Why is a study about Dispensationalism important? Our hope is to be resurrected into the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming and to inherit the Kingdom of God and eternal life. However, if men alter the first resurrection of life, the timing of Jesus’ appearing, and the substance of the Kingdom prepared for us, then they are false teachers giving us a false hope and a false gospel that could lead to unbelief and even a turning away. Therefore, this is not just a secondary issue of no importance as the panmillennials say but, truth matters!

1Thessalonians 2:19, “For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming?”

1Thessalonians 5:21, “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.”

Dispensationalism may be thought of as just the dividing of history into dispensations, ages, or eras for reference purposes however, the primary goal of dispensational teaching is to establish a premillennial pretribulation rapture—but that is only through a complex system of rationale—the Systematic Theology of Dispensationalism.

Definition: Dispensationalism is a Christian evangelical, futurist, Biblical interpretation that believes that God has related to human beings in different ways under different Biblical covenants in a series of “dispensations,” or periods in history…The theology of dispensationalism consists of a distinctive eschatological end times perspective, as all dispensationalists hold to premillennialism and most hold to a pretribulation rapture. http://en(dot) wikipedia(dot) org/wiki/Dispensationalism

William E. Cox writes, “Jesse Wilson Hodges Christ’s Kingdom and Coming, pp. 34-39, lists twenty-seven distinct dispensational teachings.” http://www (dot) gospeltruth (dot) net/dispcox (dot) htm

It is not surprising that we encounter at least twenty-seven private dispensational interpretations of the Bible when we abandon Sola Scriptura (Scripture alone); there are probably more. What then is the criteria to picking which of the twenty-seven theories and doctrines of man over another’s interpretation; a John Darby dispensationalism, then after him a Joseph Smith dispensationalism, a Charles Taze Russell dispensationalism, or a Charles Fox Parham dispensationalism, just to name four of the most popular interpretations?

John Nelson Darby (1800-1882), considered to be the father of modern dispensationalism, produced his own Darby Translation of the Bible, volumes of Collected Writings, and over a thousand letters. Dispensationalist Thomas Ice wrote, “The first systematic expression of dispensationalism was formulated by J. N. Darby sometime during the late 1820s and 1830s in the British Isles.” https://www (dot) raptureready (dot) com/featured/ice/ AShortHistoryOfDispensationalism (dot) html

Joseph Smith produced the Book of Mormon in March 1830 and his own Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible in 1844 to support his dispensational restorationism that had been “lost in the Great Apostasy”. Smith, in 1832, taught of the “final dispensation of the fullness of times…I myself hold the keys of this last dispensation…” In 1835, he said of the “Wind up in 56 Years—The coming of the Lord, which is nigh—even fifty-six years should wind up the scene. [1891]” Mormons believe in seven dispensations, Adam, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus Christ, and Joseph Smith.

http://en(dot) wikipedia(dot) org/wiki/List_of_prophecies_of_Joseph_Smith

http://en(dot) wikipedia(dot) org/wiki/Joseph_Smith

https://www(dot) lds(dot)org/manual/teachings-joseph-smith/chapter-44?lang=eng

Nelson Barbour, an Adventist, became associated with Charles Taze Russell in 1877, and jointly proclaimed the invisible return of Christ in 1874, the resurrection of the saints in 1875, the rapture of the saints to heaven in 1878, and the final end in 1914. Russell created his own doctrine of “parallel dispensations” based on the teachings of John Nelson Darby and William Miller (Millerite/Adventist). http://en (dot) wikipedia (dot) org/wiki/Development_of_Jehovah’s_Witnesses_doctrine

Charles Taze Russell split from Barbour in 1879 to form Zion’s Watch Tower, now the Watchtower Society. He taught of the invisible appearance of Jesus’ and the 144,000 faithful to be raptured to heaven however, that failed to come to pass in 1874 and again failed in 1914. The Jehovah’s Witnesses’ “Chart of the Ages” based on Pyramidology shows eight dispensations: A) First is the Dispensation to the flood, B) Second dispensation, Present evil world that includes D) Patriarchal, E) Jewish age, and F) Gospel age, then C) Third dispensation that includes G) Messianic age and, H) Ages to come. http://en (dot) wikipedia (dot) org/wiki/Charles_Taze_Russell

Charles Fox Parham, the father of Pentecostalism promoted a dispensationalism of Pentecostal latter rain thinking that the Church age would end in the way it began with tongues speaking missionaries bringing a huge revival to the world. He and his students expected Jesus to return at midnight December 31, 1899; obviously subscribing to the nothing more needs to happen immanency doctrine.

Original, restoration, or invention?

We have all been in the position of returning a damaged item to the store claiming that “it was like that when I bought it.” Sometimes there is a disagreement that a screw was missing but a sealed package is irrefutable. Proof of originality or lack of proof is so important and in the same way, false teachers know it and their very loud objection is nothing but a diversion. Some leaders like Mormon Joseph Smith claimed to bring a message of the restoration of all things to that of the original Church including prophetic gifts and speaking in tongues, Adventist Ellen G. White came with a message of the restoration of Eden, and Pentecostal Charles Parham preached a restoration of apostolic faith. On the other hand, dispensationalists over the past century certainly have distanced themselves from John Nelson Darby arguing that he only brought the restoration of “dispensational truth;” the apostles’ original teaching that was lost over time. Restoration interpretations of the original are usually as 2Corinthians 11:4 says, “another Jesus, another spirit, and another gospel.”

2Corinthians 11:4, “For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.”

Following the trail backwards for the originality of dispensationalism grows very cold before the volumes of writings of John Nelson Darby and his distinct end time’s inventions. Then, CI Scofield (1843-1921) popularized those inventions alongside Scripture in his Scofield Reference Bible. Clarence Larkin’s (1850–1924) book Dispensational Truth provided visual aids in dozens of complex charts and pyramidology, Lewis Sperry Chafer (1871-1952) taught his Systematic Theology in eight volumes followed by John F. Walvoord’s (1910-2002) over 30 books and Charles Ryrie’s (born 1925) Ryrie Study Bible; his two books of Dispensationalism, and his 94 chapter book Basic Theology of “systematic theology” with charts and definitions. Finally, Hal Lindsey (born 1925), Tim LaHaye (born 1926), and Jerry B Jenkins (born 1949) saturated America with dispensational understanding through millions of best selling books and movies.

The title alone, Systematic Theology of Dispensationalism, the hundreds of pounds of books, and the miles of video suggests that there must be something deeper to understand than a disagreement of catagorizing eras. In fact, the theory is of such interwoven complexity that the average person could not by Sola Scriptura (Scripture alone) come to the same conclusions as the dispensational priesthood of professors, doctors, talented artists, and movie makers:

• C.I. Scofield’s notes in his 1909 Scofield Reference Bible, selling over 2 million copies by the end of WWII, promoted the “gap theory” and “futurism and dispensationalism, a theology that was systematized in the early nineteenth century by the Anglo-Irish clergyman John Nelson Darby.” https://en(dot) wikipedia(dot) org/wiki/C._I._Scofield
• Clarence Larkin published the book Dispensational Truth (1920) and after nearly one century, is still available at Amazon and billed as “the Greatest Book on ‘Dispensational Truth’ in the World”.
• Lewis Sperry Chafer, founded Dallas Theological Seminary in 1924 and served as its first president. A proponent of Dispensationalism, in 1947 after ten years of work, he completed his Systematic Theology in eight volumes.
• John F. Walvoord was the next president of Dallas Theological Seminary and “the author of over 30 books, focusing primarily on eschatology and theology including The Rapture Question.” https://en(dot) wikipedia(dot) org/wiki/John_Walvoord
• Dr. Charles Ryrie, retired Dallas Theological Seminary professor and prominant advocate of dispensationalism, is known for his popular Ryrie Study Bible that sold more than two million copies, his book Dispensationalism is to give a clear understanding of dispensationalism, and he has written 94 chapters of “systematic theology” with charts and definitions in Basic Theology.
• Hal Lindsey, best selling author of at least 69 books, graduated from Dallas Theological Seminary and studied under dispensationalist John Walvoord. In The 1980s: Countdown to Armageddon, on the NY Times bestseller list for over 20 weeks, he stated, “the decade of the 1980s could very well be the last decade of history as we know it.” Then in, Planet Earth – 2000 A.D., published in the early 1990s, He states that “Christians should not plan to still be on earth by the year 2000.” http://en(dot) wikipedia(dot) org/wiki/Hal_Lindsey
• Tim LaHaye and Jerry B Jenkins Left Behind 16 best-selling novels surpassed 65 million copies (1995–2007) and 11 million copies of the 40 kid’s novels (1997-2004) plus four Left Behind “apocalyptic thriller films.” dealing with Christian dispensationalism of the End Times…” One reason for the series popularity is the “public’s overall concern with the Apocalypse…” http://en(dot) wikipedia(dot) org/wiki/Left_Behind

Our parents may own a Scofield’s Reference Bible that thoroughly saturated America with Darby dispensationalism in selling over two million copies by the end of WWII. Our libraries have dust on top of the dozens of Hal Lindsey books that implied a 1988 rapture of the Church, but we all remember the recent Left Behind books and movies that swept through the Church just a decade ago. Not surprisingly, the dispensational priesthood successfully catapulted a fringe “Christian” dispensationalism of “virtual heresy” into becoming undoubtably the prominent eschatalogical doctrine of North American mainline evangelicals; even though few people have ever heard of the name John Nelson Darby. Europe has not been so affected.

