Normally, outright calling somebody an idiot, personally, isn't appropriate. But, in this case, it's absolutely true, this a perfect example what a wasteland message boards can be.
At very best, somebody making that "Darby invented the rapture" claim of something that's in scripture is real ignorance. That ignorance stems from having no spiritual understanding of scripture, which is evidence of a fake Christian, a tare or somebody trolling. Trolls love throwing the Darby lie out there, despite it being discredited so thoroughly. The best you can say is such people are your ignornant-blind, fake Christians, John 16:13, the worst you can say is they're a tare or trolling. In any case, yes, an idiot, just junking-up threads in forums, a wholly unreliable, ignorant person not worth reading, and not worth discussing anything with, Proverbs 26:4, 1 Timothy 6:5.
Anybody can Google such as this, researched by a long line of scholars. Anybody could and would Google the truth, except for a liar or an idiot, that is, a liar and an idiot, as most all idiots are liars. There are too many people here just trolling, who really don't have a clue as to the truth.
150BC - 70AD Rapture Mentioned in the Dead Sea Scrolls
In this article Dr. William Harold, professor of Canon Law, at the Theological Seminary of Essex, GB wrote:
"Without doubt, this is the most important discovery in the history of Biblical archeology. The scroll, written in Aramaic, the language spoken in the Holy Land during Jesus time on earth, was found in a cave on the shores of the Dead Sea by geologists conducting a survey for the Israeli government."
The scrolls read:
"The Rapture will occur suddenly. And countless thousands will vanish from the earth. Swept up to heaven to live with Jesus and escape the torment of the Tribulation, the others will be left behind." — The Dead Sea Scrolls
Many others believed and taught this long before John Darby
95-150 AD, the Rapture idea was preached by the Shepherd of Hermas.
"You have escaped from great tribulation on account of your faith, and because you did not doubt in the presence of such a beast. Go, therefore, and tell the elect of the Lord His mighty deeds, and say to them that this beast is a type of the great tribulation that is coming. If then ye prepare yourselves, and repent with all your heart, and turn to the Lord, it will be possible for you to escape it, if your heart be pure and spotless, and ye spend the rest of the days of your life in serving the Lord blamelessly." (documented by Larry V. Crutchfield)
270-303 AD, Victorinus, the Bishop of Pettau, a Catholic ecclesiastical writer preached it.
Victorinus said he saw another great and wonderful sign in his commentary on Book of Revelation in AD 270:
"Seven angels having the last seven plagues, for in them is completed the indignation of God. And these shall be in the last times when the church shall have gone out of the midst."
No doubt about it, St. Victorinus proclaimed the pretrib Rapture.
306-373 AD Ephraem the Syrian. One of the most important evidences for rapture is an apocalyptic sermon from the 4th century titled "Sermon on the End of the World". It is credited to Ephraem the Syrian, a Syriac deacon, theologian, and hymnographer of the 4th century who wrote many biblical commentaries. Some suggest it may not have been written until a later date of 565-627 A.D. The exact date doesn't matter. Even if it were as late as the 7th century, it is still 1100 years prior to John Darby. Ephraem wrote:
"Why therefore do we not reject every care of earthly actions and prepare ourselves for the meeting of the Lord Christ, so that he may draw us from the confusion, which overwhelms all the world? Believe you me, dearest brother, because the coming (advent) of the Lord is nigh, believe you me, because the end of the world is at hand, believe me, because it is the very last time. Or do you not believe unless you see with your eyes? See to it that this sentence be not fulfilled among you of the prophet who declares: "Woe to those who desire to see the day of the Lord!" For all the saints and elect of God are gathered, prior to the tribulation that is to come, and are taken to the Lord lest they see the confusion that is to overwhelm the world because of our sins."
400 AD, Jerome in the Latin vulgate (in the Catholic Bible) used the word rapimur which means "rapture", or "caught up" to describe the Rapture. Jerome is actually the man who first coined the term – Rapture.
Why has the Pre-Tribulation doctrine emerged so prominently over the past 200 years?
The Bible, prior to 200 years ago, was kept out of the hands of the common people. It was locked in museums and monasteries for 1000 years during the Dark Ages. It wasn't until the Bible was translated into the common people's language and that then the hope (the Blessed Hope – the Rapture) of the pre-millennial return of Christ was once again established in the Church. When the Scriptures were available to everybody the ancient truth of the Rapture – before the Tribulation period – was again discovered.
Pre-Tribulation Rapture beginning around the end of the Dark Ages.
