JOHN NELSON DARBY
Prophetic Pioneer
By Marion Field. Highland Books. 244 pages. £8.99
ISBN 978-1-8979-137-6
Having come under the spell of John Nelson Darby in my youth, it has been a curious experience to have been confronted by the man in print once more.
Darby was obviously a man of towering intellect with great powers of persuasion. His influence on the worldwide evangelical scene in the 19th century was enormous, and he is presented in this brief biography as ‘a tireless traveller, talented linguist and Bible translator’.
The book is something of a whistle-stop tour of Darby’s life, which may be enough to tempt the interested reader to read Darby’s own prolific writings, because the book is somewhat frustrating in what it omits. For example, while the reader is left gasping by Darby’s tireless journeys abroad as well as across the UK, it would be good to know what was achieved on those forays, evangelistically as well as ecclesiastically.
Again, while we are told about Darby’s views on such things as the church in ruins, a secret rapture, and the idea of Christ having an earthly people and a heavenly people, there is no critique or explanation of his theories.
It would also be intriguing to know how a man who previously insisted on breaking bread with all true believers could found a religious grouping in which only ‘saints in like-minded fellowships’ (p.211) could be welcomed; and how a man who condemned all other evangelical groupings as being ‘human-driven institutions’ (p.211) could found a system over which he ruled with apostolic authority and which has been so man-focussed that its adherents have invariably divided and sub-divided over their respective human leader, whose name they are known by.
