“What is clear from all the recent work on the history of eschatology and millennialism is that John Nelson Darby did not create the dispensational system out of whole cloth by himself in the nineteenth century. Certain elements of that system pre-dated Darby. Prior to Darby, those elements existed in various non-dispensationalist theological systems. The division of history into eras pre-dated Darby in non-dispensationalist systems. Premillennialism pre-dated Darby in non-dispensationalist systems. Philosemitism pre-dated Darby in non-dispensationalist systems. There were tributaries that fed into the larger stream that became dispensationalism. In the nineteenth century, Darby and others took these already existing ideas, added a few of their own, and put them together in an altogether new way. They built a unique new house.”
— Keith Mathison, https://www.keithmathison.org/post/dispensationalism-before-darby
Did dispensational pretribulationism exist before Darby? Absolutely—at least in its “proto” stages. I’ve put together a list of key resources that track pretribulationism prior to Darby’s time. The common claim that Darby either stole the idea from Margaret MacDonald or invented it out of thin air is simply a myth.
Irenaeus of Lyons (120-202 AD)
Position: Partial Pre-Tribulation Rapture
1.) Michael Svigel, Irenaeus of Lyons and the Assumption of the Church, 2024.
Svigel notes, “…Irenaeus held to something like a partial pre-tribulation rapture of the “spiritual” or “repentant” Christians, while the “double-minded” or “carnal” will be left to endure the purifying fires of the Tribulation.”
https://static-gcs.edit.site/users-files/7fdea6a860221ab9685b2c26a69f9419/irenaeus-and-the-assumption-of-the-church-ets-2024-svigel.pdf
2.) Lee Brainard, Irenaeus – Ground Zero for the Rapture Controversy in the Early Church.
Brainard notes, “It was demonstrated that Irenaeus taught all three core tenets of dispensationalism—a distinction existing between the Gentile saints of the current age and the Jewish saints of the Tribulation, the tribulation saints being Jews practicing Judaism that is honored of God, and the church being raptured to heaven prior to the start of the tribulation.”
https://soothkeep.info/irenaeus-ground-zero-for-the-rapture-controversy-in-the-early-church/
The Apocalypse of Elijah (3rd Century Treatise)
Position: Pre-Tribulation Rapture
1.) Francis X. Gumerlock, The Rapture in the Apocalypse of Elijah, Bibliotheca Sacra 170 (October-December 2013): 418-431.
Gumerlock notes, “For these reasons the rapture passage in the Apocalypse of Elijah merits a place of discussion in the history of pretribulationism. To those who say that the pretribulation rapture teaching was formulated only within the past two hundred years and was not present in the previous 1,800 years of Christian history, the Aросаlypse of Elijah offers another challenge to reexamine those historical claims. For others, it shows that the concept of a pretribulation rapture is not a novelty in Christian history, but that third-century Egyptian Christians held a view of the rapture with many similarities to pretribulationism. The author of this third-century text and the Christian community in which it was produced believed that God will protect His people from the persecution of the Antichrist by means of a bodily transport to paradise.”
https://francisgumerlock.com/wp-content/uploads/Rapture-in-the-Apocalypse-of-Elijah-Gumerlock.pdf
Ephrem of Nisibis / the Syrian (306-373 AD)
Position: Pre-Tribulation Rapture
1.) Lee Brainard, Recent Pre-Trib Rapture Findings in the Early Church, Slide Show.
https://www.pre-trib.org/pretribfiles/slides/2021-Pre-Trib-Brainard-Recent_Pre-Trib_Rapture_Findings-Slides.pdf
2.) Lee Brainard, Ephraim the Syrian — Ten Undiscovered Pretribulation-Rapture Passages.
https://soothkeep.info/ephraim-the-syrian-ten-undiscovered-pretribulation-rapture-passages-video/
3.) Lee Brainard, Ephraim the Syrian:…Pretribulation Rapture Passages.
https://www.raptureready.com/2024/02/06/ephraim-the-syrian-pretribulation-rapture-passages-by-lee-brainard/
4.) James F. Stitzinger, The Rapture in Twenty Centuries of Biblical Interpretation, TMSJ 13/2 (Fall 2002) 149-171.
https://tyndale.tms.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/tmsj13e.pdf
Pseudo Ephrem (374-627 AD)
Position: Pre-Tribulation Rapture
1.) Free Grace Free Speech, The Pre-Trib Rapture in the Writings of the Early Church, 2020.
https://freegracefreespeech.blogspot.com/2020/08/the-pre-trib-rapture-in-pseudo-ephraem_5.html
2.) David Petterson, The Rapture: A Pre-Darby Rapture.
