Here is an encouraging story by Joel C. Rosenberg.
Mal Couch has started a series responding to “the Prewrath Rapture Guys” here. I thought it would be appropriate to respond back!
He writes,
“I thought the PreWrath Rapture guys had been put out to pasture a long time ago! But I guess error has a way of continually re-surfacing again and again.“
Dr. Couch sadly does not understand that not only has the prewrath view not been put out to pasture but there are now prewrathers feeding on a thousand hills. And the more pretribs that are introduced to the prewrath position — from actual prewrath sources! — the more prewrath hills will be feeding believers.
I read his part-one article hoping that there would be some meaningful argumentation from this pretrib teacher but sadly I found strawmen and sophomoric statements such as,
“They need to go to counseling!“
“But the spiritually challenged PreWrath guys ignore or certainly dance around…”
Not to mention his use of CAPITAL LETTERS to try to get his point across as if that lends credibility to his argumentation.
Yes, believe it or not, he is one of the more noted pretrib teachers out there. Of course, these type of statements can only be indicative of desperation. They know that prewrath is gaining much ground on pretribulationism but they realize that they cannot ignore it anymore so when they actually do have to address it, they have to misrepresent it as they have done from day one. That is fine with us actually because thinking believers will (and have) seen right through these smoke and mirrors.
Next week I will address his article point by point demonstrating that Mal Couch is ignorant in his use of Greek (he commits the “aorist is the past tense” fallacy!). Further, he shows no evidence of understanding the prewrath view (or wanting to) and he makes hackneyed assumptions when he argues against the prewrath view which only begs questions.
Incidentally, we can understand why Mal Couch and other pretrib teachers won’t debate us in public moderated debates anymore after Cooper and Best dismantled Couch in a debate in Texas back in 1999.
Michael Rogers explains,
I accepted Jesus Christ in 1979 and entered the Baptist Denomination where I served the Lord for eighteen years. I was trained very well in the study of God’s Word and I have always hungered for truth no matter what the topic. I found myself some years later in the Pentecostal church where I served as an elder for many years. I answered God’s call on my life and after finishing bible college I started a church in Bellefontaine Ohio. While I was under my former pastor we would often sit in his office and discuss the may topics of Scripture that the church struggled with, such as eternal security, tithing, etc. One day he asked me what I believed concerning the Rapture. My response was simple, I believed in the Rapture and believed it could occur at any moment. I had never heard of the prewrath rapture position nor of the authors who have written on the subject. My pastor, instead of enlightening me on the subject challenged me to study the topic out starting with Matthew 24. At the time I did not know he was a prewrath advocate. I took the challenge and spent a year searching the subject out using Matthew 24 as my spring board. It wasn’t long before I connected all the dots and what I found both excited me and scared me. I was afraid to share my findings with my pastor for fear I would be rejected. But, I entered his office one day and told him I had concluded my study and shared with him my new found belief. I explained to him that I saw the Rapture as “Prewrath” and that the church would enter Daniel’s 70th week and suffer persecution by Antichrist after which the church would be raptured. Without saying a word he just smiled at me, got up from his chair, pulled a book from his book case and handed it to me. It was the Prewrath Rapture of the Church by Marvin Rosenthal. I was shocked that not only did the doctrine exist but books existed on the subject. I took the book and read it through two times. Though my findings was vague in comparison to Marvin Rosenthal’s book my study matched his exactly. This confirmed that I had discovered truth. That was eight years ago, and I have been studying the prewrath rapture ever since and teaching it wherever I can. At this time I am not pastoring a church and I am finding it difficult to get the message out. I fear that the churches lethargic attitude concerning the Second Coming of Jesus is only setting the church up for the Apostasy. Pray with me and for me as I want to do my part to get the truth of God’s Word out. If there is anything I can do to be apart of this movement please let me know.
Update: I have learned that the chart does not work in the IE browser. If you have Firefox it works in that. I will just have to convert this to an image so it works in all browsers when I find time. Thanks.
Daniel 2: The Colossal Statue
Theme Liberal Critics Amillennial Premillennial
(e.g. Driver) (e.g. Young) (e.g. Gaebelein)
Gold Head Babylon Babylon Babylon
Silver Torso Media Medo-Persia Medo-Persia
Bronze Thighs Persia Greece Greece
Iron Legs, Greece Rome Rome/Revived Rome
Iron Clay Feet
Daniel 7: The Four Beasts
Theme Liberal Critics Amillennial Premillennial
Lion Babylon Babylon Babylon
Bear Media Medo-Persia Medo-Persia
Leopard Persia Greece Greece
Beast w/ Greece Rome Rome/Revived Rome
Iron Teeth
& 10 Horns
Little Horn Antiochus IV Antichrist Antichrist
Epiphanes
Question: Why don’t liberal critics recognize Rome in these two dreams in Daniel? Answer: They reject a sixth century dating of Daniel (Babylonian period) because their anti-supernatural bias forces them to see the visions as interpretations of the past and not revelations of the future. In short, they reject predictive prophecy (i.e., the visions could not predict the coming of the kingdoms of Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome). So they date Daniel to the second century during the days of Antiochus Epiphanes (165/164 BC) and thus they view the fourth kingdom as Greece. There are other reasons why liberal critics will reject a sixth century dating but understand that their deep-seated bias against predictive prophecy is what really drives their argumentation.
(Source for the Chart: Lecture notes from Dr. J.J. Niehaus, Old Testament Prophetical Books)