The purpose of this thread is to collect support for the "pre-trib" "rapture" doctrine having been in the church before
John Nelson Darby penned it, along with his 7-year tribulation futurist doctrine, in the mid-19th century.
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Dr. Harry Ironside of Moody Bible Institute, himself an ardent supporter of the Ribera-Lacunza-Macdonald-Darby-Scofield eschatological scheme, admitted in his Mysteries of God, p.50: ". . . until brought to the fore through the writings of . . . Mr. J. N. Darby, the doctrine taught by Dr. Scofield [i.e., the Seven-Year Tribulation theory] is scarcely to be found in a single book throughout a period of 1600 years. If any doubt this statement, let them search, as the writer has in measure done, the remarks of the so-called Fathers, both pre- and post-Nicene, the theological treatises of the scholastic divines . . . the literature of the reformation . . . the Puritans. He will find the 'mystery' conspicuous by its absence."
http://www.beholdthebeast.com/great_tribulation.htm#pseudo_ephraemPSEUDO EPHRAEM
The Bible instructs:
Job 8:8
For enquire, I pray thee, of the former age, and prepare thyself to the search of their fathers: 9 (For we [are but of] yesterday, and know nothing, because our days upon earth [are] a shadow:)Some go to quite some lengths to suggest that there is historical support for this doctrine having been in the church prior to John Nelson Darby. Even a visit to raptureready.com, who censor alternate points of view, demonstrates the same bankruptcy in regard to historical precedent for this doctrine.
Thomas Ice, of the "Pre-trib Rapture Center", for example, points to a paper written in the 8th century by someone using a fake name - Pseudo Ephraem - as proof that the pre-trib rapture doctrine was taught in the church before John Darby penned his doctrine. Even the title of Ice's paper suggests his volume of historical proof: "
Ancient Pre-Trib Rapture Statement". This is some entertaining reading, but so sad to see the lengths someone will go through to advance false doctrine.
http://www.scionofzion.com/pretrib_rapture_diehards.htmhttp://www.according2prophecy.org/macphers.htmlhttp://www.theologue.org/PRETRIBDESPERADOS-DaveMacPherson.htmlEven in this thin case that Ice highlights, the argument that Pseudo Ephraem's paper is post-trib, is stronger. And even if the paper was about a pre-trib rapture, would this be enough historical precedent on which to base a doctrine that is so clearly unsupportable by scripture, except through an inverted pyramid of pile-on presumption? Seems appropriate to call it thin Ice. Here is the website of the
Pre-Trib Research Center. Considering the importance of looking to the fathers of the former age, you would think they would include a special section regarding historical support for their doctrine if there was any.
But in either event regarding this single paper, it is unreasonable to suggest that this would have been the source of John Darby's pre-tribulation rapture doctrine. The historical record shows that Darby, also called the "father of dispensationalism" was influenced by the Irvingites after attending several meetings, and that the Irvingites were influenced by a dream of a little Scottish girl named
Margaret Macdonald, who dreamed up this pre-tribulation rapture. There is even an argument however that even Margaret Macdonald's dream was post-trib! And John Darby's eschatological doctrine is what found it's way into the 20th century western protestant church. This cannot be reasonably refuted.
http://www.beholdthebeast.com/great_tribulation.htm 
