Pre-trib Rapture or Pre-wrath Rapture?

The following are cited by Rev. Farmhals in his book 21 Proofs of a Pretribulation Rapture. He introduces them as follows:

“Rapture deniers and skeptics are propagating a lie that the rapture of the church, especially the Pre-tribulation Rapture of the church, is a new idea, not one supported by scripture. All over the internet, many articles, blogs and videos, claim that the Rapture Doctrine was invented in 1830 by a man named John Darby. … The fact is, there several published documents on the Rapture written after the first century to now.”

            His evidence is as follows:

Iraneous: (2^nd century AD)

“In the end, the church shall be suddenly caught up…for there shall be tribulation such as has not been since the beginning, neither shall be.”

“For this is the last contest of the righteous, in which, when they overcome, they are crowned with incorruption.”

“Those nations, however, who did not of themselves raise up their eyes unto heaven, nor returned thanks to their Maker, nor wished to behold the light of truth, but who were like blind mice concealed in the depths of ignorance…”

Note: This is evidence that the early church believed in the rapture, and a time of tribulation – says nothing about the timing of it. These quotes support a Prewrath Rapture view as much as any view.

Another  quote from Ignatius not cited by the PTR advocates gives us a little more pertinent information on the issue being addressed:  

“…Isaiah 6:12 And they shall build houses, and shall inhabit them themselves: and plant vineyards, and eat of them themselves. Isaiah 65:21 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, and the destruction of all nations under his rule; in [the times of] which [resurrection] the righteous shall reign in the earth, waxing stronger by the sight of the Lord” (from Against Heresies Book 5).

This is a Prewrath view, not a Pretribulation Rapture view.

Cyprian (2^nd-3^rd century AD)

“We who see terrible things have begun, and know that more terrible things are imminent, may regard it as the greatest advantage to depart from it as quickly as possible. Do you not give God thanks? Do you not congratulate yourself that by an early departure, you are taken away and delivered from the imminent shipwrecks and disasters? Let us greet the day which assigns each of us to his own home, which snatches us hence, sets us free from the world’s snares and restores us to paradise and the kingdom.”

Note: This implies a belief in the rapture of the church before the imminent terrible things, a likely reference to the 2^nd coming day of the Lord’s wrath – a Prewrath Rapture view, but no support for a Pretribulation Rapture view.

St. Victorinus (3^rd century AD)

 “Seven angels having the last seven plagues, for in them is completed the indignation of God. And these shall be in the last time when the church shall have gone out of the midst.”

Note: A Prewrath Rapture view, not Pretribulational.

Ephraim (4^th century AD)

 “Why therefore do we not reject every care of earthly actions and prepare ourselves for the meeting of the Lord Christ, so that he may draw us from the confusion, which overwhelms all the world? Believe you me, dearest brother, because the coming (advent) of the Lord is nigh, believe you me, because the end of the world is at hand, believe me because it is the very last time. Or do you not believe unless you see with your eyes?”

 “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.”

Note: this only supports the Pretrib. View if the word “tribulation” is understood in the same sense as it is used now to refer to the whole 70^th week of Daniel, which most Bible scholars tell us was not the case, until the mid 19^th century with the advent of Dispensationalism. In context it likely refers to what he previously called “the confusion, which overwhelms all the world” from which he says the Christ followers were looking forward to being drawn out.

St. Jerome (4th-5th century)
He is responsible for translating the phrase “Catching away” in 1 Thessalonians 4:16 into the word “Rapture.”

Note: Possible evidence they believed in a rapture – no information as to timing of the rapture.

Hugh Latimer (16^th century)

 “It may come in my days, old as I am, or in my children’s days, the saints shall be taken up to meet Christ in the air and so shall come down with him again.”

Note: Evidence of belief in a rapture only – supports any of the views about the timing.

Joseph Mede (16^th -17th century)

 “I will add this more, namely, what may be conceived to be the cause of this RAPTURE of the saints on high to meet the Lord in the clouds, rather than to wait his coming to earth. “What if it be, that they may be PRESERVED during the Conflagration of the earth and the works thereof, 2 Pet. 3:10, that as Noah and his family were preserved from the Deluge by being lift up above the waters in the Ark; so should the saints at the Conflagration be lifted up in the clouds unto their Ark, Christ, to be preserved there from the deluge of fire, wherein the wicked shall be consumed?”

