Origin Of The Rapture Theory

Rapture: Fact or Fantasy? | MoreiYah

The word “rapture” comes from the Latin verb rapere which means “to carry off, abduct, seize or take forcefully” (compare rape). It was used in the Latin Vulgate (about 405 A.D.) translation of 1 Thessalonians 4:17, which is the primary biblical reference to the event in question, rapiemur “we shall be caught up” translating the original harpagesometha (passive mood, future tense of harpazo). The earliest known extra-biblical reference to the rapture is from a sermon attributed to a fourth century Byzantine, Ephraem of Nisibis, in which he is quoted as saying, “For all the saints and Elect of God are gathered, prior to the tribulation that is to come, and are taken to the Lord lest they see the confusion that is to overwhelm the world because of our sins.”

Although the doctrine of the Resurrection of the dead — as said to be taught by Jesus — was common to all Christians and part of the Nicene Creed, little attention was paid to the area of eschatology later known as ‘Rapture’ until the Protestant Reformation, aside from this ancient reference; thus the Christian denominations that have beliefs concerning a rapture are mostly those that appeared after the Reformation.

The later popularization of the term is associated with teaching of John Nelson Darby and the rise of premillennialism and dispensationalism in the United States at the end of the 19th century. The doctrine of the rapture was further popularized by an evangelist named William Eugene Blackstone, whose book “Jesus is Coming” sold more than one million copies, and then by its inclusion in the Scofield Reference Bible.

Among Christians who do believe in a Rapture, there is substantial debate about the timing of the rapture relative to the seven-year Tribulation. Critics of a “Pre-Tribulation” Rapture, the belief that the Rapture will occur prior to the Tribulation, often attribute that doctrine to a 15-year old Scottish- Irish girl named Margaret MacDonald (a follower of Edward Irving) who had a vision in 1830. However, there are at least three other Pre-Tribulation references prior to Macdonald – in a book published in 1788, in the writings of a Catholic priest Emmanuel Lacunza in 1812, and by John Darby himself in 1827.

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