Ronald M. Henzel in Darby, Dualism, and the Decline of Dispensationalism writes on page 2-3, “…John Nelson Darby’s Dispensationalism had accomplished what few (if any) other theological movements had. It rose from the status of a virtual heresy on the obscure fringes of the Church to a veritable seal of orthodoxy for millions of Christians …early converts to Dispensationalism were not forced into exile from their churches, nor did they erect their own denomination. Instead, as the movement baked in the oven of opposition it gradually leavened existing eccliesiastical structures, eventually rising into a transdenominational empire of loosely affiliated churches, parachurch organisations, and educational institutions.”

John MacArthur describes himself as a “leaky dispensationalist” in a transcript of Dispensationalism Part 3 (Bible Q&A Youtube). He answers:

“What is dispensationalism? It is a system that sort of got out of control…(00:01:25m) Dispensationalism became the term for something that grew out of that and got carried away because it got more and more and more compounded…until it became this very confounded kind of system and you see in the Schofield Bible and other places and if you want to see it in a book by Clarence Larkin, there are all kinds of charts, all kinds of things that try to explain this very complex system. I really believe they got carried away and started imposing on Scripture things that aren’t in Scripture…(00:08:54m) I don’t believe there are two kinds of salvation, I don’t believe there are two different covenants, a difference between the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven. I don’t believe the Sermon on the Mount is for some future age, I don’t believe you can hack up New Testament books, some for the Jew’s and some for the Church…Once you are not literal then who is to say…why not say that Israel means left handed Texans, if it is not in the text…” https://www(dot) youtube(dot) com/watch?v=K-6nJ_B2WYg

The nineteenth century (1825-1899) was unusual for the reason it produced huge changes to the Christian faith through a mere handful of people that all came out of the Christian church; multiplying disciples after themselves today numbering worldwide in the multi-millions. Each would attack a different attribute of Jesus Christ, His deity, virgin birth, blood atonement, bodily resurrection, indwelling of the Holy Spirit, visible second coming, or deviate by subtly redefining terms. At the same time, these shared some commonality, a dispensationalism laid out in complicated “simplified” charts, an invisible coming of Christ, a secret rapture of the Church, and the inevitable “nothing more needs to happen” immanency doctrine. That century produced so much confusion in the Church that it necessitated defining the five Fundamentals of the Faith (1920); a tool to divide between the essentials of the Christian faith from those that preach “another Jesus” and “another gospel”.

Acts 20:29-30, “…after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them…”

Dispensationalism is not a stand-alone doctrine but a Trojan horse bringing a system of theology based on dualism—Scripture as interpreted through the dual-covenant eyes of JN Darby rather than Sola Scriptura. Darby wrote in Psalms, Synopsis, vol. 1, 76, “God has chosen Israel for His glory on earth, and the church also for His glory in heaven; and we must not confound ourselves with them.” He taught of two peoples of God, one in heaven forever under grace, one on earth forever under law, two ways to eternal life and an eternal earth. To add to this confusion, Dispensationalists do not all believe the same and get off the dualism heaven and earth elevator at various levels attempting to solve obvious problems. Beyond Classic Dispensationalism is Hyper-Dispensationalism that even divides the Church while Revised and Progressive Dispensationalism move away from the original heresy against Scripture. Leaky Dispensationalism is the last ditch effort before the truth, to hold on by a thread the secret rapture and invisible return of Christ theory:

John 3:3, “…Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Romans 3:22, “Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference.”

Romans 10:12, “For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.”

Revelation 20:7,11, “And when the thousand years are expired…the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.

Dualism divides

• Dualism divides the one people of God into two peoples of God.
• Dualism divides the kingdom of God from the kingdom of heaven.
• Dualism divides the Church in the kingdom of God that is heaven forever, from Israel that will remain in the kingdom of heaven on paradise earth forever.
• The “Millennial Kingdom” is non-biblical terminology for the kingdom of heaven on earth.
• Dualism brings Christ from heaven twice while sending the Church to heaven twice.
• Dispensationalism rejects replacement theology, that the promises to Israel are for the Church, but replaces the Church, the elect, with Israel in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21.
• Dispensationalism, that rejects replacement theology but claims that the gospels, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Great Commission do not apply to the Church but only to Israel.
• Dispensationalism teaches that this distinction between Israel and the Church, and between the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God, must be maintained.
• Dispensationalism must divide the first resurrection, on “the last day” in “the hour” when ALL the righteous come forth, into “phases” or multiple resurrections, separated by by gaps of 2000 years and 7 years, because “the dead in Christ rise first” before any rapture of the Church. (1Thessalonians 4:16-17)
• Dispensationalism’s “nothing more needs to happen, any moment now” immanency doctrine is against 2Thessalonians 2:3, “…that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed…he as God sitteth in the temple of God…”
• Dispensationalism and Dualism are the outcome of accommodating a third invisible silent appearing of Christ to provide a pre-Tribulation secret rapture theory.

It is impossible to come to this combination of conclusions by Sola Scriptura or without the mentoring of the dispensational priesthood of confusion. On the other hand, the true gospel is simpler than most people can possibly realize as Jesus very clearly taught that the resurrection is on “the last day.” Then Jesus promised only one resurrection of life in “the hour” on the last day when all who are in the graves come forth, the righteous, and all is ALL. On that last day we will all be “gathered together”, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, when every eye will see and hear Him at His Second Coming.

When is the first resurrection? It is on the last day? When is the last day? That would be the day of the FIRST resurrection of the just and that is in Revelation 20:5, immediately after the Tribulation at His Second Coming but before the thousand years when Satan is bound. The second resurrection of the unjust is at the end of the thousand years. If we are all “gathered together,” there can be no gap of years needed for phases or multiple resurrections of the just. There is nothing secret about a shout, the voice of the archangel, the noise of the trump of God, as the lightning comes, the sun and moon darkened, or the powers of the heavens shaken. Neither is there one Scripture teaching of an invisible, secret, or silent third coming from heaven. (John 5:28-29, 6:39,40,44,54, 11:24, Acts 24:15, 1Corinthians 15, 51-52, 1Thessalonians 4:16-17 Revelation 1:7, 20:4-5)

Matthew 24:29-31, “Immediately after the tribulation…they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds…and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”

Mark 13:24-27, “after that tribulation…they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds…and gather together His elect from the four winds, from the farthest part of earth to the farthest part of heaven.”

The apostle Paul warned that a sign of the end is a coming apostasia or falling away and said, “our gathering together” is NOT “at hand” and “shall not come” until we see the apostasy FIRST and we see the Antichrist “be revealed”. Men who bring any other teaching “deceive you!”

2Thessalonians 2:1-4, “…the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him…be not soon shaken in mind…as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition…he as God sitteth in the temple of God…”

In the historic 1860’s gold rush town of Barkerville BC is a 3D vignette of Dr. Jones’ dentist office with the sign out front, “Painless Extractions—$5” however, the dentist is holding a bloodied tooth in his pliers and the patient is clutching his face. It is our natural desire for a painless extraction however, the dispensational priesthood has built a doctrine by only quoting the first half of 1Thessalonians 5:9, “For God hath not appointed us to wrath” however, they conveniently omit, “but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ.” The wrath of God here is in relation to spiritual eternal salvation from the second death and the lake of fire but nothing to do with the Church having a painless extraction from the Tribulation. Truth is not determined by our physical well-being but Jesus did give us another option of hope, “pray…to escape all these things.” Dispensationalism is a gospel of deception and confusion invented by men, a cheap five-dollar gospel!

