The Dispensational System of Eschatology invented by JN Darby and propagated in the Scofield Bible teaches that the seven churches in Revelation represent seven periods of Church history and there is merit in this interpretation, and these seven churches also have a broader application to the Body of the Messiah historically and prophetically. This particular system of Eschatology also teaches a distinct separation between Israel and the Church which scripture does not endorse and that this separation between Israel and Church will happen when the Church is raptured. At the rapture, Dispensational Eschatology teaches that Christ will come for Hs saints to secretly snatch them away to heaven and after seven years He will return to earth with His saints.
This “system” of Eschatology did not exist before the latter half of the 19th Century, neither did the idea of a secret pretribulation rapture of the Church before the Seven-Year Tribulation period exist either. JN Darby was Premillennial in his eschatology teaching a literal Millennium, and the Bible endorses Premillennialism. However, the Dispensational System of Eschatology also teaches that after Revelation Chapter four verse 1 that the Church is not mentioned and that when John is caught up to heaven that this also refers to the rapture of the Church, which is an inference and not in the actual text. This aspect of this System of Eschatology related to a secret pretribulation rapture took root in American evangelical circles in the middle to the latter half of the 19th Century due to Darby’s teaching. The idea of the Church being raptured before a seven year period of tribulation took hold of multitudes of ministers and believers in the wider Body of the Messiah living in comfort and at ease in the western churches, and not subject to any kind of severe persecution.
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