Note: A Prewrath view – not Pretribulational

Morgan Edwards (18^th century)

“The dead saints will be raised, and the living changed at Christ’s ‘appearing in the air.’ This will be about three years and a half before the millennium, as we shall see hereafter: but will he and they abide in the air all that time? No: they will ascend to paradise, or to some one of those many ‘mansions in the Father’s house (John 14:2), and so disappear during the foresaid period of time. The design of this retreat and disappearing will be to judge the risen and changed saints; for ‘now the time is come that judgment must begin,’ and that will be ‘at the house of God’ (1 Pet. 4:17).”

Note: No support for Pretribulation Rapture view, does articulate a Midtribulation Rapture view.

James H. Frere, and William Cuninghame

“The sitting of the Ancient of Days is mentioned in the 9th verse of the seventh chapter of Daniel, and precedes the death and destruction of the ten-horned beast, the sitting of the Ancient of days, and the judgment of the saints mentioned in Daniel must therefore considerably precede the sitting of the saints in judgment at the commencement of the Millennium …and must be contemporary with a period in the Revelation of St. John, before the battle of Armageddon.”

Note: Again, Prewrath not Pretribulation view.

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            Another recent source writing in defense of the Pretribulation Rapture position, also attempting to defend its historicity, mentioning some of the same sources as cited by Farmhals above, may be a little more honest in his claims:

“After the time of the apostles, a number of writings indicate belief in the imminence of Christ’s return, which is consistent with pre-tribulationism. Clement of Rome (35-101), Ignatius of Antioch (died 110), The Didache (a late first-century anonymous Christian treatise), The Epistle of Pseudo-Barnabas (circa 70-130), and The Shepherd of Hermas (second century) all reference Christ’s imminent return. Even though it appears that the apostolic fathers were largely post-tribulational (because they believed the persecution they were enduring was the tribulation itself), they held to the doctrine of imminency.  J. Barton Payne (a post-tribulationist) concluded that ‘belief in the imminence of the return of Jesus was the uniform hope of the early church.’” (“The Rapture: A Pre-Darby Rapture” Petterson, David, Truth & Tidings, (https://truthandtidings.com/2020/07/the-rapture-a-pre-darby-rapture/#_ftnref1)

            Indeed, while most of the sources cited were about the belief that Christ would be returning soon, none articulate the post-Darby view popular today of a Pre-tribulation Rapture. But, as admitted by Petterson, they believed they were already in that time of Tribulation, and thus actually held to a Post-tribulational Pre-wrath interpretation of scripture – the one actually clearly articulated in literal scripture.

Origins of Dispensationalism and the Pretribulation Rapture Theory

The fact is that while many men have diligently searched the writings of the early church fathers to find evidence that the Pretribulation Rapture view was common or even known to the 1^st to 3^rd century church, none have been produced. Several are cited which indicate a belief in the literal rapture of the church, and the implication that it was perceived by some at least to be imminent to them (which made sense since they perceived the Roman Emperors of their time, Nero and Domitian, which persecuted the church, to be the Antichrist – a Prewrath rapture view). Several, as seen from the samples cited above, did believe that rapture would happen before the much-prophesied day of the Lord or the day of the Lord’s wrath, the second coming of Christ to judge the unsaved world. PTR advocate Grant Jeffrey’s claims to have found many which “provide the strongest possible evidence in favor of the fact that our interpretation is similar to that taught by the Apostles in the early Church.” His claim is that “These beliefs are so close to our own as to be almost identical.” (from Apocalypse – The Coming Judgment of the Nations, Appendix, Prophetic Views Held by the Early Church.) However, while he identifies 84 “Major Prophetic Views”, articulated in the writing of those early church fathers, only 2 of them may have any bearing on the issue of the timing of the rapture, with no actual quotations provided to make his case, which the reader could examine. Some of those sources, probably the most significant, Victorinus and Irenaeus, are included in the list of references cited and quoted above, which provide no support for the Pretribulation Rapture distinctives.