Petterson notes, “The gathering Pseudo-Ephraem mentions appears to refer to a pre-tribulation Rapture of the Church.”
https://truthandtidings.com/2020/07/the-rapture-a-pre-darby-rapture/
3.) James F. Stitzinger, The Rapture in Twenty Centuries of Biblical Interpretation, TMSJ 13/2 (Fall 2002) 149-171.
Stitzinger notes, “In this sermon, Pseudo-Ephraem develops an elaborate biblical eschatology, including a distinction between the rapture and the second coming of Christ. It describes the imminent rapture, followed by 3½ years of great tribulation under the rule of Antichrist, followed by the coming of Christ, the defeat of Antichrist, and the eternal state. His view includes a parenthesis between the fulfillment of Daniel’s
sixty-nine weeks and his seventieth week in Daniel 9:24-27. Pseudo-Ephraem describes the rapture that precedes the tribulation as “imminent or overhanging.””
https://tyndale.tms.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/tmsj13e.pdf
4.) Paul J. Alexander, “The Diffusion of Byzantine Apocalypses in the Medieval West and the Beginnings of Joachimism,” in Prophecy and Millenarianism: Essays in Honour of Marjorie Reeves, ed. Ann Williams (Essex: Longman, 1980) 58-95 .
Narration of Isaiah (~1070)
Position: Pre-Conflagration Rapture
1.) Francis X. Gumerlock, The Rapture in an Eleventh-Century Text, Bibliotheca Sacra 176 (January-March 2019): 81-91.
Gumerlock notes, “The Narration of Isaiah, an eleventh-century Bulgarian text, contains an account of the last days in which the elect are lifted into the air to escape the burning up of the earth. That conflagration lasts three years. The earth will begin to be renewed and will lie dormant for another three years. Then the Lord will appear from heaven to judge the living and the dead. The Narration of Isaiah does not contain all of the features of modern pretribulationism. In its description of the lifting up of the saints, there is no mention of a coming of Christ. The subjects of the rapture in the Narration of Isaiah include not only the elect but also churches, christened graves, sacred books, and the true cross. In the years between the rapture and the Lord’s coming for judgment, the earth does not experience the opening of the seals, the blowing of the trumpets, and the pouring out of the vials of Revelation 6-19; rather, it undergoes the conflagration and renewal of the earth described in 2 Peter 3:10-13. Nevertheless, because of its portrayal of a temporal interval of six years between the rapture and the Second Coming, the Narration of Isaiah merits a place in the discussion of the history of ideas related to pretribulationism.”
https://francisgumerlock.com/wp-content/uploads/The-Rapture-in-an-Eleventh-Century-Text.pdf
Brother Dolcino (d. 1307)
Position: Pre-Tribulation Rapture
1.) Francis X. Gumerlock, A Rapture Citation in the Fourteenth Century, Bibliotheca Sacra 159 (July-September 2002): 349-362.
Gumerlock notes, “Two things are fairly certain from The History of Brother Dolcino. Dolcino and the Apostolic Brethren believed that the purpose of the rapture was related to escape from end-time tribulation and persecution of Antichrist. And Dolcino and the Apostolic Brethren believed that there would be a significant gap of time between the rapture of the saints to Paradise and their subsequent descent to earth. Because of this, The History of Brother Dolcino stands as yet another literary witness for the existence of pretribulationism before the nineteenth century. As such a witness, it once again challenges evangelicals to re-evaluate their thinking about the history of the pretribulation rapture, especially those views that place the origin of the teaching, or its initial recovery, within the last two hundred years. For, this fourteenth-century text demonstrates that there were some in the middle ages that held a rapture theology having basic elements of pretribulationism.”
https://francisgumerlock.com/wp-content/uploads/A-Rapture-Citation-in-the-Fourteenth-Century.pdf
Ephriam Huit (1643)
Position: Pre-Tribulation Rapture
1.) William C. Watson, Dispensationalism Before Darby: Seventeenth-Century and Eighteenth-Century English Apocalypticism (Lampion House Publishing, LLC, 2015), 141-142, 178.
