.
The
Last Trumpet
Is the last
trumpet of 1 Thessalonians 4 the same as the seventh trumpet of Revelation?
.
Those who hold to a mid-tribulation rapture teach that
the seventh trumpet of Revelation 11:15 and the last trumpet of 1
Corinthians 15:52 and 1 Thessalonians 4:16 are identical.
Those who teach a pretribulation rapture identify them
as separate events. What difference does it make, and how can we know the
truth?
Why does it matter whether or not the trumpets are the
same?
God has given us His Word as the revelation of His plan of redemption,
and that plan covers everything from creation to the new creation.
Deuteronomy
29:29 says, “The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those
things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we
may do all the words of this law.”
There are many things that God has chosen to reveal to us,
and it is important for us to understand them so that we can obey Him.
We don’t always understand why He does things, but we are
called to trust Him for the parts we don’t understand and to study to
understand the rest.
As we look at the texts about these trumpets, it becomes
clear that they are part of a chronology that God has given us of events in the
last days.
Whether or not we are still living when those events come
to pass, they involve us, so we ought to know what God has revealed to us.
The book of Revelation has sometimes been viewed as a book
of mystery, yet the title itself implies something brought out of hiding.
More
specifically, it is “the revelation of Jesus Christ . . . to shew unto
his servants things which must shortly come to pass” (Revelation 1:1).
God wants us to know what is going to happen, so we can be
prepared, and to help us in calling others to repentance.
Beginning in chapter 6, we are given a chronological record
of things that will happen in the last days.
There is a series of seven seals, then a series
of seven trumpets, then a series of seven bowls of
wrath.
We
read in Revelation 11:15, “And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great
voices in heaven, saying, ‘The kingdoms of this world are become the
kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and
ever.’”
In the context, this seems to come around the middle of the
tribulation period.
In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul is writing to believers
concerning the transition from this life to eternal life.
Our mortal bodies will be transformed into immortal,
incorruptible bodies, prepared for the eternal kingdom of God.
Verse
52 says, “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump:
for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we
shall be changed.”
Paul
addresses the same subject to the Thessalonians, and specifically connects it
with the Second Coming of Christ. “For the Lord himself shall descend from
heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of
God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain
shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the
air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:16–17).
There is no question that God has revealed these things to
us and that He intends for us to be encouraged and instructed by them.
The question is whether these trumpets are the same.
If they are the same, then the rapture of the
church happens in the middle of the tribulation period, and saints need to
be prepared to endure those trials.
If they are not the same, then we need to know when the
last trump will sound, so that we can be prepared for it.
In order to find out whether they are the same, we can
compare the events they are associated with.
Events
|
1
Corinthians 15
|
1
Thessalonians 4
|
Revelation
11
|
Trumpet sound
|
v.
52
|
v.
16
|
v.
15
|
Dead saints
raised
|
v.
52
|
v.
16
|
|
Living saints
changed
|
v.
52
|
v.
17
|
|
Death overcome
by victory
|
v.
54
|
v.
14
|
|
Jesus descends
from Heaven
|
|
v.
16
|
|
Kingdoms of the
world taken over by Christ
|
|
|
v.
15
|
Wrath of God on
dead
|
|
|
v.
18
|
Rewards given
to saints
|
|
|
v.
18
|
Intended result
|
v.
57-58 – thanks, victory, faithfulness until then
|
v.
18 – comfort now, presence with Christ then
|
v.
14,17 – woe on earth, thanks in Heaven
|
It is clear that the first two passages
(Corinthians and Thessalonians) fit together, but the third doesn’t appear to
have any correlation in either the events described or the intended results.
The argument connecting them has to depend on
the meaning of the word “last” in 1 Corinthians 15:52.
The Greek
word “eschatos” can mean either “last in point of time” or “last in point of sequence.”
This trumpet sounds before the wrath of God
descends, yet Revelation 6:17 speaks of the wrath of the Lamb as having come,
and the seventh trumpet doesn’t sound until Revelation 11:15.
The trumpet of 1 Thessalonians is given in a
moment, whereas Revelation 10:7 indicates that the seventh trumpet will be
sounded for a number of days.
Even
though the seventh trumpet is the last one described in Revelation, Matthew
24:31 indicates there is yet another trumpet which will sound “after the tribulation of those days,”
when Christ returns to the earth, which parallels with Revelation 19.
If the “last trumpet” of 1 Corinthians 15 is
not the same as the seventh trumpet, then what was Paul referring to?
Both 1 Thessalonians and 1 Corinthians were
written long before John wrote Revelation, so Paul’s readers would have no
knowledge of the seven trumpets of Revelation.
Paul intended for them to understand what he
was writing about, so we need to look elsewhere for clarification.
Paul’s writing was distinctly in reference to
the church and the closing of the church age at the rapture.
Throughout Scripture, trumpets were used as
signals to gather people, to set armies on the move, and as part of the worship
of God.
The
trumpet that summons the church is called “the
trump of God,” while those in Revelation are angelic trumpets.
Since it is a summoning trumpet, we can look
to the Old Testament for further understanding.
Numbers 10 gives instruction to Israel
about the use of trumpets to call an assembly of the people and to set them in
motion.
The first trumpet blast (verse 4) called the
leaders together, while a continual blowing was an alarm for the people.
A series of trumpet blasts was the signal for
each group of tribes to begin their journey, and the last blast indicated the
movement of the last group in the camp.
Similarly, 1
Corinthians 15:23 speaks of different orders, or ranks, in the
resurrection: “Every man in his own
order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at His coming.”
Further, 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 divides
Christ’s own into two groups—the dead in Christ and those who are alive and
remain.
So, if the trumpet is the call for saints to
assemble and journey to heaven, what does that mean for us?
Jesus said that no one knows when the Day of
the Lord will begin (Matthew 24:36), and 1 Thessalonians 5:2 describes it as coming as a
thief in the night, without warning.
In 1
Corinthians 15:58, we are told to be “steadfast,
unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.”
Just like the Israelites in the wilderness,
we do not know when the trumpet will sound, so we are to be always ready.
While we may not know the day or hour, we
have been given enough information to know it can happen at any moment.
We are to be ready, putting on the armor of
God, because we have been appointed to receive salvation through Jesus Christ (1 Thessalonians 5:8–9).
Breathe
This is the air I breathe
And I'm desperate for you