1304 AD, Reverend Dolcino
Francis X. Gumerlock believes that Brother Dolcino and the Apostolic Brethren taught pretribulationism documented by the following statement:
"Again, [Dolcino believed and preached and taught] that within those three years Dolcino himself and his followers will preach the coming of the antichrist. And that the antichrist was coming into this world within the bounds of the said three and a half years; and after he had come, then he [Dolcino] and his followers would be transferred into Paradise, in which are Enoch and Elijah. And in this way they will be preserved unharmed from the persecution of antichrist. And that then Enoch and Elijah themselves would descend on the earth for the purpose of preaching [against] antichrist. Then they would be killed by him or by his servants, and thus antichrist would reign for a long time. But when the antichrist is dead, Dolcino himself, who then would be the holy pope, and his preserved followers, will descend on the earth, and will preach the right faith of Christ to all, and will convert those who will be living then to the true faith of Jesus Christ."
1400 AD, Bible translations in the native tongues led to a new propagation of the Pre-trib Rapture.
1627 AD, Joseph Mede, a literalist, used the word "rapture."
1639-1723 AD Increase Mather pastor, scholar, and the first President of Harvard College. Paul Boyer has noted that this Puritan scholar proved "that the saints would be caught up into the air beforehand, thereby escaping the final conflagration." This teaching from Mather was an early formulation of the rapture doctrine.
1687 AD, Peter Jurieu; in his book Approaching Deliverance of the Church (1687) taught that Christ would come in the air to rapture the saints and return to heaven before the battle of Armageddon. He spoke of a secret Rapture prior to His coming in glory and judgment at Armageddon.
1700 AD, John Asgill, who wrote a book in 1700 about the possibility of translation (i.e. rapture) without seeing death.
1738 AD, Philip Doddridge
Philip Doddridge's commentary on theNew Testament (1738) and John Gill's commentary on the New Testament (1748) both use the term "rapture" and speak of it as imminent. It is clear that these men believed that this coming will precede Christ's descent to the earth and the time of judgment. The purpose was to preserve believers from the time of judgment.
1748 AD, John Gill
Dr. John Gill was one of the most brilliant scholars of his day. This Calvinist Baptist theologian wrote a full commentary set on the Bible in 1748. In this commentary he made a statement in his notes on 1 Thessalonians 4 that supported a time difference between the rapture of the saints and the coming of Christ to earth. He said:
....here Christ will stop and will be visible to all, and as easily discerned by all, good and bad, as the body of the sun at noon-day; as yet He will not descend on earth, because it is not fit to receive Him; but when that and its works are burnt up, and it is purged and purified by fire, and become a new earth, He'll descend upon it, and dwell with his saints in it: and this suggests another reason why He'll stay in the air, and His saints shall meet Him there, and whom He'll take up with Him into the third heaven, till the general conflagration and burning of the world is over, and to preserve them from it....
1763 AD, James McKnight
1744 AD, Morgan Edwards The clearest reference to a pretrib rapture before Darby comes from American Baptist pastor, educator and historian, Morgan Edwards. He is also founder of the Ivy League school, Brown University. Edwards saw a distinct rapture 3 1/2 years before the start of the millennium. Edward wrote about his pretrib beliefs as a student in 1744 and then later published them in 1788 in an essay titled, Two Academical Exercises on Subjects Bearing the following Titles; Millennium, Last-Novelties. His pro-Rapture stance is impossible to dismiss. He taught the following:
II. The distance between the first and second resurrection will be somewhat more than a thousand years.
I say, somewhat more-, because the dead saints will be raised, and the living changed at Christ's "appearing in the air" (Thess. 4:17); and this will be about three years and a half before the millennium, as we shall see hereafter: but will he and they abide in the air all that time? No: they will ascend to paradise, or to some one of those many "mansions in the father's house" (John 14:2), and disappear during the fore said period of time. The design of this retreat and disappearing will be to judge the risen and changed saints; for "now the time is come that judgment must begin," and that will be "at the house of God" (IPet. iv. 17) . . . (p. 7; The spelling of all Edwards quotes have been modernized.)
Thomas Ice further explains:
"Edwards clearly separates the rapture from the second coming by three and a half years. He uses modern pretrib rapture verses (1 Thess. 4:17 and John 14:2) to describe the rapture."
1792 AD, Thomas Scott
James MacKnight (1763) and Thomas Scott (1792) taught that the righteous will be carried to heaven, where they will be secure until the time of judgment is over.
And then in 1830 AD, John Darby enters the picture. Without question, John Darby was not the originator of the Rapture doctrine.
There is also a substantial list of Church Fathers' writings of great antiquity, going to a pre-tribulation rapture situation, teaching the doctrine of Christ's imminency, then judgment, etc.
I merely wish all the liars on the web would come up with better lies, the false Darby claim one of the very dumbest trolling points there is. You'd think even a troll would find that one embarrassing. It's simply difficult to conceive what sort of mentality would want to be associated with the likes of any thoroughly discredited, Neanderthal and flat-earth argument.
