What We Can Learn From Esther

I spent sometime listening to one of my favorite individuals who has a teaching ministry. He is a professor at the Reformed Theological Seminary in Oviedo, Florida.
His name is Dr. Steve Brown. I have mentioned Steve before in an article.
I don't necessarily agree with everything Steve has to say, but I don't know of anyone that I do. I do as always take the good, and throw away the bad. Whenever we speak, God reveals truths and then there is often our own opinions, subjective views and more involved. It is by listening we can build upon a foundation of truths and formulate what God has in store for us to learn, and by sincere study of scripture, so that we might know his will and to gain the mind of Christ, so that we may be transformed in our thinking from the ways of this world.

Steve tells a story that I have to share about the days Clinton was caught having illicit sex with his intern Monica Lewinsky. There was a mother sitting near by and a Rabbi when the Rabbi overheard the mother say, "What do I tell my children, how do I tell them what "The President has done"? The rabbi sitting nearby speaks up and says to her, tell them about the men of the Bible - David, Abraham, Jacob, Jeremiah, Hosea and others.

Steve thought at that moment about Peter the hypocrite in the New Testament as well and of course himself.

Esther is a book of lessons for us about evil. We can learn from it, now that the Gospel story has been told in the New Testament.
What is the lesson here for Christians?
The first lesson is that one has to know what evil is before they can ever recognize good.
We as believers often forget from whence we have fallen. Where we are in the secret places that only the Father knows about, our past, present or future.

Where evil lies at our doorstep, and we must not forget when we come together to fellowship, the reason that the pagans aren't standing beside us, in our presence isn't we are good, but that He is good. Thus we as believers know evil, because we first saw it in ourselves and then we saw what we deserved and found Him who didn't deserve what we did, who paid the price we could not pay. No, we stand in fellowship as a believer only when we have first seen our own reflection in the mirror of evil and then partaken of the Grace of God.

The religious are never saved, until they have kissed the demons of their own evil will they ever come to recognize the need for a Saviour. We can't get better, for there is no good in us in the first place. Only the resurrected life of Jesus Christ transforms us as He lives His life out through us. Christ in you, is the hope of glory.

The book of Esther offers us important lessons that we must know about evil.

First, we are not former beggars, but present beggars that have been given bread.

If we look into evil in the book of Esther we see that often the most evil people are God's own people. This story as well doesn't ring well with the religious for it is full of evil by God's own people and by the enemy of God's own people.

Remember the prostitute who had sinned much was forgiven much in the New Testament.

The religious do not see their own failure but think because of their works righteousness they are good. They look down on those who have had the joy of finding a Saviour, knowing their own demons and how much they needed deliverance and found it. They love much because of it. Those with little love for others and only themselves must first kiss the demon of their own lives before they too will realize the Grace of God.

Let's look at some key things in Esther.
We have a young lady who is Jewish one of God's chosen people, whose cousin, Mordecai decides to take her in as his one of his family to raise her because of parental absence. She is described as absolutely beautiful.
She is taken before the king because of her beauty and her being a virgin, so that the King can choose his new harem and one to become Queen in replacing his Ex.

The King is doing this because he is irate with his wife for acting like a Gloria Steinhem. She over ruled his authority when he asked her to basically to come over to his party that he was holding for himself and some good old buddies. He wanted to show off her beauty. Who knows to what extent in that day and age.
She refused to go and do as he asked, she had her own thing going. She was having her own little party with the girls. She was an "independent woman".
The king was so upset about her actions and afraid that other women would follow, he made it an edict that "the man should be master of his home". This edict was passed to all the men of his kingdom.
Reaction, not response.
Men! Can you remember a time when we have we been guilty of that before?
We have to set down the rules to the wife or else, we often feel. So, we go on our high horse that "we're the boss!" "Do what I say or I will replace you"
Does that sound familiar in America?

Anyway, the King in his vengeance toward his wife sets out to have all the beautiful virgin women in his kingdom brought to him to be part of his harem and to come before him.
Esther is brought in, made a part of his Harem of Virgins, but she does more than that she seduces the king greater than all the others in his harem to become more than just a harem girl. She makes it to the top (she is the successful kind of girl who knows how to get to the top) and she becomes the Queen. She gains his favor over all the rest.
She never tells the King until the end of the story that she is one of God's people- the Jews, and keeps it hidden until the perfect timing of God.

Sensuality and lack of testimony are two sins we can point out right away when we want to sit in the chair of judgement of others sins.

We soon find a close partner or advisor of the King, Haman who is not Jewish, who wants to kill off all the Jews, especially Mordecai, who would not pay him the respect he felt he deserved and desired. Mordecai just wouldnt bow down in his presence.
Evil again comes in to play it's part to this story.
Haman plans and he convinces the King to send out a decree against all the Jews for purpose of their death and destruction. He makes the old, their a threat to your rule argument, they aren't like us, they believe differently, talk differently and at differently. We can't have that.
Mordecai goes into mourning and makes a big noise about it while covered in sack cloth and ashes. The Jewish people follow suit.
Esther ask why? She gets her servant to get the answer from her people, then proceeds to plan how she might get before the King a hearing when not invited to save her people and Mordecai, which was a very serious thing to do to go before the king uninvited with an issue, and if the king didn't hold out his scepter to you the law was death. It would be like jumping over the fence at the Whitehouse and running across the Whitehouse lawn just to go tell the President something. You are going to die, I guarantee before you reached the doorstep you would catch a bullet in the back.
Only because of her beauty does she earn the Kings favor in the situation and he extends his scepter to her, whereby she proceeds to ask the King if he and her and Haman will attend a party she is going to give in honor of Haman. They come, then she plans a second party like the first where the Kings agrees he will attend along with Haman and just her again, because she so pleased the King at this first one.

