Check out Pseudo-Ephraem 306-373
Specifically which of his writings?
The English and Latin texts of the first passages that are used by you to try to support the pre-tribulation rapture are
| Rhoades translation | Actual Translation | Latin |
| Why therefore do we not reject every car of earthly actions and prepare outselves for the meeting of the Lord Christ, so that he may draw us from the confusion, which overwhelms all the world? (section 2) | Why therefore do we not thrust from us all anxiety on account of earthly impulses, and prepare ourselves for a meeting with the Lord Christ, so that he might draw us out from confusion, which overwhelms all mankind? | Quid ergo non proicimus a nobis omnem actuum terrenorum sollicitudinem et nosmet ipsos praeparamus in occursum domini Christi, ut nos eruat a confusione, quae uniursum obruet mundum? |
| For all the saints and elect of God are gathered, prior to the tribulation that is to come, and are taken to thw Lord les they see the confusion that is to overwhelm the world because of our sins | Truly all the holy and elect of God, before the tribulation that is about to come, are gathered and received to the Lord, lest at any time they see the confusion that will overwhelm all mankind in account of our sins | Omnes enim sancti et electi Dei ante tribulationem, quae uentura est, colliguntur et ad Dominum adsumuntur, ne quando uideant confusionem, quae uniuersum propter peccata nostra obruet mundum |
Though the verb can be used where physical movement takes place if implied in the context, this is not a meaning inclusive in the word itself. In fact, it is most often to take without any actual literal movement being stressed at all, such as joining another to one's self in a relationship of position.
So the passage actually reads is
for all the saints and the elect of God are gathered and joined to the Lord before the tribulation that is to come, lest at any time they experience the confusion that will overwhelm the whole world because of our sins.
reading into these a pre-tribulation rapture is false especially when the rest of the text is examined, which is usually ignored or neglected by most pre-tribulation rapture proponents - and it is important to tell you two what the passages do NOT say
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What the passages do and do NOT say
The most important thing to notice os that the focus of deliverance is not on the tribulation itself. Christians are instead being rescued from the "confusion" that comes with that tribulation
The passages do NOT say that there is a physical gathering that requires movement - nor is it even implied. There is no mention of leaving anywhere or going to any place
the Apocalypse of Pseudo-Ephraem does NOT say we are being taken from the world or going to heaven. It simply emphasizes being gathered together to the Lord to be rescued from the confusion in a contrast to those who are being deceived and being gathered together to the AntiChrist
You can see this most clearly in section 5 of Pseudo-Ephraem
Then that worthless and abominable dragon shall appear, he, whom Moses named in Deuteronomy, saying: Dan is a young lion, reclining and leaping from Basan..."Basan" certainly is interpreted "confussion". He shall rise up from the confusion of his iniquity. The one who gathers together to himself a partridge the childrn of confusion, also shall call them, whom he has not brought forth, just as Jeremiah the prophet says. Also in the last day they shall relinquish him just as confused(section 5)
This confusion is the same as found in 2 Thess 2:8-12
8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: 9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
And Matt 24:24 "they shall decieve the very elect"
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Taking it from the Greek makes it even clearer -- "The elect are gathered together before the tribulation so that they might not know the confusion and the great tribulation which is coming upon the unrighteous world"
Absolutely nothing in the original Greek can be translated as "taken" and it does not say ANYTHING about being raptured.
Pseudo Ephraem says nothing that would support a pre-tribulation rapture - in contrast it says that the elect will not be deceived by the confusion and the great tribulation coming upon unbelievers
The writer indicates that Christians will be here during the tribulation "And so, brothers most dear to me, it is the eleventh hour, and the end of the world comes to the harvest, and angels, armed and prepared, hold sickles in their hands, awaiting the empire of the Lord" - implying that the harvesting of Christians will take place at the same time as the end of the world
Sections 9 to 10 again reject any kind of a pre-tribulation rapture
It is amazing to me that anybody can attempt to use this document to support a pre-tribulation rapture belief when it actually supports a post-tribulation resurrection position Here is the full text of both the Latin and Syraic versions of Pseudo-Ephraem.
2. As you will see, Pseudo-Ephraem teaches that Christians escape tribulation by death not rapture!
3. Rapture advocates use "Pseudo-Ephraem" as an example of rapture doctrine that was believed and taught in 375 AD. Such a use of Pseudo-Ephraem is wrong, unscholarly and desperate. But this desperation is because Pseudo-Ephraem is the only example they can find before 1830 of Rapture doctrine. Of course, Pseudo-Ephraem DOES NOT teach rapture or anything even close to it.