Luke 21:12-18,36, “…before all these things…they will put some of you to death. And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But not a hair of your head shall be lost…pray always…to escape all these things that will come to pass.”

Voices of the past

It is common to look back at history to find the truth about a crime scene or the circumstances around a motor vehicle accident. Concerning how and when a certain doctrine came into existence, we can also learn from the eyewitnesses of the past; people who lived at the time of change.Ed Sanders documents in his OriginOfThePretribRaptureTheory-ESanders.pdf some of these voices of the past at theologue.wordpress.com:

• “The pretribulation rapture…historians are still trying to determine how or where Darby got it…Possibly, we may have to settle for Darby’s own explanation. He claimed that the doctrine virtually jumped out of the pages of Scripture once he accepted and consistently maintained the distinction between Israel and the church”. (Timothy P. Weber, Living In The Shadow Of The Second Coming: American Premillennialism 1875-1982. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1983, pp. 21-22).
• John Nelson Darby commenting on 2 Thess. 2:1-2 in 1850: “It is this passage which, twenty years ago, made me understand the rapture of the saints before — perhaps a considerable time before — the day of the Lord, that is, before the judgment of the living.” Cited by Wm Kelly in The Rapture of the Saints: Who Suggested It, Or Rather On What Scripture? The Bible Treasury, New Series, vol. 4, p. 314-318.
• “Dr. Tregelles: ‘When the theory of a secret coming of Christ was first brought forward (about the year 1832), it was adopted with eagerness; it suited certain preconceived opinions…”
• John Walvoord: thinks the pretrib rapture theory originated from Darby’s understanding of ecclesiology: “any careful student of Darby soon discovers that he did not get his eschatological views from men, but rather from his doctrine of the church…”. (Walvoord, The Blessed Hope and the Tribulation, p. 47.)
• Alexander Reese: “About 1830 a new school arose within the fold of Premillennialism that sought to overthrow what, since the Apostolic Age, have been considered by all premillennialist as established results, and to institute in their place a series of doctrines that had never been heard of before. The school I refer to is that of ‘The Brethren” or ‘Plymouth Brethren, founded by J. N. Darby.”(Alexander Reese, The Approaching Advent of Christ, page 18)
• Harry Ironside: (1876-1951)“Until brought to the fore through the writings and the preaching and teaching of the distinguished ex-clergyman, Mr. J. N. Darby, in the early part of the last century, [the pretribulational rapture] is scarcely to be found in a single book or sermon throughout a period of sixteen hundred years! If any doubt this statement, let them search, as the writer has in measure done, the remarks of the so-called Fathers, both pre- and post-Nicene, the theological treatises of the scholastic divines, Roman Catholic writers of all shades of thought; the literature of the reformation; the sermons and expositions of the Puritans; and the general theological works of the day. He will find “the mystery” conspiciuous by its absence”. (Harry A. Ironside, The Mysteries of God, New York: Loizeaux Brothers, 1908, pp 50–51).
• Robert Cameron: “Now, be it remembered, that prior to that date, no hint of any approach to such belief can be found in any Christian literature from Polycarp down…. Surely, a doctrine that finds no exponent or advocate in the whole history and literature of Christendom, for eighteen hundred years after the founding of the Church – a doctrine that was never taught by a Father or Doctor of the Church in the past – that has no standard Commentator or Professor of the Greek language in any Theological School until the middle of the Nineteenth century, to give it approval, and that is without a friend, even to mention its name amongst the orthodox teachers or the heretical sects of Christendom – such a fatherless and motherless doctrine, when it rises to the front, demanding universal acceptance, ought to undergo careful scrutiny before it is admitted and tabulated as part of ‘the faith once for all delivered unto the saints.” (Robert Cameron, Scriptural Truth About The Lord’s Return, page 72-73).
• E. R. Sandeen: “Darby introduced into discussion at Powerscourt (1833) the ideas of a secret rapture of the church and of a parenthesis in prophetic fulfillment between the sixty-ninth and seventieth weeks of Daniel. These two concepts constituted the basic tenets of the system of theology since referred to as dispensationalism” (E.R. Sandeen, The Roots of Fundamentalism 1800-1930, University of Chicago Press, 1970)
• A.W. Tozer: “Here is a doctrine that was not known or taught until the beginning of this century and it is already causing splits in churches.”
• Philip Mauro: “The entire system of ‘dispensational teaching’ is modernistic in the strictest sense; for it first came into existence within the memory of persons now living; and was altogether unknown even in their younger days; It is more recent than Darwinism. A system of doctrine that contradicts what has been held and taught by every Christian expositor and every minister of Christ from the very beginning of the Christian era—suddenly made its appearance in the later part of the nineteenth century.”
• Edmund Shackleton: All who held the premillennial Coming of Christ were, till about sixty years ago, of one mind on the subject. About that time a new view was promulgated that the Coming of Christ was not one event, but that it was divided into stages, in fact, that Christ comes twice from heaven to earth, but the first time only as far as the air…It appears to be little more than sixty years old; and it seems highly improbable that if scriptural it could have escaped the scrutiny of the many devoted Bible students whose writings have been preserved to us from the past. More especially in the writings of the early Christian fathers would we expect to find some notice of this doctrine, if it had been taught by the Apostles; but those who have their works declare that they betray no knowledge of a theory that the Church would escape the Tribulation under Antichrist, or that there would be any “coming” except that spoken of in Matthew 24, as occurring in manifest glory “after the Tribulation.”…Augustine, referring to Daniel 7, wrote: “But he who reads this passage even half asleep cannot fail to see that the kingdom of Antichrist shall fiercely, though for a short time, assail the Church.” (Edmund Shackleton, Will the Church Escape the Great Tribulation? pp. 31, 32, cited by Alexander Reese, The Approaching Advent of Christ, p. 231.)
• Ed Sanders writes: “In my book Outline Studies On The Rapture Question (1973) I wrote, “Search the pages of Church history and literature, and you will not find one mention of the Lord coming before the Tribulation until after 1800. No one has ever cited any literature, writings, or quotes to the contrary! The implications of this truth are serious. If the Pre-Tribulation doctrine were true, it would mean that it was hidden from the church for 19 centuries. Not one of the brilliant theologians or Bible teachers before the 1800’s were able to find a Pretrib rapture and coming of the Lord on the pages of Holy Scripture—an incredulous improbability to say the least!” One thing is clear from the available historical documents: Darby, called the ‘father of dispensationalism’, was responsible for the widespread dissemination of the new and novel pretrib doctrine beginning around 1830 through his ministry in the Plymouth Brethern movement.”
• Youtube: Against Dispensationalism, Exposing the Founder, John Nelson Darby by Jeff Swayzee https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqVmgVSuGtg At 08:59 minutes into the video, “By his own testimony, Darby’s dispensational premillennial eschatology was fully formed by 1833.” In 1834 Darby wrote a letter to a friend that referred to the pre tribulation rapture theory stating that “the thoughts are new” and the teaching “new wine”. Darby further understood that its newness wasn’t simply in context to the Church of England but to the entire 1800-year history of the church. He encouraged his friend to be discrete and publicly somewhat vague about this new wine stating, “it would not be well to have it so clear.”

The evidence is overwhelming that Darby by his own words, “the doctrine virtually jumped out of the pages” and as John Walvoord confirmed, “he [Darby] did not get his eschatological views from men”. The theory, conspicuous by the absence of any Christian teachingabout it previous 1830 and the breaking of a dispensational silence, whether for or opposed, would indicate something new from the pulpit. Charles Haddon Spurgeon one of the opposed, spared no words about Darby’s theory in The Sword and the Trowel in 1869, as quoted later. In spite of the facts, Darby dispensationalists today realize that “new doctrine” is suspicious and try to turn this aspect onto discerners as the ones who have lost the original. Since the dispensational investigative trail simply grows cold before the year 1830, who then is John Nelson Darby?

