The Pre-tribulation, Pre-wrath, 6th seal Rapture is about to occur and be broken any day now, but will be precluded by the "last trumpet" of 1 Corinthians 15:52, 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 and Matthew 24:29-31. Some have incorrectly identified this last trumpet as being something that occurs after the 7th angel trumpet of Revelation 11:15, but that should not be confused with the 'Jesus trumpet' that must be blown at the breaking of the 6th seal or seconds before the 6th seal is broken.
This "Last trumpet" is a totally unique one of a kind trumpet that is never again blown anywhere before it or after it in scripture. It is the only one of the only kind and should never be confused with angel trumpets of any kind, because
Jesus, the one who has a voice that "sounds like a trumpet" (Rev 1:7 & 4:1), blows this himself, or perhaps doesn't even blow an actual trumpet at all, but instead just calls us to heaven in that trumpet sounding voice. But there are also other reasons as well why it is unique and should not be confused with others.
In fact even the 7 angel trumpets of Revelation, are not the last ones being blown in the bible. So if we are all going to be accurate lets separate these out.
There are many reasons that make the Rapture trumpet(Latin Raptu, Greek Harpazo), of 1 Cor. 15:52, 1 Thes 4:16 &17 and Matthew 24:31, an impossibility to be blown after the 7 angel trumpets of Revelation. They are completely different and separate kinds of trumpets altogether.
1. The first one is, it would negate him coming as a thief as he said he would in many passages and it would also negate him coming unexpectedly. There is no way, no how after seven obvious revelatory punishments such as: water turning to blood, all the grass be burned up, people dying from bitter water, demonic locusts tormenting people for five months and over two billion people being killed by a demonic army, can Jesus come as a thief or unexpectedly. Even a child can understand this.
How can Jesus possibly come after such obvious and clear signs? Answer: he can't.
2. It is clear we have not been appointed to suffer God's wrath as can be seen in all the following scripture: 1 Thess. 5: 1-9, Rev. 3:10, Luke 21:28, and 21:36. It is equally clear that God's wrath begins at the 6th seal of Revelation, because that's when the people of earth in Rev. 6:16-17, proclaim God's wrath begins. We see no proclamation before this in the first five seals of Revelation.
3. Jesus described in Luke 17:26-35, that when he returned again normal life would be occurring ie: buying selling, planting, building, marrying, eating and drinking, but this kind of normal life after the 6th seal is broken isn't possible. There is only confusion, mayhem, destruction and people only trying to survive. No one will think of building or planting ever again after God's wrath begins as they will have no assurance that it won't be destroyed by God as it was throughout the seven angel trumpets.
So before we even go into deeper these major truths have to be reconciled by the mid and post tribulationists. The problem for them is, they can't reconcile these truths, instead most would rather believe a lie.
1 Corinthians 15:51-52 reads? 51 But look! I tell you this secret: We will not all sleep in death, but we will all be changed.52 It will take only a second?as quickly as an eye blinks?when the last trumpet sounds. The trumpet will sound, and those who have died will be raised to live forever, and we will all be changed?.
If we are to hold to the last trumpet as being the trumpet which will signal the Rapture then let?s look at where the talk of a trumpet actually occurs for the last time in scripture.
If we look in Zechariah 9:14, we see talk of a trumpet the Lord does blow at the 2nd coming. ? 14 Then the Lord will appear above them, and his arrows will shoot like lightning. The Lord God will blow the trumpet, and he will march in the storms of the south?.
Though Revelation chapter 19 does not mention one, there is one here. However this is not the same kind of trumpet that is blown by Jesus at the Rapture. This trumpet in Zechariah is a war trumpet. The Rapture trumpet will be a calling to the clouds or reward trumpet.
There is even one more trumpet blown after the battle of Armageddon is fought and it can be found in Isaiah 27:12-13. 12 ?At that time the Lord will begin gathering his people one by one from the Euphrates River to the brook of Egypt. He will separate them from others as grain is separated from chaff.13 Many of my people are now lost in Assyria. Some have run away to Egypt. But at that time a great trumpet will be blown, and all those people will come and worship the Lord on that holy mountain in Jerusalem.
If we are going to be completely accurate, this trumpet would have to be considered the last one blown in the bible. So then the question becomes, if this is in fact the very last trumpet, then is this when the ready church is Raptured? The answer of course has to be no, because God?s wrath has long since been poured out at this point and we have much scripture that tells us the true Christians have not been appointed to suffer his wrath (1 Thess. 5:9, Luke 21:28 & 36, Revelation 3:10). In fact all the evil people have been killed and the only ones left are this remnant of the Jews who will be left to repopulate the earth during the last 1000 year millennial reign of Jesus.
