There is no mention of a Pre-tribulation - or a Mid-tribulation - Rapture in any Church teaching, writing or commentary until the early 1800s when the Pre-tribulation Rapture belief began. In 1812, a Jesuit priest from Chile, South America named Manuel de Lacunza, writing under the pen-name of Rabbi J.J. Ben-Ezra, wrote a book called The Coming of the Messiah in Glory and Majesty. In his book, he set forth the idea that the Rapture and the Second Coming of Jesus will be separated by a period of time. And, he claimed that all of the other Church teachers and leaders up to 1812 had been wrong in teaching a Post-tribulation Rapture. He basically said that he was right; and they had all been convicted of error in their teaching. Edward Irving,, a Scottish preacher, translated de Lacunzas book from Spanish into English and had it published in London in 1827. Around that time, Irving began to preach that there would be a Pre-tribulation Rapture of the Church. Somewhere in the 1820s or 1830s, John Darby, an English preacher connected with a religious movement called The Plymouth Brethren also began to preach and teach a two-stage coming of the Lord: first a Rapture of the Church, followed later by the Lords return. But, the icing on the cake came when, in April of 1831, a 15 year-old Scottish girl named Margaret MacDonald claimed to have received a new revelation from several hours of prophecy and vision: a revelation of a split-coming of the Lord - a Pre-tribulation Rapture of the Church. Both Edward Irving and John Darby visited with Miss MacDonald in those days; and its impossible to think they were not mutually influenced in some way about the timing of the Rapture. A Pre-tribulation Rapture - the hope of an escape from Tribulation - became popular throughout England, Scotland, and Ireland; and spread to the United States as well. In about 200 years or less - from 1812 until now - most professing Christians and Christian Churches have accepted the new revelation of Miss MacDonald, and the teaching of Irving and Darby as the truth. They have wrongly placed their hope in the Rapture of the Church to save them; and have turned away from some 1800 years of knowledge as if it was in error.
Posted on: Wed, 05 Nov 2014 06:44:15 +0000
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