A group came together in Dublin, Ireland, in 1827–8 called “the Brethren” that rejected denominational names and the concept of clergy. They claimed, “A circle was to be drawn just wide enough to include ‘all the children of God,’ and to exclude all who did not come under that category.” Former Anglican priest John Nelson Darby was one of the men to bring together a first meeting in Plymouth, England, in December 1831, that became known as “the brethren from Plymouth”. Since 1845, the divisions of the circle were many when a contention between Darby and his friend Benjamin Newton, over details of the tribulation, and another contention with friend George Müller, resulted in Darby founding the Exclusive Brethren in 1848. Today, the non-exclusives or Open assemblies are usually called “Chapels,” have an “open table” approach to other believers, and may have singing groups, choirs, worship teams, and musicians, etc. The very conservative sect, also non-Exclusive are known as Closed assemblies and called “Gospel Halls”, only break bread with those formally recognized, would not use musical instruments in their services, and would be more conservative in dress. A fourth sect, the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church is accused by the other Brethren groups of being a cult for being dominated by one person known as the Elect Vessel or the Man of God. http://en (dot) wikipedia (dot) org/wiki/Plymouth_Brethren

John Nelson Darby(1800–1882) was…one of the influential figures among the original Plymouth Brethren and the founder of the Exclusive Brethren…In 1825, Darby was ordained deacon of the established Church of Ireland and the following year as priest…It is believed that John Nelson Darby left the Church of Ireland around 1831. Darby defended Calvinist doctrines when they came under attack from within the Church in which he once served. In 1848, Darby became involved in a complex dispute…that resulted in a split between Open Brethren, which maintained a congregational form of government and Exclusive Brethren. After that time, he was recognized as the dominant figure among the Exclusives, who also came to be known as “Darbyite” Brethren.Darby is noted in the theological world as the father of “dispensationalism”, later made popular in the United States by Cyrus Scofield’s Scofield Reference Bible…Darby is credited with originating the “secret rapture” theory wherein Christ will suddenly remove His bride, the Church, from this world before the judgments of the tribulation.As a system, dispensationalism…The original concept came from Darby’s interpretation of 2Timothy 2:15, “…rightly dividing the word of truth”. http://en (dot) wikipedia (dot) org/wiki/John_Nelson_Darby

John Nelson Darby is recognized as the father of dispensationalism…there was no Christian teaching of a “rapture” before Darby began preaching about it in the 1830s, he is sometimes credited with originating the “secret rapture” theory wherein Christ will suddenly remove his bride, the Church, from this world before the judgments of the tribulation… http://en (dot) wikipedia (dot) org/wiki/Dispensationalism

John Nelson Darby and the Exclusive Brethren came to be known as “Darbyite Brethren” and his multiple recent and new doctrines as Darbyism but the words Darby, recent, or new are buried in the faded memory of recent history and propogated as though this is what the New Testament Church originally believed. On the other hand, if this popular theory only goes back as far as Darby, then Darby dispensationalism is just one of 27 dispensationalisms of another gospel.

Galatians 1:8-12, “But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed…But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

Alexander Reese in his book The Approaching Advent of Christ, page 8, says, “Throughout the book I have used the term Darbyist…coined by me in 1914 so as to avoid “Darbyite,” which had offensive associations. I hope this will be sufficient to persuade Brethren that the new term is not used churlishly. People are not offended at being called Calvinists or Arminians, and people, in or out of the Churches, who accept J.N. Darby’s ideas on the Second Advent, should not take it amiss if they are called “Darbyists”.

Dispensationalism—as we know it today

In spite of overwhehlming evidence, dispensationalists still loudly object to Darby as the originator of dispensationalism or the secret rapture theory countering that their theory is what the New Testament Church originally believed. They will attempt to skip past Darby to Clement of Alexandria (150-220AD) that apparently recognized four dispensations and Pierre Poiret (1646-1719) that developed seven dispensations, Creation to the Deluge, the Deluge to Moses, Moses to the Prophets, the Prophets to Christ, Manhood and Old Age, the Christian Era, and Renovation of All Things by fire. Then Isaac Watts (1674-1748) developed six dispensations, Innocency, adamical, noahica, Abrahamical, Mosaical, and Christian. The dispensational road leads into hyper-dispensationalism that divides off an additional three dispensations of Acts for ten dispensations. The dispensational divisions of the men before Darby never attached any theories as Darby taught and so we could clarify that John Darby is the father of dispensationalism—as we know it today. http://www (dot) duluthbible (dot) org/filerequest/9722 (dot) pdf

Dispensational Dualism or one New Covenant?

The dispensational view of John Nelson Darby (1800-1882) until the time of Lewis Sperry Chafer (1871-1952), founder and president of Dallas Theological Seminary (formed in 1924) is promoted as classic dispensationalism. This view included the eternal dualism of heavenly and earthly peoples, different eternal destinies for Israel and for the Church (Israel on earth redeemed by law and the church in heaven by grace). Revised Dispensationalism, in the ’50s and ’60s, abandoned the eternal aspect of dualism to believe in simply two groups of God’s people under two separate new covenants. It is not quite that simple if we decide to follow the logic through.

• William E. Cox writes, “…historic Christians teach that, after the Rapture, Christians are to be taken to heaven permanently, whereas dispensationalists say it is only temporary at that time. Dispensationalists go on to teach that, after seven years, the church will be returned to earth, where it will take part in an earthly millennium. During the millennium, according to dispensationalists, the church will have a position inferior to that of Israel. They teach that, after the millennium, the church will be returned to heaven the second time, there to spend eternity while Israel remains forever on the earth. None of this, of course, is in agreement with historic Christian beliefs. And, whereas as the dispensationalists include only the Gentile Christians in the Rapture, historic Christians would include all believers from every age and nationality…
• On page 1011, note 2, of the Scofield Bible the author labels the heading: “The new message of Jesus.” He has said that our Lord began his ministry with a message of the kingdom, at which time he made an offer to Israel of an earthly kingdom along with salvation by legal obedience. This having been rejected, says Scofield, Jesus began to preach a completely different gospel which now for the first time included a reference to the cross of Calvary. Scofield went on to say, concerning “the new message of Jesus,” that our Lord offers “not the kingdom, but rest and service” in his new message.
• We have given many quotations to the effect that dispensationalists teach a plan of redemption, other than the cross, offered at the first advent, rejected, and to be renewed during the millennium. If that plan is not in effect today, and if people are being saved, then it stands to reason that they are being saved in some way other than that first offered by Jesus before he began his “new message.” The “new way” is the way of the cross, according to dispensationalists.” http://www (dot) gospeltruth (dot) net/dispcox (dot) htm

Darby understood that to “rightly divide the word of God,” meant to divide and separate what Scripture applied to Israel and what Scripture applied to the Church. Keep in mind that dispensationalists boast of being literal and they dogmatically reject replacement theology, that the Church has replaced Israel. If we leavethe normal and reasonable reading of Matthew 24 that even a child can understand, of Jesus visible second coming for His elect, God’s one saved people, whether Jew or Gentile, immediately after the tribulation, it sparks a chain reaction of brush fires that must be put out. Darby’s solution was to sever the gospel of Matthew from the beginning of the NT and place it at the end of the OT. In other words, they believe Matthew does not apply to the Church but that it only applies to Israel. Therefore, the Olivet discourse does not apply to the Church and true Christians must not recite the Lord’s Prayer because it contains the expression “forgive us our trespasses”. Apparently, at the moment of salvation we are forgiven not only past and present sin, but all future sin is covered as well, going against the Lord’s Prayer to forgive us when we trespass. Then, the great commission will only apply the 144,000 of Israel going to the entire world preaching the Gospel while Israel is under one covenant on earth suffering the Tribulation and the Church is eternally in heaven under another covenant.

Reversed replacement theology

Matthew 24 is problematic to the Darby pre-Tribulation secret rapture theory because of the words in verse 29 & 30, “immediately after the Tribulation…gather together His elect.”The Darbyists being predisposed that the rapture of the Church has already taken place in Matthew 24, must find an new identity, and interpretation for the elect, who are mentioned three times.

Matthew 24:22-31, “And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened…For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect…Immediately after the tribulation of those days…they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory…and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”

Ironically, the Darbyists that reject replacement theology have now chosen Israel to be the elect and replace the Church; reversed replacement theology! Now we have the invention of dual-covenant or dualism to conform Matthew 24 to a non-biblical theory with a more favourable outcome from our perspective. Problematic also is the absence in Scripture of an invisible appearance of Christ, Jesus’ teaching of one “first resurrection” on “the last day” and fabricate multiple first resurrections separated by years rather than all in the hour, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. Since Darbyists believe the secret rapture happens before the Tribulation, they must subscribe to Darby’s “nothing more needs to happen—any moment now” immanency theory even though 2Thessalonians 2:1-4 declares that we are deceived if we believe our gathering together is “at hand” and against “will not come unless the apostasy comes first AND the Antichrist is sitting in the Temple. Then, every scripture that teaches of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ must be divided into pre-Trib such as 1Thessalonians 4:15-17, or post-Trib as 2Thessalonians 2:1-4 and Matthew 24 even though all are teaching of the same one event of Jesus second coming.

