Pseudo-Ephraem DOES teach the Rapture!

"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." -Pseudo-Ephraem

This is in response to Pseudo-Ephraem does not teach the Rapture! I would like to address some of the statements made by this website.

"The false teachers who believe pre-tribulation Rapture theology desperately misuse an ancient document called, "Pseudo-Ephraem" as proof that someone before 1830 AD believed it."

I first want to take issue with calling those who teach the pre-tribulation rapture "false teachers". The Bible defines a false teacher as 1)One who denies Jesus is Christ (1Jo 2:22), 2)one who preaches a different gospel, which is defined as the good news concerning Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection, according to the Scriptures (Gal 1:19), and 3)Exhibits qualities that are unbecoming of a Christian (i.e. greed, pride, rebellion) (Mat 8:15-20). Just because someone has a different view or difference of opinion regarding the rapture does NOT make them a false teacher.

"The Syraic text of Pseudo-Ephraem does not teach Rapture theology since the saints suffer and die during the tribulation"

There are various texts attributed to Pseudo-Ephraem. The two Prominent texts are "Sermon Of Pseudo-Ephraem On The End Of The World   (Syriac text)" and "On the Last Times, the Anti-Christ, and the End of the World A Sermon by Pseudo-Ephraem (Latin text)"

The mistake is assuming the Syriac text and the Latin text were written by the same

Pseudo-Ephraem, they were not. They are two radically different sermons, written in two different languages, translated from substantially different underlying texts, and likely by two different individuals. The Latin text is dated between the 4th and 8th century, and unlike the Syraic text, borrows from Pseudo-Methodius. Because they are so radically different the Syriac text can't be used as context for the Latin text. Therefore the focus should solely be on the Latin text which contains the rapture quote in question. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apocalypse_of_Pseudo-Ephraem

"The Latin text of Pseudo-Ephraem does not teach Rapture theology since the saints suffer and die during the tribulation:

1.      "In those days [during the tribulation] people shall not be buried, neither Christian, nor heretic, neither Jew, nor pagan, because of fear and dread there is not one who buries them; because all people, while they are fleeing, ignore them. (Section 4)"

2.      "Then, when this inevitability has overwhelmed all people, just and unjust, the just, so that they may be found good by their Lord; and indeed the unjust, so that they may be damned forever with their author the Devil (Section 9)"

This is not a problem for pretribulationists since they believe the saints mentioned in Revelation will be converts to Christianity after the rapture.

"The Latin Pseudo-Ephraem teaches the resurrection of Christians at the second coming when the devil will be destroyed, not the rapture: "Arise, O sleeping ones, arise, meet Christ, because his hour of judgment has come! Then Christ shall come and the enemy shall be thrown into confusion, and the Lord shall destroy him by the spirit of his mouth. And he shall be bound and shall be plunged into the abyss of everlasting fire alive with his father Satan; and all people, who do his wishes, shall perish with him forever; but the righteous ones shall inherit everlasting life with the Lord forever and ever. (Section 10)"

Two points, a resurrection isn't explicitly mentioned in the text and second, it is an assumption that the "sleeping ones" are connected to the unburied Christians mentioned in Section 4. Regardless, Pretribulationists also believe in a resurrection of tribulation saints at the end of the tribulation.

Regarding the "first resurrection", it is not one event but a series of events. We know this because after Jesus was raised from the dead so to were the saints with him (Mat 27:52-53), also the two witnesses will die and be resurrected (Rev 11:11-12). So we will all share in the first resurrection of Christ (Col 1:18). 

"1.      This is the one sentence that Rapture advocates say teaches the rapture. In fact we learn from the Syriac text that these saints escape the tribulation by death not rapture! "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."

As noted above the Syriac text is incomparable with the Latin text and should be excluded. "Taken to the Lord" can't imply death because if they are already dead there would be no need for them to be "gathered" and "taken to the Lord" if they are already in Heaven. By faith Enoch was “taken away” so that he did not see death (Heb 11:5). Clearly then, “taken” by the Lord does not always result in death.

"Pseudo-Ephraem is a forgery: There was a Christian named Ephrem or Ephraim who died in 373 AD. Pseudo-Ephraem is an 8th century or later pseudepigrapha falsely claiming to be written by the real Ephrem or Ephraim who had been dead for 400 years."

Correct, however Pseudo-Ephraem was no doubt greatly influenced by the actual work of Ephraem. The point that cannot be missed however is that it represents an early version of the pre-trib rapture at least as far back as the 8th century.

"False teachers of the Rapture will have to keep looking for any scrap of evidence that any Christian believed this heresy before it was invented by John Darby in 1830 AD."

Actually, Morgan Edwards (May 9, 1722 – January 25, 1795) taught a pretrib rapture some 86 years before Darby. Edwards wrote:

“II. The distance between the first and second resurrection will be somewhat more than a thousand years. I say, somewhat more—, because the dead saints will be raised, and the living changed at Christ’s “appearing in the air” (I Thes. iv. 17); and this will be about three years and a half before the millennium, as we shall see hereafter: but will he and they abide in the air all that time? No: they will ascend to paradise, or to some one of those many “mansions in the father’s house” (John xiv. 2), and disappear during the foresaid period of time. The design of this retreat and disappearing will be to judge the risen and changed saints; for “now the time is come that judgment must begin,” and that will be “at the house of God” (I Pet. iv. 17)...(p. 7; The spelling of all Edwards quotes have been modernized.)” - Morgan Edwards, Two Academical Exercised on Subjects Bearing the following Titles: Millennium, Last-Novelties  Philadelphia: self-published, 1788).

While it's possible to find elements of every rapture position in the writings of the early Church fathers, they did not have a codified doctrine\consensus regarding the rapture.  All rapture positions are fairly modern, for example:

Mid-tribulationalism emerged in 1941 with the publication of the book, "The End: Rethinking the Revelation" by Norman B. Harrison.

Prewrath was conceived in the 1970's by Robert Van Kampen and only came to public attention in 1990 with Marvin Rosenthal's book "The Pre-Wrath Rapture of the Church".

There are a number of posttribulation views developed in the 19th and 20th centuries:

Classic post-tribulationism (J. Barton Payne, et al); (1855 – 1935)

Semi-classic post-tribulation ism (Alexander Reese); (1881-1969)

Futuristic post-tribulationism (George E. Ladd); (1911 – 1982)

Dispensational post-tribulationism (Robert H. Gundry). (1932 – Present)

Rather your pre-trib, mid-trib, pre-wrath, or post-trib they were all conceived during the last two-centuries. However age in itself is not a determining factor is something is wrong or not. This should be remembered before bashing someone else rapture beliefs. For more of my thoughts on this see "Defending the pretrib rapture".