History of the Rapture – Part 3

The Oldest Recorded Christian End Time Belief

So far we have looked at the effects that society has played on Christian eschatology throughout history. We have seen the effects that media, scholastics, and the threat of heresy has had on the end time belief system of mainstream Christianity. But amidst all of the different beliefs, there is one theory that is older than any other form of recorded Christian eschatology. This theory is termed Historic Premillennialism by Bible scholars because of the strength of its historic authenticity.

Many of the disciples had disciples of their own. Actually, this was a common practice in the early church that the modern church has forgotten, but that is another blog altogether. The Apostle John had several men he had discipled that had written records of John’s beliefs. One of these men was named Polycarp. Jerome records the following concerning Polycarp, “Polycarp disciple of the apostle John and by him ordained bishop of Smyrna was chief of all Asia, where he saw and had as teachers some of the apostles and of those who had seen the Lord”. It is believed that John was writing to Polycarp when he wrote to the church in Smyrna, Revelation 2: 8-10.

Polycarp did not have written accounts of his end time beliefs, but several of his pupils had many written records leaving no doubt of their end time beliefs. Because so many of Polycarp’s students were unanimous on their views, it is extremely probable that they were taught this view from Polycarp who was directly discipled by John, the author of Revelation, the Book of John, I John, II John, and III John. Here are a few examples of Polycarp’s pupils’ writings and other church fathers:

And therefore, when in the end the Church shall be suddenly caught up from this, it is said, "There shall be tribulation such as has not been since the beginning, neither shall be." (Matt.24:21) For this is the last contest of the righteous, in which, when they overcome, they are crowned with incorruption. Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 5:29:1 (A.D. 180)

“O unreasoning men! understanding not what has been proved by all these passages,
that two advents of Christ have been announced: the one, in which He is set forth as
suffering, inglorious, dishonoured, and crucified; but the other, in which He shall come
from heaven with glory, when the man of apostasy, who speaks strange things against
the Most High, shall venture to do unlawful deeds on the earth against us the
Christians, who, having learned the true worship of God from the law, and the word
which went forth from Jerusalem by means of the apostles of Jesus, have fled for safety
to the God of Jacob and God of Israel.” Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, 110 (A.D. 155)

“But he indicates the number of the name now, that when this man comes we may
avoid him, being aware who he is: the name, however, is suppressed, because it is not
worthy of being proclaimed by the Holy Spirit. For if it had been declared by Him, he
[Antichrist] might perhaps continue for a long period.” Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 5:30:4 (A.D. 180)

“[Taught, I say, to wait], in order that the world may first drink to the dregs the plagues
that await it out of the vials of the angels, and that the city of fornication may receive from
the ten kings its deserved doom, and that the beast Antichrist with his false prophet
may wage war on the Church of God; and that, after the casting of the devil into the
bottomless pit for a while, the blessed prerogative of the first resurrection may be
ordained from the thrones; and then again, after the consignment of him to the fire, that
the judgment of the final and universal resurrection may be determined out of the
books.” Tertullian, On the Resurrection of the Flesh, 26 (A.D. 220)

“’And the dragon,’ he says, ‘saw and persecuted the woman which brought forth the
man- child. And to the woman were given two wings of the great eagle, that she might
fly into the wilderness, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time,
from the face of the serpent.’ That refers to the one thousand two hundred and
threescore days (the half of the week) during which the tyrant is to reign and persecute
the Church,” Hippolytus, On Christ and Antichrist, 61 (ante A.D. 235)

“The little season signifies three years and six months, in which with all his power the
devil will avenge himself under Antichrist against the Church. Finally, he says, after that
the devil shall be loosed, and will seduce the nations in the whole world, and will entice
war against the Church, the number of whose foes shall be as the sand of the sea.”

Victorinus, On the Apocalypse of John, 20:1-3 (A.D. 270)

“But he who reads this passage [Daniel 7:15-28], even half asleep, cannot fail to see
that the kingdom of Antichrist shall fiercely, though for a short time, assail the Church
before the last judgment of God shall introduce the eternal reign of the saints.”

