Peter Jurieu — 1637–1713
“Christ will come in the air to rapture the saints before His appearing in glory and judgment.”
Source:
Peter Jurieu, The Approaching Deliverance of the Church (1687)
Darby was not the first to write about it:
There is something deeply troubling about the modern habit of dismissing the catching away of the church as though it were a careless invention of recent theology. The apostle warned long ago that men would heap to themselves teachers and wander into endless debates. That warning seems almost prophetic when one surveys the modern bookstore shelves.
The New Testament does not describe the gathering of believers with vague or poetic terms. It uses a precise Greek word. In First Thessalonians 4:17 Paul says believers will be caught up. The word is ἁρπαγησόμεθα from the verb ἁρπάζω (harpazō). It means to seize suddenly, to snatch away by force, to carry off swiftly. It is the same word used when the Spirit caught Philip away in Acts 8:39. It is the same word used in John 10:28 where Christ says no man shall pluck His sheep out of His hand. The language is unmistakable. It is not symbolic drifting. It is sudden removal.
When Jerome translated the Scriptures into Latin in the fourth century, he used the word rapiemur in the Latin Vulgate. That verb comes from rapio, meaning to seize or carry away suddenly. From that word the English language eventually developed the term rapture. The doctrine did not begin with the English word. The word came from the doctrine already present in the text.
For centuries theologians wrote about the saints being “caught up,” “taken away,” “gathered,” or “hidden” from coming judgment. They did not always use the later English word, but the Rapture concept flows directly from the biblical language itself.
What makes the rejection of this truth even more puzzling is the imagery Scripture uses to describe the church. The church is not merely an assembly of believers scattered across time. The church is called the Bride of Christ. Paul speaks of Christ loving the church and giving Himself for her in Ephesians 5. Revelation describes the wedding 💍 of the Lamb, marriage supper of the Lamb. The picture is unmistakable. Christ is the Bridegroom who has purchased His bride with His own blood. The Church is taken anytime out of Great Tribulation which comes after the mid-point of Daniel 70th week, which is the judgment and Wrath of God for the ungodly. The wedding that take place between Christ and the Church 💒 is the spiritual Union of Christ and the Church forever and ever. The supper is the festivities in the Father's House of New Jerusalem after the wedding, before the Lamb Jesus Christ with his Bride gets settled in the New Heaven and New Earth, and the New Jerusalem coming down from the present place down, to give its light day and night, of which the people of God will orbit around the City of God forever and ever in eternal joy and glory!
If the Bridegroom has already stood in the place of His bride and endured the full weight of divine judgment at the cross, what justice would remain in subjecting that same bride to the wrath reserved for a rebellious world? The entire gospel proclaims that Christ bore that wrath already. Isaiah says the chastisement of our peace was upon Him. Paul says believers are not appointed unto wrath but to obtain salvation through Jesus Christ. The Bride does not pay twice for a debt the Bridegroom has already settled. The Rapture is for the entire universal Church which lived for the past 2000 years time, not just the end time church, but rather for the dead in Christ who shall rise up along with the living at that time of rapture to meet Jesus in the air, to therefore remain with him forever and ever. Glory to God!
Christ said He would come again and receive His people unto Himself. Paul said the saints would be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. Those statements require only belief.
The promise of Christ supports it. The imagery of the Bride demands it. The hope of the church throughout history has rested upon it.
The Bridegroom who died for His bride will not abandon her when the hour of judgment and Wrath approaches. The One who promised to receive His people unto Himself will keep that promise. When the trumpet sounds and the saints are caught up to meet Him.
I will stick to those who were close to the Apostles.
1. Shepherd of Hermas — c. AD 90–140
“If therefore you prepare yourselves and repent with all your heart…you will be able to escape the tribulation that is about to come.”
The Shepherd of Hermas, Vision 4.2
2. Irenaeus of Lyons — AD 120–202
“When in the end the Church shall be suddenly caught up from this, it is said, ‘There shall be tribulation such as has not been since the beginning.’”
Against Heresies, Book 5, Chapter 29, Section 1
3. Tertullian — AD 160–220
“We shall be caught up into the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.”
On the Resurrection of the Flesh, Chapter 41
4. Commodianus — c. AD 250
“When He shall come to judge the world, He will command the righteous to be taken up, but the wicked to remain below.”
Instructions, Instruction 44
5. Victorinus of Pettau — AD 250–303
“The heaven departing as a scroll means that the Church shall be taken away.”
Commentary on the Apocalypse, Revelation 6:14
6. Lactantius — AD 250–325
“The righteous shall be hidden in the secret places until the wrath of God against the nations shall be ended.”
Divine Institutes, Book 7, Chapter 16
7. Ephraim the Syrian (sermon tradition) — AD 306–373
“All the saints and elect of God are gathered together before the tribulation which is to come and are taken to the Lord.”
On the Last Times, the Antichrist, and the End of the World
8. John Chrysostom — AD 347–407
“Then we who remain shall be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord.”
