The man who invented the rapture

FRANCISCO RIBERA

By Thracia Gharst

Please ignore all spelling and punctuation errors due to the fact that my hands were paralyzed. I use voice recognition software that is very inadequate

At the time of the Reformation, the early Protestants widely held and were convinced the Pope was the supreme individual embodiment and personification of the spirit of antichrist, and the Roman Church, the Harlot System of Revelation seventeen. This understanding was responsible for bringing millions of believers out of the Roman Catholic religious system. It therefore became expedient for certain Romansh theologians to turn the attention of the people away from the Papacy, and this they endeavored to do by inventing a counter-interpretation to that held by the Protestants. This new scheme of prophetic interpretation became known as futurism. Rather than viewing the drama of the book of Revelation spiritually and historically, they would consign it all to a brief period of time at the end of the age. It was a Jesuit priest named Francisco Ribera (1537-1591) who, in the days of the Reformation, first taught that all the events in the book of Revelation were to take place literally during the three and a half years reign of the Antichrist way down at the end of the age. Thus, Ribera laid the foundation of a system of prophetic interpretation of which the secret rapture has now become an integral part.

Fransisco Ribera was a Jesuit. Here is the definition of a Jesuit-

Here is the dictionary definition of the word Jesuit and Jesuitism BEFORE the dictionary was OWNED by the Jesuits:

JESUIT, n.One of the society of Jesus, so called, founded by Ignatius Loyola; a society remarkable for their cunning in propagating their principles. (Noah Webster's 1828 Dictionary).

JESUITISM, n. The arts, principles and practices of the Jesuits.

1. Cunning, deceit; hypocrisy; prevarication; deceptive practices to affect a purpose. n

"Later, Emmanuel Lacunza, also a Jesuit priest, built on Ribera's teachings, and spent much of his life writing a book titled "The Coming of Messiah in Glory and Majesty." Lacunza, however, wrote under the assumed name of Rabbi Ben Ezra, supposedly a learned Jew who had accepted Christ as his Saviour. With Jesuit cunning, he thus conspired to get his book a hearing in the Protestant world they would not even permit it in their homes coming from a Jesuit pen but as the earnest work of the "converted Jew," they would consume it with avid interest! Within the pages of this elaborate forgery, Lacunza taught the novel notion that Jesus returns not once, but twice, and at the "first stage" of His return He "raptures" His Church so they can escape the reign of the "future antichrist. "His book was first published in Spanish in the 1812 and soon found its way onto the shelves of the library of the Archbishop of Canterbury in London, England.

Edward Irving. Born in Scotland in 1792, Irving became one of the most eloquent preachers of his time, and a leading figure of the Catholic Apostolic Church of England. In 1828 his open-air meetings in Scotland drew crowds of 10,000 people. Irving discovered Lacunza's book and was deeply shaken by it, in fact, fell in love with it, translated it into English, and it was published in London in 1827. At this time Irving heard what he believed to be a voice from heaven commanding him to preach the Secret Rapture of the Saints. Irving then began to hold Bible conferences throughout Scotland, Emphasizing the coming of Jesus to rapture His Church.

John Nelson Darby, a 19th century Irish lawyer turned Anglican preacher, developed a method of biblical interpretation called dispensationalism in which he incorporated Ribera's futuristic views. Darby became "the father of the rapture doctrine." He was the first to develop a full-blown theology that incorporated the teaching that Jesus would return secretly (His "second" coming) to rapture His true followers, leaving the rest behind to be ruled by an evil antichrist for seven years, and then return again (His "third" coming) in a visible, glorious coming to destroy antichrist, save those who were converted during the seven-year tribulation, and establish His own kingdom.

Cyrus Scofield, a disciple of Darby's, later published a Bible with explanatory notes in which he incorporated Darby's views on the rapture. The Scofield Bible is still the most popular Bible sold today.