Haman is jubilant over his special relationship with the two. On his leaving he runs across Mordecai again and it inflames him with more anger, then he goes home on a bragging binge about you guessed it, himself.
Anger comes easy while intoxicated and bragging does to. I never met a drunk that didn't think they were six foot tall and bullet proof.
I too in my day of drinking the cup while it was red, would feel the same way.

Anyway, Haman's family tells him to build a gallows in the morning and have Mordecai hung on it, then go to the party. So he built the special hanging place for Mordecai that day.
That evening King Xerses (Ahasuerus) is trying to go to sleep so he ask for a boring book basically to have read to him until he would fall asleep, he hears "the chronicles", which aren't the biblical book we are familiar with, but his own kingdoms records and he reads the story about Mordecai, saving his life at a point in time from a plot by two of his doormen to kill him. So the king asks, was this man ever honored for being the hero he was in saving his life? The answer of course was, "No"!
So on the next morning Haman goes to see the king, he goes there with the intent purpose of asking for permission to hang Mordecai. Haman, the one that has plotted against God's people and desires nothing more than like Hitler tried, to wipe out the entire race of Jews (God's only chosen under the Old Covenant), because of his hatred of Mordecai who doesn't give him the honor he wants from all men walks in and he is asked a question by the King.
"What is to be done for the man whom the king desires to honor?
Haman thinking egotistically as usual, thinks the King is talking about him, and goes on to name all kinds of things that would enrich "him" personally that the king should do. At the last moment, he finds out all the robes and finest horses he suggested be given to such a man- thinking he is the man, aren't at all to go to him, but to Mordecai. He is left mourning and covering his head.

The second party starts that day that Esther had planned and Haman comes over to drink some wine with Esther and the King. Esther reveals to the king that she is Jewish and that someone has planned to kill her and her people the Jews. She then reveals it is Haman. Not only does this get the Kings anger going being more than a little intoxicated, but he walks out into the garden only to find on his return, Haman has fallen across the couch onto Esther's lap to beg for mercy, and the King believes he is assaulting her, so he calls for Haman's death immediately.
Haman ends up dying on the very gallows that he had built at his home for Mordecai and the other Jews. The rest of the story is on how the king removes any threat for the Jewish people and how he honors Esther, her uncle Mordecai and the Jews.

I have told you bits and pieces because my motivation is to get you to read your Bible, and to read this book, it is a wonderful story if you don't read it through religious eyes.
Read it in light of the New Covenant of God's grace and election of all that believe that are now His chosen people. For there is neither Jew nor Greek, bondsman or freeman nor male nor female, for we are all one in Christ.

I would like you to read it so that you might see 3 key points made here about evil.

I want you to read it to understand who we are in Christ, who we were before we came to know him, and the extent of tribulation we will face as believers from evil, and the outcome of the battle we find ourselves in.

Haman's persistence to destroy all the Jews is because Mordecai won't honor him.
So, lesson one- We learn of the persistent and horrible nature of evil. Esther 3:6
When you go back you find Haman is a direct descent from the Agatite, who had been historically "bad to the bone". They were persistent in evil.

Evil is always persistent and horrible. It is especially for God's people, because if we won't honor the evil found in this world, we will find ourselves pursued by the enemy. He cares way too much for himself to not have you enrolled in his little wicked army. So thus, through much tribulation we enter the Kingdom of God.

Lesson Two - evil has always been directed at God's people.

It is persistent to steal, kill and destroy His people.

The very last lesson to know is that persistent protection is always there from God our Father, in His timing and in His way.

Look at Esther 4:14 and 10:3.

The Father in the worst of our circumstances already has a plan with a good outcome.

Jesus came to us individually in the worst of who we are and what we have done. Then the Father doesn't quit at that, he persist in making all things for those that love God, work to the good. Patience and knowing who we really are, evil people who deserve nothing but destruction like the rest of mankind, and knowing salvation doesn't come from us but from God our Father through Jesus Christ. He is our deliverer.
Evil will not quit in this world until Jesus returns, evil will not quit persisting after us, it will not be appeased until it can conquer our spirits and raise the flesh to it's self centered position one again.
Evil is often found with God's people, but he restores us as He did any of these that we read of in the Old Testament or the New.
It will always persist after those that are His, which "we are now His chosen", "His royal priesthood".
The facts are that the enemy Satan, and the world and the flesh they combined have it out for you, if you are a Christian.
The facts are that in this day and age, as Corrie ten Boom said, "persecution of Christians is greater today than even we can find described in the book of Revelations." She knew this, she had traveled and seen the persecution of our brothers and sisters in nations like China, Saudi Arabia and more. She too had known persecution in her life time as a Jew under Hitler and then as a Christian.

The final most important fact to know is to recall that the battle has already been won by our Lord and Savour Jesus Christ and the final facts of the wars' outcome are known.

Let us look at Colossians 2:9-15 and Revelations 20:10

Present Truth
... for in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and in him ye are made full, who is the head of all principality and power:
in whom ye were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ; having been buried with him in baptism, wherein ye were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. And you, being dead through your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, you, I say, did he make alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses; having blotted out the bond written in ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us:and he hath taken it out that way, nailing it to the cross; having despoiled the principalities and the powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.

