Introduction
The unmissable sign of the rapture when the Lord Jesus returns to the earth for His bride (the church) and the resurrection of all believers at that time is what the Apostle Paul describes as the “last trump”1 or the last “trumpet”.2 It will be an amazing sound to behold and be very exciting for those who have been waiting. The fantastic thing is that it will be expected because it is the last trump sound which implies that there will be many before it. In fact, I believe that we will be able to count off the trumpet blasts that day when the Lord returns to the sky. But the purpose of this blog is to clarify what exactly the last trump is because there are a lot of different opinions among prophecy buffs as to what it is and when it occurs. If we know what it is then I believe we can be prepared for it when it comes. Another sign to watch for.
Tekiah Gedolah
Matthew records Jesus’ words when He says after the tribulation everyone all over the earth will see the sign of the Son of Man in the sky and that he will send His angels with a loud trumpet call.3 As mentioned above, Paul says that we will all be changed at the sounding of the last trumpet in the twinkling of an eye and it is at this time that believers will be resurrected or raptured and changed into our new bodies. Confusion abounds though because there are a series of seven trumpet judgments in the book of Revelation and the seventh could also possibly be seen as the last trump.4 There is a truth to this because the last trumpet sound must by definition be the last in a series. The argument against this by some such as Nelson Walters5 is that the seven trumpet judgments are blown by angels whereas the last trumpet is the trumpet call of God.6 I have read where Biblical scholars say that this seventh trumpet is the last trump whilst some others believe that the last trump is the Jubilee trumpet sounded on the Day of Atonement on the Jubilee year.7 My opinion and belief is that the last loud trumpet is the final 100th trumpet blast on the Feast of Trumpets (Yom Teruah) which is the Jewish New Year’s Day. This final long blast is known as Tekiah Gedolah meaning the last trump. The Tekiah is a long, single blast. It was a straight, plain, smooth, continuous note to symbolize the expression of joy and contentment.8
Important significance of Rosh Hashanah
Tekiah Gedolah occurs on the day that no man knows, a Jewish idiom referring to the Feast of Trumpets (Rosh Hashanah). Jesus refers to this idiom and day only a few verses later in Matt. 24:36 after referring to the loud trumpet call. This verse makes it clear that Jesus is returning on the Jewish New Year’s Day otherwise known as the Feast of Trumpets. 1 Thess. 4:16-17 makes it clear that the day that Jesus returns for His bride is the day in which we are all transformed. Taken together with 1 Cor. 15:52 which links our bodily transformation with the term “the last trump” it is logically clear that the loud, last trumpet call must occur on the Feast of Trumpets. Therefore the last trump cannot occur on the Day of Atonement or any other special day. The Feast of Trumpets is a remarkable day because there are many things that are believed to have occurred on this day including it being the birthday of the creation of the world and Jesus Christ’s birthday. Judaism regards New Year’s Day not merely as an anniversary of creation but more importantly as a renewal of it. This is when the world is reborn.9
“The key to understanding the themes of Rosh Hashanah is the date. The Day of Judgment for the world was not chosen arbitrarily, but is specifically on this date—not because it is the first day of the year, but because it is the anniversary of the creation of Adam and Eve.”
The early Jews also recognized that the Day of Trumpets was when the dead were remembered. How appropriate then when the Apostle Paul linked the resurrection of the dead in Christ believers with the last trump when the world is reborn in a sense. Rosh Ha Shanah (New Year’s Day) was important in Jewish thinking not only being a day of renewal and the day of creation but also it was the day according to the Talmud that the Jewish people in Egypt stopped their slave labour, when they began their time of liberty and freedom while they waited for the Ten Plagues to play themselves out so that Moses could lead them to freedom.10 Interestingly the seventh trumpet blast indicates that the kingdom of the world has now become the kingdom of Christ which immediately leads into God’s temple being opened in Rev. 11:15. Skipping a few parenthetical chapters the story is picked up again in Rev. 15:5 where we see that the open temple allows the seven angels with seven last plagues to be released. In my timeline, these seven plagues are released after Tishrei 1 or Jewish New Year’s Day in the last ten Days of Awe before Christ returns on the Day of Atonement.
So it seems that the seventh trumpet blast by the seventh angel is also the very same last trumpet mentioned by Paul as the last trump and the loud trumpet call mentioned in Matthew by Jesus. The problem of the trumpet judgments being sounded by angels instead of God could be explained by the fact that angels do God’s bidding and are His servants.
Conclusion
In conclusion what is going to happen and when? On Jewish New Year’s Day, 6000 years after the first Rosh Hashanah, Jesus will return to the sky for His own on another Jewish New Year’s Day and on this day there will be 100 trumpet blasts, some short staccato blasts, and the very long single final blast, the Tekiah Gedolah. This is the blast that we are waiting for which will be heard all over the world when the rapture occurs. One report by a ba’al tekiah (one who blows the shofar) in America that I read said that when he blows the Tekiah Gedolah at his local temple he can hold the note on the ram’s horn (shofar) for 56 seconds.11 Perhaps the Lord’s trumpet call will be longer or shorter I don’t know but one thing I am sure of, it will be heard by those who need to hear it. I’m not sure that the people of the earth will hear it because of Matt. 24:30 which says that all the nations of the earth will instead see the sign of the Son of Man in the sky. That will cause great mourning.
My studies then have led me to see that this final last trump, the Tekiah Gedolah, will occur on the day that no man knows after the tribulation (post-tribulational) because Jesus is clear about that in Matt. 24:29 KJV. We will just need to wait for 99 blasts and then the final long clear note booming all over the world.
- 1 Cor. 15:52 KJV [↩]
- 1 Cor. 15:52 [↩]
- Matt. 24:29-31 [↩]
- Rev. 11:15 [↩]
- https://youtu.be/zu2DiZw2Ge0 [↩]
- 1 Thess. 4:16 [↩]
- Footnote #300 (p. 31) in Tim Warner’s LGV 1 Corinthians 15:52 translation https://4windsfellowships.net/LGV/LGV_1Corinthians.pdf [↩]
- https://www.the-wise-shall-understand.com/the-last-trump/ [↩]
- https://www.askelm.com/star/star008.htm#_edn2 [↩]
- Talmud Rosh Ha-Shanah 10b–11a [↩]
- https://reformjudaism.org/blog/listen-power-tekiah-gedolah [↩]
