The doctrine of the
secret rapture was invented by
the Jesuit Francisco Ribera in his
commentary on the book of Revelation published around 1590. His
motivation was to defend the pope from the Reformation accusation
that the pope is anti-Christ. Ribera rejected the historicist
understanding of the book of Revelation and fostered the futurist
interpretation. In that way, all of the texts that relate to the
Papacy could be pushed into the far future.