Future Truth

.. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where are also the beast and the false prophet; and they shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

Now my hope is that you have kissed your own demons and recognize that they for you as a believer hold no power over your life, for your life is now hidden in Christ Jesus with God the Father. Covered by His blood, set free by his death and most importantly His resurrected life within us, we are more than conquerors in Christ Jesus who gave his life for you and me.
A life to the grave and a life to resurrection.
Evil awaits every corner, no one is safe from it on their own. Our only victory lies in the hope within us, Christ who comes to live in us through the person of the Holy Spirit.
Don't laugh, don't judge others when you see them overtaken by evil. We love to make comments as Protestants about what is going on in the Catholic church with the priest, but don't forget we have our own, Jimmy Swaggerts and Jim Bakers and other men that have fallen prey to the lure of evil.
Kiss the demons in your own life (see yourself in a mirror), and then find deliverance from God from the evil that awaits and lurks around every corner to steal, kill and destroy, For without the Father's mercy and grace, you too will fail.
Evil is persistent, but God's deliverance and plan for us is more persistent, as the "victory has already been won".
Fall into the arms of Jesus, and know this, though we are just beggars at the table like all men, God has given us bread to eat, and wine to drink - his life for us.
Eat of Him and drink of Him who will come to sup with you, if you but just answer the door to His knocking on your heart. His promises are ours, and when we read the Old Testament in light of knowing the New Covenant of Grace, it becomes a story for us all to read and to learn from. It is a shadow and just a story until you know Christ and then there is so much gold in the simple story of a beautiful girl that we can learn from. We must remember we have to know the enemy to defeat it. Evil is our enemy, and God's holiness, His righteousness and His truth given to us freely who do not deserve it, are our only weapons against this dark world we live in.


Dr. J.

Israel, Dispensationalism, Truth and the News

It seems the news always contains something about Israel and the Middle East. As an independent news writer and editor, sometimes, it becomes necesssary to let your readers know where you stand on issues, and what you believe. It is especially important because my viewpoint of History and what Christ means to me, as a believer and my bias in reporting or commenting on news will often be subjective and opinionated, then one needs to understand my theology and more. I believe absolutely that Christ died for my sins, was raised from the grave and ascended to the Father to give us, the Holy Spirit, who trust in Him, and to live His resurrected life within the believer by grace through faith, and that it is His work alone that saves, sanctifiies and glorifies the believer. We are to trust him and in this trust comes obedience by His Spirit.

A little history of the Hebrews from 597 until today on their belief structure and more.

The Chaldeans, following standard Mesopotamian practice, deported the Jews after they had conquered Jerusalem in 597 BC. The deportations were large, but certainly didn't involve the entire nation. Somewhere around 10,000 people were forced to relocate to the city of Babylon, the capital of the Chaldean empire. In 586 BC, Judah itself ceased to be an independent kingdom (which they were), and the earlier deportees found themselves without a homeland, without a state, and without a nation. This period, which actually begins in 597 but is traditionally dated at 586, is called the Exile in Jewish history; it ends with an accident in 538 when the Persians overthrow the Chaldeans.

Nebuchadnezzar, the king of the Chaldeans, only deported the most prominent citizens of Judah: professionals, priests, craftsmen, and the wealthy. The "people of the land" (am-hares ) were allowed to stay. So Jewish history, then, has two poles during the exile: the Jew in Babylon and the Jews who remain in Judah. We know almost nothing of the Jews in Judah after 586. Judah seems to have been wracked by famine, according to the biblical book, Lamentations , which was written in Jerusalem during the exile. The entire situation seemed to be one of infinite despair. Some people were better off; when Nebuchadnezzar deported the wealthy citizens, he redistributed the land among the poor. So some people were better off. In addition, there were rivalries between the two groups of Jews. It is clear that the wealthy and professional Jews in Babylon regarded themselves as the true Jewish people.These are the same people today who call themselves - Jews

The salient feature of the exile, however, was that the Jews were settled in a single place by Nebuchadnezzar. While the Assyrian deportation of Israelites in 722 BC resulted in the complete disappearance of the Israelites, the deported Jews formed their own community in Babylon and retained their religion, practices, and philosophies. Some, it would seem, adopted the Chaldean religion (for they name their offspring after Chaldean gods), but for the most part, the community remained united in its common faith in Yahweh.

They called themselves the "gola," ("exiles"), or the "bene gola" ("the children
of the exiles"), and within the crucible of despair and hopelessness, they forged a new national identity and a new religion. The exile was unexplainable; Hebrew history was built on the promise of Yahweh to protect the Hebrews and use them for his purposes in human history. Their defeat and the loss of the land promised to them by Yahweh seemed to imply that their faith in this promise was misplaced. This crisis, a form of cognitive dissonance (when your view of reality and reality itself do not match one another), can precipitate the most profound despair or the most profound reworking of a world view. For the Jews in Babylon, it did both.

From texts such as Lamentations , which was probably written in Jerusalem, and Job , written after the exile, as well as many of the Psalms , Hebrew literature takes on a despairing quality. The subject of Job is human suffering itself. Undeserving of suffering, Job, an upright man, is made to suffer the worst series of calamities possible because of an arbitrary test. When he finally despairs that there is no cosmic justice, the only answer he receives is that humans shouldn't question God's will. That God is sovereign. Many of the psalms written in this period betray an equal hopelessness.
But the Jews in Babylon also creatively remade themselves and their world view. In particular, they blamed the disaster of the Exile on their own impurity, their forgetting of the Law and breaking the Torah and it's 613 commandments. They were sure they had betrayed Yahweh and allowed the Mosaic laws and cultic practices to become corrupt; the Babylonian Exile was proof of Yahweh's displeasure.

