THE LAST TRUMP - Scriptures teach that Christians today are involved in a spiritual war while they live out their lives in this present age in this present world - when the Rapture takes place and the trumpet is blown at that time, that will be a signal to them that their part in the warfare is over - Paul refers to the last trump in 1 Corinthians 15 and in the immediately preceding chapter, 1 Corinthians 14, he refers to the blowing of a trumpet and there he’s referring to a military trumpet. He has military trumpets in mind when he’s writing 1 Corinthians 15. When he refers to the last trump which will be blown at the Rapture, he has a military trumpet in mind. When you study the Roman army and some of the Greek armies and even the Jewish army back in Bible times, when they went into war, they had a “last trump” that would be blown that would tell the fighting men, “Your time of fighting is over. It is time for you to go home and rest.” A “last trump” ended their time in the warfare. By analogy, the Scriptures teach that Christians today are involved in a spiritual war while they live out their lives in this present age in this present world. When the Rapture takes place and the trumpet is blown at that time, that will be a signal to them that their part in the warfare is over; their fighting in this present age is done in this spiritual war. It is time for them to go home to be with the Lord and rest together with Him in Heaven.

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The Last Trump

When does “the last trump” sound?

The Rapture, the Second Coming, or some other time?

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Scriptures teach that Christians today are involved in a spiritual war while they live out their lives in this present age in this present world - when the Rapture takes place and the trumpet is blown at that time, that will be a signal to them that their part in the warfare is over; their fighting in this present age is done in this spiritual war.

By: The John Ankerberg Show

Dr. Renald Showers: According to 1 Corinthians 15, “the last trump” will be sounded, and then according to Matthew 24 there will be the sound of a great trumpet when the Lord Jesus comes out of Heaven in His glorious Second Coming.

And so, some say, “Look, you obviously have a trumpet blown at the Rapture. It’s the trump of God. It’s the last trump. And you obviously have a trump being blown at the Second Coming of Christ after the Tribulation Period, therefore, the Rapture and the Second Coming must take place at the same time.“

And if it’s the “last” trump at the Rapture, which is what 1 Corinthians 15 says, then this has to be at the Second Coming of Christ.

It couldn’t be before because if the Rapture is taking place before the Second Coming and there’s a trumpet there which is supposedly the “last” trump, but then later on, maybe seven-years later, you have a trumpet at the Second Coming of Christ, then how could the trumpet at the Rapture be the last trump when you’ve got a trump supposedly seven-years later at the Second Coming of Christ?

Well, let me point something out to you with regard to this.

Even the trumpet that will be blown at the Second Coming of Christ will not be the absolute last trumpet blown here on planet Earth.

When you go to Zechariah 14, we are clearly told there that during the Lord’s reign upon the earth — this would be during the future Millennial Reign — that the Feast of Tabernacles is going to be observed every year here on the earth.

And we’re told in verse 16, “It shall come to pass that everyone that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of Hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles. It shall be that whoso shall not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of Hosts, even upon them shall be no rain.”

And He goes on to indicate that, verse 18, “if the family of Egypt go not up and come not that have no rain, there shall be the plague wherewith the Lord shall smite the heathen that will not come up to keep the feast of tabernacles,” indicating that every year throughout the Thousand Year Reign of Messiah upon the earth the people of the world will be required to observe the Feast of Tabernacles.

Now, when you study what’s involved with the Feast of Tabernacles, you have the blowing of trumpets in the Feast of Tabernacles.

This means you will have the blowing of trumpets every year throughout the Thousand Year Reign of Christ.

So, the trumpet that’s blown at the Second Coming of the Lord will not be the absolute last trumpet that’s blown on planet Earth.

Neither can you automatically equate the trumpet at the Rapture with the trumpet of the Second Coming of Christ.

Then, why is the trump of the Rapture called “the last trump”?

Well, it’s not indicating the absolute last trump; it’s got another significance to it and there are several possibilities with regard to this.

