verification of this history I would just recommend looking at the article title DISPENSATION which James L. Blevins wrote in the Holman Bible Dictionary. J. Preston Eby has also done some fine work on this subject. Perhaps the best and most comprehensive work on the subject of the history and background of pre-trib rapture doctrines has been done by Dave Macpherson. Dave Macpherson is the author of The Rapture Plot, The Incredible Cover Up, The Great Rapture Hoax, Unbelievable Pre-Trib Origin and Late Great Pre-Trib Rapture. All of Dave Macpherson's books are excellent, well written, and well researched. The best source of truth on the subject however, is the more sure word written in the KJV Holy Bible. The GJiGT book can also be a particularly helpful tool in regard to illustrating what the more sure word of God says in full context on the subject of the Great Tribulation. How the GJiGT book is organized makes it useful to quickly debunk any pre-trib supposed proof texts wrested from their context.
The Scofield Reference Bible was destined to have a tremendous impact upon the beliefs of many. There were three million copies published in the first 50 years. Through this Bible, Scofield carried the teaching of the TWO Second Comings and the two stage rapture to almost the whole of American Christianity. It is truly amazing when one finds that this TWO Second Comings, and a pre-tribulation rapture for the super duper saints, and three and a half years of hell on earth for the not so super duper saints, is NOT supported by a single verse of scripture in context rightly divided by the Holy Ghost. Astonishing, yet as Fly told Babe – That is just the way things are. Also, The Lord Jesus Christ said it would be like this – that in these last days of such strong delusion, with such a vast majority of false teachers having been taught these Jesuit doctrines, in the Jesuit infiltrated Protestant seminaries, - Mat 24:24 For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.
The truth train of history of pre-trib rapture doctrine begins with two Jesuit priests. The first was named Ribera. His 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 a very large part of evangelical Christianity, and almost the entire Pentecostal movement. Someone once said all roads lead to Rome, and in the case of the pre-trib rapture doctrines that remains accurate.