During this period, Jewish leaders no longer spoke about a theology of judgement, but a theology of salvation. In texts such as Ezekiel and Isaiah ,there is talk that the Israelites would be gathered together once more, their society and religion purified, and the unified Davidic kingdom be re-established. However, what they missed was God was going to establish a "spiritual" kingdom and not a physical kingdom and not the nation of Israel.

These scriptures misunderstood then, and when they crucified Christ because he didnt fulfill these things physically, are still misinterpreted and misunderstood even more today, but now not only by those who call themselves Israel but the true Jew or (Israel, the church) today.
It wasn't until the 1800's with the advent of the Scofield Bible and it's pro Zionist (separating Jews from Christians)commentary and premillenial doctrines did the church believe that Israel was to re-establish a physical nation in the "promised land, once again to usher the coming of Christ"
The prophets, that Israel misundersood then, when they crucified Christ and even today with the re-establishment of an aparthied government known as the State of Israel still persist due to poor interpretation and pro-Zionistic leading by pro Zionism even within the Christian Church.

Yes, it was to the Jews he gave the promises and the law, but they rejected it and as a result only a remnant was saved when the church began and even unto today only a remnant is being saved. Paul and the earliest Christians, the Apostles and the beleivers at Jerusalem- who were all Jewish were and are part of this remnant even until today.Along with those who claim to be Hebrew or believe in the Torah alone come to know Christ since then. What most Christians don't realize is the Torah is not the Jewish authority today nor was it when Christ was here. The Talmud and the rabbincal teachings have replaced the Torah (the first five books of the Bible which includes the 613 commandments of God).
So this period is marked by a resurgence in Jewish tradition, as the exiles looked back to their Mosaic origins in an effort to revive their original religion. It is during this time that the Jews began to develop the Mishnah, the Gemara and what is finally known as the Talmud which is what the Jews beleive in and practice today. The Torah by the time Christ came was lost to thousands of interpretations and new (fence) laws made by the Sophraim and the Tannah and thus Christ told them- "You nullify the Commandments of God for the traditions of men".

The Talmud has become the central text of the Jewish faith. The one thing that allowed Israel to rediscover itself at this time was the fervent revival of religious tradition it was aided by another incident in history: when Cyrus the Persian conquered Mesopotamia, he allowed the Jews to return home. This was no ordinary event, though. Cyrus sent them home specifically to worship Yahweh—what was once only a kingdom would become a nation of Yahweh.
The so called nation of Israel if based that they are to return to their homeland has been fulfilled many times before 1949. It may be that never before was a particular area called Israel since the Babylonian captivity but it is not the land that God promises those of Hebrew origin but Himself, if but they would return to him.
One of the main reasons the Law has not made the Hebrew or those claiming to be Jewish, lead them as "the school master to Christ" as it did us, who claim to be Christian, is the purity of the original 613 commandments made by God to Israel has been turned into ridiculous and long discourse of the law which in themselve have become the law for Jews.
Judaism, regardless of what you may mistakenly beleive has nothing to do with the honor of the Torah as the Supreme law of God as the pre-Babylonian Jews trusted in and broke it's laws but the traditions of these men who wrote the Misnah, the Gemara, now known as the Talmud and all the rabbinic discussions since. The Talmud and it's writings are anti-Christ in nature and anti-Christian. One must study to discover these things as I have, and read the Talmud and the Jewish writings of today to discover this truth. Israel- the nation of Israel is made up of Zionist and those who hold to the supremacy of themselves over all races, including American Gentiles ( Gentile, here, having the meaning - all of us who do not accept the Talmud and their Jewish supremacy over all other races in the world). Most Americans and even most preachers in America have simply accepted what has been handed down to them as interpretation of the majority of Paul's writings in Romans on this subject, and the most predominant teaching since the 1800's has been Darby's and Scofield's popularizing this DISPENSATIONAL interpretation of Biblical prophecy, all of scripture, and the book of Revelation.

However, they weren't alone in this non-biblical interpretation of scripture. Here is the story behind DISPENSATIONALISM, from whence most of the premillenial doctrine is taken. It will surprise you, it may even anger you at me for telling you, but what I hope is it will anger you that you have been so mislead to believe in DISPENSATIONALISM. It will anger you to find that the foreign policies and the War against Terrorism and much of the Police State, that is already in effect in Israel is driven by Pro-Zionist and those in the church who proscribe to these cultic theories of DISPENSATIONALISM.

The Origins of Dispensationalism

Most people assume that Dispensationalism started with J N Darby, one of the originators of the Brethren movement. Certainly Darby popularised this doctrine and, with the spread Scofield’s reference Bible, the teaching went world wide. However, Darby was not the first to develop these ideas. In fact, there is now conclusive evidence that there was a plan by William Kelly (another key Brethren leader, and follower of Darby) to discredit the real origins, because of their dubious pedigree, and inflate the place of Darby.

I should be very clear that Dispensationalism finds no place in the entire history of the church before 1830. No one has yet found any credible evidence that anybody believed or taught such a thing. This alone should cause alarm bells to ring in our spiritual ears. When we learn the true origin of the error, we can see even more reason to steer clear.