For one thing, it’s interesting that Paul refers to the last trump in 1 Corinthians 15 and in the immediately preceding chapter, 1 Corinthians 14, he refers to the blowing of a trumpet and there he’s referring to a military trumpet.

In light of that, it would appear that he has military trumpets in mind when he’s writing 1 Corinthians 15.

So, it could very well be that when he refers to the last trump which will be blown at the Rapture, he has a military trumpet in mind. What’s the significance of that?

When you study the Roman army and some of the Greek armies and even the Jewish army back in Bible times, when they went into war, they had a “last trump” that would be blown that would tell the fighting men, “Your time of fighting is over. It is time for you to go home and rest.”

A “last trump” ended their time in the warfare.

By analogy, the Scriptures teach that Christians today are involved in a spiritual war while they live out their lives in this present age in this present world.

When the Rapture takes place and the trumpet is blown at that time, that will be a signal to them that their part in the warfare is over; their fighting in this present age is done in this spiritual war.

It is time for them to go home to be with the Lord and rest together with Him in Heaven.

In addition, when you read about the use of trumpets in the military of the ancient world, particularly with the Romans, they had a first trump that signaled when a man was to start his watch on guard duty, but then they had a “last trump” which signaled that his time on guard duty was over and again it was time for him to go home.

In other words, before that last trump he’s on watch; he’s watching, watching, watching to be on guard. But when the last trump is sounded, that tells him his watching is done, he can go home.

Scriptures also teach that while Christians are living in the world in this present age, we are to continually be watching, watching, watching and the idea again could be that when the Rapture takes place and that trumpet is sounded, it’s a signal to them, “this is the last trump signaling that your tour of duty on the watch is completed and now it’s time for you to go home.”

So, the expression “the last trump” there in 1 Corinthians 15 in conjunction with the Rapture does not mean the absolute last trump in a sequence but it’s tied in apparently with military terminology back in Paul’s day.

And the fact that Paul, when he mentions the last trump, doesn’t explain to the Corinthians what he meant by that indicates that they understood what he meant by “the last trump.”

And they were very familiar, being part of the Roman empire, with that terminology of “the last trump” signals used for Roman soldiers, whether their fighting is done or their tour of duty on the watch is over for that day.

So that would have a tremendous significance to them in light of those military uses of the day.

Real Answers to Real Questions

For more than 37 years The John Ankerberg Show has offered Real Answers to Real Questions and presented and defended the Christian faith. In all areas of ministry and through a variety of media outlets, our mission is to provide answers to tough theological questions in order to proclaim biblical truth, encourage the believer, and challenge the skeptic.

https://jashow.org/articles/when-does-the-last-trump-sound-the-rapture-the-second-coming-or-some-other-time/

SIGN OF THE SON OF MAN - Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give its light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven; and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

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The Sign of the Son of Man

Although the parables discussed in the previous section are fairly easy to understand, Jesus also taught about the rapture in even plainer terms. 

In the great prophetic 24th chapter of Matthew, the Lord spoke about the events that will occur just before he returns. 

In the last week before he was crucified, Jesus taught his disciples about the rise of the Antichrist, the future persecution of the believers, the Abomination of Desolation, and even about the horrors of the Great Tribulation. 

In Matthew 24:29, he then goes on to tell them about the sign of the Son of Man:

“Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give its light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken.

“And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven; and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

“And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” Matthew 24:29-31

Just as in the previous prophecies we looked at concerning the Return of Christ, the Lord says that the gathering together of His people will be done through the actions of angels. 

However, in this passage He also adds some important details to his original teachings. 

Christ says that all the tribes of the earth will actually see Him coming with great power and glory. 

At this same time they will also hear Him, because the event is said to be heralded by the great sound of a trumpet.

This entire description seems to run diametrically against the popular view of the rapture as being a secret and rapid disappearance of Christians at the end. 

Christ’s prophecies here seem to imply that the gathering together of believers (i.e., the “elect”) will not occur until He returns at the actual event of the Second Coming. 

