WILL THERE BE A SECRET RAPTURE?

As the 65 million-plus sales of the late Tim LaHaye’s Left Behind novels show, the rapture (which permeates the series) is an immensely popular teaching among some evangelicals. This is the view that, before the open and glorious Return of Jesus Christ – which all true Christians accept – there must first be a snatching away, or rapture, of the Church.
But is it true? While the Bible certainly teaches that “the dead in Christ will rise first” (1 Thess. 4:16), does this mean in the secret, pre-tribulation sense that the teaching claims? Given that, barely two centuries ago, this teaching was unknown, we would be remiss not to ask whether it squares with both the Bible and early Christian doctrine as represented by the Church Fathers.
Let’s take the lesser witnesses first – the Church Fathers, using the term here in its accepted Church History sense, and not as any slight to our Saviour’s instruction “not to call any man [our spiritual] ‘father’ ”. Any emphases that follow throughout are my own.

THE CHURCH FATHERS

DIDACHE, or TEACHING (late 1st, or early 2nd century)

“For in the last days … the world deceiver shall appear as a son of God; and shall work signs and wonders, and the earth shall be delivered into his hands; and he shall do unholy things, which have never been since the world began. Then … many shall be offended and perish, but they that endure in their faith shall be saved by the Curse Himself [cf., Gal. 3:13]. And then shall … appear [the] resurrection of the dead; yet not [at first] of all, but as it was said: The Lord shall come and all His saints with Him”.^[1]

First, the ancient writer shows, comes “the world deceiver … as a son of God”, ie., the Antichrist, resulting in a great falling away (“many shall be offended and perish”). But those who “endure in their faith shall be saved”, following which comes Christ and the first resurrection (the “resurrection of the dead, yet not [at first] of all, but … the Lord shall come and all His saints with Him”).

JUSTIN MARTYR (beheaded c. 165 AD)

“[T]he man of apostasy, who speaks great things against the Most High, shall venture to do unlawful deeds on the earth against us the Christians. … Now it is evident that no one can terrify or subdue us who have believed in Jesus over all the world”.^[2]

Likewise speaking of the Antichrist (“the man of apostasy, who speaks great things against the Most High”), Justin declares that his attack will be upon the Church (he “shall venture to do unlawful deeds on the earth against us the Christians”), to try – albeit unsuccessfully – to “subdue us who have believed in Jesus all over the world”.

IRENAEUS (c. 180)

“For all these and other words were unquestionably spoken in reference to the resurrection of the just, which takes place after the coming of Antichrist”.^[3]

Could anything be clearer from these words, written barely 80 years after the falling asleep of apostle John, than that – exactly as they stand – “the resurrection of the just … takes place after the coming of Antichrist”?

TERTULLIAN (c. 215)

“In the Revelation of John, again, the order of these [end] times is spread out to view … in order that the world may first drink to the dregs the plagues that await it out of the vials of the angels, and that the city of fornication may receive from the ten kings its deserved doom, and that the beast Antichrist, with his false prophet, may wage war on the Church of God; and that, after the casting of the devil into the bottomless pit for a while, the blessed prerogative of the first resurrection may be ordained”.^[4]

Here is the very Church Father who gave us the term Trinity. Clearly he spells out the final end-time order of events: first “the beast Antichrist” and his “war on the Church of God”; then his overthrow and the “first resurrection”.

HIPPOLYTUS (c. 225)

In his treatise expressly titled “On Christ and Antichrist”, Hippolytus writes,

“Now, concerning the tribulation of the persecution which is to fall upon the Church from the adversary, John also speaks thus …”, then proceeding to quote Revelation 12. Then he resumes, “the one thousand two hundred and threescore days (the half of the week, sic), during which the tyrant is to reign and persecute the Church…”.^[5]

Again, in common with all the other Fathers, Hippolytus states less than two lifetimes after John’s death that Antichrist will bring “the tribulation of the persecution which is to fall upon the Church from the adversary”.

CYPRIAN (beheaded c. 258)

“Nor let any of you, beloved brethren, be so terrified by the fear of future persecution, or of the coming of the threatening Antichrist, as not to be found armed for all things by the evangelical exhortations and precepts, and by the heavenly warnings. Antichrist is coming, but above him comes Christ also. The enemy goeth about and rageth, but immediately the Lord follows to avenge our sufferings and our wounds”.^[6]

The same constant refrain is before us: Antichrist’s coming precedes the Lord’s (“Antichrist is coming … but immediately the Lord follows”), and his (Antichrist’s) rage will be principally directed against the Church (“future persecution … our sufferings and our wounds”). Indeed, his very description as Antichrist implies that the earthly focus of his attack will be those who bear the name of Christ – ie., Christians.

