Margaret Macdonald's handwritten account in 1830 of her pre-Antichrist (or pretribulation) rapture discovery was reproduced in two of the 19th century books written by Catholic Apostolic Church historian Robert Norton. Her statement has long been in the public domain. Following my discovery of Norton's works and my publication of her words, several persons in recent years have reprinted it.
But some, like militant pretrib rapture defender and diehard Thomas Ice, have had trouble reproducing it accurately. In addition to a total of 49 omitted words in different sections, Ice's 1989 reproduction had 12 added words plus errors in spelling, capitalization, and punctuation! Moreover, I discovered that Ice's version also included four distinctive errors that Hal Lindsey had made in his 1983 reproduction, and that Tim LaHaye's 1992 reproduction left behind the same 49 words that Ice had left behind three years earlier! I've found that pretrib rapture promoters would rather copy - and miscopy - each other than take time to locate primary research documents! (By the way, my margins pinpoint Ice's - and LaHaye's - missing words; e.g., "10W" = 10 words.)
Neither Ice nor LaHaye has ever responded to my letters asking about their glaring omissions. Interestingly, if you look for the "Thomas Ice Collection" on websites including Rapture Ready's, you will find that "The Origin of the Pretrib Rapture - Part I" (the above Ice perversion was part of it) is glaringly missing, and the paper you're now reading demonstrates why! If your pharmacist or doctor or lawyer or mechanic would have the sloppiness that many pretrib rapture promoters have, would you still trust them?
Rapturously, Dave MacPherson
