Follow Up on comment from Article on The Rapture?

Follow Up on comment from Article on The Rapture?

VIEWER WROTE
(This was seen on the net. Any reaction?) Catholics Did NOT Invent the Rapture ! Many assert that the "rapture" promoted by evangelicals was first taught, at least seminally, by a Jesuit Catholic priest named Francisco Ribera in his 16th century commentary on the book of Revelation. To see what is claimed, Google "Francisco Ribera taught a rapture 45 days before the end of Antichrist's future reign." After seeing this claim repeated endlessly on the internet without even one sentence from Ribera offered as proof, one widely known church historian decided to go over every page in Ribera's 640-page work published in Latin in 1593. After laboriously searching for the Latin equivalent of "45 days" ("quadraginta quinque dies"), "rapture" ("raptu," "raptio," "rapiemur," etc.) and other related expressions, the same scholar revealed that he found absolutely nothing in Ribera's commentary to support the oft-repeated claim that Ribera taught a prior (45-day) on The Rapture?

RESPONSE:

I agree, that Catholics did not invent the rapture.  As stated in the footnote that I provided in the article,  Ephraem of Nisibis, in 373 AD preached in the only  known sermon of that time that, "For all the saints and Elect of God are gathered, prior to the tribulation that is to come, and are taken to the Lord lest they see the confusion that is to overwhelm the world because of our sins."  This teaching was not heard of prior to this, nor was it taught in any circles of the apostles.   It wasn't until 1400 years AFTER  Ephraem, there was an allusion to the Rapture as a "doctrine" in a book written in 1788 by a Catholic priest named Emmanuel Lacunza and published in Spain in 1812.   John Darby, a Brethren preacher, taught the Rapture doctrine in 1827. It was William Blackstone who popularized Rapture doctrine in his best seller, "Jesus is Coming." and  The Rapture doctrine entered modern mainstream Christianity with its inclusion in the Scofield Reference Bible.  There is no real history to the Rapture doctrine until the 1800's. The doctrine of the Rapture was not heard of again until the Protestant Reformation and the rise of  Dispensationalism.  In fact, some people believe that the Rapture doctrine was developed to help alleviate some the the problems associated with Dispensationalism, specifically the belief that God deals with Israel and Christians in different ways.  Prior to 373 A.D. there were various theories among Jewish Mystics that taught similar things, all associated with their various sectarian views of the Messiah.

As regards the term "rapture," it cannot be denied that the Latin Vulgate uses the word "raptio" and I am sure that its "translators" were trying to be honest in rendering greek to the nearest latin equivalent. It is however the rabbits that man has run with this, instead of investigating what the truth itself says that has caused the problems. If we would stick to truth instead of theories then we would all be better off.

Jim