WHEN IS THE RAPTURE GOING TO OCCUR IN RELATION TO THE TRIBULATION?

The Pre-Tribulation Rapture Theory is a teaching that perverts the plain language of the text of the New Testament.

It is a fact that many preachers today look on the doctrine as the heart and core of present Christian expectations in regard to prophetic truth for the near future! Many believe this false teaching is the principle hope of the body of the Messiah - the called-out Assembly, for their redemption and safety during the Great Tribulation.

First, understand that the word “Rapture” is not found in the King James translation. There is also no single word used by biblical authors to describe the prophetic factors that comprise the doctrine. Its formulation came about by means of inductive reasoning. Certain biblical passages concerning the Second Coming, and the role Christians will play in that event, were blended together inductively to establish the Pre-Trib Rapture teaching.

It may come as a surprise but the doctrine of the Pre-Trib Rapture is not mentioned in any Christian writings, of which we have knowledge, until after the year 1830 C.E. Whether the early writers were Greek or Latin, Armenian or Coptic, Syrian or Ethiopian, English or German, orthodox or heretic, no one mentioned it before 1830 (though a sentence in Pseudo-Dionysius in about 500 C.E. could be so interpreted).

Those who feel the origin of the teaching is in the Bible might say that it ceased being taught for some unknown reason at the close of the apostolic age only to reappear in 1830. But if the doctrine were so clearly stated in Scripture, it seems incredible that no one should have referred to it before the 19th century.

Let's look at the origin of this teaching. Look at what happened in the year 1830; two years before Irving’s dismissal from the Presbyterian Church. In that year a revival of the so-called "gifts” began to be manifested among some people living in the lowlands of Scotland. They experienced what they called the outpouring of the Spirit [We are to test and try the spirits]. It was accompanied with speaking in “tongues” and other charismatic phenomena. Irving preached that these things must occur and now they were.

On one particular evening, the power of the Holy Spirit was said to have rested on a Miss Margaret Macdonald while she was ill at home. She was dangerously sick and thought she was dying. In spite of this (or perhaps because she is supposed to have come under the “power” of the spirit) for several successive hours she experienced manifestations of “mingled prophecy and vision.” She found her mind in an altered state and began to experience considerable visionary activity.

The message she received during this prophetic vision convinced her that the Messiah Jesus was going to appear in two stages at his Second Advent, and not a single occasion as most all people formerly believed. The spirit emanation revealed that the Messiah would first come in glory to those who look for him and again later in a final stage when every eye would see him. This visionary experience of Miss Macdonald represented the prime source of the modern Rapture doctrine as the historical evidence compiled by Mr. MacPherson reveals.

The studies of Mr. MacPherson show that her sickness during which she received her visions and revelations occurred sometime between February 1 and April 14, 1830. By late spring and early summer of 1830, her belief in the two phases of the Messiah’s coming was mentioned in praise and prayer meetings in several towns of western Scotland. In these meetings some people were speaking in “tongues” and other charismatic occurrences were in evidence. Modern “Pentecostalism” had its birth.

These extraordinary and strange events so attracted John Darby that he made a trip to the area to witness what was going on. Though he did not approve of the ecstatic episodes that he witnessed, it is nonetheless significant that Darby, after returning from Scotland, began to teach that the Messiah’s Advent would occur in two phases.

Unfortunately this Pre-Trib teaching will cause many to lose hope, fail and and bring about a great falling away, when they are not "raptured" when the Great Tribulation begins during the last 3 1/2 years of the Covenant of death [Isaiah 28:15, 18] signed by Israel and the head of the Beast Power.

We have been warned to beware of false teachers in the end time!

2 Peter 2:1: But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the lord who bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.

The teaching of the Pre-Tribulation Rapture is a lie brought about by the instruments of the Adversary Satan who disguise themselves as representing the Messiah to deceive the elect.

Corinthians 11:13-15: For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of the Messiah. And no wonder, for the Adversary disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will be according to their works.