Notes of Faith May 7, 2024
The Bible says, “For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with a voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God.” This is all in the Heavenlies. This is not anything the world will hear, the world will understand, the world will take note of. Nothing. It’s all about us. In the Bible, it is the trumpet of God. It’s not the trumpet of men. It’s not the shofar. It’s not anything else. It’s not even the trumpet of an angel. The Bible says that the trumpet of the rapture is connected to the voice of an archangel. Everything is in the celestial realm. It’s not here.
Let me paint it in a better picture. When we return with Him, the Jews will blow the trumpet on the Feast of Trumpets and the whole world will see Him returning with us. But when we go up, nobody will see us. We’ll be gone just like that. All the excitement is not going to be here. Nobody will be excited that, “Oh wow, look, there's a rapture.” No, they’ll probably say, “Good riddance.” I mean, that’s it. “They’re out of here, finally. Let’s party.” Guys, guess who is excited? We are.
No, no, no. Of course we are, because it’s us. But who is excited for our rapture? Heaven is expecting us. There is going to be a celebration in heaven. Heaven is preparing for the coming of the sons and the daughters. It’s amazing.
1 Thessalonians 1:10. When will that happen? 1 Thessalonians 1:10 – “…to wait for His Son from heaven whom He raised from the dead. Even Jesus who delivers us,” talk to me, “from the wrath to come.” Not through the wrath, but from the wrath to come.
The Trumpet of the Rapture
There is a lot of confusion surrounding the “last trumpet” Paul mentioned in 1 Corinthians 15. However, if we let scripture interpret scripture, we can arrive at the intended meaning.
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.
Early Christians would commonly refer to the death of the body as sleep. This was based on a firm belief of a future bodily resurrection of the dead in Christ. They noted that the time a believer’s body was in the grave was temporary, and, thus, they likened it to sleep, which is also a temporary state.
The confusion with the last trumpet often comes from mixing the trumpet judgments of Revelation with the trumpet of God and the voice of an archangel that signals the end of the church age. The latter is the time of the bodily resurrection of the dead in Christ. It is when believers who are still alive at that moment will meet both the dead in Christ and the Lord in the air. Paul says to comfort one another with these words.
If the last trumpet in 1 Corinthians 15 is the same as the last trumpet of the seven listed in Revelation, then there is a problem with finding comfort in the words of Paul. There is also a problem with other scriptures.
Revelation 3:10
Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.
The Lord doesn’t say, “I’ll keep you from the bowl judgments during the last part of the tribulation.” He says He will keep those who persevere from the whole of the tribulation, the hour of trial coming on the whole world.
Another problem with seeing the last trumpet as the seventh of Revelation 11 is that the events following the sounding of that final trumpet judgment mention nothing of the events recorded in 1 Corinthians 15 and 1 Thessalonians 4. This is to say nothing of the fact that, by the time the seventh trumpet sounds, billions will have been killed, the earth will have experienced unprecedented catastrophic events, and Satan and his two beasts will have made war with the saints and overcome them. This is something that cannot happen to the church.
The point is that if we are not taken to be with the Lord, there is no comfort to be taken from what is coming upon the whole world.
1 Thessalonians 1:10
…and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.
1 Thessalonians 5:9-11
For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him. Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing.
The trumpet of God is not the seventh trumpet of Revelation. Instead, it is the trumpet that signals the end of the church age. The removal of the church is necessary for the first beast of Revelation to rise to power which happens at the beginning of the tribulation. From that we can conclude, since we do not have an appointment with God’s wrath, that the whole tribulation is the wrath of God and, as the church, we will not see any of it.
For those who like to argue that Christians have always faced tribulation so why would we escape the Great Tribulation, the answer is simple – the Great Tribulation is God’s wrath, but our current tribulations are caused by Satan and man. They are two completely different things.
So, dear saints, take comfort in the fact that this ever-darkening world indicates that the unknown day and hour when the dead in Christ and those alive in Christ will meet the Lord in the air to forever be with Him, just might be today!
Even so, come quickly Lord Jesus ,
Pastor Dale