So we find a apostate church that persecuted true believers, and burned them at the stake, banned the Bible from the people, and declared the Pope is God on earth and infallible, to say nothing of the Inquisition and its reign of destruction. And it sought to cover up the truth of Gods Word and its prophecy with these false doctrines of Preterism and Futurism which have permeated and corrupted many Christian churches. Now the false idea of dispensationalism sprang from what can only be called a
strange origin..
Pope Paul III called the Council of Trent, which met in three sessions between 1545 and
1563, and the Protestants were present during the second meeting.
The Council reaffirmed most of the doctrines disputed by the reformers:
1. Transubstantiation
2. Justification by faith and works
3. The medieval mass
4. The seven sacraments
5. Celibacy
6. Purgatory
7. Indulgences
8. Papal authority to enforce the decrees of the Council, and promised obedience to
the Pope from church officials."
To meet the challenge and exposure of the Papacy as the Antichrist and the Pope as the "son of perdition," the Jesuits were called upon to counter the reformers' teachings and came up with Preterism and Futurism to put it as past or in the future so the Pope would not be identified by the prophecies. The two Jesuit scholars, Alcasar and Ribera, developed the preterist and futurist systems of prophetic interpretation. In the 19th century, it got spread and the Protestant world accepted futurism in order to cease its conflict with Rome.
The prophetic interpretation of futurism was further refined when dispensationalism originated in an "utterance" by means of tongues in a church in England. Most Protestant churches have accepted the futurist dispensationalistic mode of prophetic interpretation, which is the form of interpretation employed in the Scofield Reference Bible. Dispensationalism is a product of futurism and it
teaches that history is divided into seven dispensations.
This study is even more direct..'
Futurism Comes to the United States
Edward Irving:
"Edward Irving (1792 - 1834), born in Scotland and a brilliant Presbyterian preacher, became a noted expositor in the British Advent Awakening. At first a historicist in his approach to the prophecies, Irving came to adopt futuristic views." M.L Moser, Jr., An Apologetic of Premillenialism, p. 28.
Unfortunately Irving's divergence from the truth did not end here. Along with his change of position on prophetic interpretation he also incorporated several other fanaticisms into his new theology.
"...He despaired of the church being able to complete her gospel commission by the ordinary means of evangelism and began to believe and preach about the miraculous return of the gifts and power of the early church.
"In 1831 the 'gift of tongues' and other 'prophetic utterances' made their appearance among his followers, first in Scotland among some women and then in London. Irving never detected the imposture and gave credence to these new revelations. Under the influence of these revelations of 'the Holy Ghost' 'by other tongues,' a new aspect was added to the expectation of future antichrist -the rapture of the church before the advent of Christ. The novel origin of this novel theory has embarrassed some of its advocates, and in the face of certain lack of evidence heretofore, the defenders of this novel theory have tried to deny its historical beginning. But the recent discovery in a rare book of Rev. Robert Norton entitled the Restoration of Apostles and Prophets In the Catholic Apostolic Church, published in 1861, establishes the origin of this innovative doctrine beyond all question. Norton was a participant in the Irvingite movement. The idea of a two-stage coming of Christ first came to a Scottish lass, Miss Margaret MacDonald of Port Glasgow, Scotland, while she was in a 'prophetic' trance." M.L. Moser, Jr., An Apologetic of Premillennialism, p.28.(Research was done at Central Baptist College, Conway, AR)
Actually, the trance that Miss MacDonald was under occurred while she was deliriously ill. As pointed out in Arnold Dillimore's book, Forerunner of the Charismatic Movement, Miss MacDonald was a semi-invalid who was prone to be taken away with her feelings,impressions and revelations.
It was through the fervor of a local preacher, McLeod Cambell, the histerical impressions and feelings of Miss MacDonald, and the desire above all reason of Edward Irving for a return of the gifts that the grass roots of the Charismatic movement began in Scotland. It soon spread like wildfire, and through the close association of John Nelson Darby, Irving's movement came to the United States....
The futurist position did not originate with the Plymouth Brethren. Sixteenth-century Roman Catholic commentators had countered Protestant attacks upon the papacy as the Antichrist by insisting that none of the events relating to Antichrist had yet occurred....As has been true so frequently in the history of religious controversy, futurism did not become a real threat to the historists and an attractive alternative prophetic position until accepted by believers. This occurred when Darby, Newton, and the Plymouth Brethren adopted futurism.
"...
Darby introduced into discussion at Powerscourt the ideas of a secret Rapture of the church and of a parenthesis in prophetic fulfillment between the sixty-ninth and seventieth week of Daniel (chapter 9). These two concepts constituted the basic tenets of the system of theology since referred as dispensationalism.... Neither Darby nor Newton seems to have become estranged at this time. Darby held an open mind on both of these subjects as late as 1843. (Benjamin Wills) Newton remembered, years later, opposing both positions. Commenting upon Darby's interpretation of the seventy weeks of Daniel, Newton remarked, 'The secret rapture was bad enough, but this (futurism) was worse.'"Ernest R. Standeen, The Roots of Fundamentalism, British and American Millenarianism 1800-1930, pp. 36, 37, 38 (University of Chicago Press - Chicago & London).
Conclusion
The movement for futurism, the secret rapture and the gift of tongues all developed in the 1830's in the Scottish church, pastored by Edward Irving, by a woman named Miss Margaret McDonald. She gave what was believed, at the time, to be an inspired utterance. She spoke of the visible, open and glorious second coming of Christ. But as the utterance continued, she spoke of another coming of Christ -- a secret and special coming in which those that were truly ready would be raptured. It was John Nelson Darby, a Brethren preacher and a diligent writer of the time in England -- who was largely responsible for introducing this new teaching on a large scale. In the 1850's and 1860's, this theory was introduced into the United States, in a large degree when Cyrus Ingerson Scofield, a strong believer in Darby's teachings, incorporated it into the notes of his Scofield Reference Bible which was published in 1909.
It didn't happen all at once, but through time the Papacy's maneuver to avoid detection as the antichrist power has taken hold of the majority of professed Christians today. Stealthfully she has laid her trap and the world has walked right into it. "Never was there a time in the Church's history when she more needed the barriers which prophecy has erected for her protection. And now when they are so sorely needed, they are not to be found.
Futurism has crept into the Protestant Church, and broken down these sacred walls..."H. Grattan Guinness, Romanism and the Reformation From the Standpoint of Prophecy, p. 257 (1887)....
