This is simply not so! Rev. Morgan Edwards included a discussion of the pre-Trib rapture in his book "Milenium, Last Day Novelties" written in 1788 (some 40 years before Darby). He claimed that he had written the same thing in 1742, but I have not been able to corroborate this statement. Joseph Mede (1586-1638)also was a pre-trib scholar. Grant Jeffrey, a current prophecy scholar, discovered an apocalyptic sermon written sometime between 565 and 627, attributed to the Syrian church father Ephrem of Nisibis, describing a pre-trib rapture. Even earlier, Victorinus, Bishop of Petau, wrote in 270:"these shall be in the last time, when the church shall have gone out of the midst" referring to the judgments during the tribulation. You can argue Bible verses, but don't tell me that a pre-trib rapture is Darby's invention because it had been taught for centuries!
I’m well aware of the theories of Tommy Ice and the Pre-Trib Research Center. Tommy has been searching in vain for a pre-tribulational rapturist prior to 1830 for at least a decade.
Can you provide an actual quote from Morgan Edwards describing the pre-trib rapture of Darby?
Have you actually studied these alleged rapturist quotes that "scholars" like Grant Jeffrey and Tommy Iace have dredged up? I have. They are all bogus. I challenge you to do the research yourself and see if these folks are saying what rapturists claim they are saying.
I'll say it again. Pre-trib rapture is a Darby invention.
Now, now.
Try and avoid attempting to disturb the fossilized granitized craniums with
facts; historical facts or Biblical facts.
They are averse to them. They can’t conceive of them.
They can’t wrap their brittle brazen brains well around them.
. . . .
/sar