The theory of the Secret Rapture, as how its believers called it, is a product of a doctrine developed by the Catholic Jesuits to counter the Reformation. To confuse Protestants and prevent them from believing that the papacy is the fulfillment of the apocalyptic antichrist, the Jesuits Francisco Ribera, Robert Bellarmine and Manuel de Lacunza formulated a teaching placing the coming of the antichrist somewhere in the future and not in their present period as the historicists believed. Lacunza used the pen-name Rabbi Ben-Ezra to conceal his Catholic affiliation and that the Protestants will welcome his writings where the anti-Reformation teachings are contained. The Scottish clergyman Edward Irving embraced the Jesuit teaching, especially of Lacunza who said that the coming of Christ is divided into two stages where the first point is the coming of Christ for His church to save them from the arrival of the antichrist. This is the first coming where the (secret) rapture will take place. Irving preached it with the support of the alleged rapture vision of Miss Margaret McDonald. The secret rapture belief was popularized by John Nelson Darby and then by Cyrus Scofield in the United States..
Posted on: Mon, 14 Jul 2014 05:25:28 +0000
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