6th Semester / Week 3
An absolutely critical, key doctrine according to dispensational Futurists, such as in their popular “Left Behind” books and movies, is a supposed “secret” rapture of the Church exactly 7 years BEFORE the final return of Jesus (as if Revelation is mostly about “7 years of great tribulation” after the rapture of the Church). However, prior to 1830, no Church taught anything about a “secret” rapture in their creed, catechism or statement of faith. The belief in two separate returns of Jesus was entirely foreign to our ancestors, and was only popularized relatively recently.
Because of its novelty, when John Nelson Darby presented it to his Church, the Plymouth Brethren, it was rejected by its leaders such as Benjamin Newton and the renowned George Mueller, who supposedly replied, “If you can show me a trumpet after the last [1 Corinthians 15:52] and a resurrection before the first [Revelation 20:4-5], then I can believe this [new] doctrine.” Mueller has also been quoted as saying, “My brother, I am a constant reader of my Bible, and I soon found that what I was taught to believe did not always agree with what my Bible said. I came to see that I must either part company with John Darby, or my precious Bible, and I chose to cling to my Bible and part from Mr. Darby,” (Scriptural Truth About the Lord’s Return, Robert Cameron, p. 146-147).
It’s important to remember that Darbyism was simply one part of a larger movement called the Restoration Movement. The sects that arose during the 19th century all shared a belief the Church is corrupt and in need of restoration (hence the name). They were all apocalyptic and each claimed their version of the Church was the correct restoration. These sects included the Jehovahs Witnesses, Latter Day Saints (Mormons), Adventists groups that formed after Millerism’s “Great Disappointment,” as well as others. They preached the need to prepare for Christ’s return in the 19th century, and in that light, Darby was very much a product of his time. Yet he was admonished by the Plymouth Brethren many times, so much so that he separated from them and created his own sect, the Exclusive Brethren (he clearly didn’t play well with others unless he was in command), and that group has now been reported as devolving into a repressive, controlling cult.
Clearly, rather than sticking to what the Bible actually teaches, Darby split the Plymouth Brethren movement apart over his “new revelation.” So, let’s now begin to evaluate what the Bible really says:
“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,” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17).
So, it says the dead in Christ rise first, before any other believers. So, the critical key doctrine we’ll need to evaluate is “when” the dead will be raised. But first, notice again that it’s only “after” the dead are raised will believers be “caught up” to meet them. However, unlike what that passage clearly teaches, are we all instead raised 7 years before Jesus returns to the Earth, as most of our generation has been taught by dispensationalists? Furthermore, if that were the case, then wouldn’t that allow someone to then predict the exact timing of the final return of Jesus, since it would be precisely 7 years after the rapture? Look at what’s taught about the return of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew:
“But of that day and hour NO ONE knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only,” (Matthew 24:36).
Absolutely no one will ever be able to predict the return of Jesus, and they all need to stop their unceasing false predictions of when Jesus might return. And actually, rather than a rapture 7 years before the End, Jesus instead declared FOUR times in the Gospel of John that He would raise the dead on the LAST DAY (and again, according to 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, the dead are raised first, and not last, and only afterwards are believers raptured)
John 6:39-40, 44,54:
“And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that I shall lose none of those He has given Me, but raise them up at the LAST day.
For it is My Father’s will that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the LAST day… No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him, and I will raise him up at the LAST day… Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the LAST day.”
Furthermore, when did Martha indicate to Jesus that her brother Lazarus would be raised?
“Martha said to him, ‘I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the LAST day,’” (John 11:24).
Finally, in the interpretation of the parable of the wheat and tares, Jesus tells us that we aren’t separated until the End:
“The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. LET BOTH GROW TOGETHER UNTIL THE HARVEST, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.”
“He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one. The enemy who sowed them is the devil, THE HARVEST IS THE END of the age, and the reapers are the angels. Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be AT THE END of this age. The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire,” (Matthew 13:24-30, 37-42).
Unfortunately, many people now mistakenly believe the dead in Christ are raised 7 years before “the Harvest.” However, Scripture teaches that the time of the “Harvest” is “the End,” “the Last Day,” when everyone is separated after the dead are raised and then the Saints are gathered together with Jesus. As we’ve seen, the incorrect belief of a rapture exactly 7 years before “the Harvest” is usually attributed to Darby, and he claims to have found it on his own, although some claim the 15 year old Margaret MacDonald dreamed it up while attending a charismatic assembly and taught it to Edward Irving who taught it to Darby. Supporters of Darby claim he wrote about it three years earlier in 1827, and that Darby wasn’t supportive of the charismatic utterances of Margaret MacDonald but instead thought such charismatic utterances might be demonic.
