However, in each of these passages the context seems to indicate the coming in question is Christ’s public, triumphant return in glory on the Day of the Lord (e.g., Matt. Many read this as describing the any-moment return of Jesus at the secret rapture. Passages that supposedly describe the secret rapture could just as easily be read as referring to the glorious second coming, and in fact have been read that way throughout the church’s history.įor example, the New Testament repeatedly warns that Jesus will return unexpectedly “like a thief” (e.g., Matt. There are no biblical texts that explicitly teach it or anything like a two-stage coming of Jesus. As Protestants we hold Scripture, not church tradition, to be authoritative.īut the secret rapture faces biblical challenges as well. Previous generations could have misinterpreted their Bibles. That fact that the secret rapture, and dispensationalism, are the new kids on the eschatological block doesn’t necessarily mean they are false. Ultimately we must assess doctrine not on the narrative of church history, but on the text of Scripture. In just a century and a half, a previously unknown doctrine has become a central eschatological hope for millions. The rise and spread of the secret rapture teaching is a remarkable story. And then there are the Left Behind novels, which have sold millions of copies and captured the imagination of a new generation. The rapture must be close! Books like Hal Lindsay’s The Late Great Planet Earth and movies like A Thief in the Night further popularized dispensational teaching. The secret rapture doctrine continued to gain steam in the latter half of the 20th century, and the advent of modern Israel in 1948 seemed a clear sign that God was restarting his plans for Israel. Scofield’s work became the English standard for fundamentalist, Bible-believing Christians in the early 20th century, and in the process exposed thousands of readers to the secret rapture through his dispensational-informed study notes. By far the most important boost for Darby’s teaching, however, came from the Scofield Reference Bible. The dispensational system, including the secret rapture, was disseminated through prophecy conferences and received support from evangelists like D. 1ĭarby’s views spread rapidly, especially in the United States. Jesus would first come to “rapture” the church, and then return again in visible glory. Darby had in effect proposed something new: a two-stage return of Jesus. Hence arose the need for the secret rapture. So in order for God to resume these plans for Israel, Darby believed, God would first need to remove the church from the world.
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So when, according to dispensational thought, would God fulfill his prophecies to Israel? During the millennium (Rev.
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Rather than “spiritualizing” such prophecies, he expected a literal fulfillment of God’s promises to literal Israel. Thus Darby understood Old Testament prophecies as applying only to Israel, the earthly people of God. God had two distinct peoples and separate plans for each.
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The former was earthly, he believed, and the latter heavenly.
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Darby was one of the early leaders of the Plymouth Brethren movement, and his teachings became known as “dispensationalism.”ĭarby’s dispensationalism distinguished sharply between Israel and the church. The doctrine of the secret rapture emerged during the early 19th century through the teachings of John Nelson Darby (1800–1882). As producer and writer Paul LaLonde put it, “It’s a Bible-based movie, it’s a biblical story, it’s a true story-it just hasn’t happened yet.” As a result, it can cause us to wonder, What will it be like when all the Christians suddenly disappear? How close are we to the rapture? Will I be taken or left behind?īut there’s another question we should ask, one that may surprise you: “Is the rapture taught in the Bible?” It may come as a shock to learn that many Bible-believing Christians today doubt the rapture, and that most Christians throughout history had never even heard of it.