Did Irenaeus teach pretrib rapture?

[Pramod]

Hi br. Tim, Pretrib researchers use the following passage from Irenaeus saying he taught pretrib rapture. What are your thoughts?

Against Heresies 5.29.1
And therefore, when in the end the Church shall be suddenly caught up from this, it is said, “There shall be tribulation such as has not been since the beginning, neither shall be.”

caught up = rapture.

[Timothy]

No, Irenaeus did not teach a pre-trib rapture. He taught that Christian will be persecuted by antichrist, and that the resurrection is after the tribulation. So called pre-trib “researchers” are lying and misrepresenting the early Christians. You should read the last several chapters from Irenaeus’ Against Heresies, Book 5, chapters 25-36. https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0103.htm

Pre-trib teachers sometimes take a few out of context quotes from a few early Christians and claim they were pre-trib. The problem with the above quote from Irenaeus is that they reverse the sequence in the passage. “Caught up from THIS” is a reference to being persecuted under antichrist during the tribulation. Irenaeus’ quote of Jesus’ statement about “tribulation” is precisely what the second coming rescues Christians from.

Here is an article I wrote long ago that exposes some of those lies.
https://www.4windsfellowships.net/articles/rapture_22.pdf

Tim

[Pramod]

Thank you for your guidance. I’ll go through these.

[Author]

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