John Nelson Darby was an Anglo-Irish Bible teacher, one of the influential figures among the original Plymouth Brethren and the founder of the Exclusive Brethren. He is considered to be the father of modern dispensationalism and futurism. Pre-tribulation rapture theology was popularized extensively in the 1830s by John Nelson Darby and the Plymouth Brethren, and further popularized in the United States in the early 20th century by the wide circulation of the Scofield Reference Bible.

Prophetic conferences were a manifestation for English-speaking Protestants of the 19th century of the interest in Biblical prophecy and its interpretation. Such conferences have been thought a likely source of some of the analytical terms now deployed in discussing interpretations, such as premillennialism/premillennarian, postmillennialism/postmillennarian and amillennialism, some time ahead of their appearance in the 1840s in print.