Thanks brother Nehemiah, I always enjoy your posts.
They were literal when they wanted to be. But in many instances they werent.
In the verses that teach there is only one people of God, the Church, made up of both jew and gentile, the literalism isnt present, but rather its spiritualized into: "Well yeah thats now, but after the rapture, we go back to Israel" even though there is NO VERSE that says the church "ends" and we return to Israel, but there is scripture that its forever. There is also scriptures from the OT ABOUT Israel, that are applied to the CHURCH. Proving one people of God! I dare anyone to prove me wrong there. Romans 9:25 Paul is quoting from Hosea, who is speaking about Israel, yet PAUL applies it to the CHURCH, gentile church.
In the book of Revelation literalism is very present, except for the churches, which are spiritualized into eras within church history, NO BASIS in the text for that.
I believe this is done to make Revelation 3:10 into a rapture proof-text, when what LITERALLY this is teaching is that the church of Philadelphia, that literal church to whom the letter was sent during the 1st/2nd century, would be spared from tribulation.
Imagine being in the church of Philadelphia, getting some mail from John, and nothing in it is for you, but to some church era centuries from now.
Same goes for many other things, but I believe they were sincere in their attempts, nonetheless. I dont believe Darby invented the pre-trib rapture, many puritans had pontificated on it before that. Pseudo-Ephraim is from the 400s and it mentions a pre-tribulation rapture (This is the earliest mention of it). That argument that Darby invented the rapture is so played out, and people need to stop using it, its not TRUE. There is a biblical case to be deduced for the pre-trib rapture. I also believe there are MANY MANY good dispensational preachers, Chuck Missler being one I enjoy.
Also im not a jew-hater (Bro Nehemiah I KNOW you didnt accuse me of this), but this has been brought up like twice now, by different people so I think this would be a good place to state I have JEWISH ANCESTRY, and I had family in the holocaust. Im not anti-jew, im anti-JUDAISM, there is a difference! I have family deep into judaizing to this day!