John Birchensha (1660)
Position: Pre-Tribulation Rapture
1.) William C. Watson, Dispensationalism Before Darby: Seventeenth-Century and Eighteenth-Century English Apocalypticism (Lampion House Publishing, LLC, 2015), 154-156, 178.
Samuel Hutchinson (1667)
Position: Pre-Tribulation Rapture
1.) William C. Watson, Dispensationalism Before Darby: Seventeenth-Century and Eighteenth-Century English Apocalypticism (Lampion House Publishing, LLC, 2015), 161-163, 178.
Joshua Sprigg (1676)
Position: Pre-Tribulation Rapture
1.) William C. Watson, Dispensationalism Before Darby: Seventeenth-Century and Eighteenth-Century English Apocalypticism (Lampion House Publishing, LLC, 2015), 163-166, 178.
Thomas Tweedy (N/A?)
Position: Pre-Tribulation Rapture
1.) Crawford Gribben, Darby, Dispensationalism, and the Rise of Evangelical Antisemitism, July 30, 2024.
Gribben notes, “In his eschatological views, Darby moved from a historic to a pretribulation premillennial theology. He didn’t make this move under the influence of a prophecy made by Margaret MacDonald (a teenage follower of Edward Irving) as some conspiracy theorists claim, but having paid attention to arguments made by another Irish brother, Thomas Tweedy.”
https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/darby-dispensationalism/
2.) Max S. Weremchuk, J.N. Darby Research Papers.
Weremchuk notes, “William Kelly refers to Newton telling him that Darby had written a letter to him in which he mentioned Thomas Tweedy suggesting 2 Thess. 2:1–2 as a help in understanding the rapture (in the article “The Rapture of the Saints: Who Suggested it, or Rather on What Scripture?””
https://bruederbewegung.de/pdf/weremchukdarbyresearch.pdf
3.) Peter Goeman, Where Did Darby Get the Rapture Doctrine? Hint: Not Margaret MacDonald.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXXcOvSEtcs
4.) William Kelly, The Rapture of the Saints: Who Suggested it, or Rather on What Scripture?
Kelly notes, “But I willingly bear my testimony to Mr. N. that he never to me thought of attributing the source of the so-called doctrine, the rapture of the saints, to that seducing spirit. It was new, however, to hear that Mr. Tweedy, who died full of blessed labours in Demerara, was the one who first suggested, as a decisive proof from scripture, 2 Thess. 2:1-2.”
https://www.stempublishing.com/authors/kelly/7subjcts/rapture.html
5.) William E. Bell, A Critical Evaluation of the Pretribulation Rapture Doctrine in Christian Eschatology, (PhD diss., New York University, 1967), 60-61, 64-65.
“It seems only fair, however, in the absence of eyewitnesses to settle the argument conclusively, that the benefit of the doubt should be given to Darby, and that the charge made by Tregelles be regarded as a possibility but with insufficient support to merit its acceptance. . . . On the whole, however, it seems that Darby is perhaps the most likely choice with help from Tweedy. This conclusion is greatly strengthened by Darby’s own claim to have arrived at the doctrine through his study of II Thessalonians 2:1-2.36.”
Appendix: Did Darby get the Rapture from Margaret MacDonald?
It still amazes me how many anti-dispensationalists I see trying to tie together Margaret MacDonald’s visions to Darby. The notion that Darby got the doctrine of the pre-trib from MacDonald is based upon research done by Dave MacPherson. This research has been thoroughly responded to by dispensationalists and non-dispensationalists:
Todd Strandberg
“One of the most widely circulated attacks against the pre-trib rapture is the notion that a girl named Margaret MacDonald started this theological view back in 1830. The claim is typically made that MacDonald received a demonic vision, passed it on to John Darby, who in turn popularized it. Disproving this assertion proves rather easy. Pre-trib scholars have discovered a host of rapture writings that predate Margaret MacDonald.”
https://dodgyheartbeat.co.za/Documents/atf-theraptureuncovered.pdf
“I would like to conclude by saying that no evidence whatsoever points to MacDonald as the source of pretribulationism. Every major prophetic author alive today claims the Word of God as the foundation for belief in the rapture.”
https://pmicenter.wordpress.com/2013/09/29/margaret-macdonald-is-not-the-mother-of-the-pre-tribulation-rapture/
F.F. Bruce
“Where did he [Darby] get it? The reviewer’s answer would be that it was in the air in the 1820s and 1830s among eager students of unfulfilled prophecy, . . . direct dependence by Darby on Margaret Macdonald is unlikely.”
