‘After These Things’ Chapter 3.1 Darby and his Ministry

From our book ‘After These Things – Summaries of John Nelson Darby’s Papers on Prophecy – and more…’ Compiled by Daniel Roberts. For more about this book click on the picture or CLICK HERE

SECTION 3 – JOHN NELSON DARBY – THE MAN AND HIS MINISTRY

 

In this part, we cover:

Who was Darby and why you should know more about his ministry?

John Nelson Darby –  Biographical Note of a True Churchman

The Beliefs of Darby and the ‘Brethren’ – From a letter to the editor of ‘Le Fraançais’)

Who was Darby and why you should know more about his ministry?

John Nelson Darby (1800-82), otherwise known as J N Darby or simply JND, had a significant influence on evangelical Christendom in the nineteenth century.  God used him to bring back Evangelical Christians of all persuasions to the truth as presented by Paul and the other Apostles.

What made John Nelson Darby’s Teaching on the Church and its Hope so Special?

J N Darby looked at the sects, the human organisation, and the quenching of the Holy Spirit throughout Christendom, and concluded that the public church was in ruins. 

Specifically, he brought Christians back to appreciate the Lord’s immediate coming to Rapture His saints (See 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18), the church as Christ’s heavenly bride, the public ruin of Christendom, the way out of the ruin for true believers and the position of Israel.  JND perceived the truth of Christ as the Head in heaven, with His body here, the church heavenly in origin and destiny, perfectly united in the sight of God, and its hope of being with  Him at the imminent (pre-millennial) Rapture. Pre-tribulation (pre-trib) Christians have come to know him as ‘the father of dispensational theology’. Such a label would have horrified him. As his epitaph says ‘Unknown, yet well known.’

He demonstrated how the public Christian Church had degenerated in worldliness, tolerating moral evil and, false doctrines and  sectarian fragmentation, overriding the Lord’s words, ‘That they may be one’, (John 17:21) and His command to ‘love one another‘ (John 13:34). Church unity cannot be achieved by human compromise and confederacy. Reforming and rebuilding are futile. Christians must look to the Lord Himself, giving Him His place, by the Holy Spirit, going forth to him without the camp, and being not of the world (John 17:14).