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Has the last trumpet sounded? By the
last trumpet we mean the eschatological
trumpet that consummates the last days
events.
According to Numbers chapter 10, Israel
learned the meaning of the use of the
trumpets through the instruction of Moses.
Specific details for the gathering of the
assembly, advancing, going to war and
in the accompaniment with the appointed
feasts were assigned to the blowing
of trumpets.
The Trumpets and the Covenants
In one of the most audible times of Israel history, —the giving of the law at Sinai, loud trumpet blasts sounded. The trumpet and voice of words were so frightful that the people who heard it begged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore. (Heb. 12:19)
The Trumpet and the Last Day
In the Old Covenant, the prophecies concerning the sounding the trumpet takes on a much deeper meaning. The prophets connect the trumpet blast with the gathering of Israel in the last days.
So it shall be in that day: The great trumpet will be blown; They will come, who are about to perish in the land of Assyria, and they who are outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem. (Isa 27:13)
The sounding of the trumpet also inaugerates the New Covenant with Israel. The deliverer would come out of Zion and turn away ungodliness from Jacob. This would be God’s covenant when he takes away their sins. The eschatology of this text is undeniable.
In This Mountain
The salvation of Israel’s last days is associated with their coming to Mt. Zion. Isaiah also informs us that this last days “mountain top” experience includes the resurrection of the dead.
“And in this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all people a feast of choice pieces, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of well-refined wines on the lees.
And He will destroy on this mountain the surface of the covering cast over all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations.
He will swallow up death forever, and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces; The rebuke of His people He will take away from all the earth; For the Lord has spoken.
And it will be said in that day; “Behold, this is our God: We have waited for Him, and He will save us. This is the Lord; We have waited for him; We will be glad and rejoice in His salvation. (Isaiah 25:6–8)
Four blessings of Israel’s last days are mentioned:
- The eschatological feast
- The removing of the veil cast over the nations
- The swallowing up of death
- Rejoicing in the salvation of God
All Blessings Fulfilled in the Message of Revelation In Revelation we have each of these blessings mentioned above fulfilled. The feast is the marriage supper of the Lamb. It occurs after the fall of the great city Mystery Babylon at the time of the wedding of the Lamb, (Rev. 19:7–9).
Mystery Babylon, identified as Jerusalem in Revelation (11:8; 17:18; 18:24) falls in 70 AD. See also in Jesus parable where the wedding feast follows the destruction of the city guilty of murdering the King’s son, (Matt. 22:1–8)
The veil cast over the nations is the ministration of death, (2 Cor. 3:7–16). Paul argues that the veil is removed when Israel turned to Christ. The Spirit’s end time ministry effected the transformation from the glory of the Old Covenant to ministry of righteousness which far exceeded the glory of the old, (2 Cor. 3:9–10, 18).
In Revelation, the veil is represented in the fleeing of the old heaven and earth of Judaism from the face of him who sat on the throne, (Rev. 20:11)
Thirdly, Paul quotes from Isaiah 25:8, in 1 Cor. 15:52–54, to show that the resurrection in 1 Cor. 15, fulfills the Old Covenant prophecy. There he calls it the last trumpet. Revelation 11:15, records the sounding of the seventh trumpet.
Attending it is the consummation of the kingdom, the time of God’s wrath and the resurrection of the dead. Fourth, Israel’s salvation arrives. Once again, this salvation is connected to and follows the fall of Mystery Babylon.
After these things I heard a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, “Alleluia! Salvation and glory and honor and power belong to the Lord our God.
For true and righteous are His judgments, because He has judge the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her fornication; and He has avenged on her the blood of His servants shed by her.” (Rev. 19:1–2)
Christ’s Coming With the Sound of the Trumpet
In Matthew 24, Christ comes in the clouds with the sounding of the trumpet to consummate the time of the end, (Matt. 24:13–14, 31). This corresponds with Revelation 1:7, and 14:14, where the Son of Man comes on the clouds.
It is the time of the harvest at the end of the age (Matt. 13:39–40), denoted by the imagery of the sharp sickle thrust into the earth to reap. Once again, it follows the fall of Babylon, the mystery city identified as Jerusalem.
As a resurrection text, Matthew 24:31, draws from Daniel 12:1–4, connecting the time of the end, the great tribulation and the coming of the Son of Man in the clouds, (Dan. 7:13–14), leaving no doubt that all events occur in AD 70.
Matthew 24:31, also parallels the coming of the Lord with trumpet sound in 1 Thess. 4:17, 1 Cor. 15:51. All texts limit the events to the first century generation.
Compare: We who are alive and remain (1 Thess. 4:15, 17) = “We shall not all sleep, (1 Cor. 15:51), = This generation will by no means pass, Matt. 24:34.
Thus the sounding of the trumpet does not extend beyond the first century generation in either case. To learn more about the end times see The Re-Examination, a Study of the Second Coming of Christ by William Bell.
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