Enter Your Chambers

 

A few Old Testament prophets prophesied about a pre-Tribulation rapture. Isaiah prophesied a future resurrection of the faithful Jewish saints and a pre-Tribulation rapture. So did Daniel and Zephaniah prophecy about a rapture of faithful believers before the day of God’s wrath begins, also a reference to the pre-Tribulation rapture (Dan. 12:1-2; Zeph. 2:1-3). In their prophecies, God revealed a pre-Tribulation rapture of the church. The church is God’s new creation, built with Jews who believe that Jesus is their Messiah during the church age, and Gentiles who put their faith in Jesus as Lord during the church age. I perceive the faithful saints, from before Christ’s incarnation, are included in the rapture of the new creation, because they had faith in Yahweh (Yeshua) and lived for him during their life on Earth. They will receive glorified bodies at the resurrection of the righteous, just like the rest of the body of Christ who lived during the church age.

I believe the faithful Old Testament saints will be resurrected and receive heavenly bodies on the day of the rapture because, Enoch was raptured (Gen. 5:4) and the prophet Elijah was raptured (2 Kgs. 2:11). I believe the body of Moses was also resurrected and then taken into heaven after his death because Satan was trying to exploit it (Jude 1:9). The archangel Michael had to stop Satan from doing that. To solve the dispute, I believe the Lord raptured Moses’ deceased body into heaven, which would have been glorified to exist in heaven. The Scriptures reveal Elijah is seen with Moses on Mount Hermon when they came to talk to Jesus, they were in glorified bodies (Lk. 9:30-31).  

When the prophets spoke the word of the Lord, God did not reveal to them that they were prophesying about the church. Because the church was a mystery to them (Rms. 11:25; 16:25; Eph. 3:1-10). Isaiah, Daniel, and Zephaniah only had the Jewish nation on their minds. But God was referring to both Jews and Gentiles who would be built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, having Jesus as the cornerstone.

Below is a prophecy from Isaiah of a pre-Tribulation rapture.

Isaiah 26:19-21

“Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise. You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy! For your dew is a dew of light, and the earth will give birth to the dead… Come, my people, enter your chambers, and shut your doors behind you; hide yourselves for a little while until the fury has passed by… For behold, the LORD is coming out from his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity, and the earth will disclose the blood shed on it, and will no more cover its slain” (ESV).

Verse nineteen is allusive to the resurrection of the dead in Christ (or asleep in Christ), the day the rapture of the body of Christ occurs (1 Thess. 4:13-16). It is allusive to the dead in Christ being raised eternal (immortal or imperishable), in an instant (1 Cor. 15:52). The Lord says, when this happens, the dead in Christ will sing for joy. This prophecy not only refers to the Jews who received Jesus during the church age, but also to the faithful Jewish saints who had put their trust in Yahweh before his incarnation. Both Messianic Jews and believing Gentiles asleep in Christ will rise from the dead and receive heavenly bodies.

In verse twenty, the command, “Come, my people, enter your chambers” is allusive to the body of Christ being raptured into heaven, בַחֲדָרֶיךָ (bachadareich) “Into your rooms” (Masoretic Text). Jesus let his disciples know that in his Father’s house are many rooms (Jn. 14:2a). Jesus is there now, preparing a place in those many rooms for his church, and when he is done, he will come and rapture his people (Jn. 14:2b-3). Isaiah is specifically referring to the Jews who receive Jesus during the church age and are still living on the day the rapture occurs—God has also included the Gentile believers. Through Isaiah, the Lord tells his faithful ones to “shut your doors behind you.” This is allusive to the doors of heaven, the doors of the rooms they have been raptured into. The body of Christ must stay there until God and the Lamb are finished pouring out their wrath upon the inhabitants of the earth for seven years, for the duration of Israel’s 70^th week period. After that, God’s fury will be complete.

In verse twenty-one, Isaiah prophesies that the Lord will reach out from his throne room (figuratively) to “punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity.” Among the inhabitants being punished are those who shed the blood of the saints, those killed for their testimony of Jesus (Rev. 17:6). The earth will show the Lord where each saint has been killed. The Earth “will disclose the blood shed on it, and will no more cover its slain.”

You can see in this passage that Isaiah prophesied a pre-Tribulation rapture. 

 

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