I am going to briefly comment on this radio debate between Marvin Rosenthal and Dave Hunt.
I would have preferred this to be a formal radio debate with rebuttals and cross-examination and the moderator enforcing time limits. Instead it was a back and forth debate. But you take what you can when you have an opportunity to respond to pretribulationism on live radio or some other venue.
Nevertheless, I thought Rosenthal did an excellent job in refuting Dave Hunt’s errors and not allowing him to get away with misrepresenting the prewrath position. There were some points where I would have responded to Hunt differently, but overall I was pleased that Rosenthal took Hunt to task. As you listen, it is clear Dave Hunt is sadly enslaved to his pretrib tradition, making shallow arguments and just repeating himself.
Incidentally, toward the end of the debate the question was raised of whether the day of the Lord includes the millennial blessings. Not sure why it was brought up since it is a moot point having nothing to do with the timing of the rapture and the beginning of the day of the Lord. However, this is one issue that I believe Rosenthal is mistaken. The prophets consistently speak of the day of the Lord having two aspects, or stages, first the judgment then the blessings. Most often they used the expression “that day” to denote these two periods of the single-complex day of the Lord. So the same prophets who spoke of eschatological judgment upon the ungodly, were the same ones who also prophesied “that day” would encompass future hope, redemption, and millennial blessings for the righteous (e.g., Isa 27; 40–66; Micah 4:6–8; Obad 15–17; Jer 30:8–9; Zeph 3:9–20; Zech 14). The Lord is coming to both judge and bless. It is the day of the Lord.
