1730 Great Awakening Evangelistic Movement Led to Major Prophecy Changes
PART 7
February 21, 2012
What do you believe about the rapture and the tribulation period?
Today, many of the believers on this earth have a fixed set of beliefs on the subject, but have never examined the movement or the men who brought in what they believe. I hope that, whatever you believe about the rapture, you will check out what I am presenting in this Blog.
1. Try and find any publication commenting on the Bible before 1740 that taught the HE’s in Daniel 9:27 were the future antichrist, which more than 95 percent of believers are taught it represents today
?
2. Try and find any publication commenting on the Bible before 1740 that taught a pre-tribulation or mid-tribulation rapture of the saved.
3. Try and find any publication before 1740 that divides Daniel’s 70th week of seven years into two 1260 day periods.
What is taught in more than 95 percent of believer’s circles today came into being after 1740. Is it right? That’s your call! But you should be aware of when and where, and who, brought in what most believe today concerning these teachings. For a thorough and comprehensive outline of the who, what, why, when, and why these positions are taught as fact by the vast majority, please consult Archive Prophecy Updates 230B, 231, 231A, 231B, 232, 232A, 232B, 232C, and 233. What follows is an outline of a movement and the men who taught prophecy after it began.
The Great Evangelical Movement (“The Great Awakening”)
The Great Evangelical Movement began in the 1730’s, and John Wesley was the first great man associated with it when he was converted in 1738, coming out of the Church of England to become a part of the movement. You will not find the three prophecy teachings listed after paragraph one being taught before 1740. So how did these three things come to be today’s popular positions on the rapture and the antichrist?
The first man who lived during this movement that introduced a new teaching on the rapture was Morgan Edwards, who wrote an essay on it between 1742 and 1744, but said he taught it as early as 1740. Edwards was pastor in four churches after that in Ireland, England, and America before the book was finally published in 1788. The book was published in 1788 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In reality, Morgan’s book does not teach the rapture occurring before a seven year period made up of the seven years of Daniel’s 70th week, but rather a rapture that occurs 1260 days before Christ’s Second Advent, which really makes Morgan Edwards someone who would be labeled a “Mid-Tribber” today. So, the Evangelical Movement began in the 1730’s and he was the first man who began what led to the popular rapture teachings of today. At the time Edwards wrote his book there was no teaching that the antichrist was the “HE” who would come and fulfill the covenant of the last week of Daniel 9:27. But there was a teaching that Christ had already fulfilled the first half the 70th week, which would have opened the door for a teaching the antichrist could come to close out the last half of the week, only to be destroyed by the Second Advent of Christ. This could explain why Edwards did not have his rapture occurring seven years before the Second Advent, but rather 1260 days before it. He placed the rapture 1260 days before the Millennial Reign, not 2520 days, as in the Pre-Trib position, which came later. Actually, the 1788 published book was more of an essay published in “book” format from what Edwards had written between 1942 and 1944. It is quite possible he simply used Revelation 12:6 as the 1260 days that was to follow his rapture.
Revelation 12:6 – And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.
I knew the Pre-Trib Rapture did not originate with John Darby or with Margaret McDonald, because I found traces of it among some of the “Brethren” in Ireland before 1827, so I waited until I could discover the origin of the traces. I found the origin in Morgan Edwards, who was ordained to the ministry in Cork, Ireland on June 1, 1757. Darby, McDonald, and Edwards all had their influence during the time of the Great Evangelical Movement that began in the 1730’s and thereafter swept its religious fever across the world. The religious zeal of the movement today is still going strong in organizations led by many strong leaders pumping huge financial assets into mass media activity. Millions of individual contributors send their offerings to provide funding for the leader and the organization he or she heads. So, for all these reasons, I am going to give a brief history of Morgan Edwards.
