Page 83 - Prophetic Word Newsletters Archive 2006 by Pastor Randy Shupe

Since we are dealing with a stated “mystery” (hidden truth), we will need to cultivate a little of the Sherlock

Holmes mentality of scrutinizing all the facts. This will require CONSIDERATION OF

that we apply the two basic concepts 1.

necessary to “Rightly divide the Word of truth.”

“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 INCORRUPTIBLE, AND WE SHALL BE CHANGED.”

1Cor. 15:51-52

2.

WITH OTHER PASSAGES

In the hour of doctrinal confusion in which we find ourselves today,I feel compelled to continue to set

before you Harold Horton’s warning about isolated passages of Scripture often being misinterpreted

and breeding confusion:

“…WE SHALL ALL BE CHANGED…
AT THE LAST TRUMPET.

FOR THE TRUMPET WILL SOUND,
AND THE DEAD WILL BE RAISED
INCORRUPTIBLE, AND WE SHALL BE CHANGED.”

1Cor. 15:51-52

Paul did make reference to the
rapture taking place
“at the last trumpet.”

Since we cannot presently question Paul directly,
we must look carefully at not only WHAT he has said, but WHY
he said it. Is this description of the rapture in 1 Cor. 15:51-52 just
an impulsive random thought that Paul suddenly injects into his

dissertation, or perhaps is it “the grand finale” of what he has
been teaching all along?

First Corinthians is a 16-page letter written to the church.
If one receives a 16-page letter from a friend, does the recipient

begin reading his letter on “page 15” and hastily draw
conclusions from what the author is saying? Is there nothing

important in the first 14 pages that might shed a different
perspective on such hastily drawn conclusions?

I believe this is exactly what the church today has done
with Paul’s reference in Corinthians to “the last trumpet.” Hastily, with little thought or
examination, multitudes of Christians have made a quantum leap from Corinthians to the book of
Revelation and its depicted seventh trumpet as being the only thing Paul could be speaking of as “the last
trumpet” that heralds in the promised rapture. However,to do so turns “The Blessed Hope of His glorious
appearing” (Titus 2:13) into a day of doom and gloom as the seven trumpets of Revelation vividly predict.
A post-tribulation rapture is an oxymoron that stands in direct opposition to all of Paul’s teachings on the
subject. Such a dismal promise of passing through the first six trumpets of Revelation before the rapture
takes place cannot fulfill Paul’s concluding words to the church at Thessalonica to, “Comfort one another

with these words” (1Thess. 4:18).

Granted, as good Bereans searching the Scriptures, we should consider the possibility of whether Paul is
referencing the last of the seven trumpets in Revelation as “the last trumpet.” The fact is true that it is the
only other trumpet reference in the New Testament. However, there is a great big hole in the possibility of
this being what Paul meant. Consider this thought: