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“If people let government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny.” Thomas Jefferson

Saturday, December 13, 2008

History of the False Rapture Doctrine

Today I want to take a look at the false rapture doctrine being taught in the churches today. In this first post I would like to look at the history of this relatively new teaching. This teaching began in the 1830s and prior to that time had not been taught in the churches. This doctrine originated with a mentally ill young woman named Margaret McDonald in Glasgow Scotland. She had a series of visions in which it was prtrayed that the church would be whisked away. Twp priests learned of these visions and coined them as their own. Thus the rapture doctrine was born. This doctrine teaches that the church will be whisked away from the earth before the tribulation of the end times. It is not biblically sound and the scriptures are twisted and taken out of context. Ms. McDonald said herself that her visions of this doctrine felt wrong:


"I felt this needed to be revealed, and that there was great darkness and error about it; but suddenly what it was burst upon me with a glorious light."
-- Margaret MacDonald (Spring of 1830)
(Source: The Incredible Cover-Up by Dave McPherson)

It seems people love this doctrine and much money has been made from these falsehoods. There are more books in Christian bookstores teaching these books than there anything else. Why do people fall for and love this doctrine? Because it is what they want to hear. They don't want to hear that they may have to go thru some difficult times and actually make a stand for Christ. That is work and the current generations are lazy and don't want to work. The rapture doctrine is the easy way out, we don't have to make a stand because Christ will wisk us away in the nick of time. The rapture doctrine is the cowards way out. We have two warnings by God against these sorts of doctrines an knowing the history of this rapture doctrine it amazes me at how well they fit exactly. Let's look.

Ez.13:17 Likewise, thou son of man, set they face against the daughters of they people, which prophesy out of their own heart; and prophesy thou against them. (KJV)
Ez 13:20 Wherefore thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I am against your pillows, wherewith ye there hunt the souls to make them fly, and I will tear them from your arms, and I will let the souls go, even the souls that ye hunt to make them fly. (KJV)

Is it coincidence that God warns us of doctrines to make our souls fly and that is exactly what the rapture doctrine teaches, that we will fly away. No this doctrine is a false feel good doctrine. However as we will see in future posts it is a very dangerous doctrine indeed. May God bless you in your studies.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

(Here's something on the same topic I just found on the web. Annette)


PRETRIB RAPTURE - HIDDEN FACTS !‏

How can the “rapture” be “imminent”? Acts 3:21 says that Jesus “must” stay in heaven (He is now there with the Father) “until the times of restitution of all things” which includes, says Scofield, “the restoration of the theocracy under David’s Son” which obviously can’t begin before or during Antichrist’s reign. Since Jesus must personally participate in the rapture, and since He can’t even leave heaven before the tribulation ends, the rapture therefore cannot take place before the end of the trib! Paul explains the “times and the seasons” (I Thess. 5:1) of the catching up (I Thess. 4:17) as the “day of the Lord” (5:2) (which FOLLOWS the posttrib sun/moon darkening - Matt. 24:29; Acts 2:20) WHEN “sudden destruction” (5:3) of the wicked occurs! (If the wicked are destroyed before or during the trib, who would be left alive to serve the Antichrist?) Paul also ties the change-into-immortality “rapture” (I Cor. 15:52) to the posttrib end of “death” (15:54)! (Will death be ended before or during the trib?) If anyone wonders how long pretrib rapturism has been taught, he or she can Google “Pretrib Rapture Diehards.” Many are unaware that before 1830 all Christians had always viewed I Thess. 4’s “catching up” as an integral part of the final second coming to earth. In 1830 it was stretched forward and turned into a separate coming of Christ. To further strengthen their novel view, which the mass of evangelical scholars rejected throughout the 1800s, pretrib teachers in the early 1900s began to stretch forward the “day of the Lord” (what Darby and Scofield never dared to do) and hook it up with their already-stretched-forward “rapture.” Many leading evangelical scholars still weren’t convinced of pretrib, so pretrib teachers then began teaching that the “falling away” of II Thess. 2:3 is really a pretrib rapture (the same as saying that the “rapture” in 2:3 must happen before the “rapture” ["gathering"] in 2:1 can happen - the height of desperation!). Other Google articles throwing light on long-covered-up facts about the 178-year-old pretrib rapture view include “Famous Rapture Watchers,” “X-Raying Margaret,” “Revisers of Pretrib Rapture History,” “Thomas Ice (Bloopers),” “Wily Jeffrey,” “The Rapture Index (Mad Theology),” “America’s Pretrib Rapture Traffickers,” “Roots of (Warlike) Christian Zionism,” “Scholars Weigh My Research,” “Pretrib Hypocrisy,” “Pretrib Rapture Desperados” and “Deceiving and Being Deceived” - all by the author of the bestselling book “The Rapture Plot” which is available at Armageddon Books online. Just my two cents’ worth. Todd

Kat said...

Yes absolutely. The pre-trib rapture doctrine is designed to deceive and deceive it has. It was never taught in the churches prior to the early 1830s. Why was it never taught? Because it is false doctrine. Thank you for your comment and further information. May God bless you in your journey.