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