Key Distinctives of Dispensationalism

Before we proceed, we need to clarify exactly what this teaching is in connection with other eschatological theories.
Dispensationalism is a variant of
Historic Premillennialism,that is the teaching that Christ will return after the Great Tribulation and establish a 1000 year reign on the earth (millennium) before the final battle with Satan (Armageddon), which issues in final judgment and a new earth.
Postmillennialism
teaches that Christ returns after a golden age of 1000 years where the church rules the earth in righteousness;
Amillennialism
believes that there is no Biblical teaching about a literal millennium and that the only passage which mentions is (Rev 20) is symbolically speaking of the age of grace in which we now live.

Dispensationalism is very different and has become the predominant belief in America and versions of it are growing rapidly in Britain. One problem is that it has very many variations, so to simplify our approach we will keep to essential distinctives. These are:
• Two comings of Christ. One an appearing for the saints in the air, the other a return with the saints. A period of 7 years separates these comings. In this time of tribulation, the Gospel is preached by a remnant of believing Jews and Christians not spiritual enough to be raptured.

• A secret rapture of some saints before the period of tribulation when the
antichrist will arise. This is the key distinctive called the Pre-Tribulation Rapture, (henceforth: pretribulation). This is imminent and could happen at any time.

• A dichotomy between the church and Israel. Jews are God’s true covenant people who will inherit the literal covenant promises, the church is God’s stop-gap
operation which benefits from Jewish promises. This distinction is seen as the most important Dispensational tenet by Dispensationalists Charles Ryrie and John Walvoord.

• A rigid literal approach to interpretation, especially of prophetic books.
This divides the Bible into that which refers to the Kingdom (Israel) and that which speaks of the Church.

• History is divided into specific dispensations where God deals with men in a
certain way. Each of these time periods ends in failure and judgment.

The most important aspects in evaluating the origin are: the pretribulation rapture and the dichotomy of Israel/Church.


The Origins
Pre 19th century

Some isolated superficial ‘dispensational’ statements have appeared throughout history. Some 18th century writers began to systematise some of these ideas e.g: Pierre Poiret and Isaac Watts. No one, however, taught a pretribulation rapture.
Everyone believed that the church would go through the Great Tribulation. Claims, of
some, to find it in the early church fathers are false. There is some amillennialism
there, but none of the key distinctives of Dispensationalism:there is no separation of the church and Israel and no idea of Christians escaping the tribulation or antichrist by a rapture.

The earliest form of a ‘secret’ rapture was the idea of a partial rapture which
separated some saints from others after the tribulation. This really was about
prioritisation at the second coming, spiritual believers being given priority over less worthy ones. No one saw a place for Jews until the very end and there was no form of Church/Israel dichotomy.

19th century prophetic conferences

During the 18th century there was very little teaching on the Lord’s return. As a result, a reaction began in the 1820’s and 30’s. Prophetic periodicals and references abounded. Most important were the Albury conferences established by Henry Drummond in 1826-30, but the Powerscourt Conferences, instituted by Lady Powerscourt, were also significant. Anglican S.R Maitland began to teach a future rise of Antichrist and a 3½ year great tribulation in 1826. His follower,James Todd, also wrote extensively on the subject. William Burgh converted to this ‘futurist’ view of Revelation and wrote systematically upon it in 1835.

Edward Irving

Before we continue, we must explain the person of Edward Irving. Originally a Church of Scotland (Presbyterian) minister, he moved to London in 1822 and became a very famous preacher. He was such a powerful and stimulating speaker, who attracted great
crowds, that in 1827 the large Regent Square church was erected for him. This was the first to adopt modern charismatic practices (including tongues) following Irving’s belief that the gifts of the Spirit were about to be given again. Tongues first appeared in the west of Scotland in Spring 1830 but were soon present in Irving’s church. Being expelled by the Church of Scotland in 1833 he established
the Catholic Apostolic Church which was fully charismatic, including a belief in the vital role of prophets and apostles. Events soon took a turn for the worse with the gifts being abused and overruling common sense. Irving himself was ousted by men with gifts of supposed greater (apostolic) authority, and many serious doctrinal and ethical aberrations resulted. Irving himself taught a false Christology. As a result, Irving died a demoralised man and the whole movement was vilified.

In 1830, however, Irving was at the height of his fame, and spoke at the Albury
conferences. His journal "The Morning Watch", which had a high eschatological content, was widely distributed. We should note that this journal was susceptible to many weird teachings in its desire to undergird a new wave of spiritual gifts.
Some examples follow.

• Human pre-existence, author: ‘WL’. March 1830.

• The church will give birth to generations of new people in heaven to inhabit
other worlds, author: ‘C’. Sept 1830.

• The Jewish occult Cabbala rested on a ‘stable’ foundation, author not named. Sept 1830.

• Christ will multiply human beings, from the church in heaven, not by creation, but by mysterious generation in the same way that Christ was generated, author: Irving, March 1833.

• The Zodiac will bring out from secular science a conclusive demonstration of
scripture chronology, author not named. March 1833.

These sorts of doctrinal aberrations were felt to be: ‘mysteries heretofore unknown’ (Morning Watch June 1833). The same issue derided great theologians of the past, denigrated Christians that studied their writings as ‘idolaters’ and called the Evangelical World: ‘modern Moabites’.

Like many other cults, it was deemed necessary that one must join them and be
initiated to be safe. Irvingite historian Edward Miller explains that it was necessary to be sealed by the apostles of the Catholic Apostolic Church in order to escape the Imminent Great Tribulation. Each of the Irvingite apostles had to seal 12,000 before he died, but failed to do so in time (and insufficient volunteers). A helpful prophet declared that the sealing would thus be carried on in Paradise.

