Quote:
Originally Posted by Unregistered
OMW....you are perpetuating error by stating Darby listened to the utterance>>>Wm Kelley and others have addressed this myth with great specificity at www.stempublishing.com they also address other historical references that pre-date Darby as the originator of the rapture. Even Matthew Henry used the term. |
You make a claim with no clear evidence. It may be that Darby had some of his thinking in place before that, but a general reference to a web site that simply publishes virtually everything Darby (along with many others) wrote does not make any case. Might as well say that one of them provided the theory of relativity and say that it is in there somewhere. It might be. And it might not be. None of us are going to go through that much stuff to find it. Be specific. State the precise document. Or better yet, make the link to the precise document.
And a reasonable perusal of the multitude of documents under the name of W Kelly (Kelley??) did not reveal anything on point.
But the real point is prior to Darby, where are the references to a pre-tribulation rapture? I find three minor references and you mention one other (Matthew Henry) which again is too unspecific to find.
The three I find are to 1) a Puritan minister and his son, Increase and Cotton Mather, some time in the 1600s, 2) Morgan Edwards in 1788, and 3) Emmanuel Lacunza in 1812.
But almost all literature indicates that a pre-tribulation "rapture" was essentially not part of any regular theology prior to its popularization by Darby.
And these others may have made references to such a thing in one way or another. Were any of them sound enough to gather support outside of their sphere of influence?
And did such a way of thinking exist prior to any of these? There is stated a presumption that there was, but it is not evidenced in the writings, including scripture.
So the question remains. How "old" is rapture theology as we know it today.