RAPTURE READY ?

Part I History of the Secret Rapture Doctrine

" Life was filled with guns and war, and everyone got trampled on the floor, I wish we'd all been ready;

Children died the days grew cold, a piece of bread could buy a bag of gold, I wish we'd all been ready;

There's no time to change your mind, the Son has come and you've been left behind."

Some of you may recognize the above verses to the old ' 70's judeo- christian rock song written by Larry Norman. In graphicdetail it outlined the horrors of having missed the rapture of the church and being left behind to endure the horrors of the tribulation period. It was an effective song. It was used in an old '70's church night movie called " Thief in the Night". It was a beautiful song. It just wasn't very scriptural.

I was blessed to have come to Christ in an independant Baptist church that did not teach the " secret rapture" doctrine. As time went by and I ended up moving to other churches that did teach the " secret rapture", I found myself trying desperately to reconcile these two ends of the spectrum, but to no avail. Driven into deeper study I found a great many things not taught by rapturists. Even the old independant Baptist church would have been shocked at some of the secrets I discovered.

The very word "rapture" in another day and time would have sent up some serious red flags. While the word never occurs in scripture, it is found in latin as " rapere". This is the word we get our word " rape" from. It means " to seize, to take away".

I'm sorry but that doesn't sound very comforting.

From here I found stories of sick little scottish girls having visions with fevers, and while this does play a part, there is so much more.

You see at one time, believers in Yahoshua [ Jesus as most have come to call Him] did not look for a secret rapture. Oh, to be sure they looked forward to the return of Christ, but their expectation was toward a grand event, a day both of judgement and salvation. These christians were undergoing a very real tribulation of their own under the pagan empire of Rome. But around 300 A.D. an event took place that changed everything. Rome made christianity the official religion of the empire. Now although this brought a halt to the immediate problems of being crucified and fed to lions, it created new problems.

The " New" Christianity wasn't much like the old.It was actually a mixture of the Babylonian paganism of the old empire and the Hebrew [ not jewish] scriptures of the christians.The day of worship was changed from the seventh day sabbath to the first day, the venerable day of the sun utilized by the pagans. New persecutions erupted, aimed at those who were intent on keeping their christian faith pure of idolatry, pagan rituals and holydays.

But the " New" church had a plan for this. Forbid anyone except the high priesthood access to the scriptures. Anyone else found owning them could be prosecuted as a criminal. If you wanted to worship, you had to go through the priesthood and do it their way. In the absence of individual study, ignorance won the day and the priesthood's word became law, as opposed to Yahweh God's law.

But ignorance can only rule so long.After hundreds of years, devout men within the priesthood began to see the errors, the irreconcilable differences between actual scripture and the teachings of the new universal church. These men became enflamed by the Spirit of Yahweh God and began to shine light into great darkness. Men like Martin Luther, Zwingli and others not only led a rebellion against the imposed ignorance of the Catholic church, but soon began putting the Word of God into the hands of the common people. Soon, both commoner and minister could read for themselves the words of The Book. This was the Protestant Reformation, and this was a problem for the Catholic church.

Certain scriptures, especially in the book of Revelation were highly graphic, and to those people at the time certain prophetic characters strongly resembled not only the Catholic church, but the Pope himself. Namely Mystery Babylon and the beast This interpretation of prophecy being fulfilled in actual history and in their present time was a driving force of the reformers, and it took very little imagination for people to see the pope and the church of Rome in a new unsavory light.

The catholic church had a real problem on it's hands. Killing people left and right wasn't making the problem go away. They couldn't just outlaw the book of Revelation, as that would only concrete their guilt. But something had to be done, and as usual, when something really had to be taken into hand, they had a merry band of fellows who were very hands on.

Enter the Jesuits.

The jesuits were a special body, founded by Ignatius Loyola, a jew. Both of his parents were marrano jews which makes Ignatius jewish as well. Marranos were notorious for appearring as very pious catholics, while covertly practicing the " family religion" of judaism[ somehow the combination doesn't seem too difficult].And while there may or may not be any truth to the story that Ignatius Loyola was an early inductee into a group destined to become known as the Illuninati, the jesuits as a whole became notorious for tactics which were, well, jewish.

The jesuits were kicked out of nearly every country they ever stepped foot in. They used treachery to subvert governments, creating chaos that the church of Rome would then be able to subdue, making it's existence seem necessary to ensure national stability. They infiltrated and assassinated until over 100 orders of exile were issued by various governments, not unlike the 80 times the jews have been driven out of nations for exactly the same reasons.

It was from the ranks of the jesuits that plans came for taking the prophetic spotlight off of the catholic church and the pope.

