What is the difference between the last trumpet in Paul and the seventh trumpet in Revelation?

Question 10202.

The last trumpet of 1 Corinthians 15:52 is regularly identified with the seventh trumpet of Revelation 11, and that identification is the single strongest argument the posttribulational position has. If Paul’s trumpet is John’s seventh, the church goes through the Tribulation and the pretribulational rapture collapses.

So it deserves a careful answer rather than a dismissal. I hold that they are two different trumpets doing two different things, and here is why.

The last trumpet and the seventh trumpet side by side

Paul mentions a trumpet twice. In 1 Corinthians 15:51 and 52 he says we shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed, 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. In 1 Thessalonians 4:16 and 17 the Lord descends with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel and with the sound of the trumpet of God, the dead in Christ rise, and the living are caught up.

John describes something else. In Revelation 11:15 the seventh angel blows his trumpet and loud voices in heaven announce that the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, followed by the twenty four elders worshipping and the temple opened.

Read them together and the differences are not subtle. Paul’s last trumpet gathers and transforms believers. John’s seventh trumpet announces a transfer of government and introduces further judgement.

Different purposes, different effects

In Paul the trumpet is a summons. It calls the dead in Christ out of their graves and changes the living in an instant. Nothing is said about judgement falling on the earth, and the whole passage is written to comfort believers about their dead.

In Revelation the seventh trumpet is the last of a sequence of judgements that have already devastated the earth, and it leads directly into the bowls. There is no resurrection of the church at that point, no catching up, no transformation of living believers, and no comfort offered to anybody living through it.

A trumpet in Scripture can gather, warn, announce a king, mark a feast or sound an alarm for war, and the word salpigx covers all of it. Identity of instrument does not establish identity of event, any more than two doorbells in a street mean one visitor.

There is a further contrast in tone. Paul’s trumpet is good news announced to comfort the bereaved, and he tells the Thessalonians to encourage one another with these words. John’s seventh trumpet is followed by the temple opened, lightning, thunder, an earthquake and heavy hail. Nobody encourages a grieving widow with Revelation 11:19.

Why last does not mean last in the whole Bible

The word last in Paul’s phrase has to be read within his own frame of reference. He is writing about the resurrection order in the same chapter: Christ the firstfruits, then those who belong to Christ at His coming, then the end. Within that sequence the last trumpet is the one that closes this age for the church.

Paul had no access to Revelation when he wrote to Corinth, since John received his vision some forty years later. If Paul meant the seventh of a series his readers had never heard of, he communicated nothing at all to them. The Corinthians would have heard last in the ordinary sense of final for the purpose in view.

There is a Jewish background too. Trumpets marked the gathering of the camp in Numbers 10, and the feast of trumpets opened the season that led to atonement and booths. A last trumpet in that world means the final call that assembles the people, and there are further trumpets in Revelation which belong to a different programme altogether.

Different sequences in different programmes

This is the heart of my answer. The trumpets of Revelation belong to a series of judgements poured out on a Christ rejecting world during the seventieth week of Daniel, when God is dealing with Israel and the nations. Paul’s last trumpet belongs to the completion of the church, which is a distinct programme with a distinct destiny.

Keep Israel and the church distinct and the difficulty dissolves. Merge them and you will be forced to squeeze both trumpets into one blast, and then to explain why one gathers and the other judges. I set out the distinction in the article on Israel and the church.

You can also see the difference in who blows them. In Revelation the trumpets are sounded by angels as instruments of judgement. In 1 Thessalonians it is the trumpet of God accompanying the descent of Jesus for His own, which is a very different scene.

You can also see the difference in direction of travel. At the last trumpet believers go up to meet the Lord in the air. At the seventh trumpet the announcement is that the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord, and He is coming down to take it. Those are opposite movements.

What about the voice of an archangel?

Some argue that the archangel in 1 Thessalonians 4 links the passage to Michael in Revelation 12, and therefore to the middle of the Tribulation. It is a fair observation, and it is not enough to carry the case. An archangel is present at the rapture as an escort of the King, not as a marker in a judgement sequence.

Michael’s work in Daniel 12 and Revelation 12 concerns Israel’s protection during her distress, which is exactly what you would expect once the church has been removed. Two appearances of the same rank of being do not make one event.

If you want the pattern of angelic activity in the end times, I have set it out in the article on angels in the end times.

Why the difference matters

It matters because imminence depends on it. If the church waits for the seventh trumpet, then a long list of signs must be fulfilled before Jesus can come, and the New Testament command to watch becomes a command to calculate. If the last trumpet is the church’s own summons, then He may come at any moment, which is exactly how the apostles wrote and lived.

It matters pastorally as well. Paul offered the Thessalonians comfort about their dead and told them God has not destined us for wrath. A posttribulational reading has to tell them they are destined for the worst period in human history first, which is not the tone of the passage.

For the wider case I would point you to the article on whether the rapture is taught in Scripture and to the piece distinguishing the rapture from the second coming.

It matters for holiness as well. John says that everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself as He is pure, and the hope in view is seeing Jesus when He appears. A church expecting a Person tomorrow lives differently from a church expecting a decade of judgements first, and the difference shows up in ordinary decisions rather than in prophecy conferences.

Handling the objection honestly

I want to be fair to those who differ. Posttribulationists are not inventing a trumpet; they are noticing a genuine verbal overlap and following it. Their instinct that Scripture uses repeated language deliberately is a good instinct, and I share it.

My reply is simply that context outranks vocabulary. When the effects described are opposite, when the audiences differ, when the timing markers differ and when the earlier writer had no knowledge of the later sequence, the overlap is verbal rather than substantial.

So I hold that Paul’s last trumpet gathers the church before the seventieth week begins, and that the seventh trumpet of Revelation announces the coming reign of the King over a world already under judgement. Two blasts, two purposes, one Lord.

If I am wrong about this, I will be wrong in company with people I respect, and the error will be corrected by events rather than by argument. What I will not do is give up imminence, because the last trumpet in Paul is written to a church told to wait for a Person rather than to survive a sequence.

What I would ask of anyone who differs is that we keep the argument about the texts. Trumpets, timing and audiences can be examined. Motives cannot, and the habit of accusing the other side of escapism or of pessimism has produced a great deal of heat and no light at all.

So, now what?

If this seems like a technical dispute, notice what hangs on it. Either you are waiting for a Person or you are waiting for a sequence of disasters. Those two expectations produce very different Christians.

So live as though the last trumpet could sound before you finish the day, because Scripture nowhere tells you it cannot. What would you want to be doing when it sounds, and what is stopping you from doing that now?

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.

1 Thessalonians 4:16 (ESV)