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Wednesday 12 October 2016

DR WATSON'S PRETRIB NON DISCOVERY By Dave MacPherson

     Dr. William Watson, history prof at Colorado Christian University, has penned a 55-page paper declaring that he has found examples of pretribulation rapture teaching considerably earlier than the claims that such teaching was "begun by Darby in the late nineteenth century." (Somehow he wrote "late" instead of "early.")
     Those interested in his paper can Google "Pretribulational Rapture in 17th and 18th Century England (pdf)." It features the highlights of his book "Dispensationalism Before Darby" (Lampion Press, 2015) which has been lauded by LaHaye, Ice, Reagan and other pretrib diehards.
     Right off the bat I noticed his misspelling of well-known prophecy writers. Lindsey became "Lindsay," Benware became "Benaware," Jeffrey became "Jeffery," and Scofield became "Schofield."
     I soon noticed, when going over Watson's attempt to prove the existence of pretrib rapture belief in his 17th and 18th century sources, that what he quoted was anything but pretribism. Many times those writers of yesteryear would merely be talking about "preservation" (or synonymous terms). Just before the quotes, Watson in short prefaces psyched up readers with a liberal usage of "Pretribulation" (or pretrib) and he seemed to use the word "rapture" endlessly (his way of putting "rapture" glasses on readers!). Oddly, I found only one mention of "dispensationalism" in one of the featured quotes even though it is in Watson's book title!
     What would be announced as pretrib rapture doctrine would be nothing more than a rapture before the final "conflagration," or before "Israel's resurrection," or before the final days of the Beast's power, or before Babylon's destruction, or before the "great destruction" at Armageddon, or before the Beast's zenith of "power," or before the Beast and false prophet are "cast into the lake of fire."
     Watson at times would say that some ancient writer taught two future comings, but upon checking it was found that the writer was merely talking about a coming before, and another coming after, a future millennium - certainly nothing about a pretrib coming! He admitted that a good number of the writers he researched were actually posttribulational in outlook, but by including them wasn't he undercutting his main purpose of claiming discovery of pretribulationism in writers centuries before Darby?
     On the first page of his paper, Watson mentioned a debate he had in 2007 with a fellow CCU prof who stated that dispensationalism and related ideas "began only 150 years ago in the mind of Darby."
     Watson revealed that the same debate was what inspired him to search for pretrib teaching in old books in British libraries. Since no posttrib or prewrath profs that I know would have an incentive to purposely look for pretribulationism before Darby's time, it's apparent to me that Watson, well versed on the current international "rapture" debate, had already been favoring the pretrib view which in recent years has seen pretrib merchandisers like Thomas Ice claiming evidence of pretrib in pre-1830 writers like Pseudo-Ephraem. In fact, Watson's paper cited Ice far more than any other prophecy writer of today!
     And when analyzing 18th century preacher Morgan Edwards, Watson echoed Ice and selectively quoted Edwards in the manner Ice had done! For an accurate assessment of Edwards, Google "Morgan Edwards' Rapture View" which shows that Edwards tied his "rapture" to the cosmic signs in Matt. 24! For more on Ice, pretribism's bulldog, Google "Pretrib Rapture Pride," "Walvoord Melts Ice," "Thomas Ice (Bloopers)," and "Be careful in polemics - Peripatetic Learning" (the latter written by a doctoral student in England).
     At the end of his paper Watson listed four of the writers he analyzed, said that none of them were pretrib but that they did mention "others who were" pretrib. I checked the quotes from all four (Thomas Collier, 1674; Praisegod Barebones (sic), 1675; Thomas Burnett, 1681; and Pierre Jurieu, 1687) - and none of the four mentioned anyone they knew of who was pretrib! And after all the pretrib "hype" in his title and throughout his prefaces before the quotes he offers, Watson has no category of "Pretribulation" in his chart at the back but has other categories showing what his authors saw in the way of "two comings," "resurrection," etc. and of course those who used "rapture" (but not after the word "pretrib")!
     Watson does mention Edward Irving on p. 32, and says that Irving and Darby "had begun teaching a pre-tribulation rapture" by "1831." My research shows that Irving and his Irvingites (who, BTW, credited a Miss Margaret Macdonald in Scotland as being the very first person to "discover" a pretrib rapture in the Bible) publicly taught pretrib in Sep. of 1830 in their journal "The Morning Watch." Darby, on the other hand, was still defending posttrib historicism in Dec. 1830 in the "Christian Herald," saw in 1837 the church "going in with Him to the marriage, to wit, with Jerusalem and the Jews," and didn't clearly teach pretrib until 1839 ("Notes on the Revelation"); his pretrib rapture was then based on the man child "caught up" in Rev. 12:5 (but Irving had used the same symbol for the same purpose back in 1831 and Darby, an avid reader of Irving's journal, "borrowed" Irving's thought without giving him credit!).
     If anyone before 1830 had taught a pretrib rapture, I'm sure that Darby would have heard about it. He was well read, knew several modern languages and even some ancient ones. The earliest pretrib teachers (in the 1830s) all stated that the pretrib rapture concept was a brand-new idea. In an 1834 letter Darby, while discussing the novel pretrib coming, wrote that "the thoughts are new," adding that "it would not be well to have it so clear, as it frightens people. We must pursue it steadily; it works like leaven...."
     Finally, I've long known that writers who bring up the origin of the pretrib view usually pad their books by quoting writers living centuries before and after the real originator and fail to use a microscope or magnifying glass like Sherlock Holmes and really focus on "who done it." It's almost as if certain writers are using a telescope to find the pretrib origin while looking out the window of an airplane circling the earth!
     I can imagine Dr. Watson contacting me and saying "Are you accusing me of using a telescope?"
     With apologies to Arthur Conan Doyle and P. G. Wodehouse, I could reply: "Elementary, my dear Watson, elementary!"

