Pretrib Rapture Vs. FACTS (No. 3) by Dave MacPherson

The End Times Passover team is honored that prolific author, Dave MacPherson, has chosen us as the vehicle to post his messages to the general public. Dave and his wife Wanda have a "mobile" ministry in the sense they travel all over the country visiting various media, churches and other groups who have a high interest in his over 40 years of research concerning the birth and origins of the Pre-Tribulation Rapture to Heaven myth. Being on the go all the time, the MacPhersons have little time sitting behind a computer; therefore, his request from us to post his messages is greatly appreciated. If anyone has any questions or comments about his work, he is requesting they be sent directly to us at Joe.Ortiz9299@gmail.com.  Thank You!

Pretrib Rapture Vs. FACTS (No. 3) by Dave MacPherson

     There should be a Claims Court to handle all of the wild claims that pretrib rapturists make! One of them goes like this:
     "None of John Darby's contemporaries taught a pretrib rapture before he did."
     The late Darby idolizer R. A. Huebner seared more than his barbecue gloves when he unconscionably claimed in a 1973 booklet of his that "The Irvingites (1828-1834) never held the pretribulation rapture or any 'any-moment' views."
     Even though Huebner never attended seminary, college, or even Bible school, he was desperately chosen by Dallas Theological Seminary president John Walvoord (over even his own DTS church history profs!) to be the one to throw darts at my highly endorsed historical findings. Charles Ryrie, Thomas Ice and some others soon took Walvoord's cue and have slavishly continued to exalt Huebner to Pretrib Rapture Sainthood!
     FACTS: As early as September 1830, Rev. Edward Irving's journal "The Morning Watch" (hereafter TMW) taught that the most worthy part of the church ("Philadelphia") would be raptured before "the great tribulation" while the less worthy part of the church ("Laodicea") would be left on earth as "the last and dying state of the Gentile church" - "church" used in the same way Margaret Macdonald used it in the second half of her epic pretrib rapture revelation which she had in the spring of 1830.
     The previous TMW issue (June 1830) had been teaching the historic view that "Philadelphia" as well as "Laodicea" would go through the great tribulation. But only three months later (in September and after some TMW writers had visited Margaret in her home) readers noticed a stunning change: the first time ever that any publication had ever publicly taught that "church" members ("Philadelphia") would be raptured off earth before Matt. 24's tribulation!
     Pretrib defenders who wish to credit Darby with originating the pretrib rapture view have a real dilemma. They can't find anyone, other than Margaret, who was teaching the new pretrib view during the summer of 1830. Or any publication before the September 1830 TMW that was teaching it. Darby himself was still defending the historic (and historicist) posttrib view in the December 1830 "Christian Herald" and expecting "to meet Him in the air in order to His judging of the nations"  (Matthew 25:32) - a posttrib event. Darby didn't clearly teach a pretrib rapture before 1839.
     (Interestingly, Darby in that same article recognized the prophetic significance of Islam with his references to "the Saracenic comet," Euphratean horsemen" etc. There are Christian scholars today who view the same Middle East "scourge" as potentially more dangerous now than it was in Darby's time and they believe that God will allow it to persecute and purify Jews and Christians. Ephesians 5:27 reveals the Lord's desire for a spotless and wrinkle-less church which has had 2000 years to "fall away" while Jews have had almost 4000 years to become even more adept when it comes to apostasy!)
     My book "The Rapture Plot" fills many pages with short quotes from TMW issues dated 1830-1833 proving that it clearly taught an imminent pretrib rapture during those years. For example:
     "...the great tribulation (Rev. vii. 14) into which the sealed ones shall never enter."
     "...the translation for the living...of which we may daily expect the accomplishment...."
     "...that period ["the literal time of 1260 days"] does not commence till the moment of the translation of the saints...."
     Pretrib defenders claim that Darby saw the distinction (or dichotomy) between the church and Israel (which supposedly led him to believe in a pretrib rapture) as early as 1827. But they have never been able to prove this. And as late as 1837, Darby (in "Matthew 24, 25" in "The Christian Witness") saw the church "going in with Him to the marriage, to wit, with Jerusalem and the Jews" - a dichotomy that wasn't a dichotomy!
     The champion Irvingism-basher these days is Thomas Ice. In "When Did J. N. Darby Discover the Rapture?" he repeats the falsehood that "Irving never held to pretribulationism." In his "Myths of the Origin of Pretribulationism - Part II" he declares that "One of Dave McPherson's strangest claims is that Edward Irving and the Irvingites taught a pre-trib rapture."
     Ice even speaks disparagingly of "two British theologians" (Mark Patterson and Andrew Walker) who have written that "it is incontrovertible that Irving held to a pretribulation doctrine in a form that is developed and remarkably similar to contemporary dispensational views."
     If you don't have "The Rapture Plot" (my full-length, bestselling book on pretribism's bizarre 181-year-old history), you can obtain it for a low price at Armageddon Books online. You can also type in "Scholars Weigh My Research" on Google to see reactions to my decades of research from fellow scholars. 
     Finally, I urge everyone who's interested in excellent theological contributions to the current rapture debate to acquire two books that biblically and etymologically refute all the tenets postulated in support of the Pre-Tribulation Rapture to Heaven myth. These two books written by my good friend Joe Ortiz, The End Times Passover and Why Christians Will Suffer Great Tribulation, should be used as study texts by both teacher and students of eschatological matters.

[Thank you brother Dave for your endorsement of our books. We greatly appreciate your kind gesture and consider it an honor. We are proud to partner with you and your most needed ministry. And yes, like you, we can and have been taking the heat from theorists who fail to produce scripture to support their distorted doctrines. God's word always provides His children with truth more so than conjecture]

For information about our two books, please click on The End Times Passover and Why Christians Will Suffer Great Tribulation. To access our web sites and blogs, please click on Joe Ortiz.