The truth of the matter is, the rapture theory is relatively recent. The idea appears to be traceable to a Pentecostal movement of the early 1800s-founded by Edward Irving (1792-1834). A recent writer says:
The idea of a two-stage coming of Christ first came to a Scottish lass, Miss Margaret Macdonald of Port Glasgow, Scotland, while she was in a "prophetic" trance (Brinsmead 1974, 28).
Brinsmead quotes from a book, published in 1861, by Dr. Robert Norton, a member of the Irvingite group. This volume, titled
The Restoration of Apostles and Prophets: In the Catholic Apostolic Church, as quoted by Brinsmead, reads as follows:
Marvelous light was shed upon Scripture, and especially on the doctrine of the second Advent, by the revived spirit of prophecy. In the following account by Miss M. M. -, of an evening during which the power of the Holy Ghost rested upon her for several successive hours, in mingled prophecy and vision, we have an instance; for here we first see the distinction between that final stage of the Lord's coming, when every eye shall see Him, and His prior appearing in glory to them that look for Him (15).
George Murray, in his excellent volume,
Millennial Studies, has also quoted the renown Greek scholar, S. P. Tregelles, who in 1864 wrote:
I am not aware that there was any definite teaching that there should be a Secret Rapture of the Church at a secret coming until this was given forth as an "utterance" in Mr. Irving's church from what was then received as being the voice of the Spirit (138).
The rapture theory thus rests upon the same sort of bogus "revelations" as Shakerism (founder Ann Lee had visions and claimed to speak in seventy-two languages), Seventh-Day Adventistism (Ellen White thought she took a trip to heaven), and Christian Science (Mary Baker Eddy's revelations told her there is no death).
The dispensational dogma, with all its peculiar elements (including the notion of a secret rapture), is at variance with the teaching of the Bible, and careful students of Holy Writ will reject it.