I want to comment on this common posttribulation belief.
In my thirty years of interacting with postribulationism, I have identified their Achilles heal in their interpretive framework.
To put it simply, their fundamental belief is that Paul’s reference to the ‘last trump’ in 1 Cor 15 is identified as the seventh trumpet in the book of Revelation.
This interpretive belief results in posttribulationists forcing an unnatural reading of the text. Two examples of forced, incoherent interpretations include, (1) having the church on earth during the trumpet judgments, and (2) overlapping the seals, trumpets, and bowls with each other.
Arguing that “the Israelites were on earth protected during the Egyptian plagues” is not an argument that the church will be on earth during the trumpet judgments. That is called a theological principle—and not an exegetical argument. Interpretive theologial principles are only as good as the actual exegetical evidence. And in this case, the posttribulation principle is a really bad, desperate argument, because there is no exegetical argument that supports it. Instead, their theological principle comes from outside the text and imposes it upon Scripture to agree with the desired conclusion.
Posttribulationists often chastise pretribulationists for doing this, but they do it themselves, in plain view.
An exegetical argument can be made that the 144,000 Israelites will be on earth during the trumpet judgments since they are sealed for physical protection. But the same is not said of church saints. Clearly, they are raptured and resurrected to heaven before the seventh seal is opened, as prewrath has voluminously argued (posttribulationists notoriously ignore our arguments).
Returning to the last trump, Paul’s “last trump” has absolutely nothing to do with the seventh trumpet in the book of Revelation. Paul, instead, is drawing from the imagery of the shofar from the Old Testament for the purpose to gather for assembly at the last trump. If at least, Paul’s meaning is that the eschatos trump should highlight the “utmost” event when Jesus returns. I have written more on this here. See also here for other matters for posttribulationists to consider.
There is one last reason why the posttribulation view is incoherent having the rapture occur at the seventh trumpet. The Bible clearly teaches that when Jesus returns to pour out God’s eschatological wrath, the world will be caught off guard and oblivious to his sudden coming.
For example, Jesus uses the Noahic illustration to teach that his return will be sudden upon the world:
For just like the days of Noah were, so the coming of the Son of Man will be. For in those days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark. And they knew nothing until the flood came and took them all away. It will be the same at the coming of the Son of Man. Then there will be two men in the field; one will be taken and one left. There will be two women grinding grain with a mill; one will be taken and one left. (Matt 24:37–41)
And Paul:
For you know quite well that the day of the Lord will come in the same way as a thief in the night. Now when they are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction comes on them, like labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will surely not escape. (1 Thess 5:1–3)
Jesus and Paul’s teaching contradicts posttribulationism.
Many posttribulationists believe that after God pounds the wicked during the trumpet judgments (Rev 8–9), only then will Jesus return at the seventh trumpet.
But no sound and sober interpreter can correctly think that Jesus’s return will be “like a thief,” and “as in the days or Noah,” and “as sudden birth pangs” if it occurs after he decimates the world with the wrath of his trumpet judgments. The sixth trumpet by itself says a third of humanity perishes! (Rev 9:18).
And for that reason alone, posttribulationism contradicts the clear teaching of Scripture.
The passages quoted above are also consistent with what we see in the book of Revelation, where the trumpet judgments follow after the opening of the seventh seal (Rev 8:1–6!). Placing the trumpet judgments before the opening of the seventh seal is another contradiction on several levels, especially contradicting Rev 8:1–6.
In summary, the “seventh trumpet is when the rapture occurs” interpretation is a skewing domino affect where posttribulation interpreters get almost everything wrong on their interpretation of the book of Revelation.
