John Darby and George Müller were two key parties in the development of modern rapture doctrines. Müller believed the traditional belief that the rapture will happen when Christ raises the dead when he returns. Darby introduced a new teaching, strange to most Christians, that the rapture would happen before this and before the reign of the man of lawlessness, called by many the ‘Antichrist’. Together they were among the main founders of the Plymouth Brethren movement as part of the Assemblies Movement in the 1800s. In 1848 there was a strong disagreement between them resulting in the split into Exclusive Brethren led by Darby, and the Open Brethren with Müller. The charismatic experiences of the Holy Spirit, such as speaking in tongues, prophecy, and miraculous healings, were not as widespread or accepted in mainstream Protestant Christianity as they would become in the 20th century with the rise of the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements. Mainly, for Darby and Müller it was all about meetings of believers, Bible reading and prayer. So for a church leader to intend to lead based on scripture meant constant scripture study and open discussions with other believers. Both Müller and Darby were committed to this, as Plymouth Brethren founders. It was surprising, perhaps, that Müller and his associates did not clamp down in some way on Darby’s teachings about pre tribulation rapture. Darby was clamping down on other doctrines he considered to not be biblical. Müller focussed on orphanage work rather than on seeking to police the Exclusive Brethren and John Darby. Müller believed in the autonomy of local assemblies, and so he did not think the Open Brethren doctrines should be imposed on the Exclusive Brethren assemblies, or used to police Darby. Darby spread his pre-tribulation doctrines far and wide in the USA and among his Exclusive Brethren assemblies and it is still a prevalent doctrine in the USA Bible Belt. Brethren writings and the Schofield Reference Bible have spread it beyond the Brethren movement. Both men, like their Brethren associates, believed in discernment of the truth, or otherwise, of doctrines coming through personal Bible, study, prayer, and a belief in the ability of the Holy Spirit to guide them. There was not as much clarity at that time of how the Holy Spirit is experienced in those who have received the Holy Spirit, nor in how church meetings can be visited by the Holy Spirit and reliably led into revelations of truth. Manifestations of the Holy Spirit became more commonplace among believers decades later in the 1900s. Essentially, the teachings of the Brethren had focussed solely on finding true doctrines individually, without appeal to the authority of Jesus through the visitations of the Holy Spirit. The individual was left to discern what might be stirrings of the Holy Spirit privately in their hearts as they prayed and studied the Bible. The blessings of greater fellowship with the Father and the Son, manifested in believers and among them in their meetings was something introduced in UK and USA in the subsequent twentieth century, the century after the Brethren and Assemblies Movements. Today we have prophecies, tongues with interpretation, miracles, healings, all pointing to truth in ways unfamiliar to Darby and Müller. We can check against the scriptures and we have many tools to help with this. It does not, however, all hinge on the scripture knowledge of a few leading preachers, as it did in Darby and Müller’s time.
