Trumps, trumpets, and the last trump.

There is a lot of debate over the trumpets that sound at the rapture of the Body of Christ and the regathering of Israel.

Matthew 24 and other scriptures tell us that believing Israel will be regathered to Jerusalem by angels at the sound of a trumpet (Isa. 27:12-13, 54:7, Jer. 23:3, 31:8-10, 32:37, Ezek. 11:17, 28:25, 30:33-41, 34:13, 36:24, 37:21, 39:27-28, Hos. 1:11, Micah 2:12, Mat. 24:31, Mark 13:27).

Paul revealed the "mystery" of the rapture of the Body of Christ "by the word of the Lord", that we will be caught up to heaven at the trump of God (Phil. 3:20-21, 1 Cor. 15:51-58, 1 Thes. 4:13-18).

Paul records a chronology of what will happen at the rapture of the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 15:51-58, 1 Thes. 4:13-18):

• "the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout" (1 Thes. 4:16)
• "with the voice of the archangel" (1 Thes. 4:16)
• "with the trump of God" (1 Thes. 4:16)
• "the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised" (1 Cor. 15:52)
• "at the last trump...we shall be changed" (1 Cor. 15:52)

Obviously from what Paul tells us, God sounds a trumpet twice. The trumpet sounds and the dead are raised, then at the last trump we which are alive and remain will be changed and caught up.

Neither the trump of God at the rapture of the Body of Christ nor the great sound of a trumpet at the gathering of Israel have anything to do with the the trumpets of the seven angels in the book of Revelation (Rev. 8:2). Those are trumpets given to angels that are in announcement of judgement, they have nothing to do with any raptures. Some people have gone so far as to say that the "last trump" that Paul mentioned is a reference to the seventh angel sounding his trumpet in Revelation 10, but that is scripturally impossible:

1.) A trump (archaic usage) is the sound a trumpet makes, not a trumpet itself. Therefore the term "last trump" has nothing to do with a series of different trumpets sounding. 

2.) 1 Corinthians 15 and Revelation 8 do not share the same context. You cannot connect the two passages simply because they both use similar words like "trump" and "trumpet".

3.) 1 Corinthians 15 speaks of a trumpet in announcement of resurrection, Revelation 8-10 are about trumpets announcing judgements.

4.) If the "last trump" is the seventh angel's trumpet, then that would mean that the dead believers would be resurrected at the sixth angel's trumpet, since it is the living believers that are changed and caught up at the "last trump". This would put the resurrection of dead saints and the rapture of living saints happening days apart.

5.) We are going to be changed and caught up "in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump", but the seventh angel's trumpet blows for days ("the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound" Rev. 10:7)

6.) John was an apostle of Israel (Matt. 19:28, Gal. 2:9) and did not write about the mystery grace dispensation, that was given to Paul (1 Cor. 3:9-11, 1 Tim. 1:11-16, Eph. 3:1-9, Col. 1:25-28). John would not be the one to tell us when the Body of Christ gets raptured and the grace age end.

7.) There is no mention of a resurrection or rapture in Revelation 10.

8.) This would put the Body of Christ in the Time of Jacob's Trouble, which is impossible as I showed in a previous post http://av1611studyblog.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-pre-tribulation-rapture-vs.html

--Eli Caldwell