What History Really Shows: Early Christian Perspectives on the Rapture

Posted on Jan 18, 2024   Topic : Men's Christian Living, Prophecy, Women's Christian Living
Posted by : Ron Rhodes

Increasing numbers of Christians today claim that the pretribulational view of the rapture—the view that the rapture will occur before the tribulation period—is a recent doctrinal development first formulated by John Nelson Darby in 1830. They claim that there is not even a hint of this view in Christian literature before that time. For them, a pretribulational rapture is a false expectation.

John Darby was indeed a popularizer of the pretribulational rapture. However, this view of the rapture long preceded his time. Here are some highlights from church history:

• Irenaeus was a disciple of Polycarp, who was himself a disciple of the Apostle John, the author of the Book of Revelation. Irenaeus was born around 130 AD and died around 202 AD. He wrote: “When in the end the Church shall be suddenly caught up from this, it is said, ‘There shall be tribulation such as has not been since the beginning, neither shall be.’” For Irenaeus, the tribulation period follows the catching up of the Church.
• The Apocalypse of Elijah is a third-century treatise on the end times which affirms that the purpose of the rapture is “specifically removal from the wrath of the antichrist and escape from the tribulation sent on the world by God in the last days.” [ii] 
• Ephraem of Nisibis was born in 306 AD and died in 373 AD. He was a theologian in the early Eastern (Byzantine) Church. He wrote: “Count us worthy, Lord, of the rapture of the righteous, when they meet you the Master in the clouds, that we might not be tried by the bitter and inexorable judgment.” He declared: “All the saints and elect of God are gathered together before the tribulation, which is to come, and are taken to the Lord, in order that they may not see at any time the confusion which overwhelms the world because of our sins.” [iii] Ephraem predates the time of Darby by more than a thousand years.
• Other early examples include Caesarius of Arles and Aspringius of Beja, both of whom lived in the sixth century.

Let’s fast-forward to the seventeenth century and beyond:

• Ephraim Huit, the founder of the first church in Connecticut in 1639, believed that the “coming of the Son of Man in thee Cloudes” would save believers in Christ from “trials”… He affirmed that “the summoning of the Elect” will be “by the sound of a trumpet” and “heard only by the Elect.” [iv]
• Increase Mather (1639–1723) was a prominent Puritan minister in colonial New England. He became president of Harvard College in 1685. In 1701, he published a book that spoke of a pretribulational rapture: “When Christ comes, believers shall see the King…in all his glory and go with him to…Heaven…Christ assured believers it shall be thus, John 14:2…they will sit together with him in heavenly places…[later] they shall come down from Heaven…They shall be with him when he comes to Judge the World.” [v]
• Author Robert Maton, writing in 1642, referred to the rapture as the time when the “elect meete the Lord in the aire.” The wicked remain on earth to experience God’s wrath. [vi]
• John Gill was a famous Bible expositor who lived in the 1700s. In his commentary on 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17, Gill says Paul delivers a doctrine that is “something new and extraordinary.” He refers to the translation of the saints as “the rapture” and urges watchfulness because “it will be sudden, and unknown beforehand, and when least thought of and expected.” In Gill’s theology, believers will remain with the Lord in heaven until God’s judgment on the world is complete, and then they will return with Christ and reign with Him for 1,000 years during the millennial kingdom. [vii]

All of these Christian leaders far predated 1830, the year in which Darby is said to have formulated pretribulationism. Other pretribulational Christian leaders and writers who predated Darby include Peter Jurieu (1687), Philip Doddridge (1738), James Macknight (1763), and Thomas Scott (1792).

In light of the emerging and ever-expanding body of historical evidence, the so-called “recent emergence” of the pretribulational rapture should no longer be used as an argument against it. Christians who lived long before Darby’s time believed in and cherished this doctrine.

Of course, the more important question is: What does Scripture teach? It is here that our excitement builds, for many verses in the New Testament point to the pretribulational view. No matter what difficult circumstances I face in my life, the following verses never fail to bring comfort and solace to my soul:

• The church not appointed to wrath—1 Thessalonians 1:10; 5:9
• The church will be delivered from the coming time of trouble—Revelation 3:10 
• The church will be caught up to the Lord, after which we will “always be with the Lord”—1 Thessalonians 4:13-17
• We will all be changed in the twinkling of an eye—1 Corinthians 15:50-52 
• The rapture is our “blessed hope”—Titus 2:13
• Christ will take us to the place He has prepared in heaven—John 14:1-3

I can hardly wait!

Come soon Lord.

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Irenaeus, cited in William Watson, “The Rapture, Antichrist, and Rebirth of Israel in Medieval Manuscripts,” article posted at the Pretrib Research Center, https://www.pre-trib.org/dr-robert-thomas/message/the-rapture-antichrist-and-rebirth-of-israel-in-medieval-manuscripts/read.

[ii] Francis X. Gumerlock, “The Rapture in the Apocalypse of Elijah,” Bibliotheca Sacra (October-December, 2013), p. 422.

[iii] Ephraem of Nisibis, cited in The Harvest Handbook of Bible Prophecy, eds. Ed Hindson, Mark Hitchcock, and Tim LaHaye (Eugene, OR: Harvest House, 2020), Kindle edition.

[iv] William Watson, Dispensationalism Before Darby (Lampion House, 2015), pp. 141-142.

[v] Increase Mather, cited in Mark Hitchcock and Ed Hindson, Can We Still Believe in the Rapture? (Eugene, OR: Harvest House, 2018), Kindle edition.

[vi] Watson, Dispensationalism Before Darby, pp. 138-40.

[vii] John Gill, cited in Thomas Ice and Timothy Demy, When the Trumpet Sounds (Eugene, OR: Harvest House, 1995), p. 119.

Read more in Bible Prophecy Under Siege by Ron Rhodes

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