Roman Catholic influence

The Irvingite church journal (The Morning Watch) carried an article in September 1830 that posited a two phased coming of Christ. This critical idea is originated from a Roman Catholic Jesuit Spanish writer, called Manuel Lacunza. His book, The Coming of the Messiah in Glory and Majesty, was translated by Irving in 1827 and studied at the Albury conference, and especially at the later Powerscourt meetings. This is important - one of the key spurs to the foundations of Dispensationalism was the study of the imaginations of a Roman Jesuit, the ideas of another Jesuit, Ribera, were also considered.

So, by about 1830 we have a high degree of eschatological speculation in conferences, books and journals; a futurist view of Revelation; a growing acceptance of extreme ideas including charismania; a Jesuit view of two second comings of Christ; ideas about the separation of the church and Israel; a parenthesis of the Jewish kingdom (see later); and the expected rise of antichrist and the Great tribulation. It is also interesting to note that Joseph Smith published the Book of
Mormon, teaching a regathering of Israel, in 1830. In 1831 William Miller (the founder of Adventism) began teaching his ‘findings’. Jehovah’s Witnesses also started soon afterwards. Chiliasm (millennialism) was in the air in the mid 19th century. The missing ingredient, however, is a secret rapture.

Margaret Macdonald

The first person to speak about a pretribulation rapture was a young girl named
Margaret Macdonald from Port Glasgow (15 miles from Glasgow) who was familiar with The Morning Watch and Edward Irving. The vehicle of this idea was a vision which was written down and read by Irving. In the early 1800’s, some people were beginning to think of a future tribulation and Antichrist. Earlier, most had been historicists who saw the 1260 days of Revelation as years, viewing tribulation as present or past and seeing the Antichrist in the pope, or Napoleon, and the beast as Jews, pagans, Arians, Saracens etc.

In 1829 The Morning Watch represented the most advanced prophetical ideas, including:
• a future tribulation and Antichrist.
• a literal rapture
• a partial rapture (only those filled with the Spirit)
• however, the man-child of Rev 12 was not seen as a church symbol
• an emphasis upon the witnesses of Zecharia tied in to the witnesses of Revelations 11.

[Historically, these witnesses had been seen as the Old and New Testaments, or alternatively as Enoch and Elijah (who had been raptured)].

Margaret saw these witnesses as a symbol of the church which introduced a completely new eschatological idea. Irving (as a historicist) had come close to this in seeing the Rev 11 witnesses as a succession of chosen men faithful to God. This is found in his introduction to the translation of Lacunza’s: The Coming of the Messiah’. (Although he later in the same work states that they are a symbol of the scriptures.) Lacunza also saw them as 78utwo congregations of faithful ministers, but neither saw them as being secretly raptured before the Tribulation. Irving, like many others, believed he was already in the 1260 year Tribulation.

Young Margaret Macdonald, who had such a critical influence in the formation of
pretribulation was a poor foundation on which to rest. Her insight came in a lengthy vision after prolonged sickness which required bed-rest for 18 months. This was written down and passed to ministers, including Irving at a time when he was very susceptible to such charismatic revelation. Margaret had also only been a Christian for a year and was uneducated. It was probably these facts which led to the origin being obscured and publicised by more educated men.

Margaret was also particularly open to the occult. Robert Norton wrote of her and a friend, ‘I have seen both her and Miss Margaret Macdonald stand like statues scarcely touching the ground, evidently supernaturally’. Andrew Drummond tells us that Margaret’s close friend Mary Campbell practised automatic writing and had intense psychical power and was a medium. Margaret also predicted that socialist Robert Owen was the Antichrist at the time she had her pretribulation vision. Margaret herself began to speak in tongues about four months after her vision in August 1830.

"The Morning Watch"

The Morning Watch did not credit Margaret Macdonald as its inspiration, although it does mention ‘several young women’ having given deep revelation in a few broken sentences.

Robert Baxter, a lawyer who became disillusioned with the Irvingites and left
them wrote about Margaret in his Narrative of Facts. He states that: ‘the delusion first appeared in Scotland’ but ‘it was not until adopted and upheld by Mr Irving, that it began to challenge much attention.’ Margaret’s (uncredited) vision appeared in 1840 in the Memoirs of James & George Macdonald of Port Glasgow written by Robert Norton. In 1861 he told her vision and named her specifically, identifying her as the source of the new doctrine. The fact that the Irvingites initiated the teaching of pretribulation is also asserted by several contemporaries,including eminent Brethren writers, such as: S. P. Tregelles, J. P. Lange, Thomas Croskery,
Edward Miller (Irvingite historian), William Reid, George Stokes and J. S. Teulon.

Subsequent to receiving a copy of Margaret’s vision, The Morning Watch went into overdrive in explaining their modification of eschatology. The caught up of 1 Thess 4 is now separated from the gathering of Matt 24. An article by ‘Fidus’ in June 1830 clearly states that ‘Philadelphia’ (spiritual believers) will be raptured and ‘Laodicea’ (non-spiritual Christians, and Jews who follow Antichrist) will be left on earth to endure the Great tribulation. Margaret had rested on the ‘two
witnesses’ symbol, Fidus on the 7 churches.

Later, others (especially Darby) would rest upon the ‘man-child’ symbol. Pretribulation must lean upon these symbols from Revelation because there is absolutely no clear, non-symbolic statement in the Bible to defend it.

