As you are well aware, the OT is replete with descriptions of the Second Coming of Christ. Descriptions of not just terrestrial but also cosmic changes before, during and after the event.
So i challenge you to find me just 10 verses, even 3, that are descriptive of the Rapture in the OT. Sure, an event that momentous and concerning God's chosen people at the end of the age would be found over and over again in the OT as the Second Coming is, don't you think?
Furthermore, if a mass of people suddenly disappeared in October without a trace around the world. How would you differentiate a real rapture from a fake one? Because the descriptions of the Second Coming in the OT are given us so we may be able to distinguish the real from the fake.
@Karlysymon
Paul speaks of “mysteries” in a number of his letters. It turns out (and I didn’t know this till searched on “seven mysteries Paul” that there do indeed seem to be seven of them.
I found a number of resources that broke these down and taught on them, one was a
playlist by Robert Breaker. The second was an interesting address...
THE SEVEN MYSTERIES REVEALED TO PAUL
Dr. W. A. Criswell
That first definition in the dictionary: this thing is a "mystery" – that is, by human reason it is incomprehensible; it is unfathomable; it is unknowable; it is inexplicable. This thing is a "mystery." That’s the way you use the word.
Now, the meaning of that word in ancient time and the use of that word in the Bible is not that at all. It is altogether something else and something different. Now this is anciently what the word "mystery" meant, and this is the way the word is used in the New Testament. The Greek word is musterion, and it comes from the word mustes. And a mustes was one who was initiated into the secret rites of an ancient – one of the ancient mystery religions.
In order for you to get an idea of that, I couldn’t think of a better illustration than the Masonic Lodge or the Eastern Star. There are mysteries, there are secrets, there are fraternal revelations that are made to the initiates when they go into those lodges. You do not know them. They are secret. They are hidden, and you do not know them until they are revealed to the initiated. A lot of you men are Masons. You know what I’m speaking of.
Now, in the ancient day, they had mystery religions, and an initiate into those religions was called a mustes; and it comes from the Greek word muo which is on the stem mu – mu which is made by closing your mouth, mu, m-u, mu. The Latin word mutas, meaning "dumb," is built on that. And the English word "mute" – he’s deaf and dumb, he’s a mute – is built on that. The word comes from the stem mu which means to close your mouth or to close your ears or to close your eyes to keep a thing secret: muo, mystes, musterion.
Now, those mystery religions were the great religions of the ancient Greek world. The most famous, I suppose, were the Eleusinian mysteries at Eleusis. That was the state religion of Attica, of Athens. It was the worship of Demeter, the goddess, and Persephone, her daughter – a goddess.
And the people of the state of Attica, the Athenians, would make those pilgrimages down to Eleusis and there they were initiated into the mystery religion by which they were identified with the goddess and were assured of a happy, blissful immortality.
Now, that word musterion did not at all refer to a thing that was incomprehensible, that was unfathomable, that was inexplicable – what you’d call a mystery – but the word musterion referred to the secrets of the mystery religion that were revealed to those votaries who were initiated into that religion. It might be easy to understand; it might be hard to understand; but in any event, the word referred to the secrets that were revealed to the initiated in the mystery religion.
Now, that is the way the word is used here in the New Testament – that ancient word that refers to a secret revealed. Here is something that has been kept hidden in the heart of God from the beginning of the world but is now revealed to the initiated. All of God’s children now are going into the Masonic lodge. All of God’s children now are going through the orphic mysteries. All of God’s children now are going through the Eleusinian mysteries.
Egypt had them: the mysteries of Isis and Osiris. The Persians had it: the mystery of Mithraism. They were the great religions, actually, of the ancient world.
Now, they used that word in the New Testament to refer to those who are going to be initiated into the secrets of God. Now, you’ll see the word used by Jesus in that way in the thirteenth chapter of the Book of Matthew. He says:
Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.
And the disciples came and said unto Him, "Why speakest Thou unto them in parables?"
He answered and said, "Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given . . .
Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing do not see, and hearing they do not hear.
You are going to be initiated into the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. To them, they’re not going to be initiated. They can’t see and they can’t hear. But you, you’re going to understand the mysteries of the kingdom.
Continues:-
Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God.
wacriswell.com
My point is this. Many commentators have observed that the Church appears in brackets with regard to God’s plans. An interesting resonance in the gospels is when Jesus meets the Samaritan woman at the well and gives her a very clear presentation of the gospel.
He then stays with the people of that area
two days, before returning to his mission with the Jews.
To begin to understand where the Rapture fits in, gaining a grasp of the “mysteries” revealed to Paul is essential background.
Do we find the Church in the OT? Moses took a gentile bride, so did Joseph. The story of Ruth and Boaz... the list goes on, but nowhere does it say “God will in the latter time bring forth His Church” or similar ;-)
In the same way, if the Rapture were true, I might expect to find verses that contain a pattern, but with a veiled meaning. I think this is my favourite, but if I get chance I will dig up a few more for you later...
Isaiah 26
Take Refuge from the Coming Judgment
20Come, 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.
21For behold, the Lord comes out of His place
To punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity;
The earth will also disclose her blood,
And will no more cover her slain.