In this revealing broadcast, Carl investigates the mysterious ‘trump of God,’ mentioned in the famous rapture passage of first Corinthians, chapter fifteen. In Old Testament times, this trumpet, was blown for the purposes of either worship, battle, liberation, or assembly but never judgement. Sadly, this trumpet is often confused with the seven trumpets mentioned in the Book of Revelation, which are blown by angels, heralding God’s judgment on the unredeemed, within the tribulation. Join Carl now as he investigates the different kinds of trumpet blasts in scripture and the one which will shortly sound for the assembling of the church into the glory age…
Here is a complete transcript of the podcast (below)…
Friend, today we will turn our attention to one of the most famous Rapture passages in the Bible and that is of course 1st Corinthians 15:50-57. The Latin verb rapio means “to snatch, or seize” and we get the word English word rapture from this Latin word. Now, this passage in 1st Corinthians speaks explicitly of the transformation that will occur when we are caught up with Jesus in the air into glory and the simultaneous transformation, of our corruptible body into an incorruptible one.
Now as you know, we believe in the pre-tribulation rapture of the church, or ‘the blessed hope’ spoken of in the book of (Titus 2:13) and of course friend, the logical response is how can anyone have hope, if we the Bride of Christ will be dragged through the mud and blood, or severely beaten by the events of the tribulation period? There’s no hope in that whatsoever, yet people wrongly insist on this false premise, albeit the reason they do is because they don’t understand the love of God the Father in my opinion. No friend, a loving Father God would never allow His Christ’s bride to be treated so badly after His own son died for his bride and took her shame and suffering on the cross. People who claim they’ll go through the tribulation have no real comprehension of what they will encounter once we are raptured to Glory. To suggest the bride will endure the great tribulation, means Christ’s sacrifice was not enough for some Christians, who insist they will be going through the time of Jacob’s trouble (not the Church’s trouble I might add).
So, let us now turn to our source text for this broadcast 1 Corinthians 15:50–57, and let me read it for you now from the King James Bible, “Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. 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. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Friend, did you notice at the very beginning of verse 50, the Apostle Paul makes it clear that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. In the very next verse, Paul says we shall be changed. That word ‘changed‘ is allasso in the Greek and one meaning for it is, ‘an exchange or the substitute of one thing for another.’ I personally contend this exchange will include the substitution of our blood with God’s glory, meaning that once we receive our glorified body of ‘flesh and bone’ in this transformation, our blood will be absent and substituted for God’s glory, enabling us to finally enter the presence of the Father. Only with this new body, can we enter Christ’s Kingdom in its fullness and partake of the new wine and attend the feast that is the wedding Supper of the Lamb.
With our glorified bodies, we will finally put the fig leaf down and be restored back to the condition of Adam, prior to the fall of man. Now friend in verse 51, Paul divulges a mystery and I believe this mystery was revealed to the Apostle Paul in the desert of Saudi Arabia. In two instances, Gal 1:15-18 and Gal 4:25, Paul by his own testimony reveals his journey into the Arabian Desert. If you recall there was a three-year gap between the time Paul met the Lord Jesus on the road to Damascus and the time he went up to Jerusalem. Paul then goes on to explain there’s a generation coming, and friend, I believe that’s our present generation, that shall not sleep, or die, but we shall be changed. In verse 52, Paul describes this change in the ‘twinkling of an eye.’
This twinkling has been estimated to be 300 to 400 milliseconds. Since there’s 1000 milliseconds in each second, the twinkling of an eye equates to approximately 1/3rd of a second. Other scientists believe the twinkling of an eye is the amount of time it takes for a ray of light to hit and bounce off the eye. This of course, would be even quicker than the blink of an eye. Either way friend, this coming rapture will occur so rapidly, that if someone is blinking while it occurs, then they will surely miss it. The rapture will be very swift, so fast in fact, the remaining world will be lost in utter chaos trying to fathom the precise cause for the immediate expulsion of potentially 1-2 billion people from the planet, in less than one second. It’s in this event, we the church receive a body that will not be subject to death any longer, that’s what Paul refers to in the 53rd verse, when he says, “For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.” It’s in this very moment where we receive our immortal and incorruptible bodies that death is finally swallowed up and will have no more sting over us who believe in Christ.
But let me now get to the crux of our message today. What exactly is this ‘last trump’ that Paul mentions in verse 52? This has long been a mystery to some scholars, albeit; let me divulge today what I believe to be the correct meaning of Paul’s mention of this last trump. I will provide two views for you, one correct and one false, and I will let you decide friend. However, let me remind you that in scripture, whenever a trumpet is blown, it’s usually a summons to either, battle, worship, or an assembly of the people and friend I believe this trump will serve as a summons for the Rapture of the church and the assembling of ourselves to Christ in the air. Now, there are typically two trumpets in scripture, one is made from a ram’s horn, known as the shofar and the others were silver trumpets typically. The silver trumpets were used more commonly for a call to war and calling the camp of Israel to line up in order, yet the ram’s horn was used to assemble the people and announce the year of Jubilee in particular. Don’t forget that the trumpets were committed to the priests and preaching the Gospel was committed to God’s servants and that’s us. There’s only one High Priest in heaven friend and the blowing of the trumpet will be committed to Him. Whether Jesus blows the trumpet himself, or he gets an angel to blow it for him, it’s a call for us to be assembled in the soon coming rapture of the church.
