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| (See: John Nelson Darby 1800–1882) – a good man whose end-time views sadly continue to undermine the Church's readiness for her greatest triumph – |
widespread in evangelical Christian churches today than the idea that the Church will escape the end-time persecution by Antichrist through God's sudden removal/evacuation of all true Christians 7-years or 3½-years before the return of Christ to rule this world.
The resurrection
of all believers
when Jesus comes
is NOT to go to Heaven
for the "dead in Christ"
come with Him
from Heaven!
The resurrection body
is to share His rule!
Darby erroneously divided the blessed return of the Lord Jesus Christ into two returns:
1. first – for His Church as her 'Bridegroom'; and,
2. second – for Jacob's descendants, Israel (not the political state), as their 'Messiah'.
1. first – for His Church as her 'Bridegroom'; and,
2. second – for Jacob's descendants, Israel (not the political state), as their 'Messiah'.
all the centuries of the history of Christianity this dualism in Christ's return is completely unknown, until Darby.
This in itself should have warned thinking Christians that the Holy Spirit, who is pre-eminently faithful to God's people, had not kept this truth hidden through the centuries if it were ever true.
view is usually called a 'pre-tribulation rapture' and developed largely from John Darby's pessimistic view of the future of the Christian Church in its mission on earth (a view not shared by Holy Scripture).
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He was joined in this view by various evangelical leaders during the liberal-fundamentalist tensions within the Christian Family/Church and so the double-return view became so popularised to the extent that it is even written into the creedal statements of many Christian denominations and sadly/foolishly is therefore a condition of membership within them.
The number '12', as in God's promise to Abraham about Ishmael (Gen.17:20), carries a precious symbolic message of God's-governance, from the division of the year into 12 moons/months, for which reason the descendants of Ishmael (the Arabs) would also be twelve clans (meaning: under God's care!) |
This sad view is a of a Church-less end to this age, in which a converted-Israel of 12,000 from each 12 tribes (144,000), without the Holy Spirit, completes the Christian mission for Christ for which He had given the Holy Spirit to His Church.
Sadly, this teaching not only abuses Holy Scripture in its effort to prove itself, but robs Christianity of its most glorious hour, the overcoming of Antichrist's intimidation (as represented by the Two Witnesses in the Revelation).
to the encouraging promise of Christ concerning whatever believers face in this world ("I am with you always, to the end of the age" Matthew 28:20), Darby's popularised evacuation-doctrine of pretribulation-rapture is a distracting deception.
evangelical heresy!
It teaches, in effect, that when Satan plays his final trump card,
Christians, the Spirit-anointed people of God, will need to be rescued from Satan's Antichrist.
Christians, the Spirit-anointed people of God, will need to be rescued from Satan's Antichrist.
insults the wisdom of God
directly contradicts the plain declaration of God the Father to the Lord Jesus Christ at His Ascension, when He said –
| "Sit at My right hand, until I make Your enemies Your footstool." |
Satan's trump-card (the Antichrist) – it is written by God into the coming future of Christ's people –
| "And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death." |
this reason Satan will be barred from coming before the Throne of God as the "Accuser of the brethren", as he had done against Job, against Peter, and has done against God's people through the ages until this coming time, for in that time he will no longer have an accusation to bring against a Spirit-filled Church.
The Spirit-filled People of God will conquer! Hallelujah!
Revelation 12:10.
in this regard: the disturbing words of Oswald Smith, the great missions promoter, concerning the potential damage of this common Pretribulation-Rapture doctrine on world evangelism which Biblically the Christian Church is still required to complete.