Augustine, City of God, 20:23 (A.D. 419)

Believe it or not, this is only a few exerts from many documents that our church fathers left concerning an overwhelming harmonious view of their post-tribulation belief. Many proponents of a pre-tribulation rapture (dispensational pre-millennialism – see History of Rapture part 1) will claim that they adhere to the oldest form of eschatology, while in fact it is the youngest. Both pre and post tribulationist believe in a literal 1000 year reign of Christ, but before the early 1800s, there are no historical records of a belief in a pre-tribulation rapture. There are some speculations of isolated occurrences, but it is just that; speculations.

What I have written over the past few weeks is very rare information within the pulpits. Most teachers who focus on end time beliefs do not want to bring in the historical evidence, because it is strongly against modern eschatology. I will admit that the historical evidence does not prove one theory over another, but most theologians agree that the views of these men that I introduced you to today probably were passed down to them from the original apostles. But I encourage you to study this out for yourself. Please do not take my word for it.

History of the Rapture - Part 2

History of Amillennialism

In the previous thread we looked at the history of the Pre-tribulation rapture in church history. When I first heard the history behind this theory, I was truly amazed at just how young the theory is. Now we will look into the next division of eschatology which has been the overwhelming viewpoint for the longest period of time. The biggest reason for the longstanding of this theory is because this is the accepted view of the Roman Catholic Church. No matter the church that you attended, more than not, your roots began in the Roman Catholic Church. Before the protestant reformation there was one universal church, and that was the Roman Catholic Church. It always amazes me to hear some denominations state that they can trace their denomination back to the church in Acts. To make it clear once more, if you are a protestant believer in America, your church came out of the Roman Catholic Church at some point throughout history.

I must establish this point for you to fully understand the basis for the Amillennial theory. Today many protestant denominations along with the Catholic Church hold to this belief. One denomination that focuses strongly on eschatology claims this to be the oldest form of end time beliefs. They claim to be Amillennial yet they continually devalue the Catholic Church. Almost all of the fathers of the Protestant Reformation were Amillennialist, because they came out of the Catholic Church. In history, up to that point, any other form of eschatology was considered heresy.

The view is a simple one that fits the beliefs of the Roman Catholic Church perfectly. The Amillennial view states that Christ is reigning through his church here on the earth, and that Satan is actually bound up because the gospel has spread throughout the world. They believe that we are living in the millennium right now, and have been doing so since 70AD. Of course Catholicism generally teaches that Christ is reining through the Catholic Church, and that He speaks directly through the Pope. The Catholic Church teaches that Christ has transmitted His power directly to the Pope, and this is the reason the Pope’s words are to be treated equal to Christ’s. Now you can see how this theory fits perfectly with the teachings of Catholicism.

The Amillennial belief dates back to approximately 380, with the Edict of Thessalonica, in which Christianity became the state religion of Rome. From that time to recent history, any other form of eschatology was barred from the Catholic Church. The whole premise for this belief is that some prophetic scriptures are not to be taken literally, but to be seen as poetry. The thousand year reign of Christ in Revelation 20 is not a literal 1000 years, but a long period of time in which the church is reigning on the earth.

The people that hold to this theory are waiting for the end of the Church age when Jesus comes back to the earth for his Second Coming, the rapture. They also believe that the tribulation has already occurred, in 70 AD to be exact, and that there will not be a physical anti-christ during the last days.

Although this theory has dominated the church more so then any other eschatological belief, it is not the oldest form of end time theories. We will look next time at the oldest recorded end time beliefs in church history.

History of the Rapture - Part 1

History of the Pre-Tribulation Rapture

Because of the business of my life it has been a while since I wrote on my blog, and for that I apologize. One of the most “eye opening” facts that has supported my beliefs of the end times is actually church history. As we have previously discussed the study of the end times is called eschatology. The mainstream theories have changed drastically throughout time and have shaped the church in some form with every change. What we see today in pulpits across the world is eschatological theories that are laden with baggage from society. Let me show you the history of the rapture to prove to my claim.

