by Dave MacPherson
You've probably heard that the pretribulation rapture view was
published by a Rev. Morgan Edwards in 1788 and also by a Medieval writer called
Pseudo-Ephraem 1000 years earlier.
The Edwards claim (promoted by John Bray and copied by Frank
Marotta, Thomas Ice, Tim LaHaye etc.) is based on a 1980 book by Thomas
McKibbens and Kenneth Smith, while the claim for Pseudo-Ephraem (promoted by
Grant Jeffrey and copied by Thomas Ice, J. R. Church, Jerry Falwell, Tim
LaHaye, Chuck Missler, Dave Hunt, Hal Lindsey etc.) rests on a 1985 book by
Paul Alexander.
Not only have these
promoters covered up and twisted what McKibbens/Smith and Alexander have
written, but they've also concealed and perverted Morgan Edwards' and
Pseudo-Ephraem's own words!
Let's focus first on
Morgan Edwards (hereafter: M.E.).
Promoters see a pretrib
rapture in the following words by M.E.: "...the dead saints will be
raised, and the living changed at Christ's 'appearing in the air' (I Thes. iv,
17); and this will be about three years and a half before the
millennium...."
If promoters had been sure of their pretrib claim, they never
would have had to collusively cover up the following M.E. statements that
contradict their claim:
On p. 14 M.E. described
the "Turkish or Ottoman empire" (which began around 1300 A.D.) as the
"beast that started out of the earth" (Rev. 13's second beast).
(Since Bray etc. repeatedly claim that M.E. had only a "futurist"
outlook, without which M.E. couldn't have logically expected a pretrib rapture,
Bray deliberately skips over the historicism in M.E.'s "Ottoman"
remark - historicism being the belief that the tribulation, covering many
centuries, began at some point in the distant past.)
On p. 20 M.E. wrote that
the "wicked one" (II Thess. 2:8) has "hitherto assumed no higher
title than 'the vicar general of Christ on earth'" and described
"Antichrist" as "popery" and a "succession of persons."
(Promoters emphasize M.E.'s comments about the "last" Pope and ignore
M.E.'s view that "popery" had "hitherto" (for many
centuries) been playing the role of II Thess. 2:8's "wicked one"
while wearing a "mask" (as he put it) - a first beast that
historicism could easily see during the second beast's reign!)
Since historicism - and not preterism or futurism - is the only
one of these three schools which often thinks "years" when reading
"days" in the Bible, it isn't surprising to find such year/day
historicism in M.E.
On p. 19, for example,
while discussing Rev. 11's two witnesses, M.E. says "there are no more
than about 204 years between now and their death: I should therefore expect
that their appearance is not far off." (Bray quotes M.E.'s very next
sentence, on another matter, but ignores this one! Could a futurist ever apply
a couple of centuries - instead of only 1260 days - to those witnesses?)
Something else. The
authoritative 1980 book about M.E. that inspired the claim promoted by Bray,
Ice, LaHaye etc. never classified M.E.'s view as "pretrib," or even
remotely resembling it, and the book's authorship had the same conclusion when
later interviewed by both phone and correspondence!
And when Thomas Ice's "Pre-Trib Perspectives" newsletter
(Sep./Oct., 1995) ran his own article promoting Edwards as a teacher of
"pretribulationism." he couldn't find any of the heavyweight
authorities on Edwards, that he listed and quoted, evaluating that 18th century
pastor as a pretrib!
In light of the fact that Edwards embraced historicism (which can
see some future things yet to be fulfilled) and not pure futurism (which sees
no past tribulational fulfillment), it's easy to believe that Edwards, like
some other historicists of that period, saw a three-and-a-half-year period at
the end of a 1260-year tribulation - the same percentage a futurist would have
if he were to see a period of three and a half days at the end of a 1260-day
tribulation; such a percentage would of course be a posttrib view!
At least I don't have to
juggle or cover up historical data to come to such a conclusion!