Darbyists believe that the Matthew 24 “gathering together the elect” is not a rapture but a herding of Israel and the “Tribulation saints” on earth into the millennial kingdom while the Church is now in heaven—dual covenant. The Greek word eklektos (elect, chosen) refers to believers in Matthew 20:16, 22:14, Luke 18:7, Romans 8:33, Colossians 3:12, 2Timothy 2:10, Titus 1:1, 1 Peter 1:1, 2:9, and Revelation 17:14 however in an attempt to “rightly divide the Word”, Matthew 24 is excepted for the single purpose to protect a pre-Tribulation secret rapture and an additional invisible appearance of Christ even before His second coming. As logic would have it, if Matthew does not apply to the Church then the other gospels of Mark, Luke, and John need not apply either and Darby’s New Testament for the Church would begin in Acts chapter 2.

The complexity of the Darby heresy is such that no person reading Scripture alone could ever naturally come to its conclusion without total dependency on Darby or his proponents. Consequently, people become discouraged that eschatology is so complicated and that it is best left to the experts. Darby has created his own dependency needed to avoid “after the Tribulation”; brilliant!

In the same way, dispensationalists divide which verses are Jesus’ second coming, such as Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21 but designate 1Thessalonians 4:16-17 as His pre-Tribulation invisible coming and a secret rapture. Only Darby divided any dispensation by a pre-Tribulation secret rapture and an invisible appearance of Christ, which further proves that these theories did not exist previous to Darby in 1830. According to history, John F. Walvoord, second president of Dallas Theological Seminary (1952-present), and chairman Charles C. Ryrie also “argued for”two new covenants, dual-covenant, or dualism in the 1950s.

• Some dispensationalists, including Charles Ryrie and John F. Walvoord in the 1950s, argued for two new covenants: one new covenant for the Church and another new covenant for Israel (Dual-covenant theology). Other dispensationalists, including John Nelson Darby and John Master, argued for one new covenant applied only to Israel. And still other dispensationalists, including Cyrus I. Scofield and John McGahey in the 1950s, have argued for one new covenant for a believing Israel today and an ongoing partial fulfillment, and another new covenant for a future believing Israel when Jesus returns for a complete fulfillment. http://en(dot)wikipedia(dot)org/wiki/Progressive_dispensationalism
• Dual-covenant theology is a Christian view of the Old Covenant which holds that Jews may simply keep the “Law of Moses”, because of the “everlasting covenant” (Genesis 17:13) between Abraham and God expressed in the Hebrew Bible, whereas Gentiles (those not Jews or Jewish proselytes) must convert to Christianity or alternatively accept the Seven Laws of Noah to be assured of a place in the World to Come. Many Christians, especially conservative Protestants, consider this view to be heresy. http://en (dot) wikipedia (dot) org/wiki/Dual-covenant_theology

Dual-covenanters today may argue that there are not two ways to salvation but that there are “two distinct new covenants, both based on the blood of the same Mediator.” However, for the two to be distinct requires they not be the same; one covenant must be of law for Israel and the other of grace for the Church. Dual-covenanters are simply burying the error under confusion to avoid controversy. Scriptures teach of only two distinct dispensations, Law and Grace, “For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” (John 1:17)Jesus simply referred to, “this age or in the age to come”(Matthew 12:32 NKJV).The law teaches what is sin however salvation is only through Jesus Christ alone by grace and truth. The Church and Israel are two distinct and separate entities and the Church is never spiritual Israel but their is only one salvation by grace through faith in Jesus for all believers whether Jew or Gentile.

The interpretive notes of the Scofield Reference Bible are often seen as the key representation of the classical dispensational tradition. One important feature of classical dispensationalism was its dualistic idea of redemption. In this tradition, God is seen as pursuing two different purposes. One is related to heaven and the other to the earth. The “heavenly humanity was to be made up of all the redeemed from all dispensations who would be resurrected from the dead. Whereas the earthly humanity concerned people who had not died but who were preserved by God from death, the heavenly humanity was made up of all the saved who had died, whom God would resurrect from the dead.” http://www (dot) theologicalstudies (dot) org/resource-library/dispensationalism/421-what-is-dispensationalism

There is one olive tree that the branches were broken off and to the same olive tree, wild branches were grafted in. Then, the branches that were broken off were grafted back into the same olive tree. There are not two olive trees but one tree with natural and wild branches both grafted into the same tree. We all come in the same way; there are not two covenants; only one new covenant of Jesus Christ.

John 10:16, “And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.”

Romans 11:11-27, “God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy…For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?…And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert grafted in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree…And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be grafted in: for God is able to graft them in again…For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree? For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.”

Galatians 3:28,29, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ’s then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”

What if God brings Israel to salvation before the Tribulation? This would mess up Darby’s whole dispensational numbering system because they would then also qualify for a supposed pre-Tribulation invisible secret rapture. Where then would Darby get the 144,000 of the twelve tribes, sealed by God in the Tribulation, if allegedly they were all raptured as believers before the Tribulation? On the other hand, it is an unjust system that rewards the apostate Church of 2Thessalonians 2:3, like Sardis the dead church or Laodicea the lukewarm church, with rapture and escape to the marriage supper of the Lamb while a believing Israel is allegedly punished. In the “biblical dispensation” of grace, whosever will may come, and whenever they come.

There were saints in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, saints in Jerusalem, in Lydda, Galatia, Corinth, Philippi, Colosse, Ephesus, and “every place.” There was also the church at Corinth and in every place but not all in the church were saints. In the church of Ephesus there were false apostles, liars, but there are no apostate saints and so the body of Christ is simply called “the saints” thirteen times after Revelation 4. Among the saints are also “servants” such as Paul and Timothy that have a special ministry.

Acts 9:13, “…to thy saints at Jerusalem:” Acts 9:32, “…to the saints which dwelt at Lydda.” 1Corinthians 1:2, “Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.” 1Corinthians 14:33, “…in all churches of the saints.” 2Corinthians 1:1, “…all the saints which are in all Achaia:” Philippians 1:1, “Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi,” Colossians 1:2, “To the saints…at Colosse:”

Hebrews 13:24, “Salute all them that have the rule over you, and all the saints. They of Italy salute you.”

Revelation 14:12, “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

The 144,000 men chosen out of the 12 tribes of Israel are also listed as “servants” and set apart from the saints for a special ministry. To be chosen out of the 12 tribes indicates that the nation as a whole still exists even though Israel is not mentioned again in Revelation. The 144,000 men will not be harmed in anyway by the Tribulation because God seals them before the events unfold just as we have been sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise (Ephesians 1:13). The Tribulation is not for the purpose of turning the 144,000 from unbelief since they are already sealed servants.

Revelation 7:3, “Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.”

• Judging by the unusual survival of this group in spite of hunger, thirst, estrangement, lack of adequate clothing, sickness and imprisonment, it seems certain that they are the 144,00 witnesses. They are apparently supernaturally converted just before or at the very beginning of the Tribulation much like the apostle Paul…they all survived the Tribulation and are in unresurrected bodies. Hal Lindsey in The Rapture, Page 146
• But since the 144,00 can’t die, they will continue to experience the hunger, thirst and exposure revealed in Revelation 7:16 and Matthew 25:35-40. Hal Lindsey in The Rapture, Page 147

Darbyites remove the Church out of earthly existence in the Tribulation because it is not mentioned after Revelation 3:22. In fact, the Church is never mentioned again, period. Revelation 22:16, “I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches…” is the final salutation to those seven churches to which the revelation is addressed and not to a post-Tribulation entity as the Church. Using the not mentioned logic, the nation of Israel is not mentioned either after chapter four. Only 144,000 men of Israel are mentioned in the Tribulation (Revelation 7:4) and they are already servants of God, sealed before the earth is hurt and wrath unleashed, sealed before the Tribulation begins. In Revelation 14:1 & 3, the 144,000 men are again redeemed and protected, not punished. The fact is that those who are sealed by God are protected and those who are sealed are called saints regardless of Israel or the Church.

