Modern rapture advocates often insist the doctrine is ancient. For instance, Southern Baptist pastor Greg Laurie recently wrote: Some say, “Oh, the Rapture is just a modern invention, some 19th-century gimmick.” Nonsense. Yes, J.N. Darby helped popularize it in more recent times, but long before him, the early Church Fathers …

As someone deeply rooted in the Fundamental-Evangelical-Dispensationalist community for over two decades, my life and theology were intricately woven around end-times eschatology. I had invested years studying and defending these beliefs. However, my most intense examination of the subject came when I enrolled in a doctoral program at Dallas Theological …