Trumpets (Rapture Thoughts part 2)

Years ago I enjoyed listening to Chuck Missler. He always had interesting views on various topics. Then one day I heard his teaching on 1 Corinthians, and on that topic he mentioned that the "last trumpet" of 1 Corinthians 15 not being the same as the 7th trumpet mentioned in the book of Revelation, and the reason he gave for not believing they were the same was that there will be trumpets blown during the millennium.

1Corinthians 15:51-53  Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,  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.  For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

I would have asked him, if I could, when exactly THE LAST trumpet would sound at His coming because His coming is prior to the millennial kingdom at  which time He will reign over on the earth. If it couldn't be the last because there would be "millennial trumpets" sounding which would be after His second coming,,,,so the last trumpet isn’t the last trumpet?... Chuck recently went to be with the Lord so any misconceptions he may have had are all cleared up for him now.

Let's examine the passages in question carefully, Jesus also mentioned the sounding of a trumpet at His coming during what is now called "the Olivet Discourse" when He spoke of His returning. That conversation was recorded in three of the four gospels, but only the book of Matthew mentions the trumpet:

Matthew 24:29-31  Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her 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.

Pretribbers would object and say "this lecture given by Jesus at the Mount of Olives was only meant for the Jews because this is after the time of the Gentiles is fulfilled therefore the church gets removed via a secret rapture prior to His returning to earth", but I'm going to have to save that for a future post because I want to focus on one thing at a time and not go a hundred different directions in this post.

Paul also mentioned a trumpet sound to announce Jesus' returning, we already mentioned 1st Corinthians 15 (above) and in 1 Thessalonians the faithful were being shaken by a rumour that Jesus had already come so Paul said to them:

 1Thessalonians 4:15-18  For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.  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.  Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

I want to also focus on some details; the signs in the heavens that are mentioned by Jesus, and the raising and gathering of the dead in Christ as given by Paul, but to be sure when Jesus said the angels would gather the elect from one end of heaven to the other, it would certainly include both living and dead saints. With those things in mind, let's take a look at what John told us about the 7th trumpet as it was shown to him in his vision  as recorded in the book of  Revelation.

At the opening of the 6th seal (the 7th seal begins the trumpets) we see signs in the heavens that look very much like those mentioned by Jesus in His Olivet Discourse:

Revelation 6:12-13  And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood;  And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.

..and when introducing us to the 7th trumpet, John says:

Revelation 10:7  But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.

Something is finished at the sounding of the 7th trumpet, let's continue:

Revelation 11:15-19  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.   And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God,  Saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned.   And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.  And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail....

After the 7th trumpet John sees the battle in overview between Satan and the woman with child and Satan gets thrown out of heaven, the first and second beast are described and the 144,000 are sealed on their foreheads. And THEN the vials (or bowls) which is the wrath of God is poured out on those who took the mark of the beast and worshiped his image
 :
 Revelation 15:5-8  And after that I looked, and, behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened:  And the seven angels came out of the temple, having the seven plagues, clothed in pure and white linen, and having their breasts girded with golden girdles. And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever.  And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.

The wrath of God is not poured out on the earth until after the 7th trumpet has sounded, and there are still people of God on the earth, but they have been sealed with the protection from God on their foreheads (compare this protection with the protection offered by the world with the mark on the foreheads given by the antichrist)

Also, there is an interesting event that happened during the life of Joshua, which gives us a prophetic foretaste of what happens in John's Revelation. Read what happened at Jericho in Joshua chapter 6 that I believe shows us a pattern of what would happen at the end of the fall of the future Babylon.

In the next blog post I want to explore if the Bible gives clear evidence that the "time of Jacob''s trouble" is only meant for Israel and if we can find clear evidence of the Church being raptured prior to the great tribulation.