There is a bit of irony that John MacArthur (who I respect) is an adamant cessationist, because MacArthur is a staunch pretribulationist, the very view that, it is argued, finds its origins in the utterances of charismatic-visionary Margaret MacDonald or possibly the charismatic Edward Irving (early 19th century). Accordingly, it has been argued that one of these figures were the source for John Nelson Darby’s notion of a pretribulational rapture.
But even if it cannot be proved conclusively that MacDonald or Irving is the source for Darby’s notion of a pretribulational rapture, we know for certain that this notion did not begin before the 1800s. Pretribulationism is a relatively new view in church history. And if it is found in other parts of the world, it is only because it has been exported by British and American pretribulational missionaries.
So the criticism by pretribulational cessationists that the charismatic movement is recent cuts both ways, since pretribulationism is a recent development in church history.
In contrast, the prewrath position that teaches that the church will encounter the Antichrist before the day of the Lord was explicitly taught in the early church. For more on this point, see the appendix “What Did the Early Church Believe?” in my book Antichrist Before the Day of the Lord.