AUGUSTINE (late 4th/early 5th century)

Commenting on the terrible “beast” of Daniel 7’s end-time prophecy, who “shall speak pompous words against the Most High, [and] shall persecute the saints of the Most High” (v.25), Augustine writes: “He who reads this passage, even half asleep, cannot fail to see that the kingdom of Antichrist shall fiercely, though for a short time, assail the Church.”

Summarizing these representative testimonies of the Church Fathers, it is clear that they all assert this order: FIRST ANTICHRIST, OR THE MAN OF SIN, MUST APPEAR ON EARTH AS A PERSECUTOR OF THE CHURCH, AND THEN WILL APPEAR THE TRUE CHRIST TO DESTROY HIM AND USHER IN THE FIRST RESURRECTION, IE., OF THE JUST. Most of them, in fact – especially from the pre-Nicaea period (eg., Papias, Justin, Irenaeus, Tertullian) – also taught the Millennial reign of Christ and His saints on earth between the first and general resurrections. But since that is not the point at issue here, I merely mention it in passing, recognizing that among the people of God there are differing views on this.

What, then, should be made of Pseudo-Ephraem – the sole, and very much later, disputed writing that is claimed to support a pre-tribulation rapture? Nothing, and that for four substantive reasons. (1) Its authenticity is not vouched for – hence the “pseudo” in its very title. (2) Its dating is so late – generally acknowledged to be between the 6th-8th centuries, long after the real Church Fathers. (3) Its translation is disputed, as Wikipedia observes:

“The Latin text may not date before the 8th century and may be a conflated text, and not translated directly from either the Syriac or Greek texts”.^[7]

But, even more fatal to it, (4) it fails Scripture’s own test for true prophecy, as found in Deut. 18:22 – namely, the fulfilment of its future predictions – given its wildly inaccurate and now embarrassing claim that “there is no other [Bible prophecy] which remains”!! As if the modern restoration of Israel had never been prophesied by Ezekiel, or the explosion of end-time knowledge and communication by Daniel, or the world-wide spread of the Gospel to all nations by Jesus Himself. Whenever Pseudo-Ephraim was written, how demonstrably wrong for it to claim an end of all prophetic fulfilment by its day, even before the reign of England’s king Alfred the Great! To pit, against the consistent testimony of the authentic Church Fathers, this “Johnny-come-lately” – pseudo in title, late in time, disputed in translation, and clearly false in prediction – would be a travesty.

THE BIBLICAL EVIDENCE

2 THESSALONIANS 2:1-12.

The passage deals with the “coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him” (v.1). “Coming”, parousia, is a standard term denoting Christ’s Second Coming at the “first resurrection” (shortly to be noted), as seen from its usage in 1 Cor. 15:23 (“afterward, those who are Christ’s at His coming”), and 1 Thess. 4:15 (“we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep”).

This “coming of the Lord” will be OPEN and VISIBLE TO ALL, just like lightning, as Christ expressly declares: “For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so will the coming (parousia) of the Son of Man be. … [T]he Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (Matt. 24:27,30).

Concerning this “coming of our Lord Jesus Christ”, Paul – by the Spirit of God – lays down two categorical precursors to it. That day will not come, he says,

“unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition” (2 Thess. 2:3). That is, the Antichrist.

Despite the misguided attempt by some to turn the plain NKJV/KJV meaning of “falling away” (Gk., apostasia, our “apostasy”) into “departure” (ie., departure at the rapture),^[8] none of the Greek lexicons I’ve consulted lends any support to such a disingenuous approach. On all 364 times listed in The Strongest Strong’s that the Bible uses the words depart(ure), and related forms, NOT ONCE is apostasia used, making such a view quite impossible to defend. Rather, as the great prayer warrior George Mueller observed of this passage:

“The Scripture declares plainly that the Lord Jesus will not come until the apostasy shall have taken place, and the man of sin … shall have been revealed”.^[9]

This is exactly what we have already seen with all the authentic Church Fathers – not to mention it also having been the position of Luther and Calvin, Wycliffe and Tyndale, Bunyan and Spurgeon, Matthew Henry and both the Wesleys. God, says Paul, will “give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed (Gk., from apokalupto, our “apocalypse”, or revelation) from heaven with His mighty angels” (2 Thess. 1:7). This is our true “gathering together unto Him”, when He will be “glorified in His saints and … admired among all those who believe” (v.10).

REVELATION 20:4-6.

“And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshipped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection.

Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no part, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years”.

Expressly speaking of the “first resurrection” – corresponding to Christ’s “resurrection of the just” (Lk. 14:14) and “resurrection of life” (Jn. 5:29) – this clearly denotes the rapture resurrection that takes place upon Jesus’ return, when “the dead in Christ will rise first” (1 Thess. 4:16). Yet of it we note that it INCLUDES those who had refused to worship Antichrist or receive his mark (“those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the Word of God, who had not worshipped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark”).