Now if we observe the Feast of trumpets (also known as Rosh Hashanah), the Book of Leviticus says this feast should be announced with the blast of trumpets and treated as a holy convocation. The Feast of Trumpets falls as a landmark day of rest and a gathering of the people for that rest. It falls on the first day of the seventh month in the Jewish calendar and it comes at the end of the grape harvest. This represents the close of the old farming year and the beginning of the new. So we know that the feast of trumpets marks the beginning of a new agricultural year. I believe Psalm 81 and verse 3 specifically, references the feast of trumpets as it describes the time when God delivered his people Israel from out of Egypt, which is a typology of the world system. Did you get that friend, the trumpets were blown when Israel escaped the bondage of Egypt and was removed from tyranny and oppression, in God’s perfect timing. Could it be this feast of Trumpets is a typology of the rapture of the Church, and our removal from the world also?
Now, a shofar was used to announce the feast of trumpets, outlined in the book of Leviticus, and get this friend; one of its primary purposes was to gather or assemble the people for the feast. A shofar would be a trumpet, and it would typically be forged from a ram’s horn, yet modern day shofar’s are more often forged from the horns of an antelope. But don’t miss this friend, the ram’s horn was the trumpet blown at the feast of trumpets but they were also blown to announce the Year of Jubilee. In the year of Jubilee, all debts were cancelled; it was a time of great celebration and joy, a time to start over and once again. The Rapture of the church is a type of Jubilee no doubt. Now some scholars believe the rapture of the church will take place during this feast of trumpets or Rosh Hashanna; yet there’s a strong case that the rapture might fall on Passover or Pentecost but I will expound upon that more in another broadcast.
Anyway, let’s get to the details of this ‘last trump.’ On the Feast of trumpets there were four sounds made from the shofar itself. The first sound is the Tekah, which is basically a single very short blast that sounds like an alarm signifying Kingship. The second sound is Shevarim, which consists of three short notes rising in tone, this sound is supposed to resemble a man moaning or groaning in repentance. Then thirdly, we have Teruah, which consists of nine staccato blasts in rapid succession. The fourth and final blast however, is called the Tekiah ha-Gedolah and this is the longest and loudest sound emitting from the trumpet or shofar, in which the person blowing the trumpet blows as long and hard as he can, until he runs out of breath, which could last 10 to maybe 15 seconds if you have a big set of lungs! But friend don’t miss this, this long-lasting blast until the air runs out is the ‘last trump’ that Paul spoke about in 1st Cor 15:52, and I believe most of Paul’s Corinthian audience would have understood that.
Now there are those that will say, no Pastor, this trumpet is the last trumpet sounded by the seventh angel in the Book Revelation. They then go on to say that this last trump by the angel, is the fulfillment of the mystery of God in Rev 10:7. Friend, having a few trumpets in the book of revelation and a mystery is no adequate interpretation for us going through the tribulation whatsoever. What is the purpose of being raptured at that point anyway after we’re endured such colossal suffering for seven years straight? Friend, the reason that Paul did not expound further about this trump of God in this passage and 1st Thess 4:16, is that the people Paul was speaking to, fully understood this concept of the Last trump and needed no further explanation, as they were all familiar with the Feast of Trumpets. This final long blast of the shofar was sounded at termination of the Feast of Trumpets. In some scholar’s opinion, this knowledge serves as a typology and validation for the timing of the rapture occurring during the feast of trumpets. It could be friend; it might occur on this feast which typically falls in the 2nd or 3rd week of the month of September. There is however a strong argument that the Rapture might occur on the feast of Pentecost or Passover, like I mentioned before.
But let me re-iterate, this trumpet is a trumpet of God, not an angel’s trump, and this is an important distinction to note. Thereafter it’s not one of the same trumpets mentioned numerous times in the Book of Revelation: Lets read, 1 Thessalonians 4:16–18 from the KJB, “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.”
The trump of God friend is the trump that will sound your coming home. It’s God’s trumpet, not the trumpet of an angel, as mentioned in the book of revelation. These trumpets are separate and distinct; they are not one and the same. One trumpet calls us home for assembly and the others announce judgment upon the world that rejected Jesus Christ as Savior. The last trump spoken of in 1st Corinthians and 1st Thessalonians is a commanding shout to incite the church into action and the voice of the archangel will provide a witness to God’s command for His bride to be caught up finally to meet Him in the air, after two thousand years of Jesus waiting patiently.
Related keyword searches:
