Frank Jamerson
The following article was written by John L. Bray who is a Baptist preacher and lives in Lakeland, Fl. He travels widely and teaches against the Premillennial theory. I have several tracts written by him and have talked with and corresponded with him. I disagree with him on many subjects, but he is right in teaching against the whole Premillennial system. In a tract “Morgan Edwards and the Pre-Tribulation Rapture Teaching (1788)” he said that he published the tract to expose “this ERRONEOUS teaching about a pretribulation rapture. And it is mighty embarrassing to me as a Baptist to learn that now I cannot trace the teaching of anyone further back than a BAPTIST leader, and here in America at that!
Little did we know until now who sowed the seeds of this false teaching among Baptist people in their early years in America. We had previously thought J.N. Darby...But now we know differently, for it was Morgan Edwards who first came to America in 1761 who brought this teaching...his book was published in 1788.” (Following are quotations from Mr. Bray’s article.)
The Jehovah’s Witnesses leadership has seemingly abandoned their previously-held 1914 “thing.” They used to have on the masthead of their Awake publication these words: “Most important, this magazine builds confidence in the Creator’s promise of a peaceful and secure new world before the generation that saw the events of 1914 pass away.” That masthead now says: “Most important, this magazine builds confidence in the Creator’s promise of a peaceful and secure new world that is about to replace the present wicked, lawless system of things.”
We might wonder about whether this was intended to be a significant change or not, if it were not that in November 1 issue of The Watchtower, it said that, “Jehovah’s people have at times speculated about the time when the great tribulation would break out, even tying this to calcalculations of what is the life-time of a generation since 1914.”
The youngest people living in 1914 would now be in their 80’s. (This was written in 1997, fj). When things don’t come to pass as predicted by these “date-setters,” then it is necessary that they change their teaching. Jehovah’s Witnesses are noted for having to do that. Some of our evangelical friends who set dates for the Rapture don’t seem to be really disturbed when the Rapture doesn’t take place on schedule. Would you believe that one who predicted the Rapture in 1988, then 1989, then possibly 1995, is now gearing up for 1997? While some of these folks use actual dates, too many of our friends are not actually mentioning dates, but they use the word, “SOON.” They do not define their use of the word “soon.” They are just as wrong as the date-setters. When I was a little boy (millenniums ago), signs everywhere were saying, “Jesus is Coming Soon.” They are still saying it, without one iota of evidence whatsoever.” (From paper by John L. Bray Ministry, Inc., May 19, 1997).