The logic is irresistible that ANTICHRIST MUST ALREADY HAVE BEEN ON EARTH AND SPREAD HIS FINAL 3½ YEARS OF HAVOC AGAINST THE CHURCH BEFORE THE FIRST RESURRECTION, FOR IT TO HAVE INCLUDED THOSE WHOM HE KILLED. THERE IS NO LEGITIMATE WAY AROUND THIS, AS GEORGE MUELLER OBSERVED: “CAN THERE BE A RESURRECTION BEFORE THE FIRST ONE?”.^[10]

OBJECTION. “But the Church is not mentioned after Revelation 3 right through to Rev. 22:16 (‘I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things in the churches’).” True, but the Church saturates the said section in equivalent references – 16 in all – to “the saints” (those who “keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus”; Rev. 14:12), and the “brethren” (those who overcome the beast “by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony”; Rev. 12:11). Are we to say that because the Church is nowhere mentioned at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, but only “the saints”, that therefore the Church will not be present there! Of course not. By the same token, John nowhere mentions either “Christians” or “the Church” in his entire first epistle (1 John), yet clearly he wrote it for Christians and the Church. Likewise with Revelation, from the first chapter till the last. “The saints”, as Paul reminds us in a New Testament context, are one and the same as “the church of God” (1 Cor. 1:2). Hence the phrase in the Apostles’ Creed: “I believe in the holy Christian Church, the communion of saints”.

MATTHEW 24:1-31.

Because Christ was answering two questions, (a) when the stones of the temple would be “thrown down” (v.2), and (b) “what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the world” (v.3), His discourse understandably has overlaps between both themes – the 70 AD destruction of Jerusalem, and the eschatological “end of the world”. Where our Darbyist/secret rapture friends go overboard, however, is in not just assigning too much of the chapter to the Jews, but none at all to the Christians – and that in the first book of the New Testament!

Consider their handling of v.9: “Then they shall deliver you up to tribulation and kill you; and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake”. There, they say, that means the Jews. But where are the Jews here? By contrast, Christians are clearly before us – those who “for My name’s sake” are hated by all nations leading up to the end (ie., Christians). This recalls the Revelation host, from all nations and tribes, who “come out of (Gk., ek, as in our “exit”) the great tribulation” (Rev. 7:14). “Out of” anything – be it a swimming pool, a house, or a car – means one has FIRST BEEN IN IT. It is not a matter of what we want, but of what the Word of God teaches. “Only a pampered, effete western Christianity”, as Charles Schmitt writes, “can afford to believe in an end time that is tribulation-free. The millions who suffered tribulation under atheistic communism and increasingly under radical Islam did not have that luxury”.^[11]

Indeed it was Matthew 24, as Schmitt acknowledges, that persuaded him that his previous devotion to the secret, pre-tribulation rapture was wrong. Now, as he observes,

“In Matthew 24 there is no Second Coming and no Rapture until ‘after the tribulation of those days … [for] then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man 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 His elect from the four winds’ …

Dispensational teaching, which appears to rebuild the dividing wall between Israel and the Church (that very wall that Jesus died to destroy according to Ephesians 2:11-22) relegates these words of Jesus in Matthew 24 as pertinent only to the Jews. But Paul, in Ephesians 2:15, pointedly declared concerning Jews and Gentiles that Jesus’ purpose was to ‘create in Himself one new man out of the two’. … Because of this we simply cannot relegate the truth of Matthew 24 only to the Jews”.^[12]

THE “COVENANT” OF DANIEL 9:27.

Though taken by Darby, Scofield, and all our dispensational brethren to denote a sinister, negative covenant that Antichrist seals with Israel, it actually has a far more positive, wholesome meaning. Throughout Daniel, at least 5 of his 7 “covenant”/berith references denote or imply “the holy covenant” (Dan. 11:28,30,32; see also 9:4).^[13] This is how both the Septuagint and the Church Fathers took it here also, as seen from Hippolytus:

“For when Daniel said, ‘I shall make my covenant for one week’, he indicated seven years; and the one half of the week is for the preaching of the prophets, and for the other half … Antichrist will reign upon the earth”.^[14]

This perfectly accords with Rev. 11:3-12, where in the identical corresponding period of the final “week”, Christ’s two mighty prophetic witnesses, with the stature of a Moses and an Elijah operating side by side (though not necessarily those men), do stupendous miracles and preaching, confirming the New Testament/New Covenant before a Christ-hating world. As we know, Antichrist will then be unleashed to kill them. But their resurrection 3½ days later (Rev. 11:11), before the eyes of all the watching world, will be a mighty deposit of hope for the true Church, facing her final 3½ year tribulation, of the glorious things that will then follow. Besides, as Paul says, “we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed – in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet” (1 Cor. 15:51,52).^[15] Hallelujah to the Lamb!