13 comments:

  1. These pre-trib big hitters will stop at nothing to deceive the simple in order to peddle their wares? Romans 16.18 is a verse that would describe some of these crooks, is it not?

    "For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple."

    They KNOW that the vast majority will just take their 'scholarship' at face value, and so won't dig deep to see "whether those things were so." Acts 17.11?

    MacPherson's article reminds me of a man that changed "Tregelles" into "Tregallas"! Typo error or subterfuge?

    God bless.

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  2. It is very sad that these pre-trib teachers are so determined in their mission to deceive the simple.. I still can't understand why they would want to be deliberately deceitful.
    Though he is not pre-trib, Jacob Prasch's intra-seal position is a web of sophistry.. his Tregallas typo/subterfuge is quite disgusting.
    God bless

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  3. "Deceitfulness of riches CHOKE the Word" Matthew 13.22."Filthy lucre..covetous" 1 Timothy 3.3, Can't think of a lot else?

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  4. You would think a History Professor would not be in want of money though Colin? Is it to make a name for themselves? Genesis 11:4

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  5. Thanks, Colin and Treena, for your incisive and scriptural comments. It's nice to know, during these dark days on earth, that there are true saints of the Lord such as you two! May He continue to empower you in marvelous ways and may you reach many.

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  6. Long before I met any of the pre-tribe folks you cite, long before I even read their work, I used the database and search engines of Early English Books Online and Eighteenth Century Collections Online (I helped compile the latter as a grad student at UCalif). By merely doing searches on words commonly used by those interested in prophecy I was led to hundreds of published works prior to 1800. I then organized chronologically and wrote my book. I would be glad to go over any corrections you may recommend for my second edition.

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  7. If you want to send me the details I will be very glad to take a look William. Leave your email on a new comment and I will not publish it. God bless.

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  8. I take it that Prof. Watson is admitting that his "discovery" of pretrib rapture teaching before the 1800s is fraught with embarrassing errors, as the MacPherson article you published recently so clearly and pointedly brought out with great detail. Watson's book "Dispensationalism Before Darby" and his related articles can hardly be recalled. But those suspicious (and rightly so) of his so-called "discovery" can best respond by publicizing the diehard pretrib traffickers (e.g. the late Tim LaHaye, Thomas Ice, David Reagan etc.)that he knew would have him on their shows and who, without doing a tad of their own research, have praised Watson to the outer edges of the ionosphere! For starters, Watson can learn how to spell "pre-trib" (see his comment above) and also correctly spell well-known prophecy writers like Lindsey, Benware, Jeffrey, and Scofield! One of the best ways for Watson to make amends would be to donate some of his book royalties to honorable and Biblical blogs such as Treena Gisborn's "Wolves in Sheep's Clothing" !

