The Last Trumpet

Gary and Kim Burgess conclude their discussion of 1 Corinthians 15.

Paul still fully expected to be alive in his earthly body at the parousia of Christ as based on the direct warrant of Christ Himself in texts like Matthew 10:23, 16:27-28, and 24:34. This is precisely why Paul deliberately used “we” language in both 1 Thessalonians 4 and 1 Corinthians 15.

For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, and remain until the coming of the Lord [the Greek is far more emphatic: “we, that is, the ones living, the ones remaining until the parousia of the Lord], shall not precede those who have fallen asleep, for the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are alive and remain [again, per the Greek, “we, the ones living, the ones remaining] shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord (1 Thess. 4:15-17).

Behold, I tell you a mystery; 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, and we shall be changed. (1 Cor. 15:51-52)

The sole point I want to make here per 2 Corinthians 5:2 is that Paul’s expectation and preference at this point in time was not that he would have to die and go to be with the Lord, meaning that he would have to vacate one “house” (the “earthly tent”) and take up residence in another (“the building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens”). What he was waiting and hoping for, ideally, was for this heavenly reality to come down to him on earth, “from” or “out of ” heaven, not for him simply to die, and “be absent from the body” to go to be with God in heaven. He does not want so much to check out of one house (the earthly one) and move into another (the one in heaven) by going through the event of physical death itself. Rather, and here is precisely why he suddenly switched his metaphors in mid-stream: He wanted not to be “unclothed” (5:4), ἐκδύσασθαι/ekdusasthai from ἐκδύω/ekduō (to put off), but, rather, to be further “clothed upon,” ἐπενδύσασθαι/ependusasthai from ἐπενδύομαι/ependuomai (to put on over). That is, he wanted and expected at this point to put this heavenly existence on over his earthly existence! As he went on to elaborate by switching the metaphor yet again, this meant that he wanted that which is “mortal” (that which is subject to death and impermanency and instability) to be “swallowed up” or “consumed,” καταποθῇ/katapothē from καταπίνω/katapinō by “[eternal] life.”

The Hope of Israel and the Nations (Volume 2)

In this second and concluding volume of The Hope of Israel and the Nations, Kim Burgess continues expounding his lessons on New Testament Eschatology. With help from co-author Gary DeMar, Kim connects all the parts of the NT and fashions them into a whole. Kim emphasizes the one-and-many approach to interpretation. The parts and the whole must be studied together. They make up the warp and woof of proper biblical interpretation. The process takes time and study, but it brings the full story of the Bible into clear focus.

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Gary and Kim Burgess conclude their discussion of 1 Corinthians 15. In verse 52, the Apostle Paul mentions “the last trumpet” and in 1 Thessalonians 4:16 he also connects the last trumpet with a “shout.” Trumpets and shouts should remind us of Jericho, and Kim brings up many other verses in the Old and New Testaments that help us to understand what Paul is teaching in 1 Cor 15.

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