“Any careful student of Darby soon discovers that he did not get his eschatological views from men, but rather from his doctrine of the church as the body of Christ, a concept no one claims was revealed supernaturally to Irving or MacDonald. Darby’s views undoubtedly were gradually formed, but they were theologically and biblically based rather than derived from Irving’s pre-Pentecostal group.”
— F.F. Bruce, Review of The Unbelievable Pre-Trib Origin in The Evangelical Quarterly, (Jan-Mar, 1975), 58.
John F. Walvoord
“The whole controversy as aroused by Dave MacPherson’s claims has so little supporting evidence, despite his careful research, that one wonders how he can write his book with a straight face. Pretribulationalists should be indebted to Dave MacPherson for exposing the facts, namely, that there is no proof that MacDonald or Irving originated the pretribulation rapture teaching.”
— John F. Walvoord, The Blessed Hope and the Tribulation (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1979), 40.
“MacPherson made these charges against pretribulationism and then afterward went to great lengths to find historic verification. . .. Readers will be impressed that as a newsman MacPherson builds a strong case for his position, but will be less impressed when they begin to analyze what he has actually proved.”
— John F. Walvoord, The Blessed Hope and the Tribulation (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1979), 42-43.
“Readers of MacPherson’s Incredible Cover-Up will undoubtedly be impressed by the many long quotations, most of which are only window dressing for what he is trying to prove. When it gets down to the point of proving that either MacDonald or Irving was pretribulationist, the evidence gets very muddy. The quotations MacPherson cites do not support his conclusion.”
— John F. Walvoord, The Blessed Hope and the Tribulation (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1979), 44.
John L. Bray
“The only thing new in her revelation itself seems to be that of just Spirit-filled Christians being caught up at the second coming of Christ following heavy trials and tribulation by the Antichrist.”
— John L. Bray, The Origin of the Ρre-Tribulation Rapture Teaching (Lakeland: John L. Bray Ministry, n.d.), 21-22.
“It seems to me that Margaret MacDonald was saying that Christians WILL face the temptation of the false Christ (antichrist) and be in “an awfully dangerous situation,” and that only the Spirit IN US will enable us to be kept from being deceived; and that as the Spirit works, solvili the antichrist; but the pouring out of the Spirit will “fit us to enter into the marriage supper of the Lamb,” and those filled with the Spirit would be taken while the others would be left. . . . Margaret MacDonald did teach a partial rapture, of course, but this did not necessarily mean that the teaching included a tribulation period FOLLOWING THAT for the other Christians. … . It would not be right to take for granted that Margaret MacDonald believed in a tribulation period following the appearing of Christ unless she had definitely said so. Rather, it would be more logical to think that her view would have been the same as prevalent among the futurists at that time, that is, tribulation then the second coming.”
— John L. Bray, The Origin of the Ρre-Tribulation Rapture Teaching (Lakeland: John L. Bray Ministry, n.d.), 20-21.
“He [Darby] rejected those practices, and he already had his new view of the Lord coming FOR THE SAINTS (as contrasted to the later coming to the earth) which he had believed since 1827. … . It was the coupling of this “70th week of Daniel” prophecy and its futuristic interpretation, with the teaching of the “secret rapture,” that gave to us the completed “Pre- tribulation Secret Rapture” teaching as it has now been taught for many years. [This] makes it impossible for me to believe that Darby got his Pre-Tribulation Rapture teaching from Margaret MacDonald’s vision in 1830. He was already a believer in it since 1827, as he plainly said.”
— John L. Bray, The Origin of the Ρre-Tribulation Rapture Teaching (Lakeland: John L. Bray Ministry, n.d.), 24-25, 28.
Charles C. Ryrie
“She saw the church (“us”) being purged by Antichrist. MacPherson reads this as meaning the church will be raptured before Antichrist, ignoring the “us” (pp. 154-55). In reality, she saw the church enduring Antichrist’s persecution of the Tribulation days.”
