Eschatology 101 (Part 12)

Last time we looked at the significance of 'clouds' during the return of Jesus Christ. Next in our list are Angels and Trumpets. We did mention some of these things earlier on, but here we need to establish the pattern of Christ's return. A reoccurring theme during the return of Christ is his return with Angels of which some are announcing his return with trumpets.

"then will appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven, 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." (Matthew 24:30,31)

The trumpet in Bible is often used as a way to herald an event, the start of a battle, the start of a great festival, the entrance of a king and so on. There are other verses which mention the trumpets at the return of Christ:

"Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, 'The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever.'" (Revelation of John 11:15)

The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of God. This of course will only happen, in the fullest sense, at the return of Jesus Christ.

Also Paul by the Spirit writes, "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." (I Corinthians 15:52)

Here Paul describes and event, an unexpected event (for some), it happens in a flash, a trumpet sounds, the last trumpet. Christ has returned. On returning there is a gathering of the saints (which we will look at in the next post).

The same if written in I Thessalonians 4:16, "For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the archangel's call, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first;"

Again we see the same pattern, Jesus returning with Angels (even Archangels), with a trumpet call and then a gathering of the saints (both dead and alive).

Note: There are some who don't like to link all these trumpets together, they see them as seperate trumpets. We shall look at these things a little deeper soon when we discuss the different viewpoints about the return of Christ.

What we are seeing is a pattern for the return of Christ, if you like a sequence of events.

1) Clouds 2) Angels 3) Trumpets 4) The gathering.

Why is this pattern important? It is important because it tells us when the gathering of the saints will be and that is our next topic.

God bless,

Gary