For years, critics of premillennialism have argued that John Nelson Darby was the source of the doctrine of the rapture and the theological system of thought known as dispensationalism. The evidence says something entirely different though. Darby was in fact following a long line of British clergy who anticipated the restoration of Jews to a national homeland and the imminent return of Jesus Christ.

Stay tuned for my conversation with Dr. William Watson about his book, “Dispensationalism Before Darby,” in this episode of Soaring Eagle Radio.

William Watson Bio

William C. Watson is Professor of History at Colorado Christian University and specializes in seventeenth-century and eighteenth-century English history.  He received a B.A. in History from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, and M.Div. from Talbot School of Theology, and an M.S. and Ph.D. in British history from the University of California, Riverside. He was a 2004 Fulbright Scholar in Moldova and is a frequent conference speaker on British theology and history.