I have been hearing and reading that many people believe that the rapture is a false teaching started by a minister and a woman who had a dream in the 1800’s. This is especially held by (a well known radio personality). I really respect him and was devastated to hear this. What scriptures do pre-trib believers base their convictions on?
(The well known radio personality) is a Preterist. That means that he believes that prophecy was all fulfilled by 70 AD and the Book of Revelation is a book of history. Many Preterists believe there is no rapture, no anti-Christ, no great tribulation and no 2nd coming in our future. The Preterist view of the End Times is the one most at odds with a literal interpretation of scripture.
The idea that the pre-trib rapture view was invented by John Nelson Darby and Margaret McDonald has been disproven for years. All Rev. Darby did was to start a movement back to a literal intepretation of Scripture after over 1000 years of allegorical interpretation. A strictly literal view will always lead one back to the same pre-trib view that I believe Paul and other early church leaders taught. Here’s a link to a scriptural defense of the pre-trib rapture.