The pretribulation rapture became known as ‘the secret rapture’. This has tendencies of developing an elitist, arcane society of adherents, those who are privileged to know about the secret or are especially spiritual in order to take part in it. In June 1832, it was stated that the Lord’s coming was only a joy for those prepared and looking for it. Only they would see the Lord, the rest of the church would only see this first appearance as a meteor or cloud.

Other ideas began to emerge. In June 1832 an article on the feast of Tabernacles saw the seven days of the feast as seven years, the thirteen bullocks slain indicated a confederacy of thirteen hostile powers, during the rise of Antichrist, Gog and Magog etc. This appears to be the first mention of a seven year tribulation period. Out of interest, Darby was teaching a tribulation of three and a half years as late as 1868.

Because the symbolism of types can be interpreted according to other influences, once sound Biblical hermeneutics are ignored,the interpretation of the feasts varied significantly from year to year. Irvingites shifted the rapture from feast 6 (of Lev 23’s 7 feasts) to feast 5, then feast 4 and even feast 3 within the first few years. Modern Dispensationalists have the same problems.

Scofield based his pretribulation rapture on feast 3 (firstfruits). Hal Lindsey has a rapture somewhere between feast 3 and 7. Edgar Whisenant based it upon feast 5, stating that it would occur in 1988. Another recent author stated that it would occur in May 1997.

Irving’s man-child ideas began to emerge in June 1831; repeated by Darby in 1839. He took Paul’s teaching on the union of believers with Christ and transferred it to the the interpretation of OT prophecy and Revelation symbolism. References to ‘Christ’ became corporate, especially the veiled reference of the man-child in Rev 12. With appalling exegesis he sees a first company gathered (rapture of the singular child) before the others of the church who suffer in the Great Tribulation (a remnant of the woman’s seed).

Questions raised by this nonsense include:

• Part of the symbol is literal (‘caught up’),and part is taken spiritually (‘man-child’).

• If the man-child literally referred to Christ as claimed, why did the disciples not accompany Christ into heaven at his ascension?

• If the man-child symbolises a pretribulation rapture at Rev 12:5, the head
needs to be on earth for the whole body and members to be caught up together.

• If the church is already mysteriously (spiritually) joined to the head, why does the church need to be with him in person at Rev 12:5?

Development by Darby

Dave MacPherson has catalogued Darby’s main eschatological beliefs in 21 tenets. He then demonstrates that all of these are present, using the same wording, in Edward Irving’s preliminary discourse to Lacunza’s work published in 1827. In 1829, Darby himself was only voicing 6 of the 21 items. For instance, in 1829 Darby had a Post-tribulation outlook and only saw a distinction, not a dichotomy (separation) between Israel and the church. Darby also quoted Irving, Lacunza and
The Morning Watch in 1830.

Furthermore, Darby’s idea of the parenthesis (where the Jewish kingdom is put
on hold while the Gentile church is developed) appeared in 1830; but the same thought in very similar wording appeared in The Millennium by W C Davis of South Carolina in 1811. Lacunza also frequently mentioned this word in explaining prophetic scripture. It was only in 1870 that Darby’s development led to the position now held by modern dispensationalists. He ceased to emphasise the man-child symbol in favour of the Philadelphia symbol, or even the apostle John who heard ‘Come up hither’. All these had been previously stated by Irvingites, even
using John as a church symbol.

Darby’s later reminiscences show signs of misrepresentation and plagiarism. For example, his observations of an 1830’s Scottish prayer meeting conducted by the Macdonalds, and which included tongue speaking,is almost identical to the report given by John B. Cardale printed in The Morning Watch, Dec 1830, except for one item. Darby omits Margaret’s utterances regarding a pretribulation deliverance. Other writers noted this. F. Roy Coad called it, ‘disingenuous tactics’ and ‘descended to the disreputable’. Benjamin Newton wrote that Darby was most subtle (i.e. sly). Darby can be claimed as a populariser of other’s thoughts on pretribulation predispensationalism, but not the originator - as is everywhere claimed.

Earlier historians and theologians were not in the dark on this. George Stokes wrote: ‘Darby ... imbibed the Irvingite theories about prophecy, which coincided with his natural turn of mind.' Samuel Tregelles, one of the ablest 19th century scholars and a Brethren leader, said that the Secret Rapture doctrine was developed by Irvingites, that Darbyites wrote heterodox tracts, misrepresented historic writings to suit their ideas, and added unsound thoughts to quotes of existing writers, all excused as being done for the honour of God. In editing Darby’s
works, William Kelly deliberately revised them to give the impression that Darby originated the key doctrines and used editing techniques to misrepresent the Irvingite position. Modern Dispensationalists have continued this error, by accident or design.
After being taken on board by the Brethren leader, John Darby, some Brethren
leaders (like B. W. Newton, George Muller) rejected it. S. P. Tregelles added that the idea came from a false spirit prompting a vision in Irving’s church. Other contemporary leaders, like Charles Spurgeon and William Booth also condemned the teaching.
The ideas were exported by several visits of Darby to the USA (between 1859-74) and a series of prophetic conferences (1878-1901) presenting Dispensationalism to Americans. Delegates included Hudson Taylor, A.T. Pierson. A.J. Gordon, S.H. Kellog and W.J. Erdman.

The Scofield Bible and other writings

Dispensationalism was Internationally popularised by the Scofield Reference Bible (arising out of these conferences and published in 1909 with over 3 million sold by 1960), J.N. Darby’s writings, William Kelly’s books, E.W. Bullinger’s The Companion Bible, W.E. Blackstone’s Jesus is Coming (hundreds of thousands sent free to Christian workers in USA) and many other Brethren writings. Many of these works denigrated existing commentaries, and even the church Fathers and the Reformers, and boasted a special revelation, only their works truly understood God’s mysteries.

