The Pre-Trib Rapture Doctrine Some History

Where did the pre-trib rapture doctrine come from? There have been some who taught a futurist view of one kind or another over the last 2000 years.

When ever some great despot arose to power, some would teach that that one was the anti-Christ of scripture, and predict the soon return of the Lord and the rapture of the saints. The changing of the calendar, from on century or millennium to the next, some great upheaval or calamity, all were espoused as the signs of the last days. And all were wrong.

What makes you think today's futurist teachers are any less wrong? Aside from the date setters of the last few decades, today's prophesy teachers read the news papers, watching CNN or even Fox News to find signs of the last days. And month turns into month, year into year, decade into decade. And each new generation of prophecy teacher keeps saying we are in or approaching the last days.

In my early years the time frame was set from the reinstitution of Israel as a state, in 1948. The prophesy teachers said that Christ would return within a 40 year generation from that time. 1988 came and went, with some teachers setting a firm date, and others just suggesting it might be the time, but no man knows the day and hour....

And when these dates did not bring the rapture, many lost their faith.

Ask yourself, when do you expect Christ's return? And why is your expectation any different than all the past generations who were taught that the last days were then, and did not see Christ return?

Christ came, Messiah came and poured out God's judgment wrath upon rebellious Israel, those who pierced him, saw his fiery judgment wrath. In the very generation that Jesus told his disciples to expect it, it happened.

In their generation the Mosaic covenant kingdom age was brought to a close. In their generation Messiah came in judgment upon those who pierced him, and those who continued to reject the Messiah of God. For about forty years he gave them an opportunity to repent and accept their Messiah King. In their generation the temple was destroyed, the center of the Mosaic covenant kingdom, where heaven touched down on the earth, in the Holy of Holies, on the mercy seat of God.

These are the scriptural truths I now understand, and not the any moment pre-trib rapture popularized in the Left Behind books and movies.