LEE BRAINARD'S DESPERATE ACCUSATIONS AGAINST THE PREWRATH RAPTURE

(4) The Source of the Pre-Wrath Rapture | Lee Brainard - YouTube

In an attempt to distance the pre-trib rapture from the vision of 15-year-old Margaret MacDonald, Lee Brainard informs us in this video that John Nelson Darby rejected her end-time vision. It is true that John Nelson Darby and Benjamin Wills Newton of the Plymouth Brethren came to the conclusion that Margaret's visions were demonic. I do not think there is any disagreement on that score as this information is well documented. However, Brainard failed to mention that Edward Irving (1792-1834) played a pivotal role in this story. Edward Irving and his controversial sect known as the "Irvingites" (the Catholic Apostolic Church), were precursors of the later Pentecostal and Charismatic movements. Irving accepted Margaret MacDonald's vision and claimed her as one of their own prophetesses.

David Malcolm Bennet: "..with regard to the adoption of a two-stage return of Christ, the first being associated with a pretribulation rapture of the saints. Irving taught something similar to it in March 1830, and at least some in the CAC seem to have adopted a pretribulation rapture by September that year. Darby and other members of the Brethren do not seem to have accepted it until later. Darby, himself, probably did not adopt this teaching until after December 1831,[26] so later than the CAC and, thus, presumably later than Irving." {1}

Whilst it cannot be definitively proved that Margaret MacDonald was the source for Darby’s concept of a pretribulation rapture, her vision seems to be the catalyst for his ideas. Samuel Prideaux Tregelles alleged that the pre-trib concept was taken from one of the charismatic utterances in Edward Irving's church. Tregelles regarded these utterances as "pretending to be from God", and he implied that Darby's rapture teaching was from a demonic source. 

Dave MacPherson: "For several decades some pretrib leaders have deceitfully isolated Margaret Macdonald's posttrib-resembling statement 'The trial of the Church is from Antichrist' to try to establish that she was posttrib. I have in mind leaders like R. A. Huebner, Charles Ryrie, Thomas Ice, and Frank Marotta. The same prophecy teachers are among those who've covered up the fact that partial rapturism----Margaret's view----sees a pretrib rapture of PART of the church while also seeing the REST of the church enduring a future tribulation..
Professor Ryrie wonders how Margaret can declare that 'the trial of the Church is from Antichrist' (lines 85-86) and speak of 'the fiery trial which is to try us' (line 65) if the Church will 'be caught up' before Antichrist arrives (lines 39-40). Apparently he's unaware of the terminology used by Partial Rapturists. {2} 

It appears that Darby, who was a renowned cult leader and a bully, jumped onto the Irvingite bandwagon and claimed the (questionable) glory for the pre-trib rapture doctrine in the late 1830s. Dave MacPherson: "Darby was posttrib from 1827 through 1838 and he had no clear pretrib teaching before 1839 - nine years after Irving and his group had begun the clear teaching of it." {3}

The prewrath position that the church will encounter the Antichrist is taken from the scriptures and from the early church fathers. I know of no prewrath teacher or scholar that endorses Margaret MacDonald's vision.  Prewrath does not teach a "secret rapture" as Margaret MacDonald apparently does. (Matthew 24:30; Revelation 6:15-16).

Margaret MacDonald: "Only those who have the light of God within them will see the sign of his appearance. No need to follow them who say, see here, or see there, for his day shall be as the lightning to those in whom the living Christ is. 'Tis Christ in us that will lift us up - he is the light - 'tis only those that are alive in him that will be caught up to meet him in the air." {4}

Margaret MacDonald's ramblings seem to be a confusing mishmash of various spiritual ideas. These (possibly demonic) ideas came from a very sick 15-year-old girl and they were not properly tested by Irving and others. (1 John 4:1). Brainard's deranged rantings against the prewrath view are desperately inaccurate and should be rejected out of hand.

1. Edward Irving and John Nelson Darby
2. WOLVES IN SHEEP'S CLOTHING: FALSE PROPHETS AND BIBLE TEACHERS IN THE LAST DAYS: X-RAYING MARGARET BY DAVE MACPHERSON (bewareofthewolves.blogspot.com)
3. WOLVES IN SHEEP'S CLOTHING: FALSE PROPHETS AND BIBLE TEACHERS IN THE LAST DAYS: JOHN DARBY DID NOT INVENT THE RAPTURE! BY DAVE MACPHERSON (bewareofthewolves.blogspot.com)
4. Margaret MacDonald (visionary) - Wikipedia