The history of the church can be divided into three main movements: the early church movement, the Roman Catholicism movement, and the Protestant movement. Each of these segments has a claim to their own eschatological belief. We will start with the most recent mainstream belief and study the origins of the end time beliefs of the Protestant movement (or more suitably labeled the modern day protestant movement).

The most modern mainstream belief about the rapture within the Protestant movement is termed as the dispensational pre-millenniallism, or pre-tribulation rapture. This view was greatly made popular among Christians because of the Left Behind series of books and movies that took the nation by storm in the 90s. The Left Behind series predecessor was a book written in the 70s called The Late Great Planet Earth. Before this book the Moody Bible Institute and a select number of other seminaries taught the pre-tribulation theory to their students. But before any of these events happened, the pre-trib theory was originally introduced in America by a pastor named Cyrus Ingerson Scofield . Most Christians know him as C.I. Scofield, because of the study Bible that he produced just after World War I. Scofield, at the time, had a couple of radical ideas that have been accepted throughout Christianity. One of the ideas was a gap theory of creation in which he introduced the theory that there was a race of humans before Adam and Eve.

The pre-tribulation theory was a very young philosophy that few in America had been introduced to. It was a belief system that was introduced by a gentlemen name John Darby from Scotland. Mr. Darby believed that history could be divided up into several dispensations of God. In the current dispensation, because Israel rejected Christ and had Him crucified, it created two separate divisions; one for the church, and one for Israel. He stated that there were certain scriptures for the church and certain scripture just for the Jewish people. Basically the gospels were written for the Jewish people and the rest of the New Testament was just for the church. In his Theory, Mr. Darby believed that the Jewish nation would be punished for their rejection of Christ with the tribulation, but the church would be raptured just before the tribulation began because they accepted Christ during his first coming. Hence in 1840, John Darby originated the birth of the Pre-tribulation rapture.

Many people are shocked to learn that a theory so widely accepted today could be so young. There are many people who try to find earlier accounts, but there is an abundance of historical proof that before the 1800s there was not a pre-tribulation rapture theory.

I will continue next time with the end time belief of the Roman Catholic Church, but until then one fact that I want you to understand is that John Darby did not originate the theory of the rapture, just the theory of a pre-tribulation rapture.

God Bless

Jacob Hildebrant

God's RSVP List

In Matthew 22 we read a parable that Jesus told to the chief priest and Pharisees for them to understand the Kingdom of heaven. In this parable Jesus made clear charges that their invitations to the wedding feast were revoked because of their unbelief. Jews who chose to believe in Christ were of course still on God’s RSVP list. Jesus also made it clear that other people would be invited in the chief priest and Pharisees’ place. If you are a non-Jew who is a believer then this encompasses you.

The parable ends in verses 11-14 with a peculiar scenario. Jesus mentioned a man who was in attendance of the wedding feast, who had not been invited. But how could this be since many ministers today teach that the wedding feast will take place in heaven during the tribulation? How could a non-believer make it to heaven without an invitation? Well this would be a contradiction, so let us step back and take a closer look at the wedding feast that Christ mentioned.

Let us look at a reference in Isaiah 25:6-8. He states that, “on this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples” (NIV). He goes on in more detail about the extravagance of the feast in verses 7 and 8. But what mountain is He referring to? If we look in the previous chapter we not only find out what mountain that he is referring to, but also what time frame the wedding feast will take place. Isaiah 24:23 states that, “The moon will be abashed, the sun ashamed for the Lord Almighty will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem and before its elders gloriously” (NIV). He specifically noted that the mountain was Mount Zion in Jerusalem, but what about the time frame? Well to find the answer we need to read Matthew 24:29-31. “Immediately after the distress (this Hebrew word means tribulation) of those days “’the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’ “At that time the sign of the Son of man will appear in the sky, and all the nations will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with great power and glory”.

So from these scriptures we can see that the great wedding feast will take place on Mount Zion in Jerusalem after the tribulation. We will look a little more into the kingdom of heaven that will be established in Jerusalem in the future. This will help spread some light to the “weeping and gnashing of teeth” references found so many times in NT scriptures. As for now, this is just a small example of why as Christians we need to study the Word on our own, because if we do not, we can be tossed back and forth with all kinds of doctrines.