But now it's time to
analyze Pseudo-Ephraem (hereafter: P-E), the name attached by scholars to
manuscripts that were possibly, but not provably, written by the well-known
Ephraim the Syrian who lived from 306-373 A.D. And what's the discovery in
P-E's early Medieval sermon on the end of the world that's led pretrib
promoters to see pretrib in it? It's basically these words:
"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." A pretrib
rapture is seen by promoters in the phrase "taken to the Lord."
It needs to be emphasized
that pretrib in P-E has been palmed off on unsuspecting Christians by promoters
seeing rapture aspects in P-E's sermon where none exist and by covering up such
aspects where they do exist in his 10-section sermon!
In Section 2, P-E says that the only event that's
"imminent" is "the advent of the wicked one" (that is,
Antichrist). Nevertheless, Grant Jeffrey in his 1995 book, FINAL WARNING, had
the audacity to claim that P-E "began with the Rapture using the word
'imminent'" and added in the next sentence that "Ephraem used the
word 'imminent' to describe the Rapture." (If he and other P-E promoters
can look at a coming of Antichrist and see a coming of "Christ," is
it any wonder that in his endtime view folks will look at Antichrist and see
"Christ"?
Ephraim the Syrian, reportedly P-E's inspiration, said the same
thing (SERMO ASCETICUS, I): "Nothing remains then, except that the coming
of our enemy, Antichrist, appear...." (Nobody's ever found even a trace of
pretrib in this earlier work!)
In the before-the-tribulation sections, P-E mentions neither a
descent of Christ, nor a shout, nor an angelic voice, nor a trumpet of God, nor
a resurrection, nor the dead in Christ, nor a rapture, nor meeting Christ.
So where does P-E place
the rapture? The answer is found in his last section (10) where he writes that
after "the sign of the Son of Man" when "the Lord shall appear
with great power," the "angelic trumpet precedes him, which shall
sound and declare: Arise, O sleeping ones, arise, meet Christ, because the hour
of judgment has come!" (Like Morgan Edwards and Manuel Lacunza, Pseudo-Ephraem
has the nasty, non-pretrib habit of blending the rapture with the final
advent!)
In the July/Sep., 1995 BIBLIOTHECA SACRA, Dallas Seminary's
journal, Thomas Ice and his co-author Timothy Demy pulled off one of the worst
revisionisms of P-E ever: when summarizing Section 10 they carefully deleted
what P-E included between "trumpet" and "judgment" (deleted
the distinctive I Thess. 4 aspects in that posttrib setting), giving
unsuspecting readers this utterly misleading condensation: "A trumpet will
sound, calling forth the dead to judgment."
But P-E says much more, as can be seen; he places the resurrection
of those who sleep in Jesus and the rapture of those who meet Jesus (details
found only in I Thess. 4) at the Matt. 24 coming!
A moment ago I said that Edwards and Lacunza had the same
rapture/advent blending. Here's evidence. Edwards in his 1788 work (pp. 21-22)
speaks of "the son of man in the clouds, coming to raise the dead saints
and change the living....The signs of his coming, in the heavens, will be 'the
trump of God [I Thess. 4:16], vapour and smoke, which will darken the sun and
moon [Acts 2:19,20]....'"
Lacunza's 1812 work THE COMING OF MESSIAH IN GLORY AND MAJESTY
(Vol. I, p. 113) declares: "...you will find St. Paul and the Gospel
speaking one and the same thing: He shall send his angels and they shall gather
his elect from the four winds; who can be no other than those very ones who are
in Christ, who sleep in Jesus." (A few have assumed that there's pretrib
in an earlier Catholic, Franciscus Ribera, but in his 16th century Revelation
commentary he viewed Rev. 12's "woman" in the tribulation as the
Christian Church!)
But let's go back to
Pseudo-Ephraem.
Dr. Paul Alexander, the leading authority whose book inspired the
P-E claim, is portrayed in Jeffrey's book, FINAL WARNING, as "perhaps the
most authoritative scholar on the writings of the early Byzantine Church."
But this misleading statement, designed to make readers think that Professor
Alexander supports the P-E claim, covers up the fact that this world famous
scholar sees not even a smidgen of pretrib in the same Medieval writer!