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  9. Why not engage with the voluminous 17th & 18th century sources, which I cited in lengthy blockquotes proving dispensational theology predates Darby, rather then pointing out a few spelling errors. Let's discuss the actual evidence I have brought to light, rather than focusing on red herrings.

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  10. All Dr. Watson needs to do is produce actual quotes (with sources) in pre-1830 writers who CLEARLY taught any sort of coming of Christ that would occur BEFORE either the "great tribulation" or BEFORE the days of the final Antichrist. He might also like to discuss several passages (such as Acts 2:34-35, Acts 3:21, and II Thess. 1:7-10) which declare that Christ must remain in heaven UNTIL it's time to make His foes His footstool (destroy them), UNTIL it's time to restore all things (restoration that can't happen while the Antichrist is raging), and UNTIL He comes "in flaming fire taking vengeance" on the wicked, at which time the church gets it "rest" in II Thess. 1:7 - none of which can occur UNTIL His second coming all the way down to earth. (If the wicked were destroyed before, or during, the tribulation, who would be the wicked ones who do the worst amount of human slaughter during the final days of the tribulation - slaughter so awful that if Christ did not shorten the days, no flesh would be left alive!) So, Dr. Watson, even though your connections (including "Dr. Tommy Ice with his phony "Ph.D" from an unaccredited school!) unfortunately limit your ability and desire to cast aspersions on the popular and lucrative any-moment pretribulation rapture merchandising, do try to give readers of this blog evidence, with quotes and sources, that the pretrib rapture was CLEARLY taught before 1830 by at least one person! (PS - All agree that some form of "dispensationalism" can be found before 1830, so please limit your rebuttal evidence to the existence of pretrib - and not dispensationalism - before 1830!)

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    1. I have two chapters in my book: Rapture in the 17th century and Rapture in the 1ith century. Will you read the book, or must I copy and paste it into my blog?

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  11. Dr. Watson, Rom. 16:18 speaks of those who "by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple." Since I'm simple enough, I simply ask you to simply give readers of this blog evidence, with quotes and sources, that the pretrib rapture was CLEARLY taught before 1830 by at least one person. (This is what I challenged you to do in my comment above, and it is the same challenge that Joe Schimmel has issued in his recent widely-discussed DVD titled "Left Behind or Led Astray? which I assume you have looked at on the net.) If you were in a debate and had two minutes to provide a simple historical quote to back up a point, would you start reading an entire book chapter? Of course not. Dr. Watson, quotes are dangerous because they can start wars and win battles. Look at the quotes, for example, in MacPherson's online item "Famous Rapture Watchers" which quotes leading Church Fathers (and which shows, BTW, how all pre-1830 scholars interpreted Rev. 3:10; the same online item also quotes post-1830 writers who viewed pretrib as a new belief). Many of the Fathers are either covered up or twisted by those who have a merchandising pretrib agenda! And perhaps you can explain why Darby ("Letters," July 24th 1834, from Dublin), stated that "the thoughts are new" when he brought up the new pretrib view that had been popping up regularly in Irving's journal "The Morning Watch" since Sep. of 1830, the writers of which also viewed pretrib as something unheard of before that time - or explain why Darby gloated to a friend back home that his hearers were accepting the new escapist view "without knowing whence it came or how it sprung up all of a sudden" ("Letters," January 2lst 1843, from Lausanne)! Dr. Watson, if you could go back in time you could straighten out Darby and tell him how misinformed he was to think that pretrib was then a brand-new belief! Dr. Watson, you will do the world and yourself a favor if you can simply and merely give us short convincing quotes (like the ones in "Famous Rapture Watchers" above) that pretrib was CLEARLY taught before 1830!

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  12. I am David Malcolm Bennett, author of "The Origins of Left Behind Eschatology" (my PhD dissertation). This was published before Dr Watson's "Dispensationalism Before Darby", so does not engage with it, but it does examine many of the authors that Watson writes about. While Dr Watson's book has some merit (finding Grantham Killingworth, who I missed, for example), he often tries too hard to find things where they do not exist. I have written a detailed report on Dr Watson's book, see my originsofleftbehind.wordpress.com/a-few-thoughts-on-william-watsons-dispensationalism-before-darby/

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