Biblical Truths About The Rapture

Brian Baker

• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781098006839
• eBook ISBN: 9781098006846
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Theology

What the Bible really says about the rapture and when it will happen. Plus!What the Bible says about the Antichrist, where he will come from, and his war with Israel.

What the Bible Says About Pre-Tribulation Rapture

Some say a man named Morgan Edwards may have actually been the first to come up with this theory in a paper he wrote for Bristol Baptist College in Bristol England in 1744, but if he did, it went unnoticed. They say he even traveled to America and had it published in Philadelphia, but it still went unnoticed.

The pre-tribulation rapture theory as we know it started in Scotland and England in 1830. Margaret MacDonald from Port Glasgow, Scotland, was a frail young girl living with her two brothers. The area where they lived was experiencing an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. People were being healed and receiving the gift of speaking in tongues and the ability to interpret tongues.

It was at this time that Ms. MacDonald said she received a vision about the end times where she said the rapture will be seen only by those who are filled with the Spirit.

The events happening at her church were getting a lot of attention, so her vision also got a lot of attention. Otherwise, it too may have gone unnoticed.

There’s not much research you can do on her though. The best I can tell, she may have been about twelve years old at the time of the vision, and she may have been in her midtwenties when she died. (Her vision is included at the end of this book if you want to read it for yourself and see what you think.)

She seems to get the credit for first suggesting a secret rapture; she said (italics mine),

Now look out for the sign of the Son of man. Here I was made to stop and cry out, Oh it is not known what the sign of the Son of man is; the people of God think they are waiting, but they know not what it is. 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, I saw it was just the Lord himself descending from Heaven with a shout, just the glorified man. Even Jesus; but that all must, as Stephen was, be filled with the Holy Ghost, that they might look up, and see the brightness of the Father’s glory. I saw the error to be, that men think that it will be something seen by the natural eye; but ’tis spiritual discernment that is needed, the eye of God in his people… Only those who have the light of God within them will see the sign of his appearance. No need to follow them who say, see here, or see there, for his day shall be as the lightning to those in whom the living Christ is.

Matthew 24:30–31 says,

And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in Heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

Matthew 24:26–27 says,

If they shall say unto you, behold, He is in the desert, go not forth, behold, He is in the secret chambers, believe it not. For as the lightning comes out of the east, and shines even unto the west, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be.

I don’t understand though how she gets credit for starting the pre-tribulation rapture theory. She seems to be saying just the opposite that it will be after the Tribulation is over. She said,

I saw the people of God in an awfully dangerous situation, surrounded by nets and entanglements, about to be tried, and many about to be deceived and fall. Now will THE WICKED be revealed, with all power and signs and lying wonders, so that if it were possible the very elect will be deceived.—This is the fiery trial which is to try us. It will be for the purging and purifying of the real members of the body of Jesus; but Oh it will be a fiery trial. Every soul will be shaken to the very center… The trial of the Church is from Antichrist. It is by being filled with the Spirit that we shall be kept.

At the same time however in 1830 in England, John Nelson Darby also came up with the secret rapture theory, but he taught that it will happen before the Tribulation starts. If he stole the idea from her or came up with it by himself is something people have been debating for years. Most of the information you find online is people debating about who came up with this theory first.

One pastor I found online defending Darby said, “Darby was a brilliant theologian with outstanding scholarly abilities, (and he) provided the intellectual mantle that helped make (this new theory) respectable.”

It is obvious Darby thought of himself as a brilliant theologian. (His books and pamphlets are available for free online if you want to read them for yourself. I lasted about twenty minutes.)

He traveled the world teaching his new theory, and he greatly influenced evangelical leaders in America. Cyrus Scofield was taught this theory by one of these preachers and included it into his new study Bible, The Scofield Study Bible, which was very popular and sold a lot of copies. Scofield was also the mentor of Lewis Sperry Chafer who started the Dallas Theological Seminary where Darby’s theory was aggressively taught to new evangelical leaders.

It didn’t take long for Darby’s new theory to take root and be accepted as the gospel truth.

Add to this in 1970, Hal Lindsey, who attended Dallas Theological Seminary, wrote his very successful book The Late, Great Planet Earth based on the teachings of Darby. (We had a copy in our house for many years.)

Darby writing a pamphlet in 1850 called Short but Serious Examination of Principles in “Daniel the Prophet” said this about how he came up with his theory:

Moreover, in 2 Thess. 2:1… “Now we beg you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind, nor be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as [if it were] by us, as that the day of the Lord is present. Let not any one deceive you in any manner, because [it will not be] unless the apostasy have first come and the man of sin have been revealed,” etc. That is, the apostle gives two reasons why they should not believe that the day of the Lord was come: first, the r...

Table of contents

• What the Bible Says About Pre-Tribulation Rapture
• What the Bible Says About the Antichrist
• Margaret Macdonald’s Vision