In fact, Alexander writes that the phrase "taken to the
Lord" (which has become a bonanza for pretrib history revisionists) means
"participate at least in some measure in beatitude." While Jeffrey
and Ice do include this "beatitude" phrase, all P-E promoters
carefully avoid revealing that the Catholic doctrine of "beatitude,"
according to the NEW CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA, has to do with "the highest
acts of virtue that can be performed in this life" - works on earth and
not being raptured off earth! (Elsewhere in his sermon P-E repeats the
importance of doing "penance," because of "our sins," so
that church members will be "sustained" during the tribulation!)
In fact (again), Alexander has two summaries (textual and
outline), in chronological order, of P-E's endtime events. And guess what.
Alexander demonstrates both times that P-E saw only one future coming
("Second Coming of Christ" for the "punishment of the
Antichrist") which follows (!) the great tribulation ("tribulatio
magna lasting three and a half years") - claim-smashing summaries that
self-serving promoters, with malice aforethought, have jointly swept under their
"secret rapture" rug!
Since "Dr." Thomas Ice is the most rabid pretrib
defender who's long promoted the (false) claims for John Darby and, more
recently, Edwards and Pseudo-Ephraem, and at the same time covered up or
twisted the (true) claims for Margaret Macdonald and the Irvingites, it's
fitting to quote the first sentence of a recent news item:
"WorldNetDaily reported on March 7 that a Texas district
court has ordered the Tyndale Theological Seminary to pay fines totalling
$170,000 for issuing 34 theological degrees without receiving approval from the
state education agency."
This is the Fort Worth seminary that gave the title of
"Dr." to Ice - which is at least an improvement over "Dr."
C. I. Scofield who, in the 1890's, began deceitfully adding "Dr." to
his name instead of waiting for some institution to confer it upon him!
Well, I didn't mean to
write a book here; I merely wanted to share some long covered up facts about
pretrib dispensationalism. My 300-page book THE RAPTURE PLOT (with footnotes,
index, bibliography, appendices, plus great commendations from leaders, and
obtainable by calling 800-967-7345) has the sort of info I've just outlined
plus much, much more.
If you decide to get a copy of my PLOT book, I won't have to tell
you about the rest of the bizarre history of the 171-year-old, British-born
pretrib rapture view.
I won't tell you that the
same promoters have used the same unscrupulous, "twistorical" methods
to try to discredit Margaret Macdonald, the real pretrib originator in early
1830, and cover up the fact that other partial rapturists who followed her and
taught the same thing have all been classified as pretribs!
I won't tell you that promoters who claim that John Darby was
pretrib as early as 1827 won't admit that he then had only his "heavenly
church" theme, that he was still clearly posttrib as late as a Dec., 1830
article (he was waiting "to meet Him in the air in order to His judging of
the nations"), that he wasn't clearly pretrib before 1839, that in 1839
Darby's only pretrib basis was Rev. 12's "man child" symbol (which
symbol had been Edward Irving's pretrib basis since 1831!), that in his 1991
book (p. 100) R. A. Huebner admitted that his source for his 1827 claim for
Darby could just as easily refer to something completely un-rapturesque, and
that Ice since 1991 has covered this up and continues to declare, while searing
his conscience, that Huebner "documents" his belief that Darby was
pretrib in 1827!
I won't tell you that all of Darby's so-called
"thoughts" which promoters for generations have claimed led him to
pretrib (thoughts like the "Gentile parenthesis," "Church/Israel
dichotomy," and the "literal method") were taught by others much
earlier and that he subtly plagiarized them! (Dispensationalist scholars must
have known that airing even a tiny fraction of this would have been a deathblow
to their system!)
I won't tell you that throughout most of the 1800's the leading
church historians - whether Irvingite or (Plymouth) Brethren - overwhelmingly
credited the Macdonald/Irvingite orbit with pretrib; none credited Darby!
