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Church_Militant
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But in the 1830s, an Irish Protestant named John Nelson Darby began to preach the idea of a pre-tribulational Rapture. He spread this view in his own group, known as the Plymouth Brethren, and founded a new theological school in Protestantism. This school—Dispensationalism—holds that human history is divided into a number of distinct dispensations (ages) in which God deals with man in very different ways. Thus Dispensationalists frequently do not allow doctrinal appeals to be made to various parts of Scripture, arguing that they apply to a different dispensation than the one we live in (the “Church age”).
There is an element of truth to this idea. By unveiling the Law of Christ (cf. 1 Cor. 9:21; Gal. 6:2), Jesus superceded the Law of Moses, which had previously regulated the obligations of the Jewish people toward God. But Dispensationalism carries this idea too far. In extreme forms of the view (known as ultra-dispensationalism) it is claimed that only a tiny portion of the New Testament (such as the pastoral epistles) is relevant to us today.
The fact that Christians generally acknowledge that God relates to men somewhat differently in different ages has led some to suggest that Dispensationalism has been misnamed. Its distinctive tenet is really not the existence of dispensations but the particular end-time system it espouses: pre-tribulational pre-millennialism.
This is what most characterizes Dispensationalism. Advocates of the view have a difficult time pointing to any believers in this system prior to John Nelson Darby. They do propose a few possible precursors for the view, but despite their best efforts it is clear that the idea of a pre-tribulational Rapture was something Darby popularized and that it was either virtually or entirely unknown prior to that time.
Darby’s ideas were taken up in America by a former Confederate soldier named Cyrus Ingerson (“C. I.”) Scofield, who incorporated them into the explanatory material in his Scofield Reference Bible. This became very popular in America since, at the time, there were few Protestant study Bibles. The appearance of dispensational ideas in the notes within the Bible itself led many to regard these as assured theological conclusions, and the view spread. The Scofield Reference Bible was one of the key factors leading to the growth and eventual dominance of the pre-trib, pre-mil position in American Evangelicalism. Also important were Dispensationalist schools such as Dallas Theological Seminary and the Bible Institute of Los Angeles.
After achieving dominance in the 1970s, this view began to decline in the 1980s, with many turning back to historical pre-millennialism, post-millennialism, and amillenialism. However, with the publications of the Left Behind books in the 1990s, the movement has been re-energized, and it is quite likely that Left Behind will play a role similar to the Scofield Reference Bible and The Late Great Planet Earth in sustaining and popularizing the idea of a pre-trib Rapture.
[ LINK](But in the 1830s, an Irish Protestant named John Nelson Darby began to preach the idea of a pre-tribulational Rapture. He spread this view in his own group, known as the Plymouth Brethren, and founded a new theological school in Protestantism. This school—Dispensationalism—holds that human history is divided into a number of distinct dispensations (ages) in which God deals with man in very different ways. Thus Dispensationalists frequently do not allow doctrinal appeals to be made to various parts of Scripture, arguing that they apply to a different dispensation than the one we live in (the “Church age”).[/COLOR)
So…
There is an element of truth to this idea. By unveiling the Law of Christ (cf. 1 Cor. 9:21; Gal. 6:2), Jesus superceded the Law of Moses, which had previously regulated the obligations of the Jewish people toward God. But Dispensationalism carries this idea too far. In extreme forms of the view (known as ultra-dispensationalism) it is claimed that only a tiny portion of the New Testament (such as the pastoral epistles) is relevant to us today.
The fact that Christians generally acknowledge that God relates to men somewhat differently in different ages has led some to suggest that Dispensationalism has been misnamed. Its distinctive tenet is really not the existence of dispensations but the particular end-time system it espouses: pre-tribulational pre-millennialism.
This is what most characterizes Dispensationalism. Advocates of the view have a difficult time pointing to any believers in this system prior to John Nelson Darby. They do propose a few possible precursors for the view, but despite their best efforts it is clear that the idea of a pre-tribulational Rapture was something Darby popularized and that it was either virtually or entirely unknown prior to that time.
Darby’s ideas were taken up in America by a former Confederate soldier named Cyrus Ingerson (“C. I.”) Scofield, who incorporated them into the explanatory material in his Scofield Reference Bible. This became very popular in America since, at the time, there were few Protestant study Bibles. The appearance of dispensational ideas in the notes within the Bible itself led many to regard these as assured theological conclusions, and the view spread. The Scofield Reference Bible was one of the key factors leading to the growth and eventual dominance of the pre-trib, pre-mil position in American Evangelicalism. Also important were Dispensationalist schools such as Dallas Theological Seminary and the Bible Institute of Los Angeles.
After achieving dominance in the 1970s, this view began to decline in the 1980s, with many turning back to historical pre-millennialism, post-millennialism, and amillenialism. However, with the publications of the Left Behind books in the 1990s, the movement has been re-energized, and it is quite likely that Left Behind will play a role similar to the Scofield Reference Bible and The Late Great Planet Earth in sustaining and popularizing the idea of a pre-trib Rapture.
[ LINK](But in the 1830s, an Irish Protestant named John Nelson Darby began to preach the idea of a pre-tribulational Rapture. He spread this view in his own group, known as the Plymouth Brethren, and founded a new theological school in Protestantism. This school—Dispensationalism—holds that human history is divided into a number of distinct dispensations (ages) in which God deals with man in very different ways. Thus Dispensationalists frequently do not allow doctrinal appeals to be made to various parts of Scripture, arguing that they apply to a different dispensation than the one we live in (the “Church age”).[/COLOR)
So…
- There ain’t no “Rapture”
- It ain’t scriptural
- In view of them other two… Catholics ain’t gonna b’lieve in it.
Pax vobiscum,