This gave these ideas an attractive and popular ‘novelty’ to the Christian public. It should also be noted that there was widespread corruption in the church at large in this period with a poor level of teaching (despite some notable exceptions). As a result, many people jumped on to Darby’s bandwagon which
promoted a return to exegetical teaching of the Bible. ‘He (Darby) was able to do what he did because there was a great need ... the church was corrupt, the clergy unlearned.

Liberalism had all but taken over. Prophetic teachings ... were almost unheard of.
Multitudes were spiritually starved’.

The current situation

Today, the most popular systematic defenders are Americans (live & dead) like:
Charles Ryrie, John Walvoord, Lewis Sperry Chafer, Arno Gaebelein, J. Dwight Pentecost and Ernest Pickering. At a popular level, there are numerous melodramatic paperbacks (like Hal Lindsey’s: The Late Great Planet Earth and Bruce Larson, Armaggedon) or like films.

We can identify the following varieties:
· Classical Dispensationalism -
(Scofield, Chafer), Israel is on the earth, the church is in heaven and the two never meeting the new world. There are two ways of salvation: works in the OT and faith in the NT. Chafer holds to two covenants. This view dominated 1900-1950’s.
· Hyper Dispensationalism - Instead of finding the usual Dispensationalist origin of the church in Acts 2, these see it in Acts 13 (as Charles Baker, author of A Disp. Theology and associated with Grand Rapids Grace Bible College!).
· Ultra Dispensationalism - The church begins in Acts 28 (as E.W. Bullinger, hence sometimes called Bullingerism). Therefore, only a few of Paul’s letters apply to the church, the rest of the NT is Jewish.
· Neo Dispensationalism - (Ryrie, Walvoord, Dwight Pentecost). Israel and the
church will be together after the millennium; there is only one way to salvation in both testaments (faith); there is only one new covenant. Dallas seminary promotes this view.
· Progressive Dispensationalism - In recent years some have realised that even some of the Neo Dispensational views are untenable and have sought to further ameliorate its teaching (e.g: Robert Saucy, Craig Blaising, Darrell Bock).
They state that:
o The church is not a parenthesis but the first step towards establishing the kingdom of God.
o God does not have two purposes (i.e. Israel and the church), there is only one purpose, but both of them share in it.
o There is no distinction between Israel and the church in the future state.
o The church will reign (with Jews) in glorified bodies on earth during the
millennium.
o But - they still insist that OT prophecies regarding Israel will be fulfilled
in the millennium by ethnic Jews. They do not see the church as the new Israel or believe that OT prophecies are fulfilled in the church.

One can begin to see how complex and varied this scheme is. There is, also,
hopeless disagreement among its teachers. Is it really conceivable that the greatest saints in the history of the church could have not known of this ‘vital’ truth for 1900 years?

Also consider that the foundation was laid by: a Roman Catholic Jesuit, a discredited, charismatic heretic and a young girl influenced by hallucinations and connected with occult practices.

Go figure how this belief system has so influenced American politics and the preaching of this in America, to create Christian Nationalism, the greatest lie told to the church, so that is has become proactive in this idolatry to the point we have become a nation of war mongering and blood shedding of any others that would disagree with us, all except the present nation of Israel, who not only is
allowed to have WMD's but continue it's persecution of all those that in anyway would oppose their authority over all of the Middle East. We have somehow come to beleive that as long as we support this Zionist nation, we too are some how the nation, with the promised land and the physical promises that can never be removed.
Wrong, as history and time will tell. If we continue, on the same path as Israel, to put ourselves, above God and others, and not promote the Kingdom of God over the earthly kingdoms of men, we will soon find the destruction of America just as Israel found itself under the destruction by Rome in 70 AD. It is our call to promote the Gospel of Jesus Christ alone, to bring forth the true Jew, as Paul so elogantly put it - those not circumcised in the flesh but in the heart. The true Israel, the organized church is unable to realize is the unseen "universal church" (EKKLESIA) "the called out one's" of Christ who no longer look for an earthly kingdom, but live by the Lord's prayer. "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven". Remember it is Paul who said that "there is neither, Jew nor Greek, nor male or female, all are one in Christ".
How easy it is to be decieved, even with the very first letter Paul wrote sometime in 51 AD, to the church of Galatia, the Judaizers were then trying to destroy Christianity with a return to the Old Covenant and circumcision of believers as they have so subtley done so today to convince us that God has any kingdom on this earth.

"The Kingdom of God is within you", Christ said. This is the rulership of our Father in our lives over all things and all purposes, all desires of this world (Cosmos) which the Bible says very clearly, "they are blinded by the god of this world"- Satan. I am not anti-Semitic nor do I hate the people in Israel or any race called the Hebrews, but the truth is they are blind and as long as any Hebrew continues to reject Christ he as all others including Americans, Chinese or whoever, they are under the power of Satan and blinded by him.

I refer you to a scripture now, 2 Thessalonians 2:11-12 "For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that "all" will be condemned "who have not believed" the truth but have delighted in wickedness.

It is time the church rejects these ideas of dichtomy (seperation) of the Jews and the Church and realize, there is only one true Israel it will all be saved, as it is made up of men and women, of all races, creeds and color, who given their lives to Christ and recognize him as King now, and the Promised Land as the dwelling place we have with him now in the Spirit.