The Rapture: Rooted in Catholicism

Here is a link claiming that this theory which is believed so passionately by Protestants was originally a Catholic idea.

…The foundation of the rapture theory was laid over 400 years ago upon the specific orders of the Catholic Church. Every Christian needs to understand how this fabrication of error was designed to neutralize the great Protestant Reformation.

• If the facts of history were known by Protestants today who defend with such great emotion the rapture theory and the futurist antichrist doctrine, they would be horrified.
• Luther and his fellow reformers boldly identified the pope as the “man of sin,” and labeled the Catholic Church as the antichrist of prophecy.

****In response to those charges, the hierarchy assigned two Jesuit priests to develop counter- interpretations which would turn the onus away from the Catholic Church.

• In spite of the fact that the two men founded opposing schools of interpretation, their theories have survived to form the basis of most modern Protestant theology today.
• Not only did they effectively blunt Luther’s assessment of the papacy as the antichrist, but they cleverly divided and diluted the “protest” of all the churches which grew out of the Reformation movement.
Modern religious observers were astounded in January, 1984, when men like Billy Graham and Jerry Falwell meekly accepted and defended the establishment of United States political ties with the Vatican.
• Why could those famous Protestant spokesmen see no danger in being allied with the Church of Rome?
• Because they are deceived, along with millions of others, by the Catholic-contrived theories of those two priests which have almost eclipsed the historic, biblical position of the Reformers.
• If the spiritual descendants of Luther and Wesley now had the same doctrine which they taught, not a single Lutheran or Methodist would favor any kind of alliance with the papacy today.

Now let’s take a look at these two Spanish priests who flooded the sixteenth century with their counter-Reformation propaganda.

1. Alcazar of Seville applied all the beast prophecies to Antiochus Epiphanes, who lived long before the popes began to rule in Rome.
a. His system of interpretation came to be known as the Preterist School of prophecy.

2. On the other hand, Jesuit Francisco Rivera invented a system known as the Futurist School of interpretation. He taught that the antichrist was to be some future superman who would appear near the end of time and continue in power for three and a half years.

a. It is his clever, unscriptural theory which has been resurrected by modern evangelical Protestant Christians.
b. And today millions of Baptists, Methodists, Pentecostals, etc., hold this anti-Protestant concoction of the Jesuits as some kind of infallible doctrine.
c. Yet, those same denominations claim to be faithful supporters of Protestant theology.
d. Luther and other stalwart protestors against Catholic errors would be astounded if they were suddenly resurrected to hear what is being taught in the name of Protestantism.
e. In the early 1800s the futurist view of Jesuit Ribera passed through certain refinements and additions, including the seven-year tribulation and the snatching away of the saints.
f. For the first time, it was espoused by Protestant teachers who were seeking ways of reconciliation with Rome.
g. Through the influence and writings of John Nelson Darby of the Plymouth Brethren Church in England, the new doctrine spread to the United States.
h. During the middle and latter nineteenth century, it received its biggest boost from Cyrus Scofield, who incorporated it into the notes of his Scofield Reference Bible published in 1909. -Rendevous in space -a concerned Christian

Reposted from: https://blograpture.wordpress.com/2009/04/19/the-rapture-rooted-in-catholicism/