What in the World is Going On?

Jesus tells us in Matthew 24 that in the end times we will see wars, famines, and earthquakes in various places. Optimists usually make the statement that all these events have been occurring since the beginning of time. Although this is true, a closer look into Matthew 24 reveals something overlooked by these idealists.

After describing several of the above mentioned events Jesus made an interesting statement in verse 8, “All these are the beginnings of birth pains.” This sheds a whole new light on these end time events. When thinking about birth pains I am reminded of my wife when she was pregnant with our children. During pregnancy, women experience what is called Braxton Hicks contractions. These contractions begin as early as 6 weeks of pregnancy and continue on until labor. They are very irregular and in the early stages of pregnancy they are very weak. Many women confuse these early contractions with early labor, but actually the purpose for these contractions are literally to prepare the woman’s body for delivery. They tone the uterine muscle and promote the flow of blood to the placenta (Braxton, 2006).

Applying this knowledge to Matthew 24 we can see how it is true that there have been wars, famines, and earthquakes all throughout history, but these events were just Braxton Hicks and not the real thing. Several of the events that happened could be confused with true labor pains that Jesus mentioned, but they were just false labor. I have mentioned several times that if I was alive during WWII I would have sworn Hitler to be the anti-christ.

So how do we know true labor from Braxton Hicks contractions? I believe that we look at the occurrence of the events. When my wife went into labor with my children, we could time her contractions, and knew the closeness of delivery by the closeness of her contractions. For example already this year more than 223,000 people have died then all of last year (USGS, 2010) in earthquakes. As the time grows closer we will see all the events in Matthew 24 more frequently, until then we are commanded to watch.

The Day of the Lord

As we endeavor to take a closer look into the difference between the tribulation and the wrath of God, we need to look closer into an event that is mentioned several times in both the Old and New Testament. The phrase “the Day of the Lord” is widely accepted by Bible theologians as God’s wrath that occurs at the end of the age. I agree with this as well, but there is a big difference between main stream theologians’ timing of the Day of the Lord and mine.

First, it should be noted that no one knows for sure the exact length of the Day of the Lord. We can look at the phrase and compare it to the phrase that describes a king’s rule. I am sure that you have heard the phrase, “In the year of king such in such”. This just referred to the reign of a specific king and did not mean a literal year. I believe that this is the same for the day of the Lord.

Most bible teachers today claim that the day of the Lord begins at the beginning of the tribulation. Of course as I mentioned in the previous post that most of these teachers believe that the tribulation and God’s wrath are one in the same. Now I can take two scriptures in the New Testament and prove that the day of the Lord happens after the tribulation. Acts 2:20 teaches us an important fact about the day of the Lord. It says that the sun and moon will turn to darkness BEFORE the great day of the Lord. This is very important because obviously the sun and moon are going to darkness only once in the future. Well we can compare this verse to Matthew 24:29 that states AFTER the tribulation the sun and moon will be darkened. So if we put these two verses together it is fair to come up with the conclusion that the day of the Lord happens after the tribulation and not before or during.

I read a book that was supposed to interpret every prophecy in the Bible. The author, who has since gone on to be with the Lord, was a well respected, intelligent person. He was chancellor for a very well known Bible seminary for many years. He stated in his book that the day of the Lord occurs at the beginning of the tribulation. I was amazed to find that he completed left out Acts 2:20 and Joel 2:31 in his book. One of my good pastor friends had a good saying about theologians like this. He would say that, “most Bible theologians don’t let the Bible get in the way of their beliefs”. Such a sad, but true statement.

Tribulation or Wrath?

There are many different opinions in the eschatological circles about the tribulation and God’s wrath. We are enlightened by John in the book of Revelation about a series of events that are going to happen at the end of time that would terrify even the bravest saint. John was imprisoned on the island of Patmos when he wrote the book of Revelation, and as a result many scholars believe that he had to write his visions in a code like form to be able to get the message through Roman soldiers to the churches in Asia. This leaves many questions about the events mentioned by John, and without comparing these events to other scriptures confusion could set in.