I won't tell you that in 1880, a year after his Christian
conversion, C. I. Scofield was in jail in St. Louis for forgery (he'd stolen
his mother-in-law's life savings by means of a real estate scam; would most non-Christian
crooks do this?), that after he deserted his wife and children she divorced him
in 1883 and he remarried three months later and covered everything up, and that
as late as 1899 he still owed thousands of dollars he'd stolen 20 years earlier
and had been writing phony IOU's to keep from paying back the money!
I won't tell you that after Darby's death in 1882, the editor of
his many books, William Kelly, plotted to steal credit for pretrib away from
the Macdonald/Irvingite connection and give it posthumously to Darby, that he
achieved this between 1889 and 1903 by changing and covering up portions of
early Irvingite and Brethren documents, and that 20th century British and
American publishers have conspired to continue this historical revisionism in
order to enjoy phenomenal sales of pretrib rapture material!
And I won't tell you that
during the past century and a half, some of the most influential pretrib
rapture books, by British as well as American authors, have been filled with
sloppy scholarship and, what's worse, breathtaking amounts of plagiarism and
even occultic teachings mixed in with evangelical theology!
Or that my PLOT book and my later book THE THREE R'S reveal, with
comparison quotes and in more or less chronological order, embarrassing
plagiarism in writings by John Darby, Joseph Seiss, E. W. Bullinger, Hal
Lindsey, Tim LaHaye, Merrill Unger, Jerry Falwell, Ed Dobson, Ed Hindson,
Charles Ryrie, David Jeremiah, C. C. Carlson, Paul Tan, Chuck Missler, and Jack
Van Impe, for starters!
Finally, let me say that although I've been researching rapture
roots more than 30 years now, I've been into computers only a relatively short
time. The discovery of the extent to which misinformation about the pretrib
origin has been circling the earth at computer speed still boggles my mind!
But authors are only part of the problem. After all, if an author
gets royalties of, say, 10 percent, the other 90 percent goes to the publisher
- which means that publishers can have much more incentive to keep churning out
bestselling books that are filled with historical error and even deliberate
deception simply because they receive far more money than the authors!
Which leads me to give you some of my reactions to publishers that
are less than pleasant. After I gave proof to a well-known publisher in the
Chicago area that one of its authors had plagiarized one of my books, I
received a sympathetic letter from the publisher expressing concern; but no
changes to my knowledge were made in the dishonest book which was kept in
print, and neither my publisher nor I was ever financially reimbursed.
I know a pretrib book publisher in California that was caught
publishing a pretrib book that was a huge plagiarism of a book that had come
out several years earlier. After being confronted by the other publisher, the
offending publisher promised to withdraw the book, which it did for a while.
But sometime later the offending book was quietly reissued - with the same old
plagiarism but with a new book title to avoid detection!
In recent years Hal Lindsey has learned what publishers have
always known, that there's far more money if you can be your own publisher or
at least control the publishing of your own books. If a person looks closely at
his 1999 book, VANISHED INTO THIN AIR (published by the same Western Front Ltd.
which was, oddly enough, his "neighbor" when his home was in Palos
Verdes, California), he discovers that more than 200 pages (out of 396 pages)
are virtually carbon copies of corresponding pages in his 1983 book THE RAPTURE
- with no "updated" or "revised" notice included!
This is robbery on a grand scale for unsuspecting buyers who've
been assured that VANISHED is a "new" book! Hal has done the same
nervy thing with several of his books, something that's allowed him to live in
million-dollar-plus homes and drive cars like Ferraris!
And what about Lindsey's THERE'S A NEW WORLD COMING which Harvest
House Publishers has owned and been republishing for years? During the same
time Lindsey has been peddling his reportedly "new" APOCALYPSE CODE,
much of which is word-for-word the same as the Harvest House book! And there's
no notice of "simultaneous publishing" in either book! Think of the
feelings of customers who buy Lindsey's version only to find out that it's
largely a mirror image of the other publisher's version which they had bought
previously! Talk about greed!
