Revelation 10-11, 14: Seventh Trumpet and the Resurrection (Rapture)

As stated before, I believe that the first six Trumpets are not meant to punish God’s people, nor do they represent the wrath of God that is to come later upon the unrighteous (the Bowls of Wrath), but they are announcements and signs of His appearance in the clouds, and are meant to give us hope regarding our imminent resurrection. But once the Six Trumpets have “sounded” and the events related to them are over, there will be no more delay (Rev. 10:6), for the angel told the Apostle John: “…in the days of the trumpet call to be sounded by the seventh angel, the mystery of God would be fulfilled, just as he announced to his servants the prophets” (Rev. 10:7). And “immediately after the tribulation of those days…” (Matt. 24:29), we will all experience our long-expected resurrection from the dead (rapture), at the Seventh Trumpet:

“Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” (Matt. 24:29-31).

In the gospel of Luke we read the same description of heavenly disturbances before Jesus gathers His elect. Luke 21:25 adds the detail that the seas will be in an uproar. The unbelievers will mourn their looming disaster while the believers will recognize them as divine signs and rejoice. We will then see Jesus’ own unmistakable sign and will be victoriously raised together in glory! God promised the resurrection of the dead to Israel before He promised it to the Church, so they will certainly experience it together with us Christians, and the Jews cannot be left behind, as the Pretribulationists believe!

There are many references in the Old Testament Scriptures that illustrate Israel’s resurrection once they have been saved and redeemed, such as: “Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise. You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy! For your dew is a dew of light, and the earth will give birth to the dead” (Isa. 26:19).

Another wonderful prophetic picture of their resurrection is found in Exodus 6:1-13. This is the story of Israel’s redemption from Egypt and entry to the Promised Land celebrated at Passover, which represents a past fulfillment but points to a future fulfillment. This promise contains five divine actions after they believe in Yeshua: “I will bring you out from…, I will deliver you from…, I will redeem you with…, I will take you to be my people…, I will bring you into the land… I am the LORD” (Ex. 6:6-8). Thus, God will: 1) raise or bring them out, 2) deliver or free them from their earthly bondage, 3) redeem or fulfill the marriage contract bought with His blood, 4) betroth or take them for Himself, and finally 5) bring them back to their land with Him for the Messianic Age.  In the same manner that God took His people out of their bondage and into the Promised Land, He will also deliver them from their sin and servitude to Satan through Yeshua, fulfill His contract with them by the New Covenant in His blood, betroth them to Himself forever, and lead them ultimately into their Promised Kingdom.

The resurrection of the Jews is allegorized similarly in Exodus 3:8, when God promised to come down (as their Messiah) and take them up (or gather them) out of the land: “I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land…”  Job confessed this clearly and longed for his own resurrection:

“For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!” (Job 19:25-27).

Right before the last and Seventh Trumpet is to sound (and when Jesus receives the order to put in His sickle for the harvest, according to the repeated narrative in Revelation 14:14-16), Jesus will appear in the clouds to gather up His people (Matt. 24:31). God will give His heavenly shout: “Come up here!” (Rev. 11:12-15). Paul describes this as the “last trumpet” (1 Cor. 15:52), or merely as “the sound of the trumpet of God” (1 Thess. 4:16). God’s voice will thunder from heaven in English: “Come up here!” or in Greek: ἀνάβητε ὧδε (anábete ode), or in Hebrew: עלו הנה (alú hineh), or in any other language of the world! Whichever He uses, all believers will hear, understand and rise to meet the Lamb in the air, as an eager Bride goes forth at the arrival of her bridegroom to enter her “chuppah.”

Paul emphasized that every believer needs to be changed in order to inherit the Kingdom, as referred to in 1 Corinthians 15:51: "...we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed." He referred to this as a "mystery" that would take place at the precise moment of the resurrection, "in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet..." (v. 52). This must be experienced by all who are going to participate as officials in God's Kingdom and live forever, since “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor. 15:50). This is why I am convinced that the Jews cannot be left behind after the “rapture” or resurrection, since this is the only moment in all of God’s program to raise His people unto Himself, and Jews were already promised the resurrection, the Kingdom, and eternity before the Christians ever received those promises. At this moment, we leave behind our mortality and gain our immortal “bodies.” Those left behind still retain their mortality.

Thus, at the sound of the Seventh Trumpet, our bodies (Jews and Christians) will undergo a physical transformation and become “re-created.” Another way of visualizing this process is by means of becoming “clothed” with our “heavenly dwelling” (2 Cor. 5:2). In order for the perishable and mortal to become imperishable and immortal, we must “put on,” or “becomes clothed with,” a new reality. Even if our body was previously destroyed by death, God can re-create our body out of nothing, just as He created the world in the beginning.

In this manner, “immediately after the tribulation of those days” (Matt. 24:29-31), “…the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air…” (1 Thess. 4:16-17). And His people will go up to heaven in a cloud while their enemies watch them. God’s people will have conquered the First Beast from the Sea and its image (who remained faithful to the One True God in spite of the violent Muslim conquests and false Islamic theology), and will stand beside the sea of glass with harps in their hands (Rev. 11:15-18). The time will finally have come to reward God’s servants, prophets, and saints, both great and small, and to destroy the destroyers of the earth by the wrath of God. The saints will be in heaven enjoying the Wedding Feast of the Lamb while the earth will be in terrible turmoil under the Caliphate of the Second Beast from the Earth. This is also the Third Woe for unbelievers (Rev. 11:14), when Jesus warned of His punishment at His return.

I trust that, while we are in heaven, we will not be seeing the decadence and suffering of many people that we once knew. It is also important to emphasize that, after the resurrection of the saints, it will be impossible for anyone to truly believe and be saved. First of all, Jesus said that the door would be “closed” after He takes His bride to the marriage feast: “…the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut” (Matt. 25:10). Also, their own rebellion will have caused them to shut their hearts and minds because they rejected God’s Messiah when they had the opportunity to believe in Him.

Jesus’ words in Matthew 24:37-42 are also a reference to this event, clearly saying that “…two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left” (Matt. 24:40-41). Just like in the days of Noah, those that are not “taken up” [paralambano] at that unique moment will remain behind and will be swept away by the wrath of God. But all Israel will be saved just in time for this unique and prophetic transformative moment (Rom. 11:26). Most importantly, God will call up His people at the Seventh Trumpet.