Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it. - 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24
A subject in eschatology and a city in Bioshock.
This subject is fiercely debated and easy to get confused over.
(Note about my sources - The Truth And Tidings claimed Irenaeus is pre-trib, but I don't think Against Heresies is at any point pre-trib. It's still an interesting starting point, though.)
Etymology
Read the Rapture Etymology article for more, but English rapture sounds like Latin rapturo, a conjugation of biblical rapiemur. I guess rapiemur became rapture somehow.
Irenaeus
Read The Rapture in Against Heresies article for more, but Irenaeus is not pre-trib, views the tribulation as a refining fire, and believes in a full-body assumption of the Church. (At least, I think so. Church fathers are hard to read.)
(New Advent - Against Heresies (Book V, Chapter 5, 28, 29) @ https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0103505.htm, https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0103528.htm, https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0103529.htm. Accessed July 12, 2023)
Medieval Church
Origen and Augustine promoted amillennialism.
(https://truthandtidings.com/2020/07/the-rapture-a-pre-darby-rapture/)
The Rapture and the Puritan Reformation
William Watson in *Dispensationalism before Darby explored Puritan writings from the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries for their perspective, delving into archives of Puritan writings only recently converted to digital, searchable formats. He cites Thomas Collier, John Asgill, Robert Maton, John Archer, James Durham, Jeremiah Burroughs, Archbishop James Ussher and dozens of others, countering the notion that the rapture is an Darby invention of the 1830s.
Pre-Darby Examples
William Sherwin (1607-1687, minister at Wallington) wrote, “The Saints … at the sounding of that last Trumpet at the end of the world shall be changed in a moment, at the twinkling of an eye … rapt up to meet Christ in the air.” He even refers to the early church fathers’ agreeing with him: “This Doctrine many of the ancient Fathers acknowledged … Justine Martyr … Irenaeus … Tertullian … even Augustine sometime held it, though by the subtlety of Satan, forgeing lyes to asperse the Millenary opinion, and stirring men up to foist in offensive errours … in these latter times hath again discovered it, after so many hundred years of its lying hid for the most part in the Church, to be a doctrine really embraced by his faithful people [who] will doubtless certainly know, that upon their rapture to meet Christ, they shall be perfected in glory evermore in heaven.”
Boston Puritan Increase Mather (1639-1723), father of Cotton Mather, wrote, “When Christ comes, Believers shall see the King … in all his Glory, and shall go with him to the Land that is very far off. Heaven is the Land that is very far off. Christ has assured believers it shall be thus, John 14.2 …. He will not go back to Heaven and leave them behind him. No, they shall sit with him in Heavenly places … [later] they shall come down from Heaven …. They shall be with him when he comes to Judge the World.”
Morgan Edwards (1722-1795) helped found Rhode Island College, which eventually became Brown University. While a student at Bristol Baptist Seminary, he set forth a very clear pre-tribulation Rapture belief: “The dead saints will be raised, and the living changed at Christ’s ‘appearing in the air’ (1Thes.iv,17); and this will be about three years and a half before the millennium … 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 so disappear during the foresaid period of time. The design of this retreat and disappearing will be to judge the risen and changed saints.” Edwards’ reference to “three years and a half” does not mean that he was a mid-tribulationalist. His writings indicate he believed the total duration of the tribulation period to be not seven years but three and a half.
(https://truthandtidings.com/2020/07/the-rapture-a-pre-darby-rapture/)
Millerism
William Miller was a Baptist preacher during the Second Great Awakening who led the Millerite movement or the Adventists' movement (led to the Seventh-day Adventists) and conceptualized pre-millennialism.
He didn't receive a prophetic vision like other religious founders, but he believed through careful analysis of Daniel, he could unlock Revelation. He seems enormously influential, yet he's a false prophet, isn't he? He even tried to predict the end of the world and missed it twice. So it's kind of sketchy that Christianity today does not "stay away from people like that."
Events
Miller interprets the Book of Revelation as completely unfulfilled and as describing events that will occur at the end of time. When the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation will be fulfilled, the Advent (the Second Coming of Christ) will occur. That's when the thousand years or millennium will commence. Therefore, the events in Revelation come after the return of Christ. He anticipates Revelation 12, 20, and 21's great beast, the Antichrist, the battle of Armageddon, and New Jerusalem will be fulfilled at the Second Coming and at the establishment of the millennial kingdom on earth.
System
He drew upon the passages in Daniel that refer to 1260 days, translated days to years, and used the command to rebuild the Jewish Temple after Babylonian captivity as the beginning point. His system is compelling but very complex!
He dates the Second Coming at 1843 at the latest. Except he missed the transition from B.C. to A.D., so he moved it to 1844. Obviously, he's way off with his prediction.
What ideas were new?
Earlier interpreters had seen Revelation as unfolding over history and also had never placed the events of Revelation after Christ's return.
(http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/apocalypse/explanation/amprophesy.html)
Premillennial Dispensationalism
John Nelson Darby offered an interpretation of the prophecies that differed from William Miller's. Miller saw the prophetic scheme as unfolding over time and ending at a point, while Darby sees a series of dispensations which will culminate in the Rapture, a dramatic moment.
(http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/apocalypse/explanation/amprophesy.html)
He saw from Isaiah 32 that there was a different dispensation coming, that Israel and the Church were distinct. He also understood there was a gap of time between the rapture and the second coming.
(Article Archives - Myths of the Origin of the Rapture by Thomas D. Ice at Liberty University, 2009. 9. Page 3-4 @ https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/pretrib_arch/9 or https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1008&context=pretrib_arch)