TRUTH MATTERS

When the Lord declares that “one will be taken, and the other left” (Matt. 24:41), He cannot therefore mean left behind for a seven-year tribulation, but rather left out from inclusion among God’s people. This is confirmed by His express statement concerning the weeds (“tares”) and the wheat: “Let both grow together until the harvest” (Matt. 13:30).

So while the coming of the Lord will indeed be sudden, it will also be with certain definite signs, as Matthew 24 reminds us, “When you see all these things [ie., signs], know that it is near, at the very doors (Matt. 24:33). Only those walking in the flesh, who ignore the call to discipleship and self-denial (Lk. 9:23), will be caught unawares, as Christ Himself shows:

“But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly” (Lk. 21:34).

The enormous importance of getting this right doctrinally is seen from the tragic effects of secret rapture teaching upon the Church in China. As the famed Corrie Ten Boom – herself a triumphant survivor of Nazi concentration camp suffering – relates of the Communist takeover:

“In China the Christians were told: ‘Don’t worry, before the tribulation comes you will be translated, raptured.’ Then came a terrible persecution. Millions of Christians were tortured to death. Later I heard a bishop from China say, sadly: ‘We have failed. We should have made the people strong for persecution rather than telling them Jesus would come first.’”.^[16]

So it is not for some doctrinal tetchiness, but for the sheer fact that truth matters – both to the God of truth and for us – that we must affirm, with Scripture and the Church Fathers, that the Church will undoubtedly pass through the tribulation. This is the teaching that will stand, unlike the fairy floss of the prosperity preachers and the false second-chance of the secret rapturists. Yet the great comfort is that not only will Christ be with His redeemed (Matt. 28:20), but that the tribulation saints emerge triumphant, and are “before the throne of God” forever (Rev. 7:15)! Hence we can be encouraged, as Corrie Ten Boom goes on to say, that with God’s help “it is possible to be strong in the Lord Jesus Christ”.^[17] As the Lord Himself encourages us: “In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (Jn. 16:33). He does not pretend it will be easy, but He promises that we can be faithful.

References

^ Didache 16, J.B. LightfootThe Apostolic Fathers (Baker Book House, 1978 printing), p.129.
^ Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho 110, Ante-Nicene Fathers (Hendrickson edition, 2004), 1:253-254.
^ Irenaeus, Against Heresies 5:35, ANF 1:565.
^ Tertullian, Against Heretics 4, ANF 3:245.
^ Hippolytus, On Christ and Antichrist 60-61, ANF 5:217.
^ Cyprian, Epistle 55, ANF 5:349.
^ Pseudo-Ephraem, Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apocalypse_of_Pseudo_Ephraem 7 July 2014.
^ Eg., John R. Ecob (much of whose work I admire, but not here), The Rapture in 1 and 2 Thessalonians (no date), p.5.
^ George Mueller: “Opponent of the pre-trib rapture”, Apantesis 2010.
^ Ibid., at apantesis.blogspot.com/2010/…/George-mueller-opponent-of-pre-trib.ht… 8 July 2014.
^ Charles P. Schmitt, Are These the Last Days? (Creation House, 2014, p.221.
^ Ibid., pp.216-217.
^ See The Strongest Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, in loc. .
^ Hippolytus, op. cit., ANF 5:248.
^ See also George Eldon Ladd, The Blessed Hope (Eerdmans, 1956).
^ Cited in David Pawson, When Jesus Returns (London, Hodder and Stoughton, 1995), p.199.
^ Ibid. .

KEYWORDS

A Apostasy, Antichrist, Augustine, Alfred, apostasia

B Bunyan, brother, beast, beheaded

C Church Fathers, Church, Christian, Christ, Coming, Calvin, covenant, Corrie, Cyprian

D Deception, Didache, deceiver, Daniel, Darby, Darbyist, David Pawson

E Ecob, evangelical, Ezekiel, eschatological

F First

G Glory, George Eldon Ladd

H Hippolytus, history, Henry, holy

I Irenaeus

J Jesus, John Ecob, Justin

L Left Behind, Lord, lightning, Luther, logic, Lamb, Ladd

M Martyr, Man of Sin, Matthew, mark, Marriage Supper, Mueller

N Nicea, New

O Open

P Pseudo-Ephraem, power, parousia, prosperity, prophetic, Pawson

R Rapture, redeemed, resurrection, Revelation

S Secret, Satan, Second Coming, Spurgeon, Scofield, Septuagint, Schmitt, Strong’s

T Teaching, Tertullian, Tyndale, Testament, temple, Ten Boom, truth

V Visible

W Witnesses, Wycliffe, Wesley, week