On to our first criterion: Do we find Old Testament precedents or typologies that validate the rapture as a doctrine taught cover to cover in Scripture? In search of our answer, let’s start with 1 Corinthians 15:

Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. —1 CORINTHIANS 15:51-52

If you’re thinking, First Corinthians is in the New Testament, keep reading! The Greek word for “mystery” is μυστήριον (mysterion), and it means “not obvious to the understanding.” We will talk more about this verse in our second criterion, but the point here is that there are scriptural concepts in the Old Testament that were not obvious to the understanding of those who lived in the time of their writing, just as Daniel 12:4 states. For example: The full meanings of the statue in Daniel 2 and the four beasts in Daniel 7 were not obvious to readers when those passages were written. But as time marched on, the meaning of those passages became clearer. Now we can look back over history and see the successive world empires of the Babylonians, Medo-Persians, and the Greeks, who were named, and the Romans, who were not.

Can the mystery of the rapture be established by a foreshadowing of it in the Old Testament? First, we need to ask what exactly the rapture implies. As a doctrine, the rapture implies two things: an instantaneous translation of living human beings from this world to the next by means of a supernatural agent. And second, a separation of God’s people from His direct wrath on His enemies.

Let’s first look for Old Testament precedents for an instant translation from this life to the next. Here’s one:

Enoch lived sixty-five years, and begot Methuselah. After he begot Methuselah, Enoch walked with God three hundred years, and had sons and daughters. So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him. —GENESIS 5:21-24

The word “took” is key. The Hebrew word means “to fetch or catch away.” The Greek word harpazo, translated as “caught up” in 1 Thessalonians 4:17, carries the same meaning: “to take up by force, to snatch away.”

Here’s another Old Testament precedent:

Then it happened, as they continued on and talked, that suddenly a chariot of fire appeared with horses of fire, and separated the two of them; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. —2 KINGS 2:11

Based on our findings in the Old Testament, we can say the first part of our criteria has been met. There is, in the Old Testament, a precedent that validates the possibility of an instantaneous translation from this life to the next by means of a supernatural agent—the translation of flesh-and-blood humans who pleased and served God.

Excerpt from The Time of the Signs by Barry Stagner. Order Now.

Want the full chronology of earth’s final events, from the rebirth of Israel to the return of Christ? Read The Time of the Signs by Barry Stagner.

Want the full chronology of earth’s final events, from the rebirth of Israel to the return of Christ? Read The Time of the Signs by Barry Stagner.

Order the Book