I Wish We’d All Been Ready
June 21, 2020
Have you been Lied to by Your Pastor/Church Leader?
September 10, 2020
During this, we are going through some unorthodox times and while most will treat it like another day, it is easy to see that there could be more to it. Like the times are happening, but while I would not go on to say that I truly believe it, I have an open mind to it. With that said, I want to look at one person, John Nelson Darby. John Nelson Darby was a man that started the Exclusive Brethern, and the name is rightly so given to this unique group of people. I say this with a hint of humor as for the reason for this article. Throughout this study of the truth of how Jesus will return, I have been confronted with different comments and observations which has always left me wondering. These comments and observations would lead me to ask “Should I study the end times, or eschatology (the study of end-times)? Or just let the previous person, who could have got it wrong, who studied it got it wrong and let me also get it wrong and allow him to feed me the lies that he, willing or unwillingly, got wrong and continues to feed the lies. Simply, I choose not to believe a person I never met but do my own study, which is why I show people in my book, The Trouble With the Tribulation:
how to study the Bible and where I literally tell you how to do a real study of the Bible. I do not just want you to read my book, but check it. Why, because of the following. So whether or not he misled us or not, the one question I always got, why waste my time? As if to say studying the Bible was a waste of time. But then I came across something else. This something else ties into this, which is when, I was asked not to waste my time, by different people, on one certain subject, and that subject was eschatology. Why was it okay to read the Bible, study it but not okay to study eschatology or even look at asking questions. This always confused me, until I found out one thing. Something that was pointed out to me in the book, ‘Chapter 4: John Nelson Darby (1800-1882) The Father of Premillennial Dispensationalism’, which says:
Talking of Darby, “He regarded disinterest in his teaching of the rapture as a sign that the church was apostate and his own 'Assembly' elect. The rapture of the saints before the appearing of Christ, strange as it may appear to some, has nothing to say to the church, directly or exclusively; but as we form part of those caught up, it of course, interests us in the highest degree. Among Darby's supporters, 'his delineations of millennial glory dazzled the minds of his hearers.' Despite its novelty, Darby's belief of the 'pre-tribulation rapture' became central to his doctrine of the church as well as his dispensational eschatology, and subsequently came to be 'a foundation for contemporary Christian Zionism'”
So not only did Darby think this was important to his teaching, it was “central to his doctrine”. This is key and still is key today. I dare anyone to go into any 7-year pre-tribulation preaching church and start stating the 7-year pre-tribulation teaching is false teaching. You can do it nicely or rudely, it does not matter you will get the same response, “Get out”. Now talk or discuss anything else and you will be talked to in a way to get you to change, but just try to touch the 7-year tribulation lookout. But this leads me back to the fact of the matter, it does not matter that John Nelson Darby was wrong, what matters is that he taught it and he said “it is right”, you can question anything else but do not touch this belief. Why am I saying this, well it is simple. I read the books on John Nelson Darby and while he gives a lot of evidence of his opinions, he fails to give facts. He connects dots that are at most, conjecture, and assumptions, but fails to give facts or evidence. For example, he brings up a book written by Juan Josafat Ben-Ezra, who wrote a book in Spanish, and was translated into English by Edward Irving called “The Coming Messiah in Glory and Majesty” In it, there is supposed to be a clear description of the ‘rapture’, but I have yet to find it in the English version or the Spanish version. Please if someone can point out where I missed it I welcome the help (here is a link to the two versions). Please get them here for free, just click the images of the two versions:
Talking of Darby, “He regarded disinterest in his teaching of the rapture as a sign that the church was apostate and his own 'Assembly' elect. The rapture of the saints before the appearing of Christ, strange as it may appear to some, has nothing to say to the church, directly or exclusively; but as we form part of those caught up, it of course, interests us in the highest degree. Among Darby's supporters, 'his delineations of millennial glory dazzled the minds of his hearers.' Despite its novelty, Darby's belief of the 'pre-tribulation rapture' became central to his doctrine of the church as well as his dispensational eschatology, and subsequently came to be 'a foundation for contemporary Christian Zionism'”
So not only did Darby think this was important to his teaching, it was “central to his doctrine”. This is key and still is key today. I dare anyone to go into any 7-year pre-tribulation preaching church and start stating the 7-year pre-tribulation teaching is false teaching. You can do it nicely or rudely, it does not matter you will get the same response, “Get out”. Now talk or discuss anything else and you will be talked to in a way to get you to change, but just try to touch the 7-year tribulation lookout. But this leads me back to the fact of the matter, it does not matter that John Nelson Darby was wrong, what matters is that he taught it and he said “it is right”, you can question anything else but do not touch this belief. Why am I saying this, well it is simple. I read the books on John Nelson Darby and while he gives a lot of evidence of his opinions, he fails to give facts. He connects dots that are at most, conjecture, and assumptions, but fails to give facts or evidence. For example, he brings up a book written by Juan Josafat Ben-Ezra, who wrote a book in Spanish, and was translated into English by Edward Irving called “The Coming Messiah in Glory and Majesty” In it, there is supposed to be a clear description of the ‘rapture’, but I have yet to find it in the English version or the Spanish version. Please if someone can point out where I missed it I welcome the help (here is a link to the two versions). Please get them here for free, just click the images of the two versions:
It is not there. Why is this important, well there are some, ‘scholars’ ( I say scholars with a hint of sarcasm as they seem to just reference stuff without reading it) that say that this is proof that there is evidence of a rapture prior to the visions of Margret MacDonald. See if someone can prove there is evidence of a rapture mentioned prior to MacDonald, then the rapture may get some reprieve, but I doubt even that will help, as it is still a false doctrine. But I cannot find it. I have even asked those who say that it is in the Ben-Ezra book and have got no real answer, just that it is there. Which is no fact at all just an assumption or a misdirection which is a good way to try to opinions look like facts. But to make things worse is when you see what MacDonald said at the séance, you will be shocked and scared, because of the fact that it is clear that this is either of Satan. I say of both for the fact that if it was in Ben-Ezra’s book then it could be a reprieve until one does a study like in my book, or of Satan because it explains, to me at least, where this false doctrine comes from. When I read this, I was fearful, as it is clear that this is the birthplace of this false doctrine, the ‘seven-year tribulation’. To read the account, it is in the following book and article:
There is another book but it is a little harder to find, you can read some of the accounts here:
Sources Used: https://www.stephensizer.com/articles/darby1.html#5