— Charles Ryrie, What You Should Know about the Rapture (Chicago: Moody Press, 1981), 71.
Ernest R. Sandeen
“This seems to be a groundless and pernicious charge. Neither Irving nor any member of the Albury group advocated any doctrine resembling the secret rapture. . .. Since the clear intention of this charge is to discredit the doctrine by attributing its origin to fanaticism rather than Scripture, there seems little ground for giving it any credence.”
— Ernest R. Sandeen, The Roots of Fundamentalism: British and American Millenarianism 1800-1930, (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1970), 64.
Timothy P. Weber
“The pretribulation rapture was a neat solution to a thorny problem and historians are still trying to determine how or where Darby got it. . .. A newer though still not totally convincing view contends that the doctrine initially appeared in a prophetic vision of Margaret MacDonald. … Possibly, we may have to settle for Darby’s own explanation. He claimed that the doctrine virtually jumped out of the pages of Scripture once he accepted and consistently maintained the distinction between Israel and the church.”
— Timothy P. Weber, Living in the Shadow of the Second Coming: American Premillennialism 1875-1982, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1983), 21-22.
Richard R. Reiter
“[Robert] Cameron probably traced this important but apparently erroneous view back to S. P. Tregelles. . .. Recently more detailed study on this view as the origin of pretribulationism appeared in works by Dave McPherson. . .. Historian Ian S. Rennie . . . regarded McPherson’s case as interesting but not conclusive.”
— Richard R. Reiter, The Rapture: Pre-, Mid-, or Post-Tribulational? (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1984), 236.
William E. Bell
“It seems only fair, however, in the absence of eyewitnesses to settle the argument conclusively, that the benefit of the doubt should be given to Darby, and that the charge made by Tregelles be regarded as a possibility but with insufficient support to merit its acceptance. . . . On the whole, however, it seems that Darby is perhaps the most likely choice with help from Tweedy. This conclusion is greatly strengthened by Darby’s own claim to have arrived at the doctrine through his study of II Thessalonians 2:1-2.36.”
— William E. Bell, A Critical Evaluation of the Pretribulation Rapture Doctrine in Christian Eschatology, (PhD diss., New York University, 1967), 60-61, 64-65.
Roy A. Huebner
“using slander that J. N. Darby took the [truth of the] pretribulation rapture from those very opposing, demon-inspired utterances.”
— Roy A. Huebner, The Truth of the Ρre-Tribulation Rapture Recovered, 13.
“. . .did not profit by reading the utterances allegedly by Miss M. M. Instead of apprehending the plain import of her statements, as given by R. Norton, which has some affinity to the post-tribulation scheme and no real resemblance to the pretribulation rapture and dispensational truth, he has read into it what he appears so anxious to find.”
— Roy A. Huebner, The Truth of the Ρre-Tribulation Rapture Recovered, 67.
Michael J. Svigel
“Contrary to some popular treatments of the subject, including those of MacPherson and Reid, the doctrine of the pretribulation rapture in the modern era did not actually begin with Edward Irving and his followers. Irving seems to have held a partial prewrath secret rapture view, not a pretribulation position. That is, not all believers would be rescued prior to the pouring out of God’s wrath (“prewrath”) but only those who are among the spiritually mature and holy (“partial”). This rapture would be both unannounced and perhaps even unnoticed by most (“secret”), since the remnant of the holy was thought by the Irvingites to be relatively small compared to the large mass of nominal or carnal Christians. In 1831, only three years before his death, Irving advanced such a partial prewrath rapture, and this only ambiguously and with great hesitation. At one point he closely associated the event of 1 Thessalonians 4:17 with “the second coming of Christ, with all his saints, to establish his kingdom over all the nations under the whole heaven.” Later, however, he clarified that this event, though constituting a single return, is actually complex, including a rapture of the church prior to Christ’s execution of wrath. Did Irving understand a secret rapture for the faithful as a rescue from wrath? Yes. Did he understand a catching up of the whole church prior to the seven-year tribulation? No.”
— Michael J. Svigel, What Child is This? A Forgotten Argument for the Pretribulation Rapture, in Evidence for the Rapture: A Biblical Case for Pretribulationism, (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2015), 226-227.
