I do not believe that it is ‘pre-trib’ that is the new thing. Dispensationalism is the new thing, which includes pre, mid and post tribulational views. I have been familiar with MacPherson for over a decade. He does a wonderful job of discovering the origins of dispensationalism yet still holds to one of it’s varieties. Don’t you find that strange?

Pretrib Rapture Pride

by Bruce Rockwell

Pretrib rapture promoters like Thomas Ice give the impression that they
know more than the early Church Fathers, the Reformers, the greatest
Greek New Testament scholars including those who produced the KJV Bible,
the founders of their favorite Bible schools, and even their own
mentors!
Ice knows that his own mentor, Dallas Sem. president
John Walvoord, was unable to find anyone holding to pretrib before early
19th century British teacher John Darby – and Walvoord called Darby and
his Brethren followers “the early pretribulationists” (RQ, pp. 160-62).
By claiming to find “imminence” in the 1st and 2nd century Fathers, Ice
knows that his followers can change “imminence” in their mind to
“pretrib” – but Ice is reluctant to admit that whenever any of those
Fathers seemed to hold to “imminence, it was because they thought they
were then in the tribulation and were near the end of it!
Google
“Famous Rapture Watchers” to see the rapture view that Walvoord said
“has long been a common doctrine held by the majority of the church”
(RQ, p. 127). Note how those unsurpassed lexicon and Greek grammar
experts interpreted Rev. 3:10 which pretrib promoters often claim is the
greatest Biblical proof for an any-moment pretrib rapture.

Journalist/historian Dave MacPherson has focused since 1968 on the
pretrib rapture’s long-covered-up, 183-year-old history. His habit has
been to examine Darby’s earliest writings and then painstakingly search
for the earliest occurrences of certain words and phrases like “coming
for,” “coming with,” “rapture,” “imminence,” “any moment,” etc. Since
several of Darby’s contemporaries have at times been nominated for the
title of “Pretrib Rapture Originator,” MacPherson has done the same
laborious word-and-phrase search in the earliest writings of Macdonald,
Norton, Irving, etc.
Since many pretrib promoters favor the King
James Version of the Bible, it’s interesting that the other writings of
the KJV translators that are in the British Library in London (where
MacPherson has researched) don’t have even a hint of a pretrib rapture!
Is it possible that Ice and other pretrib merchandisers have found proof
of pretrib in the KJV that even the KJV translators couldn’t find?

Pretrib didn’t flourish in America much before the 1909 Scofield Bible
which has pretribby “explanatory notes” in its margins. Not seen in the
margins was jailed forger Scofield’s criminal record throughout his life
that David Lutzweiler has documented in his recent book “The Praise of
Folly” which is available online.
Even some well-known
evangelical schools have played fast and loose with pretrib.
MacPherson’s “The Rapture Plot” – the most documented and accurate work
on pretrib dispensationalism’s history (Google “Scholars Weigh My
Research”) – includes on p. 222 Biola’s original doctrinal statement
which stated that the “Lord Jesus is coming again to his earth,
personally, bodily, and visibly.” Later on, those who evidently felt
superior to the founders added this Scofield-like “explanatory note”
which says that “the return of the Lord for His Church will be
premillennial” and “before the Tribulation.” (Also Google “Pretrib
Hypocrisy.”)
Although Ice’s mentor John Walvoord couldn’t find
any pretrib teacher before 1830, Ice has been “honoring” Walvoord by
promoting some pseudo-scholars who claim they’ve found pre-1830
existence of pretrib! (Google MacPherson’s “Deceiving and Being
Deceived” for the details.)
Ice, BTW, has a “Ph.D” issued by a
tiny Texas school that wasn’t authorized to issue degrees! Ice now says
that he’s working on another “Ph.D” via the University of Wales in
Britain. For light on the degrees of Ice’s scholarliness, Google “Bogus
degree scandal prompts calls to wind up University of Wales,” “Thomas
Ice (Bloopers),” and “be careful in polemics – Peripatetic Learning.”

Another pretrib trafficker, Hal Lindsey, asserts on p. 124 in “The Late
Great Planet Earth” that the famous Egyptian Sphinx has the head of a
woman even though encyclopedias say it’s the head of a man!
In a
Google article “Pretrib Expert John Walvoord Melts Ice,” Ice’s mentor
demolishes Ice’s desperate assertion that the “falling away” in II
Thess. 2 is a pretrib rapture! (Ice should have said that the TEACHING
of such a rapture is a falling away!)
Other Google pieces
helping to make a shocking mosaic of pretrib include “Pretrib Rapture
Diehards,” “X-raying Margaret,” “Edward Irving is Unnerving,” “Wily
Jeffrey,” “Thieves’ Marketing,” “Appendix F: Thou Shalt Not Steal,” “The
Unoriginal John Darby,” “Catholics Did NOT Invent the Rapture,” “The
Real Manuel Lacunza,” “The Rapture Index (Mad Theology),” “Open Letter
to Todd Strandberg,” “Pretrib Rapture: A Staged Event,” “Pretrib Rapture
Secrecy,” “Roots of Warlike Christian Zionism,” “Chuck Missler –
Copyist,” “Pretrib Rapture Secrets,” and an earthquake titled “Pretrib
Rapture Dishonesty.”
Can anyone guess who the last proud pretrib rapture holdout will be?

 Oops.. you’re right.  I’ll get around to fixing that someday. Thanks for the heads up on my error.