Are these 2 passages describing the same trumpet blast?
Categorically and unquestionably NO. They are not the same at all.
**Your point about no dispensationalism is very confusing - as mentioned by Joshua.
In many cases - and specifically this one, it matters not if a person holds a dispensational view or historical view, but the real issue is sound Hermeneutics.
Does the person follow solid principles of interpreting scripture, or not?
'Helloworld' was absolutely correct in examining and comparing what other passages say - [Scripture interprets scripture] and he/she rightly linked the 2 most famous passages in the Bible that relate to the rapture. But the other passage in Matt 24 is totally different. Different audience, different speaker/writer, and different event entirely.
**It's very very significant that the two clearest passages about the rapture are both written by Paul, to two different mixed congregations of Jewish and Gentile believers.
Word had come into the church that the events of the Second Advent had already happened. [Rapture, resurrection of the dead, events of the Tribulation, and subsequent 2nd coming.] Paul was comforting them that it had not occured, and what they could expect.
We have to look at other passages about the rapture, - and in doing this, we can be 100% certain that the events of Matthew 24 in your opening question are the second coming - not the rapture.
First we should look at the Parable of the 10 bridesmaids in Matthew 25:1-13. This is a picture of the rapture. For those who have the oil of the Holy Spirit, [Christians] it is a celebration.
Notice the words that the Bridegroom came with a shout!.
Notice also, that Christ said the 5 bridesmaids were foolish [some translations say wicked ] because THEY didn't know the hour- didn't have extra oil.
Now look at the two passages by Paul. Look at the similarities.
I Corinthians 15:51-52. 51Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, 52 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 will be changed.
- He tells us the dead [sleep] will be resurrected
- It's explicitly linked with the "Last Trumpet".
- It's an instantaneous event. The word here for twinkling is the root word for atom - the smallest particle.
- We will all be changed - both the dead in Christ, and we who are alive and remain.
This is totally different description, and totally different context and totally different goal of the passage in Matthew 24- which, as you correctly state, is the second coming.
In Matthew chapter 24 Jesus is describing his 2nd coming:
For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.“Immediately after the distress of those days
“‘the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’ “Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other." Matt. 24:27-31
As we see, this passage explicitly says that this trumpet is by his angels - not the trumpet of God.
This is the "Terrible day of the Lord" which is the same description used by Joel - it's always connected with gloom, calamity, the sun turning black and the moon turning to blood - and God's judgment being poured out. *It's not a celebration. It's not a wedding.
End times scholar Perry Stone, and Jewish expert Avi Ben Mordecai in his book - "Signs in the Heavens - a Jewish Messianic Perspective of the Last Days" and Rabbi Mark Biltz all confirm that the Last Trumpet was a widely-known Jewish idiom for Feast of Trumpets.
When the sliver of the new moon is sighted by two witnesses in Jerusalem after being questioned by the Sanhedrin, there are 99 long and short, staccato blasts of the shofar. Then, there is the Last Trumpet- the hundredth blast, which is the loudest and longest, and it even has a special name. Tekiah Gadola.
This feast has many special themes - and Jews all over the world understand that this day is the great resurrection of the dead - and it is also the wedding of the Messiah.
