WHERE DID THE PRE-TRIBULATION RAPTURE THEORY ORIGINATE?

The Pre-Tribulation Rapture Theory is teaching that perverts the plain language of the text of the New Testament. The scriptures are clear that Jesus will return at the end of the age and we will be resurrected at that time. The tribulation ends at the coming of the Lord Jesus. All the followers of the Lord Jesus will live or die during the tribulation and those still alive at the return of the Lord Jesus will rise up to meet him in the air after the dead in the Messiah have risen. [1 Thessalonians 4:13-17]

That being said, most preachers today look at the pre-tribulation rapture 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 principal hope of the Body of Christ for their redemption and safety during the Great Tribulation. It is a Satanic lie!

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 teaching.

It may come as a surprise but the doctrine of the 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 - teaching 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 “gifts” began to be manifested among some people living in the lowlands of Scotland. They experienced what they called the outpouring of the Spirit. 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. Could she have experienced demonic influence?

The message she received during this prophetic vision convinced her that Christ 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 Christ 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, -teaching, according to the historical evidence compiled by Mr. MacPherson.

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 Christ’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 Christ’s Advent would occur in two phases.

This Satanic disception will many to fail and fall away when they are not "raptured" before the Great Tribulation period and realize they were lied to.