long before discovering even who and what John Darby is aboutDarby came along in the early 19th century and just like the founders of Mormonism and the Jehovah's Watnesses in the same period, in the same area - they all 3 created false philosophies.
Darby invented the 19th century rapture philosophy
In 1830 Darby met fifteen-year-old Mararet MacDonald, who claimed to have had a private revelation of a secret rapture that would occur shortly
flash alert -- the "secret rapture" didn't occur in 1830 nor in 1870 nor in 1914 nor in 2012 -- but the gullible who persist in believing in the 19thc century creation of secret pre-Trib rapture keep falling for it
Let's go through all of the hilarious rapture fails
- In a 1950 issue of US News and World reportGraham stated "Two years and it's all going to be over." Flash alert: we're past 1952 and still going
- April 1984 Graham proclaimed, "Anybody who's anybody believes that global war is imminent"
- 1995 "When will the end be?.... Every indication is that it will be sooner than we think
- Hal lindsey in 1970 The late great planet earth -- with the Rapture idea that the rapture was due before the end of the 1980s - FAIL
- 1978 Chuck Smith, Evangelical pastor wrote "The Lord is coming before the end of 1981" -- errr.. another fail
- Gary Wilburn in Christianity todayin 1979 wrote "The world must end within one generation from the birth of the state of Israel. Any opinion of world affairs that does not dovetail with this prophecy is dismissed" -- Rapturists claim that this means the rapture must occur within forty years of the founding of Israel in 1948 -- FAIL. The year 1988 came and went
- in 1988, Edgar Whisenat published and distributed his pamphlet 88 reasons why the rapture will be in 1988 -- He specified September as the month in which Christ would return -- bzzz. RAPTURE-FAIL again.
- But the rapture didn't occur in 1988 so Whisenant wrote 89 reasons why the rapture will be in 1989
- Then rapture-fails sorry rapturists claim that this 40 year should be counted from 1967 - RAPTURE-FAIL again as 2007 came and went.
- Jerry Falwell in 1989 sent out a mass mailing In just a few days we will enter what will be the final decade!
- On december 19, 1994, US News and world report stated that 1 in 5 Americans believed the world would end within a few years!
RAPTURE-FAIL once more
- Pat Robertson on May 12, 1994 We are talking about the final age of humankind right now... Please call and make a pledge... your dollars may not do any good in give years or so"
Then you got the Rapture-fails of the Left Behind series
- the Rapture fail of the "The Bible Code" that all life would be wiped out when a comet crashed into the earth in 2012 -- err.. that didn't happen, another rapture fail
Net - net, this fake 19th century philosophy has been shown to be continuously failing and still rapturists follow it - adding on a few more years each time they fail