Journal: Interdisciplinary Journal on Biblical Authority
Volume: IJOBA 01:1 (Spring 2020)
Article: Pretribulationalism Before Darby: An Overview Of Pre-Darby Rapture Statements
Author: Thomas D. Ice

IJOBA 1:1 (Spring 2020) p. 92

Pretribulationalism Before Darby:
An Overview Of Pre-Darby Rapture Statements

Thomas D. Ice

Professor of Bible and Theology
Calvary University

* * * * *

Probably the most common argument against the pretribulational rapture doctrine is that it is a recent development within church history, only about 200 years old. About 30 years ago when I became executive director of the Pre-Trib Research Center with Tim LaHaye (1926–2016) I personally was not aware of a clear pre-trib rapture statement prior to John Nelson Darby’s (1800–1882) declaration in the late 1820s. During my first year of full-time work with LaHaye I received a phone call in my Washington, D.C. office from prophecy teacher Grant Jeffrey (1948–2012). As I gazed at the Washington Monument from my eighth-floor office window, Grant read a statement to me and asked what that statement sounded like. I said, “It is a pre-trib rapture statement.” He said, “It is from the fourth century.” I said, “That is impossible or I would have heard of it.” I immediately called up Dr. Charles Ryrie (1925–2016) and read him the same statement. His response was exactly like mine. He thought it was a clear pre-trib rapture statement.1 Well, Grant proved to be right. That incident took place in the Spring of 1994. Even though I had already been researching the history of the rapture for about fifteen years at the time, (I have a master’s degree in historical theology); Grant’s claim really escalated my research effort.

IJOBA 1:1 (Spring 2020) p. 93

Since those days, years ago, the consensus that Darby was the first to come up with the pre-trib rapture idea has fallen by the wayside.2 Research has turned up many more instances of some form of pretribulationism throughout the Church’s history. I will provide in this article an overview of where things stand currently in relation to the history of pretribulationism. I am not saying that pre-Darby rapturists had the same system or rational that led to Darby’s pretribulationism or that they fit exactly into current pre-trib thought at every point. These rapture advocates believed it would take place before the time of the tribulation, whether it was seven years, three and a half years, or some other interval of time.

Even if Darby had been the first to articulate pretribulationism in postapostolic church history, the final authority is not what some have believed throughout the history of the church, instead it matters what Scripture teaches. I strongly believe the pre-trib rapture is clearly taught in the New Testament, having first been introduced as a newly...