For years, critics of premillennialism have argued that John Nelson Darby was the source for the doctrine of the rapture and dispensationalism. Building upon years of research in seventeenthcentury and eighteenth-century English theological writings, William Watson argues that dispensationalism and the ideas associated with it were long part of British theological discourse. Drawing upon hundreds of early printed English books and years of archival study in primary sources and British libraries, Watson demonstrates that Darby's thought was neither aberrant nor original. To the contrary, he was following a long line of British clergy who anticipated the restoration of Jews to a national homeland and the imminent return of Jesus Christ.

This book sets forth the structure and content of John Nelson Darby's (1880-1882) dispensational theology and its place in the history of dispensational thought. Special attention is given to the relationship--real and supposed--between Darby's dispensational system and that of C.I. Scofield, author of the Scofield Reference Bible.

The purpose of this book is to describe the historical setting out of which dispensationalism has grown, to establish what dispensationalism is, and to point out its implications for contemporary church life. Beginning with a survey of the major features of dispensationalism in relation to the historic beliefs of the church, the book then examines the origins of dispensationalism in the thinking of John Nelson Darby.What kind of man was Darby? What were the circumstances in which his theology was fashioned? What were the practical consequences of his theology of the church for his own day? Dr. Bass offers well-founded answers to these questions, helping readers make their own evaluations about dispensationalism.Dr. Bass traces the development of Darby's thought and practice through the Plymouth Brethren movement. He clearly demonstrates how Darby not only introduced new theological concepts, but new principles of interpretation. This emerging system of interpretation, with its particular chronology of future events, has largely informed the popular Left BehindÓ eschatology. In this light, it is clear that Bass's discussion of Darbyite dispensationalism is just as relevant as when his book first came out in 1960.This study is the result of an intensive and exhaustive search for accuracy of detail with a fair, non-argumentative style. Those wishing to do further research will appreciate his classified bibliography regarding dispensational literature.

Apocalyptic millennialism is one of the most powerful strands in evangelical Christianity. It is not a single belief, but across many powerful evangelical groups there is general adhesion to faith in the physical return of Jesus in the Second Coming, the affirmation of a Rapture heavenward of "saved" believers, a millennium of peace under the rule of Jesus and his saints and, eventually, a final judgement and entry into deep eternity. In Discovering the End of Time (2016) Donald Harman Akenson traced the emergence of the primary packaging of modern apocalyptic millennialism back to southern Ireland in the 1820s and '30s. In Exporting the Rapture, he documents for the first time how the complex theological construction that has come to dominate modern evangelical thought was enhulled in an organizational system that made it exportable from the British Isles to North America-- and subsequently around the world. A key figure in this process was John Nelson Darby who was at first a formative influence on evangelical apocalypticism in Ireland; then the volatile central figure in Brethren apocalypticism throughout the British Isles; and also a crusty but ultimately very successful missionary to the United States and Canada. Akenson emphasizes that, as strong a personality as John Nelson Darby was, the real story is that he became a vector for the transmission of a terrifically complex and highly seductive ideological system from the old world to the new. So beguiling, adaptable, and compelling was the new Dispensational system that Darby injected into North-American evangelicalism that it continued to spread logarithmically after his death. By the 1920s, the system had become the doctrinal template of the fundamentalist branch of North-American evangelicalism and the distinguishing characteristic of the bestselling Scofield Bible.

Jesus Christ is coming again! That is the Blessed Hope which has since the earliest days of the Church energized Biblical Christians looking for the full revelation of God's redemption. The author sketches the history of interpretations of Christ's second coming and then carefully and lucidly examines the Biblical passages on which this doctrine is based. His conclusion is that the Blessed Hope is the second coming of Jesus Christ, not a pretribulation rapture that believers in a secret coming of Jesus. Yet he concludes that there should be liberty and charity within the Christian community for all who hold to the expectation of "the blessed hope and appearing in glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ."