For the past year and a half, I have focused a good chunk of my morning study time on the Greek writings of early church fathers that are not included in the standard English translation sets. While there is much value to be derived from this effort, including deeper insight in early church history and in Greek syntax and semantics, these studies have a special focus — uncovering pretribulation rapture passages in Greek works that are either obscure or untranslated.
Last year, as the first fruits of this study, I presented ten clear pretribulation rapture passages from the Greek writings of Ephraem the Syrian that were previously unknown to the dispensational world. This year, I now present nine clear pretribulation rapture passages from the Greek writings of Eusebius that were previously unknown to the dispensational world.
These passages are valuable for two reasons. First of all, they are a significant addition to the body of patristic pretribulation rapture passages that we already have. Secondly, they strengthen the case that there were men in the early church who were amillennial—i.e. who followed replacement theology and practiced the allegorical method for understanding prophetic passages that pertained to Israel—yet believed in a rapture prior to the time we know as the tribulation.
(#1) Eusebius, Fragments in Luke, Luke 17:26, Migne 24.584-585
— Indeed, as all perished then except those gathered with Noah in the ark, so also at his coming, the ungodly in the season of apostasy … shall perish … At the time of the deluge, it (judgment) did not come and destroy all the inhabitants of the earth before (until) Noah entered into the ark. Therefore, in the same way, at the consummation of the age, it (this pattern) says (demands) that the cataclysm of the destruction of the ungodly shall not happen before those men who are found of God at that time are gathered into the ark and saved according to the pattern of Noah … all the righteous and godly are to be separated from the ungodly and gathered into the heavenly ark of God. For in this way [comes the time] when not even one righteous man will be found any more among mankind. And when all the ungodly have been made atheists by the antichrist, and the whole world is overcome by apostasy, the wrath of God shall come upon the ungodly.
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Last year, as the first fruits of this study, I presented ten clear pretribulation rapture passages from the Greek writings of Ephraem the Syrian that were previously unknown to the dispensational world. This year, I now present nine clear pretribulation rapture passages from the Greek writings of Eusebius that were previously unknown to the dispensational world.
These passages are valuable for two reasons. First of all, they are a significant addition to the body of patristic pretribulation rapture passages that we already have. Secondly, they strengthen the case that there were men in the early church who were amillennial—i.e. who followed replacement theology and practiced the allegorical method for understanding prophetic passages that pertained to Israel—yet believed in a rapture prior to the time we know as the tribulation.
(#1) Eusebius, Fragments in Luke, Luke 17:26, Migne 24.584-585
— Indeed, as all perished then except those gathered with Noah in the ark, so also at his coming, the ungodly in the season of apostasy … shall perish … At the time of the deluge, it (judgment) did not come and destroy all the inhabitants of the earth before (until) Noah entered into the ark. Therefore, in the same way, at the consummation of the age, it (this pattern) says (demands) that the cataclysm of the destruction of the ungodly shall not happen before those men who are found of God at that time are gathered into the ark and saved according to the pattern of Noah … all the righteous and godly are to be separated from the ungodly and gathered into the heavenly ark of God. For in this way [comes the time] when not even one righteous man will be found any more among mankind. And when all the ungodly have been made atheists by the antichrist, and the whole world is overcome by apostasy, the wrath of God shall come upon the ungodly.
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Eusebius --- Nine Undiscovered Pretribulation-Rapture Passages
Eusebius, despite his amillennialism, was clearly pretribulational. These passages present his clear thinking on the subject.
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