Thus the rapture theory made its way into the psyche and formal teaching of much of the Christians

http://www.rusearching.com/leftbehind/leftrapturehistory.htm

Margaret MacDonald

The doctrine of the pre-trib rapture can also be credited to what began in Port Glasgow, Scotland in 1830. A young Scottish lass named Margaret MacDonald, who was a member of Irvings church claimed she was a prophetess. She would go into long trances and make claims about the end of the world. Sounds more like a demonic trance to me. She claimed she had a revelation of the coming of the Lord before the great tribulation. Several noted Bible teachers of that day picked up on this thought, but it was Edward Irving and John Darby who were responsible for it being popularized in Scotland and England. It is said of Darby that had borrowed from Margaret MacDonald's revelation, modified her views, and then taught them under his own name without giving her credit. I wonder if this was, because some of her claims were way off the wall. Such as, Macdonald claimed that Rober Owen, the founder of New Harmony, Indiana was the antichrist. He visited the U.S. at least five times, and his dispensationalism became part of the Scofield Reference Bible (1909). It was the notes in Scofield's Bible that caused this new teaching to find favor in this country.

How The False Rapture Doctrine Came To America

C.I. Scfield

"The Secret Rapture teaching was *introduced into the United States and Canada in the 1860's and 1870's though there is some indication that it may have been taught as early as the 1840's. Darby himself visited the United States six times. The new teaching was spreading. A Congregationalist preacher by the name of C.I. Scofield came under the influence of Darby and the Plymouth Brethren.

A little bit about Scofield- He has a secret history he hid from public scrutiny. A secret, personal testimony that illuminates this man's true personality and leanings. Apart from deserting his young wife and children, he was a liar, cheat, thief, self-promoter, philanderer, fraud and fantasist who was allowed to conceal his personal sins from view because of the support of his powerful handlers, both Freemason and Zionist. Scofield's swindles and schemes were hidden behind a vigorously promoted public image in which only positive aspects were revealed and exaggerated. George Bannerman Dealey, owner of the Dallas Morning News, member of Scofield's church and 33rd degree Freemason, greatly helped in his work.

http://www.overlordsofchaos.com/html/jewish_conspiracy_18.html

How The Rapture Doctrine Came Into The Pentecostal Church Teachings

D.L. Moody

"There is one final link in the chain of the development and spread of the rapture theory that should be mentioned in passing. I would draw your attention again to the source, the origin, of the rapture doctrine and the chain of contact by which it has been brought down to this day. It began as a Roman Catholic invention. The Jesuit priest Ribera's writings influenced the Jesuit priest Lacunza, Lacunza influenced Irving, Irving influenced Darby, Darby influenced Scofield, Scofield and Darby influenced D. L. Moody, and Moody influenced the Pentecostal Movement. How? you ask. The Assemblies of God is today by far the largest Pentecostal denomination in the world. When the Pentecostal movement began at the turn of the century, and the Assemblies of God held their first general council in 1914 in Hot Springs, Arkansas, they were a small movement and didn't have their own publishing house. They needed Sunday School and study materials for their churches so where do you suppose they got it? They bought it from Moody Press and had their own cover stitched on it! So what do you think the Assemblies of God people believed? They believed what Moody Bible Institute taught! This had its impact on Pentecostal theology.

Conclusion

The Catholic Church during the reformation felt that they had to find a way to defend themselves from Martin Luther and others who were calling the Pope the Antichrist and the Roman Catholic church the harlot. They found a man named Francisco Ribera to deceive people and defend the church. In the process of doing so he invented a false end time doctrine that would lead the church with the help of Irving, Darby, Rabbi, Ben-Ezra (which is Emanuel Lacunza,) CI Scofield and Margret McDonald into a false end time doctrine "Irving and Darby were contemporaries, though associated with different spiritual movement. The Irvingite's came to the meetings obsessed with the ideas of the "Secret Rapture" and the "future antichrist," imbibed from the Jesuit teaching of the Secret Rapture and the futurist interpretation of prophecy, as well as the famous book by Rabbi Ben-Ezra, or, actually, Jesuit priest Emmanuel Lacunza! Darby was himself a prolific writer and from the time a constant stream of propaganda came from his pen. His writings on biblical subjects number over 30 volumes of 600 pages each. Darby developed and organized "futurism" into a system of prophetic teaching called "dispensationalism." Darby's biographers refer to him as "the father of dispensationalism." And the crown jewel in the kingdom of dispensationalism is, of course, the so-called SECRET RAPTURE!