The false doctrine of the 'Secret Rapture'

[reddogs]

There is no secret rapture in the scriptures, its a terrible hoax and false doctrine that has been made up to confuse people as to the end time events, to turn from clear teaching of the second coming so Satan can put himself here or there after a so called 7 years and use his abilities of signs and wonders to fool people at the end. According to those teaching the secret rapture theory, the coming of Jesus will be in two separate stages. The first will be a secret rapture of the Church at the beginning of a 7 year tribulation period followed by a return of Christ to the Earth. They believe that during this seven year period the Antichrist is going to come into power and God will select and seal 144,000 literal Jews who will take the Gospel to the whole world converting immeasurable souls to Christ. Then literal Israel accepts the Lord as the Messiah and enters with Him as His covenant people into the 1,000 year (millennial) reign on earth known as the Kingdom Age, which has already been shown not to be on earth in a previous thread.

They preach that Christ will rule directly over the earth from Jerusalem, where the typical temple services function again. Those who ultimately reject Christ’s rule are eventually judged and destroyed at the end of the Millennium. The new believers will then receive immortality and eternity will begin.

Problem is the scripture nowhere speaks of these two separate comings and the word “rapture” is also an invention of false theologians and occurs nowhere in the Bible, and is false interpretation of Bible Prophecy.The order of events according to Scripture is very clear; there is Christ’s second coming, the resurrection, the catching up of the saints to meet Jesus in the air which all take place at the same time and at the end of the world. This is why Jesus said in Matthew 28:20 “…and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” Why would Jesus promise to be with the Church until the end of the world if He intended to come seven years before the end to take them out of the world? The promise would then have no meaning.

This false doctrine on the secret rapture is contradictory to the words of Jesus in Matthew 13 when He said the wheat and tares would grow together until the “end of the world” and then would be separated. According to this dual coming secret rapture theory, both groups would not grow together until the end of the world. The righteous would be separated from the wicked seven years before the end. And what about the promise of the resurrection? Christ said, concerning the righteous, John 6:40 “…and I will raise him up at the last day.” No one denies that this means the last day of the world. Paul declares the saints are caught up to meet the Lord at the “same time” the dead in Christ are raised. He says, 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”

You have to understand what will happen when Christ comes, and its purpose, the 'secret rapture' has no purpose but confusion to let Satan apear as a false christ and mislead. Jesus Christ said in Matthew 24:40,“Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.”Some try to twist it and take it out of context to push the secret rapture when Christ gave a complete picture as shown below...

Matthew 24:27 - Jesus said,“For as the lightning comes out of the east, and shines even to the west, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” This verse is clearly describing Christ’s visible and ultra-glorious Second Coming. Very few disagree here.

Matthew 24:30, 31 - Jesus continued,“And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven; and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels, with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to another.” Once again, the Second Coming of Jesus Christ is clearly described. This coming will be literal, visible, loud and glorious. All the world will see and hear it.

Matthew 24:36 -“But of that day [the day of the Second Coming] and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but My father only.” Once again, the context is clearly the Second Coming.

Matthew 24:37-39 -“But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be, For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” Jesus clearly compares His Second Coming with Noah’s flood. This flood came suddenly upon the lost “and took them all away.” In other words, they were lost - with no second chances. Christ said,“...so shall the coming of the Son of man be.”

Matthew 24:40 -“THEN [capitols added] shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken and the other left.” This verse clearly is describing how some will be taken up and the wicked left at the salvation of the saints at the Second Coming of Jesus at the end of the world?

Another text which is used:
I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left. Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Luke 17:34-36 (KJV)

Upon these few texts the rapture is built and so strongly believed in that other Scripture are forced with a meaning not found to make it look like this teaching is very biblical. But as we shall see, this rapture theory is founded upon nothing but these texts taken out of context.

The context for these foundational verses is the stories of Noah and Lot. In both stories it is clear that the righteous are saved and the wicked are lost. No one is taken to heaven and other left on earth to face a seven year tribulation period. There is no second chance in the Scriptures in regards to the second coming of Jesus. When Jesus comes He brings His reward with Him to distribute to every man according to their works. It is the final reward. No second chance.

Note the statements on Noah in Luke 17.“until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.” Luke 17:27 (KJV) and of Lot,“But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Luke 17:29 (KJV) The same happens in Noah’s story as given in Matthew 24,“until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. Matt 24:38-39 (KJV)

Connected with this clear statement that when Jesus comes the righteous are saved and the wicked destroyed are the verses that supposedly support the rapture. Those “rapture” verses support no such event as commonly understood in the Christian Church. They simply state only that there are two classes of folk when Jesus come. One class will be preserved and saved, while the other class will be lost. No second chances. Thus, we are admonished to "Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come." Matt 24:42 (KJV)

This teaching has done more to skew the truth of the last day events than perhaps any other unbiblical teaching. But it is error and it needs to be shown that is it is just that.

 

[reddogs]

So how did this false teaching come into play, as was never taught or spoken of by Christ, was never believed in by the apostles or Paul or the early church, nor the Reformers. How and where did it come from, well, it is essentually a lie invented to fight the truth, to deflect what the Bible teaches showing who is the Antichrist. In order to stop the Reformation and the understanding of prophecy, supporters of Papal Rome invented a counter-interpretation called Futurism. Now lets see who they were and how it happened. At the Council of Trent, the Jesuits were commissioned by the Pope to develop a new interpretation of Scripture that would counteract the Protestant application of the Bible’s Antichrist prophecies to the Roman Catholic Church. Francisco Ribera (1537-1591), a brilliant Jesuit priest and doctor of theology from Spain, then came up and published a commentary on the Revelation as a counter-interpretation to the prevailing view among Protestants which identified the Papacy with the Antichrist. Ribera applied all of Revelation but the earliest chapters to the end time rather than to the history of the Church. Antichrist would be a single evil person who would be received by the Jews and would rebuild Jerusalem. Ribera was thus placing prophecy in such a way as to obscure the truth many had already began to understand, and deny the Protestant view of the Antichrist —asserted by Augustine, Jerome, Luther and many reformers. He set on an infidel Antichrist, outside the church of God. The result of his work was a twisting and maligning of prophetic truth.

Robert Bellarmine was an Italian doctor of theology and is best known for his opposition to Galileo and his HELLiocentric theory. He also wrote a book in Latin entitled: Disputationes de controversiis christianae fidei, or Polemic Lectures Concerning the Disputed Points of the Christian Belief Against the Heretics of This Time. In these lectures, he agreed with Ribera. This book follows the basic outline of Francisco de Ribera's book with the reign of Antichrist limited to a few years way off in the future before the end of time.

In the Futurism system of Ribera and Bellarmine, Antichrist is an evil person who emerges just 7 years before the end of time and causes all kinds of havoc. In the English speaking world, Edward Irving and John Nelson Darby further elaborated on this system by inventing a secret rapture 7 years before the end. Historicism was the primary prophetic viewpoint of the Protestant Reformers which the Catholic church sought to counteract, as it places the Papacy as the Antichrist power. In direct opposition to Historicism, and rising up as a counterattack on Protestantism, was that of these men with their viewpoint of Futurism, which basically says, “The Antichrist prophecies have nothing to do with the history of Papal Rome, rather, they apply to only one sinister man who comes at the end.”

Thus this view of Futurism sweeps 1,500 years of prophetic history away by inserting its theory, which teaches that when Rome fell, prophecy stopped, only to continue again right around the time of the 'rapture'. It is a lie from start to finish...