When Did The Pre-Tribulation Rapture Theory Arise?
What have God’s people historically believed about the “catching away” of the church, or the “rapture” through the many ages of the Church? Has it always been like today, with two major opposing views, drawing people into one group or another? One group believing in a raptute before the coming tribulation, and one advocating that it will be after? No, absolutely, no. A warning here before we proceed. After the Bible, which is apostolic and inspired, there is no perfect book. There is no perfect teacher. In the years that followed the death of the apostles, many men began to write, some building as closely as they could on the revelation in existence, from the apostles and prophets, but others veering off from time to time. This “veering off” has left us with a great variety of teachings published in the name of the Lord, making it easy for the promulgator of most any new doctrine down to this day, to establish his cause somewhere in the chaos of those early writers. An appeal to the “c
