This past weekend, Mal Couch writes,
Dr. Couch, what do you think of Marvin Rosenthal’s Pre-wrath rapture position?
ANSWER: When you want Bible answers listen to those capable of truly exegeting the Scriptures. Rosenthal has virtually no biblical training. Those of us who have had years and years of strong theology, and hours and hours of the biblical languages, are far better qualified to explain the truth, and that is in this case, the fact is that the rapture of the church is clearly a PRE-TRIBULATIONAL RAPTURE!
He is bold behind a keyboard, but I challenge him to put his money where his mouth is. I would love to debate Mal Couch in a moderated public debate and challenge his assertions in cross-examination. Of course, this is unlikely since many pretrib teachers insulate themselves from being challenged publicly. I even question if Couch knows Greek. Sure, he must have taken it during seminary, and since then maybe picked up a lexicon every so often, but reading his material I am given the impression that he is all bluster.
In his remaining short blog post, he misquoted Rosenthal putting words in his mouth and did not even document his statements so someone can check the veracity of its accurateness! (I know that he misquoted Rosenthal because I am familiar with his material). Apparently, Couch assumes that he does not have to be scholarly and quote and document properly. His word must be gospel.
Couch attempts to argue grammatically that Revelation 6:16-17 refutes Prewrath. I have responded to him before on this and have shown him that he has committed grammatical fallacies, which are documented here in the second half of the article. I have never received any response from my exegesis on that text.
Some people ask me why I pick on low-hanging fruit such as Couch. First, I do so infrequently. Second, every popular pretrib teacher has some following, so it is my hope that there are some out there who will see these responses. I do prefer, though, to respond to the best arguments out there. But, sadly, sometimes the really bad argumentation can be influential.
If you have not heard it yet, back ten years ago, Cooper and Best debated (although, not containing cross-examination) Couch and a few other individuals. The upshot of the debate was that Couch lost the debate, which resulted in him angrily exiting the building immediately after the debate. We never have received a debate invitation from a pretrib teacher since then. And they have turned down our debate offers. I think that speaks volumes: Prewrathers are willing to defend their position publicly under cross-examination; but Pretribbers…are not. Additionally, it has been my experience that pretribbers do not link to prewrath articles, or cite from specific books and page numbers, when they respond to them. But Prewrathers have nothing to hide, just as in this blog post I have linked Couch’s article for all to verify my statements. Again, very telling.
Here is that debate audio.