To look even further into the possible foundation of a supposed pre-tribulation rapture, there’s a text from a “pseudo” Ephraim (also spelled Ephrem) which attempted to be attributed to the Syrian early Church theologian. However, there’s controversy not only surrounding its dubious authorship and date, but also how it was translated. While one translation of it might imply a pretrib rapture, the original Syrian version clearly shows that it’s only death that causes some to avoid tribulation. Furthermore, there are other passages in both versions that might also imply that Christians don’t escape tribulation. Notice the huge (and possibly intentionally misleading) difference when it was translated from the original Syrian into Latin and then into English:
One review states, “Did the author [pseudo-Ephraim] believe in the Rapture, much as modern premillennial dispensationalists do? The cautious reader will hesitate. For we are sifting the meaning of a single sentence; and it is generally unwise to place too much reliance on a couple of words in a single sentence. There is no link to 1 Thess. 4:17… [and] the statement is too brief for us to be certain. Two key words cannot compel belief. If we know of no other evidence that a modern teaching was present to the minds of 5th century believers, then we would probably be very wary of asserting it based on a single ambiguous sentence in an obscure work. The evidence, in the end, leaves us doubtful. The similarity may merely be an accident. Much more research also would be needed for us to be sure that such an interpretation was possible at that period. For any statement of this kind must be interpreted, not by the beliefs of 19th century America, but by the known beliefs of the period. We know of no other evidence that this interpretation was in vogue. Other interpretations are therefore more probable.”
Ultimately, regardless of exactly what was taught by the “pseudo” Ephraem, it’s still a fraudulent and unreliable document that falsely claims to be written by Ephraem who died in the 4th century, when in fact it was actually written after the 8th century. And now moving on past that dubious text, when doing a completely thorough search, it must be admitted that there certainly are comments from several 17th and 18th century writers who had begun to think of a Rapture that was separate from the Second Coming, however, for the most part, those were very obscure writings and weren’t influential at all until Darby came along to popularize his systematic doctrines. If it wasn’t for Darby, then that concept never would’ve been taught to the majority of modern-day Christians.
Regardless of whether Darby found it on his own, or was influenced by the utterances of a charismatic girl or had read someone else’s work, and regardless of the precise year he discovered it, whether it was 1827 or 1830, that core dispensational doctrine wasn’t formulated in detail until then, and it’s still simply an incorrect and relatively modern doctrine.
The following is an overview given by Martyn Lloyd-Jones, minister of Westminster Chapel from 1939 to 1968, known for his “sound exposition of biblical doctrine and his fire and passion in its delivery.”
“The Secret Rapture Teaching”
By Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, “Great Doctrines of the Bible”
“There was a New Testament scholar called Tregelles, who belonged to the so-called Plymouth Brethren. In 1830 and subsequently he was present at the Powerscourt Conferences which were attended by J.N. Darby and B.W. Newton, and others belonging to that school. This is what Tregelles says:
‘I was not aware that there was any definite teaching that there should be a secret rapture of the Church at a secret coming until this was given forth as an utterance in Mr. Edward Irving’s church, from what was then received as being the voice of the Spirit – it was from that supposed ‘revelation’ that the modern doctrine arose.’
The teaching of the ‘secret’ rapture of the Church at the coming of our Lord was first taught as the result of a prophetic utterance in Edward Irving’s church. It originated as an utterance in tongues, interpreted by somebody, and, indeed, Tregelles emphasized this by saying that this teaching was a ‘revelation.’
According to Tregelles, the teaching with regard to the preliminary rapture of the saints… was accepted by certain people present at the 1830 conference, including J.N. Darby. But it was not accepted by B.W. Newton, nor by George Mueller, and there was a division even among that circle. Only J.N Darby and certain of his followers accepted it. D.L. Moody, the evangelist, adopted J.N. Darby’s teaching and because Moody was such a well-known man as a result of his evangelistic campaigns, it was popularized immediately. The formation of the Moody Bible Institute popularized it still more and the publication of the Scofield Bible was possibly most influential of all in spreading this ‘new revelation’ teaching.
That, then, is the teaching about this preliminary rapture and the friends who believe this claim that there are certain scriptures which prove it.
So let us look first at 2 Thessalonians 2:8:
‘And then shall that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming’ – or, ‘the epiphany of His parousia’ or, ‘the manifestation of His coming’
There is, it is claimed, a distinction between His ‘coming’ and the ‘manifestation of His coming’. But this is surely answered by 2 Thessalonians 1: 9-10 where the destruction of the sinners and the glorification of the saints occur together. Furthermore, 2 Thessalonians 2:1 identifies the ‘parousia’ with the coming of the Lord.
With regard to Matthew 24:40-41 which reads,
‘Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left’
The whole setting is that of judgment and in the context is comparable to the flood. This verse therefore means that at the Final Judgment there will be a separation.
Finally, in John 5:28-29 our Lord says,
‘Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in which ALL that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation’
while in John 6:39-40 He refers to
‘the last day’.
So, the clear teaching of Scripture is that there is only One Coming, not two; nor are there two stages. There is no ‘Secret’ rapture, and no coming of our Lord at any moment. Certain things must happen first, as we have seen.
The Scripture declares plainly that the Lord Jesus will NOT come until the Apostacy shall have taken place, the Man of Sin, the son of perdition shall have been revealed as in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-5. Many other portions also of the Word of God distinctly teach that certain events are to be fulfilled before the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because His appearing is our blessed hope to which we look forward, let us purify ourselves now, seeking to live as children of the light, and obviously different from the children of night and of darkness.”
“Helping People See Jesus and Exploring All That He Has Fulfilled” 