A merging of the rapture with the Second Coming is certainly logical, since what is typically viewed as the Second Coming would really turn out to be the Third Coming if a prior secret return occurred first to remove only the believers.

There are some people, however, who try to explain away this prophecy by saying that the Lord really wasn’t referring to the true rapture in this prophecy, but was directing His words solely at the Jews or at the so-called “tribulation saints.” 

Those that espouse a secret rapture event to remove all Christians prior to the rise of the Antichrist or the terrible events of the end will say that Christ’s prediction in these verses actually is referring to a second gathering of believers at the end. 

According to this view, these people are supposedly those who come to believe after the rapture has occurred and the Antichrist has arisen. 

Especially people who hold to the pre-tribulation or mid-tribulation positions are forced to explain this passage as a secondary gathering of only Jewish believers at the Second Coming — otherwise it would completely prevent the possibility that the pre-trib or mid-trib theories are true. 

However, as we will soon see, this is simply not tenable considering the plain prophecies given by Jesus and other prophets in the Bible.

Even more significant is how the Lord dates this occurrence with respect to its relative positioning or timing among the other major events of the end. 

He says right in the beginning of the prophecy that this entire sequence of events including the gathering together of the elect will not occur until “after the tribulation of those days” (Matthew 24:29; emphasis mine). 

Could it be that Jesus predicted in easy to understand language the precise timing of the rapture? It certainly appears that he did.

However, nowhere in this chapter does Jesus imply that the Jews are to be the sole recipients of His words. 

Rather, in this entire prophecy of the last days He is teaching about the general conditions that would occur worldwide just before he returns. 

Furthermore, trying to separate Jewish believers from gentile believers in this way is simply not scriptural. 

Paul taught that all believers regardless of whether they are Jewish or gentile are made to be one through Christ (Ephesians 2:14-18). 

It doesn’t matter if a person is Jewish, Italian, Chinese, American, or whatever background; if an individual repents of his sins and turns to Christ in faith he or she becomes a member of the family of God and his national heritage or ethnic background no longer matters. 

In reality, nationalities mean nothing to God; and in the age to come where the followers of Jesus will have immortal bodies and live in paradise they will mean nothing to us as well.

It is obvious that the Lord is talking here about the gathering together of all believers when he returns and not just one select group. 

He describes the rapture in such a way that it’s simply not possible to call it a “secret” event, nor even a “disappearance”. 

In fact, in this one description we find conditions that are considerably different from anything usually put forth by the popular teachings of today.

According to the details Jesus gives us in this prophecy we can now add the following points to our list of characteristics concerning the rapture (see previous sections for the first three characteristics):

4. It will occur after the tribulation.

5. All the world will actually see the Lord coming and the angels gathering his people.

6. The angels will be sent forth with a great sound of a trumpet.

Some people have also tried to imply that the Lord was wrong in his teaching on this subject, or at least he didn’t have all the information necessary to fully prophesy about it. 

Sometimes I even hear it said that his disciples were later given the complete picture of the “secret” rapture that Jesus couldn’t see. 

This kind of thinking is foolishness. The Lord of the universe is the one who originally gave insight to all the prophets concerning the future — including his disciples. 

Just because He lived as a man when He taught these things doesn’t mean He was devoid of understanding or limited in knowledge. 

In fact, contrary to what some have believed, the disciples actually taught about the rapture in the very same terms that Christ did. 

Not only did they keep the terminology and relative chronology of events the same, but their words also add important details concerning another major aspect of the rapture, namely the resurrection of the dead.

End Times Truth is about warning people that the Coming of Christ is near and that we are living in the last days just before His Return. During our lifetime, Bible predictions concerning the Second Coming have been fulfilled exactly as they were described thousands of years ago.  Jesus said that we could know that his coming was near if we watched world events and compared them to what was predicted.  As the prophecies come true before our eyes, we know that we are getting closer to the end.  While it is true that the world is heading toward a judgment day, individuals can escape through knowledge of the truth combined with repentance and faith in Christ.

https://endtimestruth.com/the-return-of-christ/the-sign-of-the-son-of-man/