            The reason why this is so important to them, as admitted by Farmhals above, is because of the charge that their whole Dispensational system of Theology, and in particular their Pretribulation Rapture theory, is a relatively recent invention, which was unknown to the early church of the Apostolic era and for centuries following. This is a pretty well documented fact, as articulated in the following:

“The first person on record to develop a genuine dispensational scheme in a systematic fashion was the French philosopher Pierre Poiret (1646-1719).  In his work entitled ‘The Divine Economy: or An Universal System of the Works and Purposes of God Towards Men Demonstrated,’ Poiret developed a scheme of seven dispensations covering the scope of Scriptures and history. This work was published in Holland in 1687. In 1699 John Edwards (1639-1716) published a well-developed dispensational scheme in his book entitled A Complete History or Survey of All the Dispensations.  Isaac Watts (1674-1748 A.D.), the famous hymn writer and theologian, presented a system of six dispensations in an essay named ‘The Harmony of all the Religions which God ever Prescribed to Men and all his Dispensations towards them.’ During the 19th century the Plymouth Brethren, including one of their key leaders, John Nelson Darby (1800-1882), played a very significant role in developing, systematizing, and spreading Dispensational Theology.”  (Showers, R., Ancientpath.net, “Introduction to Dispensationalism.”)

By the 3^rd– 4^th century, in an age after AD 70 (when the Roman General Vespasian completely destroyed Jerusalem) when there was no nation Israel, and no sign of her return to significant status as a national entity, prophecy that was about the nation Israel and her restoration in the land seemed quite unbelievable.  Hence, even though the premillennial interpretations were predominant in the early church before Augustine, it is understandable that brilliant scholars, such as Philo, Clement and Origen (all of Alexandria) would find a way to interpret scripture such that it would make more sense to them, and be more believable.  Hence the allegorical school of interpretation was developed.  Augustine applied it to apocalyptic prophecy, and it became the mainstream view for centuries.  This method of interpretation was applied to the interpretations of the covenants, in particular the New Covenant versus the Old Covenant of the Mosaic Law, which of course applies to the definitions of “the Church” versus “Israel” in this present Church age.  To the Covenant Theologian, i.e. the Reformed Theologian, there is no “Israel” as distinct from the Church, inasmuch as the references to Israel in the New Testament are taken allegorically rather than literally – even with respect to her restoration as God’s people.  This was the mainstream view even up to and beyond the Reformation.

In light of these trends in the church down through the centuries to move away from the literal interpretation of scripture toward more allegorical approaches, perhaps we owe a debt of gratitude to such men as Pierre Poiret (1646-1719) and John Edwards (1639-1716), and Isaac Watts (1674-1748), and John Darby and the Plymouth Brethren (mid 1800s), for returning to a more literal approach to understanding Bible prophecy.  These early Dispensationalists brought at least the mainline conservative evangelical element of Christianity back to the understanding that what God promised to the nation Israel is still applicable to the nation Israel.  They revived the belief that Christ will return to earth and will reign on this earth for a literal thousand-year period.  Based on their approach, we now have many teachers and preachers and theologians who believe that these end-times prophecies are about future events, which will be literally fulfilled, and therefore have real significance and meaning to us today.

However, while the Dispensationalists have kept up with developments of the 19th and much of the 20th century because of their more literal approach – such as recognizing ethnic Israel among other developments as prophetic events – their failure to be consistent in applying that approach, and to keep up with evolving developments, has resulted in significant errors both logically and scripturally.  Again, as is typically the case, scripturally unsupportable presuppositions of the Dispensational System of Theology have led them to engage in eisegesis and forced interpretations of a number of key prophetic passages and certain critical aspects of Revelation.  The result is a false scenario that is deceptively optimistic and escapist in nature, which may well account for much of its popularity with modern Evangelicals.  Unfortunately, such mistakes may have serious consequences for those actually living in those last few years when the most intense developments are happening rapidly, and they fail to recognize them for what they are because they have been led to believe that they will be raptured out before such events are to occur.