This article is a partial transcription of a talk pastor Chuck Baldwin gave to Liberty Fellowship on October 30, 2016, entitled, The Protestant Reformation: Fulfillment Of Revelation Prophecy? Please see the video below the text to hear the entire talk!

The emphasis in bold and italics are mine.

Revelation Chapter 11. I have to give some introductory remarks to this message. Most of the churches and Christians in the United States today have made several assumptions relative to especially the Book of Revelation, and Daniel’s prophecy, which coincide. Those presuppositions stem from the teachings that began with a man named John Darby at about 1830 and then were popularized by the Scofield Reference Bible at the beginning of the 20th century, and then further popularized by institutions such as the Dallas Theological Seminary in Dallas, Texas, Hal Lindsay’s famous book series, Tim Lahaye’s books, and other writers of the 20th century, who have regurgitated the presuppositions that were first written by Darby and Scofield.

Most of the Bible commentators that I read almost exclusively now – the only time I read a modern Bible commentator is if I want to find the usually the wrong opinion that’s being circulated currently – (laughter) I exclusively read Bible scholars and teachers, writers, commentators, who wrote previous to 1850. Many of the men that I read, wrote in the 17th and 18th centuries, and I can tell you that almost to a man none of those Bible scholars previous to 1830 taught anything like what John Darby and CI Scofield taught in their writings.

Even the famous Baptist preacher in London, Charles Spurgeon, who has been called, probably rightly, the prince of preachers, who, by the way, was a contemporary of John Darby, publicly and strongly repudiated John Darby’s theology as it pertained to prophecy as it pertained to dispensationalism. Most of the Bible scholars and teachers before 1830 had no consciousness of any such thing as dispensational teaching. They did not teach a necessarily a seven year tribulation, and they did not teach a pre-tribulation rapture.

For example, Spurgeon taught that when Darby came out with his rapture theory, Spurgeon retorted that the rapture and the and the resurrection were one in the same! That there was no distinction between a rapture and a resurrection, no time in between.

The presupposition of Darby and Scofield, and Lindsay, and Dallas Seminary, and all these fellows is that the book of Revelation and prophecy in general focuses on and is primarily concerned with Israel. The preachers and teachers before 1830 did not believe that. They believed that the prophetic Scriptures of Daniel, and especially the Book of Revelation, were focused on the Church. They were not focused on Israel. So the presupposition that almost every prophetic Bible teacher has today is that Israel is the focus of the book of Revelation.

What if that presupposition is wrong? Think about it. From the time of the apostles, to approximately 1830, over 1800 years of Bible teaching, Bible preaching, Bible scholarship, no one taught that the prophecies of Revelation focus primarily on Israel. They all said they focused on the Church. If we are to assume that the present presupposition that is promoted by almost every pastor, every radio teacher, Bible teacher, TV preacher, everybody you read, everybody you hear, the presupposition that it’s all about Israel, that means that for 1800 years of church history, all the Bible scholars and teachers and theologians of church history have been wrong. And only in the last 100 or so years, have Bible teachers and scholars figured it out. (Which of course is wrong.)

I’m going to present you today with a perspective on Revelation Chapter 11 that was given by these pre-1830 theologians that had the different presupposition. Because, you know ladies and gentlemen, the problem is in a lot of our thinking, you can make anything work to fit your presupposition. But if your presupposition is wrong, then all of your proofs and evidences that support your presupposition are wrong. You have to start with a correct presupposition in order to be able to understand truth correctly from that point onward. Because if you’re not, all you’re trying to do is prove a falsehood. So the presupposition that we have on virtually everything in life is critical to whether or not we believe truth, or whether we are believing error. And you can argue till you’re blue in the face and the cows come home and the sun comes up in the west and all those things, but if your presupposition is wrong, everything that you’re using as proven evidence to support that presupposition is likewise wrong.

The presupposition of the Bible teachers, scholars, and theologians previous to 18th century, or previous to the popularity of Darby and Scofield was completely opposite of what the presupposition is of 20th century Christianity. Israel’s not the focus. Israel was destroyed in 70 ad, according to the prophecy of Jesus in Matthew chapter 24. All of the first-century writers and the early-century writers, second and third-century writers all, if they talked about Israel, it was always in the past. This is what Israel did. This is what God did. And Israel was not part of the equation when it came to scriptures that pertain to the future, except as it pertained to the second coming of Christ. Then of course, they would talk about Israel as it’s related to the future kingdom and the return of Jesus Christ. But except for that, it was a non-issue in their scriptural teaching, in their scriptural understanding. So between the teaching of Darby and the teaching of Scofield and then the creation of the modern Zionist state of Israel in 1948, the modern church has been swept with this tide of opinion and focus on how everything in prophecy must relate to this state of Israel that we see over in Palestine today, the one that was created on May 14, 1948.

That was not the position of the Church Fathers, or the church leaders or the church scholars for 1800 years of our church history. So when you come to the book of Revelation, and you read the commentaries of these men compared to the modern interpretation, they are total polar opposites!

(End of transcription. Please see the video to hear what else pastor Chuck has to say!)

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