There has been some criticism of Dispensationalism Before Darby. William Watson’s book “Dispensationalism Before Darby” certainly ruffled a lot of feathers. The Pseudo-Ephraim document caused a similar stir years ago. Pretrib skeptics at the time tried to debunk either the authenticity of PE and/or its “interpretation, because it seemed to challenge the Darby-only narrative. See below for more.
Watson’s book challenges theories that it was mainly Darby; that no one prior had any inkling of either a pretrib (or a pre-conflagration) rapture, or dispensationalism – unless, of course, it was the Jesuits, or Irving, or some other unsavory source.
Note that Dr. Watson didn’t try to find absolute historical proof of either the pretrib rapture or dispensationalism as we understand it today. It simply isn’t there. As for my non-pretrib premil friends – a lot of what you now believe of the 70th week cannot be exactly affirmed in most historical records either. For instance, if you happen to be prewrath, well…you get the drift.
Dr. David Malcolm Bennett has critiqued William Watson’s work. He’s written several books. Two of them are: The Origins of Left Behind Eschatology and Why Left Behind Should Be Left Behind. For your reference he endorses Rich Deem’s review of the first book.
According to Deem:
The book is based upon Bennett’s doctoral thesis on the same topic, which explains the length of the book – at just over 400 pages. However, the text is not just a dry scholarly exercise, but is an important examination of the origins of a popular Christian eschatology.
That the next book is about why this eschatology should be left behind makes it obvious where Bennett is going. For good measure he provides a link to the four-and-a-half hour “Left Behind or Led Astray” documentary. How many people actually watched the whole scatter-gun debacle and bothered fact-checking?
Bennett writes:
What is Watson arguing in this book? Watson says, “It is my intent to show that the ideas of dispensationalism and Christian Zionism (known at the time as Restorationism) existed in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, long before John Nelson Darby”.(1) While Watson, in many respects, achieves what he set out to do, I think his book would have been more accurately titled Dispensational Ideas Before Darby. I don’t think he can be said to have shown a case of Dispensationalism, as such, before Darby.
He then goes on to post Eight Elements of criteria on what he thinks dispensationalism ought to entail. But, once more, Bill Watson didn’t intend to show that dispensationalism (or pretribulationism), existed exactly as we know it today in these early documents. Watson achieved what he set out to do.
Interestingly, after disagreeing with some of Watson’s points Bennett says:
He [Watson] has shown that various people taught a rapture or something like it, but in nearly every case their views were either post-tribulational or indefinite with regard to timing. In other instances he seems to confuse a resurrection of the dead with the rapture of the living. However, I accept that Morgan Edwards did teach a mid or pretribulation rapture, and that Grantham Killingworth may have taught a partial, mid-tribulation rapture.
The point Watson punches home is that many held to pre-conflagration removals. Others will have to decide for themselves by checking the depth of “Dispensationalism Before Darby” against Bennett’s objections in his article.
Earlier, I mentioned PE. Bennett wrote a 19 page essay, while Gundry dedicated 27 pages to it. That’s a heckuva commitment to disputing a few words in an old document. Perhaps it’s just me but I suspect the debate isn’t just academic – there’s likely some theological baggage attached as well:
“Woe to those who desire to see the day of the Lord!” For all the saints and elect of God are gathered, prior to the tribulation that is to come, and are taken to the Lord lest they see the confusion that is to overwhelm the world because of our sins….”
I own several polemical works against so-called “Left Behind Theology” and considered buying Bennett’s second book. But at 172 sparsely-populated pages I didn’t think more money was worth spending. I don’t intend to be dismissive. But given the contents it would seem fair to question the depth of the book’s arguments. Does he bring any original material to the table? You can get some inkling in a Google Books preview.
I don’t know if Bennett is amil or premil. I doubt he’s premil. Whatever the case, he writes that “the issue is that the specific teachings behind the Left Behind books are rather dubious and only emerged in any systematic form about 150 years ago.” So there’s more to his objections than a pretrib rapture.
He may also subscribe to Replacement theology, though he hasn’t directly stated it. On page 33-34 he mentions Acts 1:6-7. His response is classic supersessionist apologetics. While Jesus did refocus the disciples, He also implicitly affirmed their Israel-kingdom hope in not correcting them. For more on this see Matt Waymeyer’s article HERE
Interestingly, Bennett cites Luke 17:26-29. He observes that Jesus tells us His return will “come during the midst of normal activity.” Yet there are abundant other passages where Christ’s return is after great tribulation and global conflict. Compare Zechariah 14, Matt 24 and Revelation. I doubt the book sifts through all these issues.
For the record, when I was posttribulational certain imminent verses bothered me. As it stands, pretribulationists don’t have contradiction issues there. Jesus comes for His church prior to the “conflagration” (Rev 3:10). A so-called “dual-phase” second coming isn’t a biblical problem either. The Pre-Wrath system holds to a multi-phase (four in fact) coming, though it prefers to refer to it as single.
Notably, a little later on he gets into hermeneutics and the principles of interpretation. Again, I wouldn’t want to put words into his mouth, having not read the book. But when polemical works against dispensationalism introduce the question of hermeneutics, there’s a good reason for it. It’s familiar territory. See Dr Reluctant’s articles HERE
Finally, Bill Watson is working on another book reaching further back into history. Personally, I’m looking forward to reading it.
More resources:
On Jews and Credit Card Identity Theft
Review Dispensationalism Before Darby
The Lost Honor of John Nelson Darby
Barry Horner’s Future Israel Ministries
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