Proverbs 2:8, “He keepeth the paths of judgment, and preserveth the way of his saints.”

Ephesians 1:1,13-15, “Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus…after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory. Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints.”

Darby’s dispensational doctrine does not allow Israel salvation before the Tribulation but only sees God’s wrath upon His own chosen people; this doctrine is no friend of Israel.

Divide and multiply

Division is the nature of Darby dispensationalism leading into classic, traditional, essentialist, revised, progressive,  ultra, or hyper dispensationalism. It divides covenant, divides believers into Old Testament saints, New Testament saints, and Tribulation saints, and it divides the same one resurrection for all the dead in Christ into phases. Dispensationalists proudly claim the principle of literal interpretation, which is quite ironic since they leave the literal meaning of protos and eschatos; the first and the last, the beginning and the end, Alpha and Omega, nothing previous and nothing afterward to destroy the first resurrection of ALL believers who are in the graves. Just as there are not two ways to salvation, there are not two resurrections of the just! Jesus said that “in the hour” on “the last day”, all believers who are in the grave would rise together in Christ. The apostle Paul said, “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” (1Corinthians 15:52) There is only one resurrection of ALL the just and only one rapture of ALL the saints; All includes everyone and excludes no one. There will not be any rapture before the first resurrection of the dead in Christ—first, then we who are alive and remain will be caught up. Simple!

Dispensationalists get quite upset when you point out that “phases of the first resurrection” preceding the first resurrection by years of time are in reality simply multiple resurrections fabricated to accommodate each group who go up at different times, rather than recognize the one body of Christ and one covenant for ALL believers. Darby’s dispensationalism cannot allow the Church and Israel coexist as believers in the body of Christ, either prior the Tribulation or in the Tribulation. Therefore, his dispensationalism is always packaged with a pre-tribulation secret rapture theory, a multiple resurrections theory, an invisible appearance of Christ, and a presumed exposure and suffering of Israel in the wrath of God to produce the persecuted alleged, “Tribulation saints.” Dispensationalist Hal Lindsey in The Rapture (1983), asks “why so many views” without realizing his book is one of the best selling problems, dividing the first resurrection into phases, in fact four resurrections that he does not call phases, in his chart on page 161 of his book The Rapture. Hal Lindsey, presuming a dual-covenant for the Church and Israel, cannot allow the two to exist on earth together to make it fit in a jumble of confusion that has led to endless disputations!

• “Why so many views? Many including myself, have puzzled over why there are so many conflicting views concerning the doctrine that is so important.” The Rapture, page 27
• “…I believe that God’s purpose for Israel and His purpose for the Church are so distinct and mutually exclusive that they cannot both be on earth at the same time during the seven-year Tribulation.” Page 69-70
• “We have seen how the first resurrection must have more than one phase.” Page 163

Charles Haddon Spurgeon taught that the Jews would return to their land and come to faith in Jesus Christ in the same way as the Church and would be part of the body of Christ. It is understandable that Spurgeon was sharply critical of Darby:

Distinctions have been drawn by certain exceedingly wise men (measured by their own estimate of themselves), between the people of God who lived before the coming of Christ, and those who lived afterwards. We have even heard it asserted that ! We never know what we shall hear next, and perhaps it is a mercy that these absurdities are revealed at one time, in order that we may be able to endure their stupidity without dying of amazement. Why, every child of God in every place stands on the same footing…Those who lived before Christ were not saved with a different salvation to that which shall come to us. They exercised faith as we must. http://www (dot) spurgeon (dot) org/eschat. (dot) htm Part Three: Spurgeon and Dispensational Premillennialism

Atonement

Many assume that Dispensationalism and Premillennialism are inseparable however Charles Spurgeon, a historical premillenialist (premillennial posttribulationalist), distanced himself from Darby’s dispensationalism. Spurgeon saw the Church and Israel united “spiritually” and rejected dual-covenant or dualism, the partitioning of the people of God into separate camps. He saw one people of God going through the totality of the Tribulation being preserved and protected by the power of God. Charles H. Spurgeon wrote in his Sword and Trowel, June 1869: http://www (dot) spurgeon (dot) org/eschat.htm Part Four: Spurgeon and Historic Premillennialism

• “Mr. Grant has done real service to the churches by his treatise on “The heresies of the Plymouth Brethren,”…It is almost impossible for even his heavy hand to press too severely upon this malignant power, whose secret but rapid growth is among the darkest signs of the times…Mr. Darby maintains that a part of Christ’s sufferings on the cross, were what he calls ‘non-atoning’…Mr. Darby, advancing a step farther, denies that the atonement for our sins consisted even in Christ’s death.
• …of the doctrine—most surely believed by all evangelical denominations in every age of the church’s history—of the vicarious purpose of Christ’s obedience, there is the equally unreserved rejection of another doctrine which the great bulk of believers regard as one of vital importance. I allude to the doctrine of the imputed righteousness of Christ…
• As the Plymouth Brethren will not use the Lord’s Prayer because it contains the expression ‘forgive us our trespasses,’ so they make no confession of their sins in the sense in which the words are usually understood…they attach no definite meaning to the phraseology…
• Plymouth Brethren…recognizes no other denomination…Mr. Darby has again and again said in print, as well as written in private, that those who belong to his party in the metropolis, constitute the only church of Christ in London…Believing that they alone of all religious bodies have attained to the knowledge of the truth…
• There is just one point more…the influence which Darbyism exerts on the social comfort of families. I shall be fully borne out, by the concurrent testimony of thousands of persons, all of them speaking from painful experience…Darbyism, as a rule, changes one’s whole character, as regards the social relations of life, where a leading member of a family has plunged over head and ears into it…It is a curious fact that a generous, open, agreeable Darbyite is very rarely to be met with. Plymouth Brethrenism changes the most kind, courteous, and winning manners into the opposite. And this is the case even where the family previously lived in perfect Christian harmony and happiness…” http://www (dot) spurgeon (dot) org/s_and_t/dbreth.htm

Vicarious atonement:dying as a substitute for others as in 1Peter 2:24, “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.”

Imputed righteousness:is a concept in Christian theology that proposes that the “righteousness of Christ … is imputed to [believers] — that is, treated as if it were theirs through faith It is on the basis of this “alien” (i.e. from the outside) righteousness that God accepts humans. This acceptance is also referred to as justification. Thus this doctrine is practically synonymous with justification by faith. http://en (dot) wikipedia (dot) org/wiki/Imputed_righteousness

Historic premillennialism: is the designation (adopted by its adherents) now also known as post-tribulational premillennialism. The use of the term “historic” implies that this point of view is the historical view of premillennialists and that pre-tribulationism is a new theory. Post-tribulational premillennialism is the Christian eschatological view that the second coming of Jesus Christ will occur prior to a thousand-year reign of the saints but subsequent to the great apostasy (and to any tribulation).

http://en (dot) wikipedia (dot) org/wiki/Historic_premillennialism

Conforming Scripture to Darbyism

John Nelson Darby also single handedly formulated the 1867 Darby Translation that supported his theories. For example, the King James Bible says the day of Christ from the Greek word Kristos but John Darby changed the “day of Christ” into the “day of the Lord.” He also changed “at hand,” imminent, or yet to come, to “that the day of the Lord is present.”

2Thessalonians 2:1-2KJV, “Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.

2Thessalonians 2:2DBY, “that ye be not soon shaken in mind, nor troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter, as [if it were] by us, as that the day of the Lord is present.”

The effect of Darby’s translation is the assumption that a false teacher was teaching that they were in the day of the Lord, the Tribulation, but the truth is the day of Christ’s second coming was not at hand, not immanent! The apostle Paul makes it clear “that day” will not come unless the apostasy, the Antichrist, and the temple of God, meaning the Tribulation must come first. Darby had no choice but to print his own Bible version taking away from Scripture to support his aberrant immanency position that “nothing more needed to happen.”

Darby also translated the covenant name of God as “Jehovah” 7000 times instead of rendering it “LORD” or “GOD” (in all capital letters). Not surprisingly, the artificial name for God used by Darby over 7000 times, became the inspiration of the 1950 New World Translation of the Watchtower Society that has published 208 million copies using the the artificial name for God over 7000 times. The name Jehovah was the invention of Catholic monks in the Middle Ages and anyone who teaches this name is in the original texts is deceived.

