Fritz Springmeier

ARE THESE IDEAS BIBLICAL?The Pre-Trib rapture theory has been discredited by Theologians, and has fallen into disreputein recent years with Bible scholars. Even so, it comes as a shock to many to hear that theteaching is not in the Bible. (This isn't to say that no one claims it comes from the Bible. As thisis a historical expose, not a doctrinal dissertation, the reader is encouraged to examine the SecretRapture and why it is not Biblical from other sources.)The Encyclopedia of American Religions by J. Gordon Melton states that the Rapture ideastarted with Margaret McDonald in 1830.For 18 centuries, Christians had believed in what is called today the Post-Trib Rapture—thatis that when Christ returned they would be caught up with him. This is what 1 Thes 4:13-18clearly indicates. However, several Protestant groups in Ireland, Scotland and England with Jesuitties began preaching a secret Rapture after Margaret's visions.A confluence of two sources, a Scottish lady Margaret McDonald with her visions, and theIrvingites, helped influence Darby to adopt the Rapture theory. The first source was a channeleror spirit medium, and the second source, the Irvingites, received their teaching from a "RabbiBen Ezra" which was the pen-name of a Jesuit Emanual Lacunza (pronounced Lacuntha)(1731-1801) of Spanish heritage.Margaret McDonald lived near Glasgow, Scotland at Port Glasgow. A brilliant Englishman Dr.Robert Norton was an actual witness of what Margaret had spoken during her visions, and hadalso received her own written accounts of everything. Her first vision was Feb. 1, 1830. Hervisions that the Christians would be raptured seperately before Christ would return came in thespring of 1830. Norton cleared the air with his rare book The Restoration of Apostles andProphets; In the Catholic Apostolic Church in 1861. This book tells the story of how Margaret'svisions started the Rapture belief.The Irishman John Darby, Robert Norton, and a number of Irvingites, and many others cameto Margaret's house to hear her visions. Edward Irving (an ex-Scottish Presbyterian) wrote in aletter "The substance of Mary Campbell's and Margaret Macdonald's visions or revelations, givenin their papers, carry to me a spiritual conviction and a spiritual reproof which I cannot express."57 It did not take Irving long after Margaret's visions to first begin to preach the Rapture. He alsothen translated the work of Lacunza, knowing full well that it was the work of a Jesuit priest.The earliest mention of the Pre-Trib Rapture by this minister, who had been preaching duringthe 1820s, was in a letter written soon after July 6,1830. 58 The Plymouth Brethren, even beforeDarby's influence, had heard in Plymouth, England in 1831, a sermon on the Pre-Trib raptureby Captain Percy Hall. 59 Two lawyers Darby and Schofield promoted the Rapture theory in theU.S. Darby made trips across the U.S. during the 1860s and 1870s promoting the Rapture. Darbyhimself had some tainted connections during this time period.In Dublin, Ireland, in the Brethren assembly seven leaders were chosen, and Edward Croninwas one of these. Edward Cronin was an ex-Catholic who preached the masonic slogan "liberty,equality, and fraternity." He was into a type of mystic Christian belief system. These Brethrenchurches were part of the Tractarian movement supported secretly by the Jesuits, and to whichDarby joined himself to in 1827. 60Darby also spent time with Irvingites and Tractarians in meetings at Lady Powerscourt's castlein 1833.