I think I must have mentioned this before, but another huge problem for the pre-tribulation rapture/resurrection POV is that it is not found in very early church father writings. You would think that if it was an apostolic teaching, it would have survived very much intact into the 2nd century. Especially, when you consider it was a time of Roman persecution when the end times would have been much on their minds, since Revelation, along with such books as Daniel and Jesus' predictions of the end show that the church would be enduring much evil at the hands of the antagonistic world.
However, a pre-trib rescue cannot be found in any of their surviving writings. Irenaeus wrote a lot on the topic of end times. He claims to have known Polycarp, who was the apostle John's personal long-time disciple. The pre-trib rapture would have been prominent in his own eschatology if it were of apostolic origin.
For example, Irenaeus writes, "But he indicates the number of the name now, that when this man comes we may avoid him" (Against Heresies, book 5, chapter 30, part 4). Irenaeus shows that the number of the name is given to the church so they are armed with enough information to escape his rule. A pre-trib rapture would make this exhortation unnecessary.
Grant Jeffrey spent a lot of time looking for the pre-trib in early writings and found one candidate in this statement from an author named by scholars as "Pseudo-Ephraem:" "All the saints and elect of God are gathered together before the tribulation, which is to come, and are taken to the Lord, in order that they may not see at any time the confusion which overwhelms the world because of our sins." (c. 374-627 - quite a range of dates for this quote)
My difficulty is that we cannot know where this "Pseudo-Ephraem" got this idea. Was it his? Was it passed along to him? If so, from whom? For as strong as it seems for the view, it's really too isolated to be of much help. However, it has been seized upon as powerful support for pre-trib rapture by Jeffrey, Thomas Ice, and others.
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