Encyclopaedia Britannica: The Masoretes, who from about the 6th to the 10th century worked to reproduce the original text of the Hebrew Bible, replaced the vowels of the name YHWH with the vowel signs of the Hebrew words Adonai (“Lord”, editor) or Elohim (“God”, editor). Thus, the artificial name Jehovah (YeHoWaH) (emphasis ours, ed.) came into being.

Immanency

A loyalty to Darby’s theory of an immanent secret pre-tribulation rapture and the invisible appearance of Jesus, is also a commitment to his nothing “more needs to happen/any time now” doctrine. If we believe in Scripture first, as the apostle Paul taught in 2Thessalonians 2:4, much more that needs to happen before our gathering together; the apostasy must come first and then the Antichrist sitting in the temple of God. Ezekiel 41 also prophesied, “Afterward he brought me to the temple…the wall of the temple…The posts of the temple…the face of the sanctuary…The altar of wood…the table that is before the Lord…the temple and the sanctuary had two doors…the doors of the temple.” Scripture agrees that the temple must exist before the Tribulation and therefore the nation of Israel must also exist before the Tribulation and does exist.

Ezekiel 37:21-28, “…Behold, I will…bring them into their own land…will cleanse them…and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore…My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people…when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore. And the heathen shall know that I the Lord do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore.”

Ezekiel 39:27-29, “When I have brought them again from the people, and gathered them out of their enemies’ lands, and am sanctified in them in the sight of many nations…but I have gathered them unto their own land…for I have poured out my spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord God.”

Israel’s exile to Babylon was into one nation after many cycles of “they knew not God” and idolatry as described in Judges 2:10-11 and onward. An important part of Ezekiel’s prophecy is that after being exiled for 1900 years into many other nations without being assimilated into other peoples into extinction, the present day Israel kept their faith and from idolatry. The key to this prophecy is the time frame—Israel must be a nation “in their own land” before part two of the Ezekiel 37 prophecy, “My sanctuary in the midst…My tabernacle”.

1)      God brought Israel out of captivity and placed them in their own land, fulfilled in 1948. 2)      “My sanctuary” and “My tabernacle in the midst” is yet to be fulfilled. 3)      Then, Israel will have God’s Spirit of “within”, saved as it is written in Romans 11:26!

Ezekiel 36:26, “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.”

Romans 11:26, “…And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written…”

At least the first two of the three Ezekiel 37 prophecies will be fulfilled previous the Tribulation in order to fulfill 2Thessalonians 2:4, the “temple of God” occupied by the Antichrist during the Tribulation.The temple is likely to be constructed previous the Tribulation or during a seven year peace agreement by the yet to be revealed Antichrist rather than during the Tribulation. I would speculate that the Antichrist would allow the temple to be built just knowing he will take it over when complete. There is an order; the Ezekiel 38 prophecy of the hooks of Magog also requires Israel to be in the land before the Tribulation. The condition of Israel occupying the land is obedience and since they are back in the land, the debt of the disobedience has been paid. It is a very likely and real possibility that the third part of the prophecy, the salvation of Israel, will also occur after the temple but before the Tribulation. The prophecy of the temple in Ezekiel 41 gives greater detail of the sanctuary spoken of in Ezekiel 37.

Ezekiel 38:1-22, “ set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog…And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, Persia, Ethiopia, Libya…Gomer…Togarmah…and many people with thee. After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them…And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages…thou shalt come up against my people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the latter days, and I will bring thee against my land… every man’s sword shall be against his brother.”

Ezekiel 39:4-22, “Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel…And I will send a fire on Magog…Israel shall go forth, and shall set on fire and burn the weapons…with fire seven years…seven months shall the house of Israel be burying of them…So the house of Israel shall know that I am the Lord their God from that day and forward.”

Ezekiel 39:22-29, “So the house of Israel shall know that I am the Lord their God from that day and forward. And the heathen shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity: because they trespassed against me, therefore hid I my face from them, and gave them into the hand of their enemies: so fell they all by the sword…Now will I bring again the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel…they have borne their shame, and all their trespasses whereby they have trespassed against me…but I have gathered them unto their own land…for I have poured out my spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord God.”

The Ezekiel 38 prophecy can only be fulfilled after Israel becoming a nation (1948) but before the third temple and the sanctuary of God that must exist previous the Tribulation. The present day nations are listed and the event of war do not allow this prophecy to occur in the peaceful kingdom age under the rule of Jesus when they will beat weapons into plowshares. Israel is not to expect the wrath of God because the language of Ezekiel is the love of God for His people Israel because the exile is over and we wait for the remaining fulfillment, the salvation of all Israel. Darbyism with its dual-covenant cannot allow Israel salvation before the Tribulation and prescribes hard times upon Israel during the Tribulation.

On the other hand, it is possible that all Israel does not come to salvation before or during the Tribulation. In that case, any Jews that live through the Tribulation would not be in the first resurrection and any that remain unbelieving during the Tribulation, would not be raptured as saints at Jesus’ second coming. Having missed both the resurrection and rapture, even though there is no mention of Israel in Revelation chapter twenty, it is inevitable that they would live into the thousand years on earth. Coming to salvation they would be part of the camp of the saints in verse nine, not because of a dual covenant but under the one new covenant.

Immanency influence

William Miller, freemason until 1831 and Baptist preacher, was influenced with Darby’s nothing more needed to happen immanency doctrine and predicted that Jesus Christ would come again to this earth before March 21, 1844 however, that the non-event known as The Great Disappointment, passed without incident. Many of his “Millerites,” also known as Adventists,deserted. Ellen G. White, whose family were devotees of Miller and believed in Christ’s imminent bodily return, rose above the confusion claiming to have received God-given revelations to become the new leader of what is known today as the Seventh–day Adventist Church.Charles Taze Russell,founder of the Watchtower Society, also taught of the invisible appearance of Jesus’ however, that failed to come to pass in 1874 and again failed in 1914. The 144,000 faithful were to be raptured to heaven prior to Armageddon and Jesus Kingdom established as paradise on earth. With the uneventful passing of 1914, 1975 was the new date set for Armageddon however that too passed by as well as disenfranchising a huge number of followers. Mormon Joseph Smith in 1835 said of the “Wind up in 56 Years—The coming of the Lord, which is nigh—even fifty-six years should wind up the scene. [1891]” Not only did Darby and the Jehovah’s Witnesses produce their own translation but the Joseph Smith Translation was also created in 1844 to support his positions.Charles Parham, the father of Pentecostalism was also taken with nothing more needs to happen doctrine and his students expected Jesus to return in 1899 at midnight. C.S. Schofield Reference Bible is thoroughly saturated with Darbyism that became an acceptable Evangelical standard into the 1900’s. Then, 1984 was a big year for best sellers like Hal Lindsey and a host of others, without setting dates but implying, that forty years after 1948 (1988), would realize Darby’s invisible return of Christ and the secret rapture theory. Darby’s “nothing more needs to happen” immanency is still the major belief of Evangelicals today along with the invisible return and secret rapture. Even in the past few decades, dozens of false teachers predicted the immanent return of Christ, being deceived that nothing more needs to happen against 2Thessalonians 2:3-4. http://en (dot) wikipedia (dot) org/wiki/Development_of_Jehovah’s_Witnesses_doctrine http://en (dot) wikipedia(dot)org/wiki/List_of_prophecies_of_Joseph_Smith

Darby’s friends and contemporaries

Benjamin Wills Newton, (1807–1899) “was initially a close friend of John Nelson Darby, they began to clash on matters of church doctrine and practice which ultimately led to the 1848 split of the brethren movement into the Open Brethren and Exclusive Brethren. A bigger dispute also began to arise in the 1830s over their differing views of future events predicted in the Bible. Although both were premillennialists,  Newton believed the church would go through the tribulation, whilst Darby, who previously also believed in a post tribulation rapture, began to shift positions and became increasingly convinced in a pretribulation rapture…Newton was particularly critical of Darby’s belief that future events in chapter 24 of the Gospel of Matthew relate primarily to the Jews after the church had been secretly raptured and said that “the Secret Rapture was bad enough, but this [John Darby’s equally novel idea that the book of Matthew is on ‘Jewish’ ground instead of ‘Church’ ground] was worse.”

