Why Do Christians Need A Pre-Trib Rapture

In modern, evangelical Christianity, the term “rapture” conjures up images

of the Christian church being pulled from an earth in turmoil and swept away to

Heaven. It is an image that is reminiscent of the “Left Behind” books, a fictional

series which depicts a world in which a rapture of all of earth’s Christians has

occurred, leaving behind only “sinners” to stare down the end of the world. This

view of a “rapture” has become a popular one, and one that remains largely

unquestioned by the evangelical Church. This rapture theology is not, however,

Biblically founded or supported. In reality, this eschatological perspective is fairly

new, and has only been around for about 180 years. So, the question must be asked

– why is the
This idea of a two-part rapture quickly

circulated the newly-charismatic Scotland, and was eventually picked up by one

John Nelson Darby, a man who would go one to be a figurehead of pre-

tribulationism. Darby’s support of a pre-trib rapture would ultimately serve

to perpetuate the misconception long after his death. Dave MacPherson, an author

and specialist in rapture theology, writes in his book The Unbelievable Pre-Trib

Origin: “Darbyist dispensationalism was injected into the Scofield Reference Bible

(1909), which has done much in this present century to further the idea of a two-

stage, Pre-Trib rapture.” (MacPherson, 44). With an acclaimed reference Bible now

supporting the rapture, this bit of theology became popular opinion and widely circulated

within Christian communities. Marvin Rosenthal, executive director of Zion’s Hope and

author of The Pre-Wrath Rapture of the Church, writes: “Most of the early Bible

conferences, Bible colleges, and seminaries, under the influence of those early

pretribulationist leaders, adopted the pretribulational position, and the number