- Between 1Feb & April 14 1830 Miss Margaret McDonald, a Scottish lass, was ill and experienced manifestations of mingled prophecy and visions.
- The 'message' she believed she received convinced her that Christ was going to appear in two stages at His second advent
- Almost everyone immediately believed, including her Pastor, Edward Irving, who was the first to preach this 'rapture' gospel.
- At the same time Joseph Smith, USA, experienced his apparitions that brought forth Mormon doctrines.
- At the same time John Wilson had dreams that started false teachings of British Israelism.
- Then, Ellen G White received her visions resulting in 7th day Adventist teachings. - Every individual mentioned apparently 'received their visions from God'
- Rapture has never been mentioned in Christian writings until after 1830.
- Efforts to seek evidence of this before 1830 failed.
- One exception: Morgan Edwards wrote a short essay as a college paper for Bristol Baptist College in Bristol England in 1744 where he confused the second coming with the first resurrection of Revelation 20 and described a "pre-tribulation" rapture.
- Edwards ideas, admittedly 'brand new' and 'new revelation' had no influence on the doctrine.
- John Darby, English pioneer of the"Plymouth Brethren" movement became fascinated by the rapture philosophies of Irving.
- He sought out Irving to talk about the "secret rapture".
- Although he didn't approve of the ecstatic episodes he witnessed, after returning from Scotland, began to teach that Christ’s Advent would occur in two phases.
- Darby became master developer of "scriptural" arguments to support the theory/doctrine.
- Darby's development of the "rapture" theory has since become widely popularized in Britain and finally in the U.S., largely as a result of Cyrus Scofield's notes in his Scofield Reference Bible.
- This cemented it as 'being in the Bible', so arguments were scoffed at.
- Adding his commentaries in the Bible was a strong weapon to convince all who did not believe. - Interestingly, Matthew Henry, along with nearly all other commentators prior to John Darby, saw the intention of 1 Thessalonians 4:17 as referring to the resurrection of the dead at the final coming of Christ, not to a secret rapture seven years prior to the resurrection.
More thoughts here.
Thank you.
