John Nelson Darby was a British-Irish blooded, Dublin-trained, lawyer who turned Church of Ireland minister and then moved on (1828) to help establish the Plymouth Brethren. He would perhaps be unknown today but for his meeting with eighteen-year-old Margaret MacDonald who is said to have had a vision regarding a “secret rapture” of the church. Though this doctrine has other, older, questionable roots, Darby popularized it in the Isles and in America having a strong influence on C. I. Scofield. Scofield in turn, placed the secret rapture idea in his Scofield Bible and today it has widely held acceptance among many evangelicals though the word rapture is non-biblical. Many also have failed to atempt to reconcile their concept of “thief in the night” with the rest of Peter’s inspired words, “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up” 2Pe 3.10. Three items are here which surely seem to not be secret.
Jesus is going to come! That is in the Bible. The return of Christ is not in question!
Too many are accepting the doctrine of a “secret rapture” without examining it. Look up it origins (the “s” is purposeful) – it will surprise you. The secret rapture appears to have catholic roots. It has also this visionary root in MacDonald.
Conversely does a “secret rapture” have any roots in the actual Bible? Do your homework. Be willing to re-examine this doctrine. Or for many – be willing to examine it for the first time. Can (will) this doctrine play into the hands of the antichrist?
One source to see is Grace, Faith, and Holiness, (Kansas City: Beacon Hill Press, 1988), 586.
Separate-Holy 