Summary
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas developed by the Anglican priest John Nelson Darby (1800-1882), drawn from his reading of scripture, in which Jesus would suddenly take His believers up into the air, and those left behind would suffer on Earth until He returned with His church to rule for a thousand years before Final Judgement. Some believers would look for signs that civilization was declining, such as wars and natural disasters, or for new Roman Empires that would harbour the Antichrist, and from these predict the time of the Rapture. Darby helped establish the Plymouth Brethren, and later his ideas were picked up in the Scofield Reference Bible (1909) and soon became influential, particularly in the USA.
With
Elizabeth Phillips Research Fellow at the Margaret Beaufort Institute at the University of Cambridge and Honorary Fellow in the Department of Theology and Religion at Durham University
Crawford Gribben Professor of Early Modern British History at Queen’s University Belfast
and
Nicholas Guyatt Reader in North American History at the University of Cambridge
Producer: Simon Tillotson
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds Music Radio Podcasts |
| 0:04.7 | Thanks for downloading this episode of In Our Time. |
| 0:07.2 | There's a reading list to go with it on our website and you can get news about our |
| 0:10.7 | programs if you follow us on Twitter at BBC In Our Time. |
| 0:14.6 | I hope you enjoyed the programs. |
| 0:16.4 | Hello, the Rapture has become a powerful idea for millions of evangelical Christians around |
| 0:21.1 | the world, particularly in America. |
| 0:23.7 | Broadly, it's the belief that, as the end times approach, Jesus will seize the true believers |
| 0:29.5 | from the earth and save them from seven years of tribulation that the rest must endure, |
| 0:34.7 | and then return with them for a thousand years of his rule before the final judgment. |
| 0:39.6 | It was an Anglican priest in Ireland, John Nelson Derby, who developed this idea in the |
| 0:44.5 | 19th century, and he's been described as one of the most important Protestant Theologians |
| 0:48.6 | alongside Luther, Calvin and Wesley. |
| 0:51.2 | With me to discuss the Rapture, our Elizabeth Phillips, research fellow at the Margaret |
| 0:55.1 | Beaufort Institute at the University of Cambridge, Crawford Grübin, Professor of Early Modern |
| 1:00.1 | British History, Queen's University of Belfast, and Nicholas Garde, reader in North American |
| 1:04.8 | history at the University of Cambridge, Nicholas Garde. |
| 1:08.1 | Before we discuss it further, can you tell us what you mean by the Rapture? |
| 1:13.0 | Well, the Rapture refers to a particular understanding of what might take place in the end times, |
| 1:18.8 | so that refers to the period predicted by the prophetic books of the Bible that precede |
| 1:24.3 | the end of the world. |
| 1:25.6 | So if you think for a moment about what prophecy is effectively the predictions in those books |
... |
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