So this last trumpet is blown after the last battle is fought and before the 1000 year reign of Jesus begins.
So what then are we to conclude about all this trumpet talk? What we have to do is separate the many different kinds of trumpets we see mentioned in the bible and put them in their proper context and perspective. Bottom line is they are not all the same. The seven angel trumpets of Revelation are totally different from the Old testament trumpets that we have just read about and the trumpet of Jesus that he blows himself in 1Thessalonians 4:16-17 should in no way be confused with an angel trumpet of any kind.
16 ?The Lord himself will come down from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. And those who have died believing in Christ will rise first?. 17 After that, we who are still alive will be gathered up with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And we will be with the Lord forever.18 So encourage each other with these words?.
Notice how Jesus is doing three things at once here. There is no other trumpet anywhere in the bible that comes remotely close to this description, because it is one of a kind and a trumpet of this sort is never seen again anywhere in all of scripture. Revelation 1:10 & 4:1 proclaims how Jesus can do these three things all at once. ?10 On the Lord's day I was in the Spirit, and I heard a loud voice behind me that sounded like a trumpet.
4:1:? 1 After the vision of these things I looked, and there before me was an open door in heaven. And the same voice that spoke to me before, that sounded like a trumpet, said, "Come up here, and I will show you what must happen after this."
If Jesus can change his voice to sound like a trumpet, then we can then easily see how he can shout, and blow a trumpet all with the voice of an archangel to boot.
Since Revelation was written long after Paul, Peter, James and the other original twelve had already been Martyred, we can?t assume Paul knew anything of the ?seven trumpets ?of Revelation that would be penned by John the Revelator some 30 years later in 90-96 A.D. Having said that we need to realize that Revelation has the final word, but at the same time will not contradict anything that plugs into it from previous authors such as Paul or even Jesus himself.
Conclusion:
The bible gives us all we need to understand end times prophesy all by itself. If we are to listen to the so called leading theologians of our day we may be deceived and confused. Some are doing it on purpose, while others may be innocent in their misunderstandings. Many take Revelation out of context and out of the literal order that it was already written in. John did not put numbers on the Revelatory chronology to not be heeded, so we must be dogmatic about its sequence.
The seventh angel trumpet of Revelation 11:15 is not completed before the battle of Armageddon in chapter 19 and neither is God?s wrath. We can clearly see when God?s wrath is completed in Revelation 15:1, because this is when we are told is completed. 1 ?Then I saw another wonder in heaven that was great and amazing. There were seven angels bringing seven disasters. These are the last disasters, because after them, God's anger is finished?.
When is his wrath completed? After the seven bowls are poured out, not before. When does God's wrath begin? At the sixth seal. Why? Because the people at the Sixth seal proclaim it here in Revelation 6:16-17:
16 They called to the mountains and the rocks, ?Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! 17 For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can withstand it??
Not only have we misidentified God's wrath begins and ends in Christendom, we have also overlooked the importance of separating the different kind of end time trumpets in the bible and realizing why the Jesus trumpet is so unique and separate from all the others.
But this is not the only thing we have misidentified. We have also failed to realize that the first 5 seals of Revelation were broken long ago and the lull in time in between Daniels 69th and 70th week matches the lull in between the 5th and 6th seals. This lull is identical and the fact is the 6th seal is about to be broken any day now while most of the church sleeps.
Jesus is about to snatch away his ready followers, while most are looking for the Antichrist. The problem is, we were never told to look for the Antichrist, we were instead told to look for the signs that would precede the Antichrist which are going on all around us: ie: End time Earthquakes, Riots etc. as told to us in Luke and Matthew. We also have not properly understood the two different messages that were given to two separate peoples: Jews and Gentiles.
Matthew which was a message to the Jews, described the Raptu(Latin), Harpazo(Greek), "Rapture" event in Matthew 24:29-31, as just another sign of the end, while Luke whose message was to the Gentiles told them how they could escape early the coming wrath of God as described at the 6th seal. Luke 21:28 &36, Rev. 3:10 and 1 Thess 5:1-11, all describe some who will escape or "be kept from" this coming wrath. To be kept from and escape both mean the same thing: To not be there physically.
Jesus is about to be seen by everyone in the air, while few are expecting him even in the church. But in fact this too was prophesied. While a growing number even in the church are telling us not to look for Jesus, but instead just wait for the water to turn to blood, or for the locusts to start stinging people he will come at a time when most of us least expect him.
I pray we wake up in time and also pray as Luke 21:36 tells us to: "To be ready all the time. Pray that you will be strong enough to escape all these things that will happen and that you will be able to stand before the son of man".
Are you ready?
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