Homilies on First Thessalonians, Homily 8
9. Jerome — AD 347–420
“The saints shall be caught up to meet Christ in the air.”
Commentary on 1 Thessalonians, on 4:17
10. Bede the Venerable — AD 673–735
“The saints shall be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.”
Commentary on 1 Thessalonians
11. Peter Lombard — AD 1100–1160
“The saints shall be caught up in the clouds to meet Christ.”
Sentences, Book IV
12. Thomas Aquinas — AD 1225–1274
“The saints will be caught up into the air to meet Christ.”
Summa Theologica, Supplement, Question 88
13. Nicholas of Lyra — AD 1270–1349
“The elect shall be caught up in the clouds to meet Christ in the air.”
Postillae Perpetuae
14. Thomas Brightman — 1562–1607
“The Church shall be taken up into heaven before the destruction of the wicked world begins.”
Apocalypsis Apocalypseos (1611)
15. Joseph Mede — 1586–1638
“The saints shall be lifted up in the clouds unto Christ and escape the calamities which shall fall upon the earth.”
Works of Joseph Mede
16. Robert Maton — 1607–1658
“The saints shall be taken up to meet Christ in the air before the judgments which shall fall upon the wicked world.”
Israel’s Redemption Redeemed (1642)
17. Nathaniel Holmes — 1599–1678
“The saints shall ascend into the air to meet Christ and shall be preserved from the burning of the world.”
The Resurrection Revealed (1653)
18. William Sherwin — 1607–1687
“The saints shall be caught up to meet Christ in the air and be preserved from the fiery judgment coming upon the world.”
The Burning of the World (1665)
19. Peter Jurieu — 1637–1713
“Christ will come in the air to rapture the saints before His appearing in glory and judgment.”
The Approaching Deliverance of the Church (1687)
20. Increase Mather — 1639–1723
“The living saints at Christ’s coming shall be caught up into the air, that so they may escape that deluge of fire which will be the perdition of ungodly men.”
A Dissertation Concerning the Future Conversion of the Jewish Nation (1709)
21. John Napier — 1550–1617
“The faithful shall be gathered unto Christ and preserved from the destruction which shall fall upon the world.”
A Plaine Discovery of the Whole Revelation of St. John (1593)
22. Johann Heinrich Alsted — 1588–1638
“The faithful shall be caught up to Christ in the air before the great destruction that shall come upon the world.”
Diatribe de Mille Annis Apocalypticis (1627)
23. John Cotton — 1585–1652
“The Lord will gather His saints unto Himself before the day of wrath overtakes the wicked.”
The Churches Resurrection (1642)
24. Thomas Goodwin — 1600–1680
“The saints shall be taken up to meet Christ in the air before the destruction of the ungodly.”
Works of Thomas Goodwin, Vol. 3
25. William Bridge — 1600–1670
“Christ will gather His saints unto Himself and preserve them from the wrath that shall come upon the world.”
Sermons on the Second Coming of Christ (1642)
26. Samuel Hutchinson — 1629–1670
“The saints shall be taken up to Christ before the fiery judgment falls upon the wicked world.”
A Treatise Concerning the Glorious Kingdom of Christ (1667)
27. Increase Mather — 1639–1723
“The living saints at Christ’s coming shall be caught up into the air, that so they may escape that deluge of fire which will be the perdition of ungodly men.”
A Dissertation Concerning the Future Conversion of the Jewish Nation (1709)
28. Philip Doddridge — 1702–1751
“The faithful shall be caught up into the air to meet the Lord and thus escape the destruction coming upon the ungodly.”
The Family Expositor, Commentary on 1 Thessalonians 4:17
29. Morgan Edwards — 1722–1795
“The dead saints will be raised, and the living changed, and caught up to meet the Lord in the air.”
Two Academical Exercises on the Millennium (1744)
From AD 100 through the 1700s, the dominant phrase used across theology was always based on 1 Thessalonians 4:17:
“caught up”
Greek: ἁρπαγησόμεθα (harpagēsometha) meaning snatched away suddenly.
Latin (Vulgate): rapiemur
English theology later formed the word rapture from this Latin term.
THE BOTTOM LINE IS, THOUGH DIFFERENT KINDS OF WORDS LIKE ENGLISH WORD RAPTURE ARE USED TO DESCRIBE THE EVENT, YET THE CONCEPT REMAIN THE SAME ABOUT BEING CAUGHT UP TOGETHER TO MEET JESUS IN THE AIR, WHICH IS THE UNMISTAKABLE BASIS OF FOUNDATIONAL DOCTRINE FROM JESUS AND APOSTLES WHO WROTE THE SCRIPTURE, AND BELIEVED BY THOSE WHO HAVE LIVED FOR THE PAST 2000 YEARS OF SOUND DOCTRINE ON WHICH THE CHURCH HAS STOOD, UNTIL NOW IN THE PRESENT, CONTINUING THE TRADITION PASSED ON TO US BY SOUND DOCTRINE!
SO WATCH AND PRAY TO ESCAPE THE GREAT TRIBULATION THROUGH RAPTURE!
Much Blessings.....
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