The first was a jesuit named Aleazar. He published a theory that the Apostle John could not possibly have predicted events that would accurately come to pass hundreds of years in the future. By this tactic Aleazar put to death the idea of prophecy itself. No, instead, John was only documenting events taking place in his own time, thus the antichrist had probably been the emperor Nero. This blasphemy not only took root in many German schools of thought, rationalism, but is still taught in modernistic churches today.

At the same time a second jesuit named Ribera went to the other extreme. His idea was that the whole book of Revelation foretold events that would not take place until Christ's second coming, someday in the very distant future. Futurism. In Ribera's distant future, the antichrist would be a world dictator that makes his appearance at the end of this "dispensation".

Ribera published his theory in 1580, and from this point the diametrically opposed doctrines remained unchanged for 250 years; the catholic church teaching the doctrine of a future individual antichrist, and the protestant churches teaching that the antichrist was no less than the catholic church or the pope himself. This bought the catholic church some breathing room, but the protestants were still thriving, mostly at Rome's expense. Something else was needed to throw the balance back into the vatican's favor.

Enter yet another jesuit.

Emanuel Lacunza, a Chilean of spanish descent, entered the jesuit order in 1747 at 16 years of age, where he rose to the position of superintendent of Noviciates. In his final years he settled in northern Italy where he worked on his greatest achievement:a book entitled," The Coming of the Messiah in Glory and Majesty."

Lacunza taught the futurist theory of prophecy, but added some masterful strokes of his own. The primary one being that, in order to make room for all of the events that he personally anticipated, there would have to be a period of time between the "rapture of the saints" and the actual appearance of the Messiah. Here was the germ that would mature into the modern plague of our churches, the " secret rapture" of the church".

But lacunza also put himself in agreement with the protestant teaching that the antichrist was not merely one man, but rather a system or body of men animated by one spirit. This alone could alienate Lacunza from his catholic peers, but he didn't stop there. He also added that in the future the antichrist would appear in Rome and usurp the headship of the church. While Lacunza did support some Catholic ideas regarding the return of Christ, his support of many protestant views was bound to put his book on the list of condemned or banned books, forbidden to be read by any and all catholics.

Which, it would seem, is precisely what Lacunza wanted.

You see, although Lacunza dedicated the last years of his life to this book, he never intended to publish it under his own name, but rather under the name Rabbi Ben Ezra. Lacunza had even developed the personage of Rabbi Ben Ezra to an extent; passing himself off as a converted jewish rabbi, earnestly trying to convert his jewish brethren. With typical jesuit cunning, Lacunza assumed the personna of a devout jewish convert throughout his entire work.

However Lacunza knew that REAL jews would spot the deception almost immediately. Obviously his fascade was never intended to actually convert any jews, and many of his theological assertions would immediately alienate his book from all catholic brethren, so to whom was Lacunza's book actually targeted?

Protestants. Lacunza had masterfully insured that " The Coming of the Messiah in Glory and Majesty " would be a book accepted by only one group of people. As a book condemned by the catholic church it would automatically be devoured by the enemies of the catholic church. Being supposedly authored by a converted jewish rabbi, it would appear to carry an air of authority to unsuspecting readers [ some things unfortunately never change ], who would reject outright any work, condemned or not, by a dreaded jesuit.

Of course, given the many " ironic" paralells and connections betweeb jesuits and jews, the idea that there may have been more to Lacunza's heritage is not out of the question.

Even more incredible is that even though Lacunza died in 1801 before his work was published, a complete four volume edition was published in London [in Spanish ] by 1816.And although the deception was eventually discovered by none other than one of "Rabbi Ben Ezra's" biggest fans, it was too late.Too many ministers and teachers had jumped onto the "secret rapture" bandwagon to turn the tide.

So we now can see how powerful a tool misinformation can be in the hands of a truly skilled artisan. It is not always necessary for misinformation to take hold immediately, in fact, the longer something can remain " on the shelf " the more legitamacy it may take on.. But as we shall see, misinformation can not only take on a life of it's own, but it can end up affecting the world in ways even it's creators couldn't have guessed.

So for 10 years " The Coming of the Messiah..." by Rabbi Ben Ezra sat seemingly silent. But evil never remains silent for long, and when it sounds it's voice, it often will speak through a multitude of mouths.

A spirit begins to move.

Out of seemingly nowhere, a Dr. Maitland, librarian to the Archbishop of Canterbury of the Church of England, produced the first of a series of pamphlets on prophecy. What made these writings so shocking was that they taught the same version of prophecy proclaimed by the Roman Catholic Church for 250 years via the jesuits. This was something utterly novel for a protestant.

Very shortly after this, a pamphlet was published by a " Mr. Burgh" in Ireland teaching the very same doctrine, so much so, that it had to be drawn from the same source.

For seven years these pamphlets were widely distributed and caused many protestants to turn on their reformation forefathers. Believing now that the reformers had done an injustice to the pope and the Catholic church, many began viewing the Catholic Church as a sister church.