The clergyman, Morgan Edwards., was born May 9, 1722 in Trevethin parish, Wales. He was educated at Bristol College in England from 1742 to 1744 where he wrote the essay of his views on prophecy in his eschatology class, which was later published in Philadelphia in 1788 under a long title: “Two Academical Exercises on Subjects Bearing the following titles – Millennium, Last Novelities.” He was ordained to the ministry in Cork, Ireland on June 1, June 1757. He came to America in 1761 and became pastor of a Baptist church in Philadelphia. Morgan resigned from the church in 1770, and never pastored thereafter, but continued to travel widely as an evangelist and lecturer. He is credited as being the founder of Rhode Island College, which is known today as Brown University. He was active in obtaining funds for the permanent support of the institution, and was one of its fellows from 1764 until 1789. He died in Pencador, Delaware in 1795. Does published evidence exist that the Pre-Trib rapture position was taught before 1740? Could be! And I will keep looking for such publications. However, at this point, all evidence I have found indicates it came out of the Evangelical Movement that began in the 1730s, and that Morgan Edwards, who would be labeled as a “Mid-Tribber today”, was the fa
ther of it.
Morgan Edward’s new teaching did not initially gain acceptance when he began to teach it in 1740, but some 87 years later, and some 39 years after his essay was published in 1788 in America, and as the “Brethren” movement grew in the United Kingdom, John Darby began the process of popularizing a modified version of it across England in 1827. His greatest barrier to break through was history, because he knew it had not been taught before 1740. Darby wrote into the doctrinal platform of the “Brethren” one innovation which still marks the “first of the week” distinctive today – a resistance against the lack of evidence it was taught before 1740. In his book, “Prophecy and the Church,” Allis quotes Darby as having said: “I do not want history to tell me Nineveh or Babylon or Jerusalem is in the hands of the Gentiles. I do not admit history to be, in any sense, necessary to the understanding of prophecy.” Please read the last paragraph in this Prophecy Update for a fuller explanation as to why Darby would naturally have disliked what was historically taught before “The Great Evangelical Movement.”
The man, who brought what is known today as the Pre-Trib rapture to the forefront of nineteenth century prophetic teaching, was John Darby of England who, in 1827, led the initial period of its popularity rise in England and then in the United States. Both Morgan and Darby lived and taught in the first 100 years of the Great Evangelical Movement. This movement swept into America in the nineteenth century and began to change the prophetic teachings that came over with the settlers of the eighteenth century. It was a time of movements and men, and the local churches were caught up in its fever and prophetic teachings. Today we see the local churches relegated to obscurity – it is a time of great men and great movements on the mass media networks of the world – and they are offering their prophetic teachings on the great media. – Great men and great organizations and great ministries and great results, but the things they teach about the rapture and Daniel 9:27 were not taught before 1740, as far as I have found in my research. Is what they teach on prophecy correct? It is your call! And every person should make up their own mind. But very few ever study it out for themselves. They approach the Scriptures with pre-conceived ideas from these great evangelical men and mold the Scripture into what they were taught by them, rather than letting their own study of the Scriptures mold what they believe. This generation is a generation led by great religious organizations and the great religious men who lead them. The age of the teachings of the first local churches is vanishing away. We have become individual followers of the teachings of individual men and women on the mass religious media, who teach and preach to what they believe to be a great universal, invisible church made up of all believers.
II Timothy 4:1-4 – I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; [2] Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. [3] For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; [4] And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
Now, just suppose that I find a published document, dated prior to 1740 that teaches a Pre-Trib position existed before 1740. Am I supposed to then cast out all the thousands of the teachings of those who lived from the time of the completion of the New Testament until 1740, and put all my faith in that one lone teaching of a Pre-Trib position, that none of them ever heard of, or even thought of? Again, the call is yours! But I implore you to at least consider what you have read, and to be prepared in case the Pre-Trib rapture position is not correct. Jesus is coming – that is certain! When he is coming in regard to the tribulation period is not! So, I just get up every day hoping it will be the day of his coming. I have been advised by some I cannot do that if I am not a Pre-Tribber. Why not? I may not be correct about when I believe the rapture will occur in reference to the tribulation period. Is it not also possible you may not be correct in the position you hold? So, until the issue is finally settled by Jesus, why don’t we all teach what we believe about it, and do what Jesus said to do regarding his coming.
Mark 13:35-37 – Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: [36] Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. [37] And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.
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