Newton interpreted 1 Thessalonians 4:16 and 2 Thessalonians 2 v1-4 as proof of a post tribulation, non-secret rapture. He viewed Darby’s dispensational and pre-tribulation rapture teaching as “the height of speculative nonsense”.Unlike Darby, he also believed that the church is made up of both Jews, including Old Testament saints, and Gentiles who have been made one in Christ and that Darby’s scheme, followed logically, implied two distinct and separate ways to salvation…Although labelled as an evil-doer and a false teacher by the Darbyites, other people view Newton as the John Calvin of the 19th century and believe the Brethren movement may have done better if it had followed his teaching rather than Darby’s dispensationalism, and Darby’s belief in the any moment pre-tribulation secret return of the Lord for the secret rapture of the saints to heaven, and for the Lord to return publicly with the church 7 years later for the commencement of a 1000 year reign. His friends and supporters during years of relentless vilification by the Darbyites included Samuel Prideaux Tregelles, George Muller and Charles Spurgeon. http://en (dot) wikipedia (dot) org/wiki/Benjamin_Wills_Newton

George Müller (1805-1898) [a founding member of the Plymouth Brethren movement] wrote “I consider Mr. Newton’s writings to be most sound and scriptural…I am a constant reader of the Bible, and I soon found that what I was taught to believe did not always agree with what my Bible said. I came to see that I must either part company with John Darby, or my precious Bible, and I chose to cling to my Bible and part from Mr. Darby.”George Müller held to a Post Tribulation Rapture doctrine along with others such as Benjamin Wills Newton and Samuel Prideaux Tregelles, and said that “scripture declares plainly that the Lord Jesus will not come until the Apostasy shall have taken place, and the man of sin shall have been revealed…” [2Thessalonians 2:3-4] Robert Cameron, Scriptural Truth about the Lord’s Return, (Fleming H. Revell Co., New York, 1922) pp. 146-147 http://en (dot) wikipedia (dot) org/wiki/George_M%C3%BCller

Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Pastor of the Metropolitan Tabernacle [estimated that in his lifetime, Spurgeon preached to around 10,000,000 people] and contemporary of Darby, published criticism of Darby and Brethrenism. His main criticism was that Darby and the Plymouth Brethren rejected the vicarious purpose of Christ’s obedience as well as imputed righteousness… http://en (dot) wikipedia (dot) org/wiki/John_Nelson_Darby

…regular quarrels, is the chronic condition of Plymouth Brethrenism. They are in a state of constant antagonism with the Bethesda party…When they have no one of the opposite party to quarrel with, they will disagree among themselves…Mr. Darby is, to all intents and purposes, a thorough Pope, though under a Protestant name…Mr. Darby has again and again said in print, as well as written in private that those who belong to his party in the metropolis constitute the only church of Christ in London.” Mr. Grant on “The Darby Brethren” from the June 1869 Sword and Trowel.

James Grant[a Christian editor of a British newspaper] wrote: “With the deadly heresies entertained and taught by the Plymouth Brethren, in relation to some of the most momentous of all the doctrines of the gospel, and to which I have adverted at some length, I feel assured that my readers will not be surprised at any other views, however unscriptural and pernicious they may be, which the Darbyites have embraced and zealously seek to propagate. http://en (dot) wikipedia (dot) org/wiki/John_Nelson_Darby

Summary

Problematic beliefs:

1. Darby’s Exclusive party constituted the only church of Christ in London.
2. Darby’s Exclusive party recognized no other denomination.
3. The consequence of believing Christ’s sufferings on the cross as ‘non-atoning’.
4. The consequence of rejecting the doctrine of the imputed righteousness of Christ.
5. Darby deciding what Scripture is intended for the Church or what Scripture for Israel.
6. That there is one new covenant for the Church, and another covenant for Israel; dualism.
7. Two distinct and separate covenants to salvation, dualistic redemption, does it matter?
8. The dispensational doctrine that includes dualism in the Bible.
9. An immanency doctrine that nothing more needs to happen before a secret rapture.
10. An invisible and silent return of Christ to gather the Church before His second coming.
11. Divides saints who lived before the coming of Christ from saints who lived afterwards.
12. A pre-Tribulation secret rapture to heaven theory for the Church at the invisible coming.
13. A post-Tribulation rapture of Old Testament saints at the visible second coming.
14. A resurrection and rapture of the Tribulation saints after the Tribulation.
15. Multiple phases of the first resurrection previous the first resurrection (an oxymoron).
16. A first second coming that is invisible, a second second coming that every eye shall see.
17. The first resurrection on “the last day” at “the last trumpet” is not necessarily the last day.
18. Israel will not be saved until chastised into salvation during the Tribulation.
19. Israel will not be raptured in order to populate the millennial kingdom on earth.
20. The third temple will not be built until the millennial kingdom.

What if?

What if as it is written, all Israel is “brought into their own land, My sanctuary and My tabernacle is in the midst, and My spirit poured out upon the house of Israel, and all Israel is saved” happens before the tribulation?

What if as 2Thessalonians 2:4 agrees with Ezekiel 37 & 40 that My sanctuary and My tabernacle, the Temple of God will exist during the Tribulation, as it is written?

What if as 2Thessalonians 2:3 says, the apostasy of the Church “comes first” before the Antichrist and Tribulation?

What if the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together rapture of the Church (2Thessalonians 2:1), the day of Christ (2Thessalonians 2:2), will not come until the apostasy and the Antichrist comes first? (2Thessalonians 2:3) 5)

Does it matter if the nothing more must happen immanency doctrine is missing the truth that more needs to happen?

Conclusion

History and voices of the past bring overwhelming evidence that there was no Christian teaching of a dispensationalism that included a secret, silent, pre-Tribulation rapture theory before John Nelson Darby began preaching it in the 1830s. This theory is interwoven with multiple aberrations as a “nothing more needs to happen” immanency doctrine, an invisible coming of Christ, multiple first resurrections of the dead in Christ to accommodate Jesus coming from heaven twice, the Church going to heaven twice, and dualism. Without one verse of biblical support for all these aberrations, we can conclude that no one can independently come to Darby’s dispensationalism by studying the Bible alone, Sola Scriptura. Furthermore, we can attribute much of today’s eschatological confusion, error, and apathy to this popular aberration.

Jesus warned believers to watch for the signs of His coming saying, “…Immediately after the tribulation…when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.” (Matthew 24:29,33) Why would we be warned of the Tribulation events if we will be raptured before them? Who then is He warning? The apostle Paul also warned, “Let no one in any way deceive you, for that day will not come” unless the apostasy comes first AND the man of sin revealed AND sitting in the Temple of God. (2Thesalonians 2:1-4) Immanency applies only to the day and hour of Jesus’ coming just as it is written and not to the signs of the fig tree and the season that Jesus did warn us to watch for—the Tribulation events. To the contrary dispensationalism simply ignores both these warnings and preaches that nothing more needs to happen.

Dispensationalism proudly boasts of literalism and adamantly come against amillenialism for its symbolic interpretations. Hypocritically, it ignores the original Greek word Χριστός—Khristos, Strong’s word G5547 translated 569 times as Christ, as in the day of Christ (2Thessalonians 2:2), to accept the Darby Translation’s non-literal interpretation as the day of the Lord.

Dispensationalism again leaves the literal boast to reject the true meaning of protos and eschatos, the first and the last, the first resurrection on the last day. Instead, dispensationalism proposes multiple phases of the first resurrection (Revelation 20:5) from seven to two-thousand years apart; that the “dead in Christ” will not all be resurrected in the hour on the last day, and that the Church will be resurrected before the day of Christ.

Eschatology is not so difficult to understand once a person purges of the Dispensational priesthood, the Darbyist commentaries, popular books and movies, elaborate time-line charts, or the famous study reference Bible. The best study Bible is Sola Scriptura, as it was written, as God intended it and certainly not the translation and doctrine built upon Darby. The danger is that error only begets error causing millions to be deceived, unprepared for what is to come, and possibly disillussioned that the Bible is not true—apostasy, turning away from the truth. When people realize from the Bible alone, that there is only one resurrection of the dead in Christ and then one rapture of the Church at the only visible second coming of Jesus, on the last day, at the last trumpet, all the complicated nonsense disappears and even a child can understand. The enemy of our souls does not want us to understand the second coming with such clarity. We have to ask ourselves, is Darbyism the cherry on top of this age’s health and wealth prosperity gospel—all together the most wonderful outcome a person could wish for but ultimately a grand delusion?