CHARISMATICS & PRETRIB RAPTURE

by Dave MacPherson

    Question: Why on earth would any charismatic believe in a pretrib rapture?
     You may recall my recent article unveiling "Dallas Seminary Secrets." In it I wondered why DTS president John Walvoord, when publicly opposing my pretrib origin research, would lean almost exclusively on a biased, Darby-idolyzing, no-theology-degree-holding fanatic like R. A. Huebner instead of his own seminary profs!
     And here's something else about the late Huebner that will make charismatics cringe.
     The 1973 Huebner booklet that Walvoord leaned on had a chapter titled "The Allegation that the (Truth of the) Pretribulation Rapture Came from a Demon."
     Huebner's goal was to deviously portray Margaret Macdonald and Irvingites (all of whom taught pretrib before Darby did) as "demonic" or under "demon" influence so that no one would believe that Darby (whom Huebner saw as the pretrib originator) would ever have been influenced by Macdonald (whom he visited in mid-1830) or any of Edward Irving's followers!
     My book "The Rapture Plot" quotes several that Huebner quoted who wrote about pretrib beginnings. Here are the quotes. I have added, in parentheses, the way Huebner dishonestly summarized the quotes later on in the same chapter in order to see "demons" where none existed:
     In 1864 S. P. Tregelles wrote: "It came...from that which falsely pretended to be the Spirit of God." (Huebner: "In 1864, he said it came from a demon.")
     In 1903 William Kelly referred to the Irvingite "oracles." (Huebner: Kelly was talking about "Irvingite demon-inspired utterances.")
     In 1956 H. A. Baker said that pretrib came from a "spirit." (Huebner: Baker said it came from a "demon.")
     In 1957 Oswald J. Smith declared that pretrib came from "a vision received by a woman" in Irving's church. (Huebner: Smith said it came from a "demon.")
     In 1962 J. Barton Payne traced pretrib to "a woman...speaking in tongues." (Huebner: Payne traced it to a "demon.")
     [I should add, for the sake of accuracy, that Margaret did not begin to speak in tongues until several months after she had her history-making pretrib rapture revelation in the spring of 1830. Therefore, the pretrib rapture concept did not spring from "tongues," as a few have wrongfully asserted.]
     Note Huebner's gross exaggeration while creating his "demon" straw men. Tregelles mentioned pretense and lack of spirituality, Kelly spoke of human mouthpieces, Baker's "spirit" can mean "force" or "mood," Smith's "vision" can mean "interpretation," and Payne merely credited a woman tongues-speaker!
     My "Plot" book summarized the above by saying:
     "Charismatics will be happy to learn that leading pretrib authority John Walvoord, when opposing my research, leans not on just a non-charismatic like Scofield but on a Huebner who's so violently anti-charismatic he can easily, and glibly, and repeatedly equate charismatic gifts with Satanic demonism!"
     I now go back to my earlier question: Why on earth would any charismatic believe in a pretrib rapture?