I don’t read the Bible often but I try to when I have some peace time. This verse really stood out to me: Isaiah 26: 19-20. Is this, in your opinion, the means by which the rapture will take place? Are these verses to be interpreted with literal meaning and common sense of they’re connotation, in that, the dead will raise and walk the earth?
In my opinion, Isaiah 26:19-20 is the passage to which Paul was referring when, speaking of the rapture, he said, “According to the Lord’s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord,will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep” (1 Thes. 4:15).
Hardly any of the New Testament had been written when Paul said this, so it makes sense that he was referring to the Old Testament. And sure enough, in Isaiah 26:19-20 we have a description of the rapture/ resurrection almost identical to Paul’s in 1 Thes. 4:16-17.
But your dead will live, their bodies will rise– you who dwell in the dust, wake up and shout for joy–your dew is like the dew of the morning; the earth will give birth to her dead.
Go, my people, enter your rooms and shut the doors behind you; hide yourselves for a little while until his wrath has passed by.
First the dead in Christ will rise and then the living will go to their rooms (John 14:2-3) until the Lord’s wrath has passed by.
Then in Isaiah 26:21 we’re told that the purpose of His wrath is to punish the people of the Earth for their sins.
See, the Lord is coming out of his dwelling to punish the people of the earth for their sins. The earth will disclose the blood shed on it; the earth will conceal its slain no longer.
This is an obvious reference to the end times judgments, and the preceding verses indicate that the Lord’s people will be hidden away in our rooms when the Lord comes to punish the people of earth their sins.
Note how He switches from the second person (you, your, yourselves) to the third person (their) in verse 21. His people are not the people of earth. Paul said, “Our citizenship is in heaven” (Phil. 3:20). For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thes. 5:9).
You should read your Bible more often. There’s lots of interesting stuff like this in there.