The Last Trumpet

The Rapture

The Mystery

• 1 Cor. 15:51-52, “Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed. In a flash, at the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.”

• A pretribulation rapture would involve a “last trumpet”-what about 7 thereafter?

7th Trumpet

• Rev. 10:7, “But in the days when the seventh angel is about to sound his trumpet, the mystery of God will be accomplished, just as he announced to his servants the prophets.”

• How can the mystery of the rapture be revealed at the 7th trumpet and yet occur before tribulation begins, when we know the trumpets occur within the tribulation?

Trumpet Call of God

• Matt. 24:31, “And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.”

• Yes, the trumpet call of God is different than the 7th trumpet, but both occur in the same setting, of the second coming of Christ, with cataclysmic events and the rapture of the church.

Trumpet Call-2nd Coming

• 1 Thess. 4:15-18, “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. For the Lord himself will come down form heaven with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together to meet the Lord in the air.”

“Meet the Lord”

• Greek word- “Apanthesis”, which means to meet someone who starts at point A, with the meeting place at point B, and then everyone goes to point C.

• Christ is at the right hand of God (point A) and will meet the raptured saints (point B) and all will go to Mount Zion (point C).

• Acts 28:14 and Matt. 25:6 only other times this Greek word was used in scripture.

Christ at Right Hand

• Psalms 110:1-2, “The Lord says to my Lord; sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for you feet. The Lord will exalt your mighty scepter from Zion; for you will rule in the midst of your enemies.”

• Zech. 14:4, “On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives east of Jerusalem.”

• See also Isa. 66:1 and Heb. 10:13.