Christian “Rapture” Not In The Bible

By James Donahue

August 2006

The late theologian and Bible historian Dr. Ernest L. Martin once wrote that the word “rapture” is not found in the Bible, but rather is a relatively recent word created by Christians to describe a sequence of events described in the writings of Paul concerning the “spiriting away” of Christians at the time of the great tribulation.

Martin, who had a way of shaking both Christian and Jewish doctrines during his life, posted some serious reservations about the reliability of the rapture story.

While he admits that certain Bible verses refer to some kind of supernatural events involving a raising of believers into the clouds in the end times, he wonders why “the doctrine of the Rapture is not mentioned in any Christian writings, of which we have knowledge, until after the year 1830 A.D. . . No one mentioned a syllable about it.”

Martin said that “if the doctrine were so clearly stated in Scripture, it seems incredible that no one should have referred to it before the 19^th Century. This does not necessarily show that the teaching is wrong, but it does mean that thousands of eminent scholars who lived over a span of seventeen centuries must be considered as prophetic dunces for not having understood so fundamental a teaching.”

Thus Martin concludes that the lapse suggests serious “historical problems” associated with the doctrine. “The lapse of seventeen centuries when no one mentioned anything about it must be a serious obstacle to its reliability,” he wrote.

He draws attention to a book by Dave MacPherson, The Unbelievable Pre-Trib Origin,” an investigative work that traces the origin of the concept of a two-event return of Jesus, that included the lifting of the “believers” into the clouds, which eventually became known as the Rapture of the Saints.

According to this book, the story is traced to a Pentecostal movement in Scotland started by a radical Presbyterian minister, Edward Irving, in the 1820s that involved speaking in tongues and spirit-motivated prophetic utterances. In 1930 a member of this group, Margaret Macdonald, fell ill and while in a fever she supposedly “came under the power”  of the spirit and told a vision of Christ appearing in two stages at his second coming. He would come first in glory to them that look for him, and finally in the final state “when every eye would see Him.”

It was from this utterance that John Darby, the founder of the Plymouth Brethren, developed the Rapture doctrine. That doctrine grew at first in the evangelical community, but it has since spread throughout the “fundamental Christian” community. It is generally accepted today as the absolute truth of God.

It is this story that appears to be driving both Christian and Moslem world leaders into a global war because they believe the time is ripe for the return of Jesus. They see the second coming of their god as the only hope left for a dying world.

What they fail to realize is that they are doing the very thing the old prophets warned them not to do. It will not bring the desired results, but rather steal the critical time we need to find a way out of this mess.