And then there's Tim LaHaye. His 1992 book NO FEAR OF THE STORM,
published by Multnomah Press Books, has an entire chapter entitled
"MacPherson's Vendetta." Relying on miscopied secondhand sources that
in turn miscopied still earlier sources, he gives the impression that my
decades of rapture roots research is my revenge for the troubles pretrib caused
my family in the 1950's including my expulsion from Biola in downtown Los
Angeles. (My mother went to be with the Lord not long after I was
"raptured away" from L.A.) But LaHaye's "crystal ball" is
cracked because I didn't even wonder about the pretrib origin, or start any
research on it, until two decades later - long after the chief troublemakers
had been off the scene and forgotten!
Since my origin research has never had any reason to hide or twist
any historical facts, my practice in my eight book titles has always been to
give proper credit and list sources when quoting or discussing others including
pretrib critics. In light of LaHaye's chapter about me, maybe he (or Multnomah)
can explain why he doesn't list any of my books in his footnotes or even his
bibliography!
But his bibliography does list John Bray's 1982 pretrib origin
booklet, containing only 34 pages of "origin" text, even though
LaHaye has denounced Bray's claim that Lacunza taught pretrib (the same Lacunza
that Bray has long since de-emphasized!) and even though Bray's little booklet
is packed with miscopying errors, misspelled names, and even two instances of
his plagiarism! How fair is it for LaHaye to discuss me at length without
listing my books and publishers so that readers can learn what I've actually
written?
The same LaHaye book (reprinted in 1998 as RAPTURE UNDER ATTACK)
is filled with mountains of copying errors and missing footnotes, and his
inclusion of Margaret Macdonald's short 1830 revelation account has 48 missing
words - the same 48 words that Thomas Ice somehow left out (which changed the
meaning) when he reproduced it three years earlier!
Why is it that Multnomah and other pretrib publishers almost never
make any changes whenever errors and dishonesty in their books are pointed out
to them? Don't they have time or money for necessary proofreading? Don't they
have any self-respect? Don't they fear God?
One happy exception to publishing dishonesty is Thomas Nelson
Publishers. After I convinced that company, with a stack of photocopies of marked
pages, that David Jeremiah's and C. C. Carlson's ESCAPE THE COMING NIGHT (1990)
is a massive plagiarism of Lindsey's THERE'S A NEW WORLD COMING, a top TNP
official sent me a letter, part of which revealed that "we at Thomas
Nelson are very concerned about this matter. Accordingly, we are destroying all
our current inventory of this title and will not reprint the book. Thank you
for bringing this matter to our attention." (Anyone wishing a copy of this TNP letter can send a SASE and request it from
me: Dave MacPherson, Box 1226, Monticello, Utah 84535.)
But as I've shown, many pretrib publishers are a far cry from
Thomas Nelson. Their bottom line consists of three things: money, money, and
money! They don't care that pretrib is less than 200 years old and that it
didn't take over American evangelicalism much before "Doctor"
Scofield's Bible in 1909! They don't care that the late Corrie ten Boom stated
in a published article that pretrib leaders are "the false teachers Jesus
was warning us to expect in the latter days" and that pretrib caused the
deaths of "millions" of Chinese Christians when the Communists took
over China! And they don't care that the dishonest pretrib theory they peddle
for money in fact makes them accessories to the past, present, and future
mass-murder of fellow believers!
Since the same evanjellyfish publishers don't care, I intend from
now on to focus as much on their business practices and personal lives as I
have on past and present pretrib authors. If anyone can send me documented
evidence in this regard, I'll be happy to share it on the internet and in other
ways.
But I really must stop. If this article has whetted your
curiosity, call 800-967-7345 in South Carolina and get my book THE RAPTURE
PLOT, the most detailed and documented book on the pretrib rapture's
astonishing and long hidden history. Or you can order it through online
bookstores such as armageddonbooks.com.
As a historian I confess that I am no expert on where the different kinds of "wrath" (e.g. Satan's wrath and God's wrath) should be placed on prophecy charts. To me, a really important "wrath" question is whether or not the rapture will happen before the coming of pretrib wrath against those who expose pretrib dishonesty!
Letter from Moody Publishing to Dave MacPherson concerning plagiarism.
Letter from Nelson Publishing to Dave MacPherson concerning plagiarism.
