Is the Rapture a Rescue from Persecution?

It seems to me the first thing that pops up into a Christian's mind today when he or she hears the word "rapture," is a rescue from persecution and tribulation from the Antichrist. I see no such promise in the entire Bible. The scriptures tell me otherwise.

I don't know any evangelical today who calls himself a futurist who would disagree that Daniel 7:21 and Revelation 13:7 are talking about the Antichrist. This baffles me because nearly all futurists claim the saints will be taken to Heaven just before the rise of the Antichrist!

A view that is very widespread in the church today holds that Jesus will come back to rapture the church out of the world, after which the great tribulation will then occur, and after that, Jesus will return again. There is no scripture in the Bible that says that. An honest Bible student who holds such a view must admit it is something they heard as a little child in Sunday school, and not from the Bible.

The above quote is from https://billygraham.org/answer/what-is-the-rapture/ It's no surprise Billy Graham and his associates would teach that. He got it from the Scofield reference Bible and Scofield got it from John Nelson Darby's false doctrines known as Dispensationalism. Notice there are no Scriptures given to back up the idea that the rapture will be in secret and unknown to the world of unbelievers.

The history behind the current popular but false Rapture doctrine

Three Jesuit Priests reinterpreted Daniel's 70 weeks of prophecy; the Book of Revelation; and Ezekiel for the purpose of taking the heat of the Protestant Reformation away from the papacy. At the beginning of the Protestant Reformation, all the reformers looked at the Pope as the Antichrist prophesied in the Bible! The three Jesuits were:

The futurists rapture doctrine originated and was submitted by Francisco Ribera in 1585. His Apocalyptic Commentary was on the grand points of Babylon and Anti-Christ which we now call the futurists or rapture doctrine. Ribera's published work was called "In Sacram Beati Ionnis Apostoli " Evangelistate Apocoalypsin Commentari (Lugduni 1593). You can still find these writings in the Bodleian Library in Oxford England.

Ribera's futurist interpretation rocked not only the Protestant church but also the Catholic church, so the Pope ordered it buried in the archives out of sight. Unfortunately, over 200 years later a librarian to the Archbishop of Canterbury by the name of S. R. Maitland (1792-1866) was appointed to be the Keeper of the Manuscripts at Lambeth Palace, in London, England. In his duties, Dr. Maitland came across Francisco Ribera's futurist/rapture teaching and he had it republished for the sake of interest in early 1826 with follow-ups in 1829 and 1830. This was spurred along with the Oxford Tracts that were published in 1833 to try and de-protestantize the Church of England.

John Nelson Darby (1800-1882) (A Leader of the Plymouth Brethren) became a follower of S.R. Maitland's prophetic endeavors and was persuaded. Darby's influence in the seminaries of Europe combined with 7 tours of the United States changed the eschatological view of the ministers which had a trickle-down effect into the churches. Darby's/Ribera's teachings were embraced radically by Cyrus Ingerson Scofield (1843-1921). Scofield adopted Darby's/Ribera's school of prophetic thought into the Scofield Reference Bible of 1909 which was heralded as the "book of books".

Another contributor to the rapturist's chaotic prophetic line of thought came through Emmanuel Lacunza (1731-1801), a Jesuit priest from Chile. Lacunza wrote the "Coming of Messiah in Glory and Majesty" around 1791. It was later published in London in 1827. The book was attributed to a fictitious author named Rabbi Juan Josafat BenEzra. Reverend Edward Irving (1792-1834) contended that it was the work of a converted Jew and proved that even the Jewish scholars embraced a pre-tribulation rapture line of thought. It wasn't long until he had persuaded others to follow his line of thought which gave birth to the Irvingites (per your reference to Margaret McDonald).

In March 1830, in Port Glasgow, Scotland, 15-year-old Margaret McDonald made claim of her visions. Robert Norton published Margaret's visions and prophecies in a book entitled, "The Restoration of Apostles and Prophets in the Catholic Apostolic Church" (London, 1861). Although the modern-day view of every believer being taken away in a rapture is different from all of the thoughts that came before it, there is little doubt about its error.

Lacunza asserted that only those believers who partake of the sacrament of the Eucharist would be raptured; while Margaret McDonald said the rapture would only take those who were filled with the Holy Spirit; and Norton claimed that only those who had been sealed with the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands would be raptured. Definitely, confusion ensued. John Darby, an ordained deacon in the Church of England, was acquainted with Edward Irving and had visited Margaret McDonald during the time of her visions. Combined with the knowledge he had gained from S.R. Maitland/Ribera's teachings and the new push from Irving/McDonald/Lucunza's teachings, Darby used the rapture theory to bring a clean break from the lethargic Church of England.

Ribera and Lucunza's teachings find a meeting point in John Nelson Darby. The effects of this purported lie against the truth are still dominant today in Christian churches worldwide .

There were no chapter divisions in the original text of the Bible. The first Bible to have chapter divisions was the Wycliffe Bible.

With that in mind, let's ignore the chapter division of 1 Thessalonians chapters 4 and 5 and read it through from 1 Thessalonians 4:14 to 5:3.

You see, if you read it through like this you can take it as events that all happen on the same day! Those who belong to Jesus Christ will be gathered to Him, and the wicked will be dealt with.

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus said the wicked will be gathered before the righteous!

This sure indicates to me there is no significant gap of time between the gathering of the saints and the elimination of the wicked.

My name is James Arendt. I was raised in the Hegewisch neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois, served in the USAF from 1970 to 1974, and became a full-time missionary for Christ living 40 years in Japan, 3.5 years in Russia, and a few months in other countries such as Finland, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, South Korea, Taiwan and mainland China where I also served the King of Kings, Jesus, as an Ambassador for His Kingdom. My full bio.

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