The MacDonald/Darby Myth

By Mark Swarbrick

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Have you heard Post-Trib believers talk about their MacDonald/Darby theory and claim that no one ever heard of a Pre-Trib Rapture before 1830? Here are the real facts.

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Rapture deniers typically claim that a Pre-Trib position was never a position that could be found in historical Christianity. They put forward a far-fetched claim that no one in all of Church history every heard of a Pre-Trib Rapture and that the idea of a Pre-Trib Rapture sprang up recently from demonic sources. They claim that a demon possessed girl by the name of Margaret MacDonald had a sinister vision in 1830 that predicted a Pre-Trib Rapture. Then a Plymouth Brethren preacher by the name of John Darby was impressed with MacDonald’s vision and popularized her concept of a Pre-Trib Rapture. So they say.

Dave MacPherson is the originator of this myth, and it has spread far and wide, popularized by his rabidly anti-Pre-Trib Rapture books. As proof of God’s blessings upon his books, MacPherson claimed that, as he started writing, his dog became demon-possessed and bit his writing hand.[1]

MacPherson was expelled from Bible college for being controversial and argumentative with others about the Rapture. He claims this caused him to go on a drinking spree in Mexico. His father also was voted out of his pastorate for dogmatically insisting his people believe in a Post-Trib Rapture.

Author Robert Sumner documented that “MacPherson has a bad habit of attributing all kinds of personal tragedies to the Pre-Trib teaching: his mother’s death, his sister’s inability to have more children, his failure to follow through on his calling as an evangelist, and other matters.”  It does not seem to occur to MacPherson that it may be an argumentative demeanor and a narrow abrasive dogmatism that is rubbing people the wrong way and causing his problems. MacPherson’s influence has spread far and wide, so much so that many consider him the father of Post-Trib theory. It is noteworthy that many Post-Tribbers display a disputatious spirit similar to MacPherson’s.

Barbara Rossing is another minister/author who has popularized MacPherson’s ideas. Rossing is a minister of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), a very liberal church that ordains homosexuals. She is professor of New Testament at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. In her book The Rapture Exposed, Rossing  picks up MacPherson’s MacDonald/Darby myth and repeats it as fact in her Rapture bashing book, claiming that no one ever believed in a Pre-Trib Rapture before MacDonald’s vision in 1830. Despite Rossing’s credentials, it is evident that she has not researched the facts herself but has enthusiastically swallowed MacPherson’s Macdonald/Darby myth, hook, line, and sinker. The facts are these:

• The reading of MacDonald’s vision reveals that it explicitly supports a Post-Trib position, not Pre-Trib.[2]
• Darby says that he had arrived at his Pre-Trib views via prayer and Bible study. He wrote them down in January of 1827, three years before MacDonald had her vision.
• Darby is on record as saying that he thought MacDonald’s vision was not from God and may even be demonic. It is, therefore, untenable to suppose that Darby would use MacDonald’s vision as a foundation.

Along with the Macdonald/Darby myth is the claim that no one ever heard of a Pre-Trib Rapture before 1830. This is patently false. We have numerous New Testament passages and many writings from the second century to present day which allude to a Pre-Trib Rapture. Let us begin:

“I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell on the earth.” (Revelation 3:10)

“There will be a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then. But at that time your people – everyone whose name is found written in the book–will be delivered. And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake…” (Daniel 12:1-2)

See also…

2 Thessalonians 2:1-3
Daniel 12:1-2
Malachi 3:17-18, 4:1-2
1 Thessalonians 5:9-10
Revelation 3:10
1 Thessalonians 1:10

Below is a partial list of church leaders who wrote of a Pre-Trib Rapture from the 2nd century to the 18th century. Clearly, the Pre-Trib Rapture was believed and taught long before 1830. 

Irenaeus (AD 130-202)
Victorinus (AD 240)
Cyprian (AD 220-258)
The Shepherd of Hermas (1st or 2nd Century )
Pseudo-Ephraem (Between AD 374 and 627)
Remains of Bishop Myles Coverdale 1535
The Works of John Jewel 1564
The 1599 Geneva Study Bible (1560)
The Dutch Annotations Upon the Whole Bible (1637)
John Gill, English Baptist theologian (1697–1771)
The Cottage Bible & Family Expositor (1700s)
Morgan Edwards (1722 –1792)
John Wesley’s Commentary (1754 & 1765)
The Self Interpreting Bible (1790)

For more detail on what these early church fathers wrote, see my book, The Pre-Trib Rapture.  Available in Kindle eBook, Paperback, or Audio Book format on Amazon for just $4.99. Click HERE to purchase. 

For these and other reasons, scholars consider MacPherson’s alleged MacDonald/Darby connection to be unsound. Should you ever hear the Macdonald/Darby myth, know that it has proven to be pure fantasy.

 

 

 

 

 

Footnotes

[1] https://believersweb.org/dave-macpherson/

[2]https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1101&context=sor_fac_pubs



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