THE ORIGIN OF DISPENSATIONAL ESCHATOLOGY AND THE PRE-TRIBULATION RAPTURE
At this point it would be profitable to make known the
facts about dispensational Eschatology as well as the
doctrine of the "secret rapture" prior to the
second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
What I personally believe is so interesting about the
entire development of these doctrines is that their
initial sources come out of the ranks of the most
blasphemous and deceptive organization in the entire
history of Christendom; the ranks of Romanism.
The first person who formulated this eschatology was a
Jesuit named Ribera in 1591AD. He interpreted the book of
Revelation suggesting an end-time personal antichrist, a
rebuilt Babylon and a rebuilt temple in Jerusalem at the
end of the Christian Era.This doctrine began to fester
within the system of Romanism which by now had a few
dozen more erroneous and blasphemous doctrines introduced
as biblical truths by its own leadership. But it wasn't
until 1745AD that another Jesuit named Manuel de Lacunza
y Diaz began to really distort the Scriptures through
doctrines that perfectly fit the category of the kind of
doctrines whose destructive results we are warned abut by
Paul. (2 Tim
4:3-4) .
Back in the 18th Century, there was a Spanish family
living in Chile named the De Lacunzas. In 1731, they had
a baby boy whom they named Manuel. After fifteen years at
home, young Manuel boarded a ship bound for Spain. He
wanted to join the holy orders of Romanism and become a
Jesuit priest. Twenty-one years later, the Jesuits were
expelled from Spain because of their brutality, and
"Father" Manuel de Lucunza y Diaz was forced to
leave the country. He made his new home in Imola, Italy,
where he remained for the rest of his life.
While in Imola, Lacunza claimed to be a converted Jew
named "Rabbi Ben Ezra."
Under that alias, he pens down a doctrine which he calls
"The coming of Messiah in Glory and Majesty."
He theorizes for the first time ever the end-time
tribulation view. A book with his entire work was
published in Spanish after his death.
In his book, he theorized that the Church would be
"raptured" (taken up to be with the Lord) 45
days before Jesus' real return to Earth. During that
45-day period (while the Church was in heaven with the
Lord), God would judge the wicked who were still
remaining on Earth.
This Jesuit "Rabbi" theorized the earliest
mini-tribulation, pre-trib rapture view on record! He
derived his view primarily from a faulty interpretation
of the 1290 and the 1335 days of Dan 12:11-12 (1335-1290
= 45).
De Lacunza died in Imola in 1801 and that should have
been the end of his theory. But after his death,
Lacunza's views were taught in Spain where his book was
published in 1812.
A little over 14 years later in 1827 his book was
translated into English by a Scottish radical named
Edward Irving. Irving was the founder of an early
charismatic cult, the Irvingites. He published Lacunza's
view in his paper, "The Morning Watch."
Lacunza's views could have died right there, for most
in England thought Irving to be a heretic, but the next
three years two individuals added some more sensational
views of doctrinal error to Lacunza's initial ones.
First, in 1830, a sickly little 15 year old charismatic
girl named Margaret Macdonald, only a Christian for one
year, claimed that she had a vision of a "secret
rapture." What is interesting is that Margaret
Macdonald was believed by her contemporaries to be
involved in the occult and there are documented records
of her performing levitation in some of her meetings,
claiming that it was the work of the Spirit.
A year later in 1831, Robert Norton, a charismatic
Irvingite evangelist, meets Margaret Macdonald and
popularizes her "secret rapture" vision around
England.
But it was 40 years later that this "tribulation
period" and the "secret rapture" theories
began to really spread.
In 1870, John N. Darby, founder of the Plymouth Brethren,
began to partake in many of the Irvingite meetings and at
one point he wrote that he had "come to an
understanding of a new truth." Later in his own
letters, Darby admitted that he had been influenced by
the writings of the Jesuit De Lacunza. And so he goes
ahead now and expands Lacunza's views to a
"seven-year Great Tribulation." Darby was not
satisfied with Lacunza's rather simplistic 45-day
tribulation idea, so he devised a more complex theory. It
appeared to him that the last week (Dan 9:27) of Daniel's
70 weeks had yet to be fulfilled, so he suggested a 2000
(plus)-year gap between the 69th and 70th week. Darby
then theorized that the 70th week was about a future
seven-year-tribulation period that would take place at
the end of the Christian Era.
>
From that springboard, by sundry leaps of logic, Darby
supposed that the Temple would be rebuilt and the animal
sacrifices would be reinstituted. An antichrist was
supposed to appear and rule the world for seven years.
After three and a half of them, this antichrist would
presumably turn against the Jews, stop the sacrifices,
and start Armageddon. He went on and on with many other
unsupported conjectures yet all were based upon the
erroneous doctrines of his predecessors we already
mentioned and on his own idea of a 2000 (plus)-year gap
and a seven-year great tribulation, theories he conjured
up to fit his ideas and interpretation of Dan 9:27.
What is even more interesting is that the Plymouth
Brethren hide the origin of this view and claim that it
is totally theirs.
Perhaps if J. N. Darby had not visited the United
States, the seven-year trib theory and the secret rapture
could have died right there. After all, there weren't
very many Plymouth Brethren. But while in the
States, Darby met C. I. Scofield. Scofield was so charmed
by the Lacunza-Macdonald-Darby creed that he went on to
include it in an annotated Bible he had in the works.