But we are getting ahead of ourselves, for at the same time Maitland and Burgh were publishing their pamphlets, the translation of " The Coming of the Messiah..." was being executed from Spanish into English by a young Scottish Presbyterian minister named Edward Irving.

Irving, who had been called " brilliant but erratic " by his contemporaries,had come to London to serve as a minister to the Scots church there. So absorbed did Irving become with " The Coming of the Messiah..." that he attempted to uncover all that he could on Rabbi Ben Ezra. If Irving was disappointed to discover that this pious jewish convert was actually a deceptive jesuit, he certainly never let on. No, in fact, Irving seemed fueled by an unholy fire which made him cast aside all his knowledge of the jesuits and their treacherous ways, and instead seize upon the " secret rapture " as if it were some secret wisdom withheld by God for well over a thousand years until then.

So, while even going so far as to publish very matter of factly that Ben Ezra was actually Lacunza, Irving continued undaunted; not only in finishing his translation but also a more affordable abridged version as well as preaching the secret rapture of the saints, supposedly by Divine Revelation of course. The entire history of protestantism the only " rapture " preached was how the saints would be" Caught up" at Christ's glorious returning [ 1 Thessalonians 4: 16-17 ]. But now the jesuit deception was being fully promulgated by a Presbyterian minister that Christ Yahoshua would return twice, once secretly for His saints,then again 7 years later with His saints after the reign of antichrist.

It wasn't long until Irving began to accumalate followers called humorously enough, " Irvingites ". Eventually, however, this name would give way to " The Catholic Apostolic Church."

One of these "Irvingites was one Margaret MacDonald. In the spring of 1830, Miss MacDonald gave a supposed " prophetic utterance " in which she spoke of a coming of Christ which would only be seen by those whose eyes were " spiritually opened ". Some accounts of this story state that she was suffering from a terrible fever at this time, but this could not be confirmed. Handwritten copies of her accountwere sent to many christian leaders of the time. The book " Restoration of the Apostles and Prophets in the Catholic Apostolic church [ Irvingites] by Robert Norton in 1840 gave a printed version of this " prophetic utterance "

It sould be noted that even Margaret MacDonald's " revelation " did not reek of the escapism preached from todays "rapture ready" pulpits, instead maintaining that the church would be persecuted and suffer some tribulation.

Darby and the Brethren.

The Irishman J.N. Darbyhad originally dtudied to be a lawyer, but changed his course radically and became an Anglican Curate. It wasn't long however, before Darby fell under the spell of " tractarianism ",a forerunner of the " Plymouth Brethren " and their secret rapture teaching. Tractarianism, as well as the " Brethren " did not seek to convert the lost, but rather directed their energies at wooing away already established christians from the churches they were already attending.

The Irvingites, Tractarians, and Plymouth Brethren with their secret rapture teaching [ as well as other doctrines ] were renowned for their instability. Also linked to these movements were supposed angelic communications and supernatural manifestations. One person who came out of all this mess, Robert Baxter,however, wrote that while seeing the error of his ways and humbly repenting, he maintained that these signs and wonders were very real; albeit he now clearly saw them as as being of demonic origin rather than divine.

It was into this cauldron that J.N.Darby took root.

Darby and many of his followers gave up reading of any other material except for the bible. While this may sound noble and pious, it is rather ironic that Darby himself produced his own translation of the bible, as well as some 30 other books, as well as tracts and books written by other followers. Surely they didn't intend that their writings should go unread. When viewed alongside the constant turmoil of Darby's associates, this piety was nothing more than fanatacism. Of course, ignorance of church history was essential to the success of their movements.

Also, curiously enough, it was Darby who has been referred to as the " father of modern dispensationalism ". All of this from a man who discouraged the study of church history. Is it any wonder that George Muller, William Booth, and Charles Spurgeon all rejected and opposed the secret rapture doctrine as well as the teaching of dispensationalism. C.I. Scofield, however, referred to Darby as " the most profound bible student of modern times."

Scofield.

Cyrus Ingerson Scofield was born in 1843. He served as a confederate soldier, then after the civil war he became a lawyer [ although there is some doubt as to his training]. He was appointed by President Grant as the U.S. Attorney for Kansas. He recieved Christ in 1879 and three years later became a Congregationalist minister. This is the official bio of C.I. Scofield as far as the admirers are concerned.

But he becomes a much more complex person upon closer study. Consider, for instance, an article which appearred in " The Daily Capital", a Topeka Kansas newspaper, dated August 27, 1881. This article announces that Scofield, after a series of forgeries and confidence games, abandoned his wife and daughters and fled to Canada, taking refuge their for a while.

