Can you explain I Corinthians 15:52...The Last Trumph? Is this the same as the seventh trumpet?

Robert DePaul
Audubon, PA

The “Last Trump” mentioned in I Corinthians 15:52, and the seventh trumpet (judgment) in the book of Revelations are not the same.

The following has been taken from Dr. Van Impes book, Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Prophecy:

First Corinthians 15:51,52 is one scripture passage that post-Tribulationists (those who believe they are going to go through the Tribulation and will meet Christ at the end) use to defend that doctrine. Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep [be dead], but we shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump.

Then they go over to the trumpet judgments and say, “You see? The seventh trumpet [judgment] brings all this catastrophe, and this is right at the end of the Tribulation hour. And because He calls His church home at the last trump, it has to be at the end of the seven years of Tribulation”.

Hold it! What about the eighth trump, when the trumpet sounds in Matthew 24:31 and He [gathers] together his elect from the four winds for the Millennium?

There’s more by way of contradistinction. The seventh trump produces judgment and death, but the trumpet of I Corinthians 15:51 produces eternal life and joy, as believers sweep into the heavenlies to meet Him. That’s when the dead and the living in Christ go to meet the Saviour in the twinkling of an eye.