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.
