History of "The Rapture"

4:16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a shout of command, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 4:17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be suddenly caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord. 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17   (NET Bible)

No matter what your thoughts are regarding the topic - premillenialism, mid-Trib, skeptical, etc., the idea of the rapture does not have a long history. As John R. Coats - a former Episcopalian priest - wrote in his article "What's Real About the Rapture?": "In fact, before 1830, no one had heard that, '[i]n one cataclysmic moment, millions around the globe disappear.'" He continues, "It was around 1830 that [John Nelson] Darby, having selected scripture passages from Daniel, Revelation, 1 and 2 Thessalonians and elsewhere, pasted them together, called them a whole, and invented the Rapture, a word not found in the Bible."

This is technically true, in verse 17, as quoted above, "caught up" is translated from the Greek:

ἁρπάζω, which means, among other things, "to snatch away, or carry off." To be fair, this same verb does appear in other verses - specifically Acts 8:39, 2 Corinthians 12:2-4 and Revelation 12:5. The word in Acts and 2 Corinthians are referring to specific people who have already been "carried off." Acts relates the story of Phillip and the Ethiopian Eunuch where after converting and baptizing the eunuch, Phillip is miraculously transported by God to another city. In 2 Corinthians, Paul writes about someone he knows who was "caught up" to the third heaven - either bodily or spiritually, Paul does not know - and given a revelation of paradise. Neither of these references relate to the belief in a rapture of the church in the end times.

The reference from Revelation is a bit more tricky. The first part of Revelation 12, where this verse comes from, is the story of The Woman, The Child and The Dragon - a story that is indirect and open to interpretation. (This verse will be more fully unpacked on Wednesday, "A Differing View: In Defense of the Rapture.")

As Coats pointed out, the first inclination of this idea comes from Darby in the nineteenth century. Catholic scholar Dr. Paul Thigpen, in his book, "The Rapture Trap," details the history, or lack-thereof, of the belief in a rapture event.

For Dr. Thigpen, the main distinction is in the difference between an event he calls "The Second Advent" and the "secret rapture." Briefly, the Second Advent is the return to Earth of Jesus to judge all of humankind - both living and dead. Dr. Thigpen goes into detail demonstrating that Christian leaders throughout history, when writing about end times events, refer to the return of Christ in the manner of a Second Advent and not a Rapture. He writes, "Neither ancient Christians, nor medieval Christians, nor even the founders of the major Protestant movements ever heard of the secret rapture doctrine," (130).

He gives a history of great Christian thinkers and leaders throughout history whose writings support this idea of a Second Advent, and remain silent on "secret rapture." Men like Justin Martyr, Irenaues, Hippolytus, Jerome, Augustine, John Chrysotom and others from the early church. According to Thigpen, "When we find the Fathers speaking on a particular doctrinal issue in consensus, or near consensus, Christians should pay close attention," (130). He also points out that the doctrine was left out of the Nicene Creed - the foundational creed of orthodoxy. 

This matters because if we trusted the early church fathers to determine the canon, as well as orthodox belief and practices, their silence on this matter must be respected as much as their words on other doctrinal matters.

Unlike Coats, Thigpen acknowledges others, before Darby, who have preached the rapture, but agrees that, "The doctrine as it is currently taught in fundamentalist circles seems to have evolved in the nineteenth century," (143). 

According to Thigpen, as well as many others, it was Darby's idea of dispensationalism that began the very modern idea of a rapture. Further, it was the publication of the Scofield Reference Bible in 1909, drawing from Darby and dispensationalism, that popularized the rapture idea. Thigpen wrote that Scofield was, "an enthusiastic convert to Darby's dispensational beliefs. Scofield was a Kansas City lawyer with no theological training. But his legal background compensated in persuasiveness for what his background lacked as a biblical scholar," (145).

For the uninitiated, dispensationalism, specifically, is the belief that history has been divided into seven ages; and that through these seven ages God's revelations are different for each church of that age. This idea of ages became especially relevant with the progress of technology and media, twentieth century wars and the post-World War II establishment of Israel.

"After the reestablishment of Israel as an independent nation in 1948 - an event many fundamentalists saw as a sign of the end times - interest in biblical prophecy intensified," (Thigpen, 147).

Another popularizing aspect of the idea, according to Thigpen, is what he calls a bias of dispensationalism against the structure and hierarchy of the denominational churches. He writes that this "appealed to isolated Protestant congregations in America that were unaffiliated with any denomination," (147).

Finally, the publication of Hal Lindsey's "Late Great Planet Earth" capitalized on growing fears of war, communism, the atomic age and changing social norms to promote an end times world view centered around the idea of a secret rapture. His book was fear mongering and opportunistic, released in 1970, with chapter titles like, "The Future Fuehrer" and "World War III." Critical of Lindsey, Thigpen writes that his "sensationalist style presented a heady mix of highly selective Bible quotes; news clips of world events that he claimed were 'fulfilling biblical prophecy'; frightening 'scientific' predictions of natural and man-made catastrophes; and a print version of the old revivalist 'altar call,' an appeal to readers to get 'saved' so they would not be left behind at the rapture," (148).

It is very clear that the rapture is a relatively new phenomenon in church history and not traditionally part of orthodox belief. So, either Thigpen's explanation of a Second Advent - the Catholic orthodox belief - must be taken at face value, that the original meaning and teachings of the church did not include the rapture; or, Darby's view of a later divine revelation supersedes the Bible, the Apostles and the teachings of the early church fathers. In my opinion, letting one man rewrite or reinterpret Scripture 1800+ years later is dangerous - especially in light of the consequences such a belief elicits (as we will see Thursday).

Tomorrow: The Rapture in Pop Culture

Refrences
John R. Coats, "What's Real About the Rapture" http://www.thechristianleftblog.org/1/post/2013/04/whats-real-about-the-rapture.html

Paul Thigpen, "The Rapture Trap" http://www.amazon.com/Rapture-Trap-Catholic-Response-Times/dp/0965922820