The Syraic text of Pseudo-Ephraem does not teach Rapture theology since the saints suffer and die during the tribulation:
1. "Nation will rise up against nation, And kingdom against kingdom. Lawlessness will be sovereign on earth And the defiled will pursue after the saints. People will openly apostatize And augment the left side; The righteous ones will suffer indignities From those who belong to the side of the sinners." (Syraic text of Pseudo-Ephraem)
2. Here we have death as an escape for the persecution, saints suffering and the devil on earth with Christians during tribulation. "Pronouncing the good fortune of the deceased Who had avoided the calamity: 'Blessed are you for you were borne away (to the grave) And hence you escaped from the afflictions! But as for us, woe is us! For when we die, Vultures will serve as escort for us!' And if the days of that time were not shortened, The elect would never survive The calamities and afflictions. For Our Lord revealed (and) disclosed to us In his Gospel when He said: 'Those days will be shortened For the sake of the elect and the saints.' And when he has harassed the whole of creation [including Christians], (When) the Son of Destruction (has bent it) to his will, Enoch and Elijah will be sent That they might persuade the Evil One. With a gentle question The saints will come before him, In order to expose the Son of Destruction Before the assemblies surrounding him: 'If you are indeed God, Tell us what we ask of you: Where is the place that you have hidden The elders Elijah and Enoch?' The Evil One will respond and say To the saints at that time...." (Syraic text of Pseudo-Ephraem)
3. Christians are killed by the devil during the tribulation: "Then the Evil One will become enraged With the saints at that time; He will draw his terrible sword And sever the necks of the righteous ones." (Syraic text of Pseudo-Ephraem)
4. Pseudo-Ephraem concludes with the resurrection of the righteous and the wicked at the same time just like the standard doctrine of the second coming that has been taught for 2000 years. "The good will go forth into the Kingdom, And the bad will remain in Gehenna; The righteous will fly up to the height, And the sinners will burn in fire." (Syraic text of Pseudo-Ephraem)
C. 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." (Latin text of Pseudo-Ephraem)
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" (Latin text of Pseudo-Ephraem)
3. 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." (Latin text of Pseudo-Ephraem)
D. The Latin text of Pseudo-Ephraem does not teach Rapture theology in the "prize passage":
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." (Latin text of Pseudo-Ephraem)
2. Pseudo-Ephraem teaches that Christians escape tribulation by death not rapture!
Saints escape tribulation by death not rapture: | |
Latin Pseudo-Ephraem | Syraic Pseudo-Ephraem |
"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." | "Pronouncing the good fortune of the deceased Who had avoided the calamity: 'Blessed are you for you were borne away (to the grave) And hence you escaped from the afflictions! |
Conclusion:
1. Pseudo-Ephraem does not teach the Rapture. Instead it clearly teaches that Christians will experience the tribulation and that they can escape it by death, not rapture.
2. Pseudo-Ephraem is a fraudulent and unreliable document that falsely claims to be written by Ephraem who died in the 4th century, when in fact it was clearly written AFTER the 8th century. It may have been written much later!
3. 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.
few of the fathers of the first centuries of Christianity have spoken so explicitly on the subject of the Holy Eucharist as the Deacon of Edessa. He discredits in advance all the sophistry put forth at the time of the Reformation, and thus comments on the words of the institution of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of our Lord:
_ _ _ “Do not believe that what I have just given to you is bread, receive it, eat it, do not crumble it away. That which I have called my Body, truly is so. The smallest morsel is sufficient to sanctify millions of souls and suffices to give life to those who receive it. Receive and eat with faith, do not waver, for it is my Body, and he who partakes of it with faith partakes of the fire of the Holy Spirit.
It seems to him who partakes without faith to be but ordinary bread, but to him who with faith partakes of the Bread consecrated in my name, if he be pure it preserves his purity, if a sinner it obtains his pardon. Let those who reject, despise or outrage this Bread know that of a certainty they do outrage to the Son, who has called and has made bread to be his Body.
Take and eat, and by it partake of the Holy Spirit, for it is truly my Body, and he who eats thereof has eternal life.
It is the Bread of heaven come down from on high unto us. The manna which the Israelites ate in the desert, the manna which they gathered and which they despised although it fell from heaven, was a figure of the spiritual food you have just received. Take ye all of it and eat, in eating this Bread and eat my Body, the true source of the redemption.”
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