This is the second section to what I am currently writing. In the final pdf I will footnote the various references, for ease of reading and tidyness I am not doing so in these posts.
Theology and practice
As with all theology there is a practical outworking to what we believe.
A belief in the Rapture, namely that one day (and very soon) the church will be raptured out of this world, and there are those who are in danger of being left behind is a hope / belief in escapism.
- Such a mentality will not help us be committed to transformation of the world as we have it.
- It will also mean that any increase in darkness will only confirm our viewpoint, and rather than challenge the darkness we will tend to accept it as a ‘sign of the times’.
- I consider that perhaps there is little that has been more destructive to an expectation of transformation than this teaching.
- Also such teaching on eschatology produces fear rather than faith – a fear of being left behind.
- It also lends itself to an abandoning of this world to the devil.
- There can also be an over-focus on signs of the end, seeking to interpret what is happening in the world in the light of supposed prophetic Scriptures.
- There can be more of an interest – and a passive interest at that – in the rise of evil than in the prayer for the kingdom of God to come. Maranatha being the prayer of the New Testament.
How did Dispensationalism develop?
An important element is the historical socio-political context. The predominant eschatological view during the 17th and 18th centuries was that of post-millennialism. Post-millennialism is the belief that the spread of the Gospel will bring in a golden age, i.e. the millennial / 1000 year rule by Jesus on earth will take place after there has been great success through the preaching of the gospel. The rule of Christ will be manifest after (post) the work of evangelism. So in the 17th and 18th centuries there was an optimism that prevailed concerning the prospective success of world-evangelisation. The writings of the revivalists Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield were prominent in spreading the belief that the millennium (this golden age for the gospel) was arriving. The gospel was expected to soon prevail and it would not be long before there would also be a conversion of the Jews to Christ.
There is however a shift that began to take place as the optimism was challenged by world events. In a short space of time there were three significant wars in the late 18th and early 19th centuries that brought a reality check.
- The war of independence (1775-84)
- The French revolution (1789-93)
- The Napoleonic wars (1809-15).
In this period there were also a number of major changes within a number of the European monarchies; there was widespread unrest in Britain, and the wider socio-political arena was equally unstable.
Napoleon was setting family members on various thrones in Europe – his vision was to become ‘supreme king of kings and sovereign of the Roman Empire’. A number of ‘students’ of prophecy speculated that he could indeed be the antiChrist and that there would be a revived Roman Empire in fulfilment of Daniel 2. All of this unrest fuelled interest in things prophetic and brought a revival of pre-millennial expectation. (The pre-millennial understanding that Jesus would return to set up his kingdom on earth as the spread of the gospel was failing and darkness was visibly increasing.)
‘Pre-’ meaning before: Jesus would have to come before there would be any real manifestation of his kingdom on earth. So we are entering a period of new interest in eschatology and the return of Christ: it is during this period that:
- Adventism arose with Joseph Miller saying that Christ was to return on March 21, 1843; and,
- Jehovah’s Witnesses also developed with Charles Russell saying that Christ would set up his ‘heavenly kingdom’ in 1914.
- So there is a shift from the optimism of the triumph of the Gospel to a pessimistic view that the last times had arrived and the powers of darkness were prevailing.
This is the context in which two early figures that are at the root of Dispensationalism come on the scene.
One is a controversial Scottish minister and the other one of the main influences within the Plymouth Brethren movement. As we look at this again note that – relatively speaking – Dispensationalism and a belief in the Rapture is a very recent phenomenon. Edward Irving (1792-1834), licensed as a church of Scotland minister in 1815, came to London to Caledonian Chapel in Hatton Gardens in 1822. He was both controversial and popular. In 1825 he addressed an audience with the title of ‘Babylon and Infidelity Foredoomed’. In that he challenged the post-millennial optimism and spoke of a ‘series of thick-coming judgements and fearful perplexities before the return of Jesus Christ.’ He was disparaging about the success of mission work on many lands, including Southern Europe as judgements were about to fall there. Irving was in no doubt that the Gentile Church had failed, seeing the judgements of Matthew 24 applying to the church. There was though an expectation of a Jewish Dispensation that would soon come:
When the Lord shall have finished the taking of witness against the Gentiles… he will begin to prepare another ark of testimony… and to that end will turn his Holy Spirit unto his ancient people, the Jews, and bring them unto those days of refreshing… This outpouring of the Spirit is known in Scripture by ‘the latter rain’. (Edward Irving, preliminary discourse, “on Ben Ezra”, The Coming of Messiah in Glory and Majesty, by Juan Josafat Ben-Ezra a converted Jew, Translated from the Spanish, with a Preliminary Discourse (London, L.B. Seeley & Sons, 1827), pp. 5-6.).)
In 1826 Henry Drummond had opened up his home at Albury Park to a group of 20 invited guests to discuss issues concerning the immediate fulfilment of prophecy. Irving had already developed a ‘Society for the Investigation of Prophecy’ and that society was soon subsumed under the conferences that were taking place at Albury. The conferences became an annual event from 1826-30 and became increasingly more speculative on issues of prophecy and the interpretation of Scripture. Alongside the conferences a publication came forth: The Morning Watch. Irving died in 1834 otherwise he might have become the main continuing voice in developing Dispensationalism. This however was to become the task of J.N. Darby (1800-82). In closing this section I quote the main text that is used as a claim for a rapture. I suggest that you read the text and note the question that Paul is being asked and the total absence of comfort along the lines of ‘heaven’ as he centres on the historical hope of those who are aligned to the God of hope, ending with how that hope is what will bring encouragement to one another.
But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died. For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those who have died. For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call and with the sound of God’s trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words. (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).