When we were last together I left you with the question, "Did Francisco's commentary of 1590 dissuade the massive Protestant revolt as intended? The answer is NO. In 1591, one year after his fabricated end-time doctrine regarding the beast of Revelation was completed, Francisco de Ribera died. The great Reformation of Martin Luther raged on, unimpeded. So what happened to Francisco's false commentary?
Inadvertently, or providentially, the unpublished commentary was inserted in a Vulgate Bible, and lost to the archives of time in the Church of England. The public never read it. But 300 years after the passionate fires of the Reformation revival ebbed to mere embers, the Christian church had divided itself into many denominations, due to infighting and squabbling over the interpretation of the scriptures.
A form of godliness, denying the power of the early church permeated the body of Christ worldwide, where the miraculous was rarely demonstrated any longer. The religious fervor for intimacy with Christ was reduced to complacency and religious ceremonies, so they were ripe for deception.
In 1826, 300 years after Luther's Reformation began, a lawyer became librarian of the Church of England. During his tenure he found Francisco's commentary tucked away in the Vulgate Bible. The lawyer, John Darby, was so impressed with this commentary that he immediately got it published. But later, Mr. Darby added a few ideas to Francisco's body of work, which he gleaned from other authors of his day.
In his research of the writings of his contemporaries he found the new revelation of the Rapture theory. This theory originated during the Scottish revival of 1830, when a sickly bedridden woman named Margaret MacDonald had a vision which showed her that the Lord's return would be in two stages. The first stage would be a secret Rapture, and the second stage He will return for His millennial reign on the earth.
When a person receives a revelation, it must have a scriptural foundation in order to confirm that it is from God. But if a person changes scripture in order to prove his revelation is from God, he has just embraced deception.
It was these fabricated end-time theories from which Mr. Darby formulated his unscriptural viewpoint, that Europe denounced. Modern scholars sought long and hard to fit the new found ideas of Francisco de Ribera and Margaret MacDonald into a scriptural foundation. Then along comes
Cyrus Scofield. What he gleaned from the writings of Mr. Darby and other contemporaries, enabled him to become the scriptural architect of the end-time doctrine of the modern church, when he published these new revelations in the Scofield Bible Commentary in 1909.
Now you know the origin of the Antichrist doctrine and the Rapture theory. Isn't historically documented truth a bit pesky - it will eventually surface? When people want to promote fanciful imaginations they simply revise history. When they repeat the revised version over and over again, publish it in books and preach it over the airwaves, the revision becomes the "new" truth, and the new generations of people aren't the wiser.
The only way a spiritual lie can become truth is when the people stop seeking the Truth Giver. The glitz and prosperity of the world, where men desire important positions and the accolades it offers, will suffocate the truth of recorded Biblical history - especially the very clear end-time parables of Jesus Christ.
"The beast that was, and is not, is himself also the eighth, and it is of the seven, and is going to perdition"...Rev. 17:11. Don't you just love a good riddle? I do, especially when it is solvable...and this one is easy to solve. Has anyone ever told you about the reign of the Eighth Beast? Well...hold onto your seats...this will be a fun ride. Stay tuned...
God's sheep question the doctrines of men...sheeple follow without question..
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