Is The Rapture Mentioned Or Prefigured In The Old Testament?
Q: Is there mention of the Rapture in the Old Testament? If so, where?
Isaiah 26:20 – Come, my people, enter your chambers, and shut your doors behind you; hide yourself, as it were, for a little moment, until the indignation is past.
A: There are passages which are consistent with the idea of the Rapture of the church, and other passages which declareor proclaim the Rapture of the church. This particular passage in Isaiah talks about God taking away and hiding or preserving His people during a time of judgment. Some people have thought that this is a veiled prophecy of the Rapture of the church.
Beyond that, I believe Jesus gave two very interesting illustrations of His second coming, in regard to the catching away of the church. I recognize that some people strongly disagree with and even mock the idea that the second coming of Christ can have different aspects. For myself, I have zero problem with that, because the first coming of Christ had so many different aspects. He came as a fertilized egg in Mary’s womb. He came as a baby born in Bethlehem. He came when He was presented in the Temple. He came when He was brought out of Egypt and went into Nazareth. He came when He was baptized. He came when He was presented as King. So, it doesn’t bother me at all, and I’m not embarrassed to talk about different aspects of the second coming of Christ. I believe that the first aspect of Jesus’ second coming is His return for the church, otherwise known as the Rapture.
Jesus related His return for His church to two Old Testament events. The first was Noah and the Flood, and the second was Lot and the judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah. God does not preserve His people in the midst of judgment; in both cases, He removes His people from the situation, and then the judgment comes. In the days of Noah and in the story of Lot, God secured His people, and afterwards judgment came. These are the two examples that Jesus gives when speaking of His second coming. I don’t think these mentions prove a pre-tribulation Rapture, but they are consistent with a pre-tribulation Rapture. They don’t prove it, but they may prefigure it.
Another example that has always intrigued me is Abraham offering his son Isaac on Mount Moriah. Interestingly, Genesis 22:2 is the very first time the word love is used in the Bible, when God says to Abraham, “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” Read the rest of Genesis 22 to see the substitute that is made by God on behalf of Isaac. Genesis 22:19 says that Abraham comes back to the men who escorted them, but Isaac is not mentioned again until his bride is brought to him at the end of Genesis 24. That’s another prefiguring illustration.
Interestingly, Jesus did not use the illustration of the Israelites in the land of Goshen being preserved from the plagues that came upon the Egyptians. If it were true that the church as a whole was going to go through the Great Tribulation, and yet God would preserve them in it, that may have been a more logical illustration to give. But Jesus did not give that illustration. I don’t want to act like that’s a proof, but it’s something to notice.