The truth is that Darby managed to convince few North Americans of the need to separate from their churches. He found more success in spreading awareness of “the Lord’s coming,” and especially of his distinctive teaching of the imminent rapture. But such a partial reception of his ideas was only a little better than rejection. His vision for a heavenly church was received incompletely and selectively; the Americans he met adapted his teachings—often a single insight—for their own ends, in ways he would never have approved of.
