Posted on 03/06/2024 5:46:26 PM PST by grumpa
The pre-tribulation rapture doctrine is a tenet of dispensationalism which holds that living believers will be taken to heaven to avoid a future Great Tribulation. It is noteworthy that no verse in the Bible specifically says that Christ will come to take the church off planet earth to heaven before a 7-year tribulation. Neither is there found in Scripture a distinction between Israel and the church, or a parenthesis that stops the prophecy clock prior to the 70th week of Daniel 9:24-27. These are the distinctives that define dispensationalism and the pre-trib rapture.
The rapture doctrine was introduced to the world in 1830 in the British Isles. There were 4 key players that had a hand in its early development:
1. In the spring of 1830, a sickly 15-year-old Scottish girl named Margaret McDonald had a vision (“revelation”) about a rapture event. Her idea was based in part on Bible verses which in the KJV speaks of people being “taken” (Matthew 24:40-41) and “caught up” (1 Thessalonians 4:13-17). We know about her vision because she wrote to several prominent clergymen about it, and it was reprinted in a couple of books a few years later. McDonald reasoned that only after a literal rapture, when some would be left on earth, would the Antichrist be revealed. It would be a secret event in that only believers would be able to see “the sign of Jesus’ appearance.” No one in the 18 centuries preceding her had ever clearly communicated this totally new doctrine of “escapism.” Scholars have even debated whether McDonald’s vision was strictly a pre-tribulation rapture, as some see elements of historicism and post-tribulation in it.
2. One of those clergymen who received McDonald’s letter was Edward Irving. As early as June 2, 1830, Irving confessed in a private letter that the “substance of . . . Margaret McDonald’s visions or revelations . . . carry to me a spiritual conviction and a spiritual reproof which I cannot express.” Interestingly, Irving was also from Scotland and drew large crowds, so McDonald may have been influenced by him (as well as the reverse).
3. In September 1830 a writer going by the pen name of “Fidus” expressed this novel idea in a prophecy journal which Irving published called “The Morning Watch.” Dave MacPherson, who studied pre-trib history for many years, stated in his 1994/2000 book titled “The Rapture Plot,” that this article is “the earliest moment I’ve found anyone publicly teaching the pretrib rapturescape.” Irving (and “Fidus”) seem to have been the first also to see the seven churches of Revelation as symbolic representations of seven successive stages of the church―a key element of dispensationalism. The identity of “Fidus” is unknown, but if it was not Irving himself, it seems likely that it was one of his associates.
4. John Nelson Darby, Anglo-Irish founder of the Plymouth Brethren church, became aware of the above. He attended at least one of the Albury prophecy conferences, of which Irving was a part. Darby became a champion of the rapture and promoted it extensively, becoming “The Father of Dispensationalism.” It’s uncertain when Darby put together all of the many aspects of dispensationalism. But MacPherson argues that Darby did not fully embrace the pre-trib rapture until about 1839. Thomas Ice wrote that, "Darby is the father of dispensationalism.”
The 1830 beginning for pre-tribulationism is an embarrassment to dispensationalists. So, they have desperately tried to find pre-tribulationism earlier in history. Here are some earlier figures that have been cited incorrectly as holding to a pre-trib rapture:
1. “Pseudo-Ephraem”―called “pseudo” because this was not the real Ephraim the Syrian. No one really knows who this person was, when his tract was written, or which version of the work to rely on. While some find pre-trib in this writing, MacPherson argued that this person was not a pre-tribulationist, but rather saw Christ’s Second Coming only at the end of history. This view is what we would call today amillennialism or postmillennialism. Bob Gundry, on the other hand, in his book “First the Antichrist” argues that Pseudo-Ephraem was a post-tribulationist.
2. Morgan Edwards (1722-1792). MacPherson said that he was a “historicist post-tribulationist” and not a pre-tribulationist.
3. Manuel Lacunza (1731-1801). Lacunza was a Jesuit priest from Chile. Irving translated Lacunza’s book, “The Coming of Messiah,” into English. MacPherson said that Lacunza was a post-tribulationist, not a pre-tribulationist. However, it is true that Lacunza in his book promoted elements of dispensationalism, saying, “The restoration of the Jewish nation, to be again be the Church of God. . . .” Lacunza used the word “dispensation” numerous times in his book. Influenced by Lacunza, Irving taught dispensationalism at the Albury conferences―thus the origin of dispensationalism.
Should read “church is absent”
That’s absurd. No one REALLY lives like that.
A perfect ideal is not reality because we are not perfect.
Does not mean we shouldn't aim for that ideal.
Baloney.
You talk about a perfect ideal. How about this one: “Matthew 5:48 (ESV)
You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” That’s an obvious goal of perfection, not some distorted end time sidetracked goal.
No perfection this side of eternity, brother.
Whether you're Pre-, Mid-, or Post-Trib - live each day as if it's our last.
That’s why it’s called Pesimillennialism.
Thank you Jesus, my Saviour and Father Yehova.
“The work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church in such a way that one will see cardinals opposing cardinals, bishops against bishops. The priests who venerate Me will be scorned and opposed by their confreres… the Church will be full of those who accept compromises, and the demon will press many priests and consecrated souls to leave the service of the Lord.”This seems to be happening now with the latest Pope and all he has officially done since being given that office.
And there is this warning also that seems to fit well with the Bible story as near as I can tell:
“As I told you, if men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one will never have seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead.”If what I’ve read is true, then it likely will be worse for us/US than it was for Sodom and Gomorrah.
I guess we’ll have to wait and see. I wonder how long we’ll have to wait.
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