A study of what the Last Trump really is in 1 Cor. 15:52:

We will study here the Trumpets of God in The New Testament and why the last trump in 1 Cor. 15:52 is not the same as the 7th Trumpet of Revelation 11:15.

The mid and post tribulation interpretation system puts the rapture in various places along the timeline of Revelation and the tribulation of the last days. These views say the Rapture of the Church is at the seventh trumpet in Rev. 11:15. The post tribulation view also includes the gathering as the rapture that happens after the second advent when the order is given by the “Son of Man” as stated in Matt 24:30-31, “and He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet and they will gather together His elect from the four winds from one end of heaven to the other.” This happens after the marriage supper of the lamb in Rev. 19:7-9. and after Rev. 19:16 when He has returned to earth with the previously raptured Church. We will look at this in more detail. There are many problems with each of these systems and in the post tribulation one these two events can not be two descriptions of the same event because of the things that must happen between them. Another chapter will deal with the gathering together question in Matthew 24. It is thought by those who say that the rapture happens at the seventh trumpet that it is the last trumpet of I Corinthians 15:52, thereby getting it’s legitimacy. But as shown in Matt 24:30-31 the true last trumpet of the Age is after the return of Christ to the earth at a time when the rapture of the church must already have happened so as to meet him in the air before he comes back and come with him as his armies. Rev.19:14 says “And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.” These armies were already in heaven before He came to earth so scripture does not support the post-trib idea that He grabbed the Church on the way down or that He caught them up into the clouds and they did a u-turn and followed Him down to earth; that His way down took so long that He had time to do all the things needed or that Christ took them out of time and accomplished what John saw in time in Revelation 19:5-9 where the marriage supper of the Lamb had happened so that the Church is now called “His Wife” in verse 7 before He returns in verse 11. All the above ideas by mid and post tribulationists are not based on any scriptures at that relate to the Church and some ideas are not in God’s word at all. I will always contend that a literal interpretation of the Scriptures supports the pre-trib view and only a changing of this interpretation can be used to support the other views. (Bernard Ramm’s book, Protestant Biblical Interpretation, is a great resource for this subject so check the book listings on the right column.)   In fact Christ told the believers that when He comes that He would take them to where He was, undoubtedly Heaven in John 14:3 “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” There is no evidence to associate this true last trump with the seventh trumpet of Rev. 11:15. The fact that the seventh trump is the last of the series of seven trumpets sounded by seven angels does not automatically make it the last trump of I Corinthians 15:52 and the “trump of God” in I Thess. 4:17 when the harpazo, the “catching up” or rapture occurs. This is not a trumpet judgment, but a trumpet of God. In Revelation chapters 8, 9 and 10 all the trumpets are sounded by “angels who had the seven trumpets and prepared themselves to sound” Rev. 8:6. At each occurrence it is said “then the” one through seventh “angel sounded.” The fact that they were trumpet judgments and not the “trumpet of God” sounded by Him is proof enough that these are not the same as that spoken of in I Thess. 4:16. There it is said there is “the voice of an archangel” not seven angels, but also the trumpet of God which rises this above the trumpets of Revelation as to the authority that was actually commanding the Rapture that takes place.

The best interpretation and most logical one for I Thess.4:16 and I Corinthians 15:52 is one that looks at these two passages that were both written by Paul and let them explain themselves. The question to be answered is about the trumpet or trumpets that are sounded and what is meant by “the last trumpet”. First, we do know that the dead in Christ rise out of their graves first. Second, we know this happens when God “descends from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God” according to I Thess.  4:16. Thus this is the first trumpet that sounds at the rapture of the Church to call the dead out of their graves. To read on in vs.17 then the living “shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air” and we read in I Cor. 15; 51-52 that a trumpet sounds to make that happen. In I Cor. 15:51-52 it explains that this trumpet is “the last trumpet” that sounds. These two trumpets are in the Corinthian passage as Paul explains this “mystery” to the Christians of his day. A careful reading of verses 51 and 52 show the second group to get caught up, the living at the time of the rapture, are dealt with first and “we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump”. Then the first group to go at the first trump, the dead or those asleep, are identified for the verse continues “for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible” and this is followed by “and we shall be changed” again so Paul affirms the living follow the dead, and the last trump follows the first trump, in this rapture process. It is thus a conjecture that the last trump in I Cor 15:51 refers to the Rev. 11:15 trump. The similarity goes no further than to say both are trumps, that’s it. To base such an important theological position on this spurious assumption is surprising and certainly shows that the Pre-Trib position wins here.