Sound Bible scholars of the day such as A. J. Gordon, W.
G. Moorhead, Charles R. Eerdman, and others tried to
dissuade him. Three noted members of Scofield's own
revision committee even resigned because of Scofield's
unswerving support for the Lacunza-Macdonald-Darby view,
but their voices were not heard. The seven-year view
remained and was incorporated into the notes of the now
world-famous Scofield Bible.
In the following decades, the Scofield Bible became the
most widely read Bible in the English language, and that
annotated Bible was the primary vehicle by which the
seven-year great tribulation view was spread throughout
the whole English-speaking church. Scathing reviews have
been written against Scofield's Bible by various
respected scholars of the day, but many others presumed
Scofield's notes to be all but inspired. Even today, some
folks think a commentator's notes below the line are as
valid as the Scriptures above it.
It is impossible to believe that a major end-time
doctrine of the Protestant world began in the minds of
Jesuit priests, one of which wrote under an assumed name
and claimed to be a converted Jew. But the historic
record of the origin of this creed is unassailable.
John Bray, the well known researcher of Christian
faith in doctrine and history who wrote the book
"The origin of the Pre-Tribulation Rapture
Teaching," has even offered a large reward to anyone
who can find an earlier or different source of these
false doctrines.
The church is indebted to this evangelist who was led of
the Lord to dig down to the very roots of the
pre-tribulation rapture position with such great courage.
There have been a host of weighty rebuttals by
conservative theologians, but few clearheaded scholars
have bothered to refute the De
Lucanza-Macdonald-Darby-Scofiled view scripturally, in a
language the everyday saint can understand.
Albertus Pieters is another well known courageous
theologian who writes in his "Examination of the
Scofield Bible":
"From start to finish it (the Scofield Bible) is a
partisan book, definitely, both openly and under cover,
an instrument of propaganda in favor of an exceedingly
doubtful eschatology…If Darby and his school
are right, the entire Christian church for eighteen
hundred years was wrong on a vital part of the Christian
faith."
Some have questioned the importance of knowing the origin
of this doctrine, but in any court of law, the jury is
entitled to know the credibility of the witness. So the
Church has every right to ask:
"Would a priest from an organization known for its
blasphemous doctrines and the brutality that has
exhibited throughout hundreds of years against the true
believers in Christ, masquerading as a Jewish Rabbi, be a
credible witness on spiritual matters and on biblical
truth?" God forbid!
Finally, what makes this whole thing even more sad is the
fact that Scofield knew the true origin of the pre-trib
view in every detail, as some of his close associates did
indicate, but since Irvingites were known to be heretics,
he hid this knowledge from the public.
The reasons for supporting this view? Its great
fundraising capability (of the view) for the increase of
Bible sales (i.e., sensationalism).
Dr. Harry Ironside of Moody Bible Institute, himself
an ardent supporter of the
Lacunza-Darby-Macdonald-Scofield eschatological scheme,
admitted in his book Mysteries of God, p. 50 :…Until
brought to the fore through the writings of…Mr. J.
N, Darby, the doctrine taught by Dr. Scofield (the
Seven-Year Tribulation) is scarcely to be found in a
single book throughout a period of 1600 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…the literature of the
reformation…the Puritans. He will find the 'mystery'
conspicuous by its absence."
Should such a statement surprise us? Yes, indeed, this
"mystery is absent," because the Bible doesn't
teach it.
Should we be offended by the continuous teaching and the
proliferation of such erroneous doctrines?
Well, these doctrines were first taught when the Jews
were not home and when Jerusalem was not free, so there
was less data available then than there is now that throw
much light to the prophetic words of the Bible. As a
result, one must be careful not to speak ill of the
brethren who taught and have proliferated this error
unwittingly and without proper research of its origin.
But an error is an error regardless of who teaches it,
and false doctrines will remain if no one is willing to
stand against them. Some things can't be whitewashed, or
brushed under the carpet, and God holds a teacher
responsible for what he teaches, Jas 3:1. Among 20th
century evangelicals, the pre-trib rapture and the
Seven-Year Tribulation are the most widely believed myths
there are.
Today's Christian schools have perpetuated these
counter-scriptural dogmas. How? Because professors have
spent their lives studying what past men had to say about
the Bible while very little original work is undertaken
within the Bible, despite the unprecedented prophetic
fulfillment which have taken place in our lifetime. And
if at some point such prophetic fulfillment is taken in
consideration, for by staring us in the face cannot be
ignored any longer, the familiar and deeply ingrained
pride of man, due to past efforts, recognition and fame,
will not let humility rise from within the heart and
admit the error. As a result, our end-time
views do not address today's realities, they are filled
with deceptive doctrines and therefore do not meet the
real needs of the church. But this is not true only with
the De Lacunza doctrine. There are countless of erroneous
doctrines that are flooding the church of Jesus Christ
these last days.
Who would ever thought that out of the glorious
Protestant church that is filled with the legacy of the
martyr's who died for the defense of our faith, today,
will have a denomination that its entire synod will
gladly elect an Archbishop to defend the Christian faith
and care for the flock of Christ, who openly and
unashamedly flaunts his homosexuality.
May the Lord raise up men who will stand as rocks of
faith against the tide of evil that has come to destroy
our pure and holy faith in God's word and be willing to
give their lives in doing so.
* A copy of the Irving translation of Lacunza's
work may still be found in Oxford University, Oxford,
UK.
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