Looking through HISTORY for a pretribulation rapture...

What have God’s people historically believed about the “catching away” down through the many ages of the Church? Has it always been like today, with these two major opposing views, drawing people into one group or another? No. Absolutely, no.

A warning here before we proceed. After the Bible, which is apostolic and inspired, there is no perfect book. There is no perfect teacher. In the years that followed the death of the apostles, many men began to write, some building as closely as they could on the revelation in existence, from the apostles and prophets, others veering off from time to time. This “veering off” has left us with a great variety of teachings published in the name of the Lord, making it easy for the promulgator of any new doctrine down to this day, to establish his cause somewhere in the chaos. An appeal to the “church fathers” is often a final say-so to an otherwise shaky point. Now there were good men and good books, but as I say, many of the teachings found in those days were not grounded in God’s Word.

In spite of individual problems in individual teachers, and it seems even the best of men missed it sometimes, there were streams of thought that continued down to us, both in our Scriptures and in the collected works of the great writers. The Deity of Christ, the Second Coming, salvation by grace through faith, it all was picked up and passed on. God had faithful witnesses who were able to see and communicate necessary truth to the next generations. Having said that, we ask, what about the theory of a pre-tribulation rapture historically? In fact, it falls far short of verification. It is found only once from the fourth century all the way to the eighteenth century, and not in any substantial body of literature until the nineteenth. Sadly, this view-point is a newcomer to the world of theology.

Now, the teachers of this doctrine believe they have Scriptural grounds for their beliefs. Surely we will examine Scripture in detail later, but for now, let’s trace the doctrine through history, and I must say, it will be a short journey, for there’s not much there.

Ephraem. We go first to the Persia of Roman Empire days. It is the fourth century. The teacher we shall examine is a dedicated deacon named Ephraem who seems to have been a most holy man. He is said to have been a hermit for the last ten years of his life. Indeed, the record shows he was greatly revered by Syrian, Orthodox, and Nestorian believers, some of the major “denominations” of his day. His writings, evidently quite numerous, were read just after the Scriptures in some churches. One of those writings contains a passage that may indeed be a preview of what will come many hundreds of years later in its fullness. But do remember, three hundred years have passed since the apostles wrote, and this is the first hint of a pre-tribulation rapture.

Ephraem believed the end of the world was near, and that the Holy Spirit confirmed this to him. (Beware those today whose "confirmed words" are contrary to the apostolic words of Scripture.) In his thinking, there was only one sign which remained, “the advent of the wicked one in the completion of the Roman Kingdom.” That actually sounds like a post-tribulation view, but several sentences later he adds:

“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…”

Ephraem here appeals to logic rather than to revelation. No authority is given for his conclusion, though his statement “makes a lot of sense” . This type of reasoning is the fuel of pre-tribulation thinking. There is much “sense” to it, but no solid Scriptural backing.

Morgan Edwards. We must travel 1400 years before we find another word about a pre-tribulation rapture, and the source we find is not altogether convincing. The story goes that Mr. Edwards was in his 20’s at the writing of a certain paper for a college professor. The teacher was asking Edwards to defend the literal interpretation of Scripture, a process not in vogue in that day, at least at that college. To do so, Morgan invented “a new doctrine” which it seems he did not espouse for himself, but rather he theorized as an intellectual pursuit. He even used Acts 17:19, 20 on his title page, a passage you may recall:

“May we know what this new doctrine is of which you speak? For you are bringing some strange things to our ears.” Morgan actually quoted the words of pagan philosophers! And Mr. Edwards certainly would have delighted the men of Mars Hill, for not only does he come up with a pre-tribulation rapture, he also speculates that the lake of fire is in the moon, and that all planets in the solar system are inhabited. Some historians looking for the modern beginnings of pre-tribulation teaching discount Edwards altogether