“The pretribulation rapture cannot possibly be true because no one believed in it until 150 years ago.” I hear or read similar statements almost every week.
Those who mock our beliefs in such a way make two critical errors. First, they base their denials of the rapture on church history rather than Scripture. Second, the claim that a belief in pretribulation rapture originated 150 years ago with John Darby is totally false.
This brings us to our next signpost on the path to establishing a biblical basis for the pretribulation rapture: church history. The purpose of this signpost is not to justify our belief in the pretribulation rapture on the basis of history nor is it to convince those who reject it on this faulty basis.
Rather, my intent is to provide those who already believe in the rapture with evidence of a belief in it from the earliest centuries of the church.
First, it’s necessary to understand the origin of the word “rapture.” The word comes from a Latin translation of the Bible from about AD 400 called The Vulgate. The Vulgate uses the Latin word "rapturo" to translate the Greek word harpazo in 1 Thessalonians 4:17.
The words “caught up” in our English translations capture the essence of harpazo in this verse just as the Latin word “rapturo” did when Jerome and others translated the Bible into Latin.
Starting in the late 1800’s, Bible teachers began using the word “rapture” to describe what Paul wrote about in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 as well as in 1 Corinthians 15:50-56 and Philippians 3:20-21. These students of Scripture chose a word to describe what the apostle wrote about in these texts. They did not make up a new doctrine, but applied a label to the event Jesus first mentioned an in John 14:2-3 and the apostles later described with greater detail.
So as we examine church history, we do not look for occurrences of the word “rapture” but rather evidences of a belief in Jesus’ return for His church as something distinct from His second coming.
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