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by Dave MacPherson
(For more than 30 years my critics have falsely claimed that leading scholars condemn my research. Since those critics are in effect slamming poor, helpless, long-departed Margaret Macdonald, I hereby come to her defense with a few of the many reactions from scholars who generally haven't had a huge axe to grind either for or against the "pretribulation rapture" view. My usual practice, by the way, has been to obtain permission when quoting personal letters.)
Loraine Boettner (theologian, author): "I think that you have done a magnificent job in showing the real origin of the Pre-trib rapture theory."
F. F. Bruce (theologian, encyclopedia contributor): "It is strange that Darby should acknowledge his indebtedness to a young lady in Limerick and say nothing about the young lady in Port Glasgow [that is, not acknowledge her pre-Antichrist rapture of part of the church]....If this work of yours can do anything to counter the influence of Hal Lindsey..., you will have rendered a signal service."
Superficial----and even devious----scholarship loves to repeat Bruce's 1975 surmise that pretrib was "in the air in the 1820s and 1830s." Hired critic Thomas Ice knows that this wasn't a scientific conclusion (does reliable data rest literally "in the air"?), and Ice moreover has ignored Bruce's later statements complimenting my evidence!
Gary DeMar (theologian, author): "THE RAPTURE PLOT is the never-before-told, true story of the plot----how plagiarism and subtle document changes created the 'mother of all revisionisms.' A fascinating piece of detective work."
First, let's explain "rapture" and then "index."
Many Christian Right members in America believe in an imminent "rapture" (a coming of Christ that reportedly happens SEVEN YEARS BEFORE the famous Second Coming to earth).
The "great tribulation" in the Bible is said to occur during those seven years. Therefore the rapture is viewed as a "pretribulation" event and reportedly gives believers the hope of being taken to heaven, without dying, and thus escaping the traumatic seven-year period on earth.
The "Index" (as in Todd Strandberg's "Rapture Index") lists 45 "precursors" (events on earth reportedly acting as signposts pointing to the rapture, and showing how close the rapture is).
And here's where the mad theology comes in. The Rapture Index "precursors" (including "Antichrist") are on earth even AFTER the point in time for a "pretrib" rapture, are fulfilled DURING the seven-year tribulation period, and actually point to ONLY the (posttribulation) Second Coming to earth and not to any sort of "pretribulation" coming - a concept that NO church before 1830 ever taught!
Promoters and merchandisers of pretrib rapture theology have claimed in recent years to have found a few individuals before 1830 who supposedly taught a "pretrib" rapture or coming - but none of those promoters has ever found any ORGANIZED CHURCH teaching or even hinting at such a doctrine before that date. If you will go to Google or other search engines and type in "Deceiving and Being Deceived" (one of my earliest internet articles), you will see how groundless the claims are for certain pre-1830 individuals that have been dredged up. Even if a few pre-1830 persons DID seem to teach a pretrib rapture, why would pretrib promoters want to side with them instead of siding with the 99 percent who obviously DID NOT embrace a pretrib rapture view?
If you're interested in this subject, you can visit engines like Google, Yahoo, or MSN and type in "Pretrib Rapture Diehards" (the long-covered-up history of "pretrib" teaching), "Famous Rapture Watchers" (the only "rapture" view held by all churches before 1830), "Thomas Ice (Bloopers)" (the level of scholarship often seen in "pretrib" circles!), "Open Letter to Todd Strandberg," and "Appendix F: Thou Shalt Not Steal" (scandalous plagiarism in writings by Falwell, Dobson, Hindson, LaHaye, Ryrie etc.; such thievery has long characterized pretrib rapturists beginning with Darby (and his contemporaries), Seiss, and Bullinger in the 1800's and continuing with later members of the Christian Rewrite such as Lindsey, Unger, Jeremiah, Carlson, Tan, Missler, and Van Impe!).
If you'd like to go even further in your research, you can obtain my 300-page book "The Rapture Plot" (my greatest collection of documentation on pretrib rapturism's bizarre 19th century development) by calling 800.643.4645.