At the center of Darby’s THEOLOGY was his conviction that the Scriptures, interpreted literally, must have supreme AUTHORITY, not the CHURCH. He had a life-long suspicion of ecclesiastical hierarchy. Second, Darby’s view of spirituality was individualistic and personal, focusing on the believer’s position in Christ. Third, Darby perceived that the CHURCH in the New Testament era was pure and unadulterated, and that the institutional church of his day was apostate. In his view, the established church was in ruins and was likely beyond reform. This led to a strict separatism in belief and practice. Finally, Darby’s literal hermeneutic resulted in the expectation that biblical prophecy will be fulfilled literally. One result of this hermeneutic was that Darby saw a clear distinction between Israel and the church, a strict dichotomy between two peoples of God. Thus prophecies related to Israel, an earthly/material/this-worldly people, must be fulfilled literally on this earth. Prophecies to the church, a Gentile/heavenly/spiritual/other-worldly people, cannot be fulfilled on this earth. This separation of the two peoples of God is an eternal one.
Israel’s destiny is the earth while the church’s is heaven.
The Brethren had a futurist premillennial ESCHATOLOGY, believing that the Apocalypse should be interpreted as prophecy, describing unfulfilled future events. They expected the return of Christ at any time, to be followed by the establishment of an earthly 1,000-year kingdom. Darby’s major innovation is the DOCTRINE of the secret RAPTURE of the church. This teaching divides the second coming of Christ into two stages. In the first stage, Christ will come to earth before a seven-year period of tribulation (cf. Daniel 9:26–27) to take believers to be with him. Then, after the tribulation, Christ will come in judgment of his enemies and establish the millennium. Darby was not the first to hold this view, although the direct influence of others on his view of the rapture is difficult to ascertain. The rapture position seems to be consistent with Darby’s theological development. His view of the apostate church (“the church in ruins”) led to his eschatology (a pessimistic form of premillennialism), and his view of “two peoples of God” seemed to require the removal of the spiritual/heavenly people for God to judge and then to bless the material/earthly people, Israel. But Darby would also point to 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18 for scriptural support of the rapture.
With the publication of the SCOFIELD REFERENCE BIBLE (1909) and the growth of the Bible Conference Movement, Darby’s dispensationalism spread widely among American fundamentalist and evangelical Protestants. Nonetheless, Darby remains largely unknown and his works unstudied outside of Plymouth Brethren circles.
See also Apocalypticism; Evangelicalism; Fundamentalism
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