The History of a Heresy, Part 3: The Jesuit Connection

The Catholic Church had some of her Jesuits write on the subject of eschatology as part of the Counter Reformation.

These Jesuits wrote that the Antichrist’s rule would last a literal 1,260 days, not an allegorized 1,260 years. Since this 3 1/2 year reign had not yet happened, the reign of the Antichrist must still be in the future. (This turned out to be true, but that’s not why they wrote it; they only wrote it to take the ‘heat’ off the Catholic Church.)

Francisco Ribera (1537-1591) was a Spanish Jesuit, a doctor of theology who wrote a 500 page commentary on the Book of Revelation. His commentary placed the Tribulation at an unknown future date. And, he also agreed with the early Christian writers that the Church would be persecuted for a literal 3 1/2 years.

However, to these truths, he also added something -- time.

The Lord Jesus, Paul, and the early Church had all stated that the Rapture would occur AT the Revelation, as a single event. The Lord would descend from heaven to the earth’s atmosphere, call up his Church to the clouds, and then continue to the earth to fight against his enemies. Ribera stated that the Rapture would occur 45 days before the end of the Tribulation. The Church would ascend 45 days before she came back down with Christ.

This is the first known instance where the Second Coming was split into two separate comings! And it was conceived of by a Jesuit priest.

Manuel De Lacunza (1731-1801) was born in Chili. At the age of 15, he was sent to Spain to become a Jesuit Priest. Twenty-two years later (1767), the Jesuits were expelled from Spain because of their brutality. De Lacunza settled down in Imola, Italy, where he claimed to be a converted Jew and wrote under the alias ‘Rabbi Ben Ezra.’

The manuscript that he wrote was titled, The Coming of Messiah in Glory and Majesty. In 1812, he published a book in which he theorized that the church would be raptured some 45 days before the real return of Jesus to the earth. (He was probably influenced by Ribera.) He also theorized that during this same 45 day period, while the Church was in heaven with the Lord, God would judge the wicked still on earth.

Because of his Jewish alias, his book was more easily accepted by Protestant scholars. When it was placed on Rome’s Index of prohibited books, it was even more sought out by Protestants.

Let's see where we are so far.

We now have two elements necessary for a pre-tribulation Rapture:

1. The Doctrine of Imminency - which is rooted in the allegorical method of interpreting the Scriptures as first proposed by Origen and then later made by popular by the Catholic theologian Augustine.

2. A Split Second Coming of Christ - which is rooted in the teachings of two Catholic Jesuit priests.

And it will only get better!

The History of a Heresy, Part 2: Imminency Threatened

As stated in our last post, the doctrine of the imminent return of Christ was arrived at by a strange mix of two beliefs.

First, the early Church believed in a post-tribulation Rapture (the Man of Sin would be revealed before the Rapture, 2 Thess. 2:1-3). To this was added the false belief that the Antichrist had already arrived (they spiritualized the Bible to make the Pope and the Catholic Church into the Antichrist, and the many centuries of persecutions into the Tribulation). With the Antichrist already here, they reasoned, Christ could return at any moment.

The Imminent Return of Christ was born!

Here again is their logic:

The Post-Tribulation Rapture Position
+ The Antichrist has been Revealed Already

The Imminent Return of Christ

But then something else changed. With the resurgence of literal interpretation, biblical scholars realized that the Antichrist was NOT the Pope. They correctly placed the coming of the Antichrist and the Tribulation back into the unknown future. And the Church was left with a choice.

The Church could re-establish the correct belief that Christ would come for them AFTER the Antichrist was revealed, but if they did so they would lose the wonderful (though historically incorrect) doctrine that Christ could come for them at any moment.

The imminent return of Christ was in jeopardy of being discarded, and with it a very powerful motive for holiness—the fear of being caught in the act.

How could the Church save imminency? Perhaps the Second Advent could be divided up into two stages? The first being the Rapture (which could still happen at any moment) and the second being the Revelation (which is still in the correct post-tribulation position).

Let’s digress for a moment!

During these same Dark Ages (c. AD 1585), as already mentioned, many Christians believed that the Pope/Catholic Church was the Antichrist. This would not do at all, so the Catholic Church had some of her Jesuits write on the subject of eschatology or future things.

This was part of the Counter Reformation.

(Stay tuned, folks, it's about to get really good!)