He was, however, eventually arrested. It was during this time that he did begin confessing christianity. Of course he had already started courting his second wife before he was finally divorced from his first, a full four years after his supposed conversion. His wife, as well as his daughters, remained in dire straits, never being aided by Scofield at any time during the remainder of his life, even after the royalties from his Scofield Reference Bible began rolling in. How strange, that someone supposedly so full of " Divine revelation " never saw fit to fullfill his fatherly obligations, neither from a paternal love nor a sense of duty. This was Scofield's antinomianism at it's best.

By 1892 Scofield began calling himself a doctor, even though he never produced a degree from any university or seminary. Of course accusations of fraud and embezzlement continued well into his ministerial career.

The secret rapture doctrine didn't arrive in the Americas until the 1860's and 70's. Once here, though, it found fertile ground; and nobody pushed it harder or better than C.I. Scofield.

One reason why Scofield's past wasn't more widely documented, may very well lie in the company that he began to keep. George Bannerman Dealy was a member of Scofield's Texas church. He also owned the Dallas Morning News. He was also a 33rd degree mason. Masons have a special love of dispensationalism, as we will see later.

Scofield had also become friends with Arno C. Gaebelein, a german- jew "christian convert". Gaebelein was a consulting editor to the Scofield Reference Bible.

Many more jews, although " unconverted " entered into Scofield's life. Samuel Untermeyer, who later became the chairman of the american Jewish Commitee, became associated with Scofield, introducing him to even more " unconverted" [ see Christ hating ] jews. There was Bernard Baruch, who incidentally, also fiananced Billy Graham's first crusades.

Samuel Untermeyer may ring a bell with some observers, as he helped prepare the Federal Reserve Bank and the Federal Trade Commission. He was also a special advisor to the government in the interpretation and enforcement of the new Income Tax Laws. This can all be verified in the Encyclopedia Brittanica 1954 and 1964. Ironic that Untermeyer's contributions helped establish three Planks of the Communist Manifesto in the U. S..

It was also Untermeyer who blackmailed Woodrow Wilson into filling a Supreme Court position with Jewish Louis Dembitz Brandeis. Brandeis was the leader of the Executive Commitee for Zionist Affairs. Brandeis also sent a Zionist delegation to Britain to halt the peace talks underway between Germany and Britain, which if allowed to continue, would have ended WWI much sooner and with much less bloodshed. By his efforts, Britain entered into the Balfour Declaration, in which it was agreed that if America would enter WWI helping to crush the Germans, Britain would hand over it's holdings in Palestine. Britain agreed, broke off negotiations with Germany, and apparently not satisfied with a Supreme Court position, Brandeis blackmailed Woodrow Wilson into entering the war allied to Britain.

Besides fianancing up and coming christian ministers, Bernard Baruch headed up the 117 member jewish delegation to the Versailles Peace Conference at the end of WWI to remind Britain of it's obligations concerning palestine. Bernard Baruch stated to a select subcommitee of the U.S. Congress that,' I probably had more power than perhaps any other man in the war, doubtless that is true." [ Synogogue of Satan,p.99 ]

Bernard Baruch also assisted in founding the Council on Foreign Relations, an organization by it's own admission that is dedicated to bringing about a one world government, along with Jacob Schiff and others.

So what else do all these " unconverted" [ see Christ hating ] zionist jews have in common? Samuel Untermeyer, Bernard Baruch, Jacob Schiff as well as Samuel Gompers , Fiorello La Guardia and Abraham Straus were all fianancers of C.I. Scofield, as well as his so-called research trips to Oxford, England; also arranging the publication and distribution of the Scofield Reference Bible. Why these men would become so personally involved in Scofield's work will be explored later.

For now, suffice it to say that Scofield's Bible was the most subtle, and therefore the most successful tool for spreading the seeds of heresy and zionism to that point.The whole theory of the secret rapture and of dispensationalism are so easily incorporated into Scofield's notes on the biblical texts, that many simple souls have taken the notes to be a part of scripture itself.

The teaching of dispensationalism so necessary to teaching a secret rapture, has elevated the jews and a " national israel' [ a term that can never be properly applied to those who claim to be Judahites but are of the Edomite synogogue of Satan ] to a kind of absolute necessasity. It is at the root of christian zionism's unholy kneeling before the antichrist synogogue of satan.

Many christian teachers and ministers have spoken out against the secret rapture teaching, including Phillip Mauro, G. Campbell Morgan and Oswald G. Smith. They admit to having believed and even taught the secret rapture theory early in their ministries, but after further study and prayer, were unable to reconcile the inconsistencies throughout the doctrine.

Oswald G. Smith states it best." Now after years of study and prayer, I am absolutely convinced that there will be no rapture before the tribulation...I believed the other theory simply because I was taught it by W.E Blackstone in his book " Jesus is Coming", the Scofield Reference Bible, and Prophetic schools and bible conferences; but when I began to search the scriptures for myself, I discovered that there is not a single verse in the bible that upholds the pre-tribulation rapture theory."

It is at this point, we really should see what scripture actually says.