One of the keys to understanding the events that John has prophesied about is understanding the difference between tribulation and God’s Wrath. The popular theology today is to lump both events into the tribulation. At first this theology makes sense, but when we study the apocalyptic scriptures deeper we find that the theory loses its validity. First look at Matthew 24:37-38 and Luke 17:26-30 so that we can understand in more detail what happens when Jesus returns. Many people look at these scriptures as proof that the tribulation and God’s wrath are the same. These arguments seem valid until we take a closer look at what they are revealing.

First we must understand that Jesus was definitely talking about His return because Matthew 25:37 says, “…so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man”. Now let’s ask ourselves a simple question, “was the flood and judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah a tribulation?” Of course not, but that is what we are led to believe by modern day teachings. There is no question that these judgments were the wrath of God on mankind. One proof of this is a simple little statement that is commonly overlooked in these passages: “Then the flood came and destroyed them all”. They were all destroyed suddenly. This is a direct contradiction to the belief that the tribulation is spread out over a period of seven years and people survive to the end of the tribulation.
A good example of tribulations throughout history would be the slavery of the Hebrew children in Egypt, the Israelites’ exile to Babylon, the persecution of the church in 70 AD, and more recently the Holocaust.

We will look at more differences between tribulation and wrath in the next few post. We will also take a look at why this is so important for us to establish an accurate end time theory.

Introducing the Anti-Christ????

While my wife and I sat and watched a famous television evangelist last week, we were stunned at the announcement that was made. Apparently the EU elected a permanent president over the entire European Union, and this man was hinting to the fact that this could be the anti-christ. Could this man really be the long awaited world leader that so many passages of scripture warn us about?

Well in the words of Paul Harvey, “now for the rest of the story”.

Although it is true the EU has elected Herman Van Rompuy of Belgium as their permanent president, the term “permanent” is a little misleading. Unfortunately the television evangelist failed to mention the fact that Rompuy’s term is not for life, but for 2 ½ years.

Let’s also take a look at the description of the anti-christ in both Daniel chapter 11 and Revelation chapter 13. In both passages the anti-christ is a militant leader who leads by force. John states in Revelation 13:4, “who can war against him?” This is not the leadership style that most popular evangelists talk about in today’s society.

So you might be asking then, “Who is the anti-christ?” This is the question that is on most Christians’ minds today. I have no doubt that the he might be alive today because of the signs that are being filled in exponential numbers. The fact is that no one knows who the anti-christ is, or is going to be. I have my opinions just like many other teachers of eschatology, but Paul lets us know in 2 Thessalonians 2:4that we will know him because he will be the one who sits on the throne in the temple and claims to be God. Rompuy could be the prophesied anti-christ, but personally I believe it will be more of a leader like Hitler or Stalin. In the mean time we must watch and pray.

End Time Terminology

As we begin our journey into a deeper understanding of end time prophecy, we will be looking at many different viewpoints. With such a conglomeration of different Christian theologies, it is no wonder why so many believers are perplexed with apocalyptic scriptures. I do not claim to have all the answers to these passages, but I do believe that through extensive research, I do have a good grasp on God’s plan for the end of the World as we know it.

Before we can examine the different viewpoints we need to understand the language of the end time debate. First is the term eschatology, which simply means the study of end time beliefs. This term is associated with other religions besides Christianity. Islam, for instance, has their separate eschatological beliefs. I do believe the different religions' beliefs do cross paths, but we will investigate this in a future post.

The next set of theological terms to look at is based on the various interpretations of Revelation 20, the thousand year reign of Christ. This period of time is called the millennium and is divided into three major beliefs: pre-millennialism, amillennialism, or post-millennialism. The pre-millennialists believe that Christ's 1000 year reign is going to happen sometime in the future, amillennialists believe that it is happening right now, and post-millennialists believe that it has already happened. We will look at the history behind each belief in the future, but now you have a general understanding of the tough eschatological terms.