One interesting aspect of Christ’s return, the rapture, and the resurrection is the way all three are connected by trumpets. Often Christians see these three events as happening at three different times (particularly pre-tribulation premillennialists).
However, Bible describes all three of these events occurring simultaneously. The dead are raised, Christ returns, and the saints are caught up together with Him—all at the sound of the last trumpet. There are some versions of premillennialism that also see all three of these events occurring at the same time (e.g., New Creation Millennialism) but most dispensational premillennialists see a “secret” rapture occuring 7 years prior to the return of Christ with the final resurrection of the dead occurring another 1000 years after that. Therefore, the timing of these events in relation to each other is of particular interest to those studying eschatology.
Consider the following texts, the events that occur at the sound of the trumpet blast, and how these texts, in my opinion, exclude the possibility of pre-tribulation premillennialism that separates Christ’s return, the resurrection of the dead, and the rapture into three separate events.
29 “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 30 Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31 And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
Matthew 24:29–31
50 I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. 53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
55 “O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”
1 Co 15:50–55
15 For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.
1 Th 4:15–18
15 Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.”
Re 11:15
One response to “Trumpets and Christ’s Return”
You could also reference the blowing of the trumpet to announce the Day of the Lord in Joel 2. He says it twice!