We read in 1 Corinthians 15:51–52 that “Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will 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 imperishable, and we will be changed.” From this text, the dead are raised at the last trumpet. Therefore, to know when the rapture takes place, we simply need to know when the last trumpet is sounded, since the resurrection of the dead and the rapture are tied together (1 Thessalonians 4:16–17). We do not have to guess this; the Scriptures clearly reveal when the last trumpet will be sounded in relation to the great tribulation. Let us look at this together.
In Revelation chapter 4, John was caught up to heaven to be shown events that had to unfold. While in heaven, he saw God sitting on His throne, holding in His right hand “a scroll written inside and on the back, sealed up with seven seals” (Revelation 5:1). Jesus alone had the authority to break those seals and make the scroll’s content known (Revelation chapter 5). The opening of all seven seals describes events that were to take place, beginning from after John had seen them (Revelation 4:1) and continuing to the end of the age, when God will judge the dead and establish His kingdom on this earth (Revelation 11:15–16; Revelation chapters 20–22).
In Revelation chapter 6, Jesus took the scroll from the Father and began opening its seals in consecutive order, from the first to the sixth. With the opening of each seal, John was shown specific events that must take place. Until Jesus breaks a particular seal, the events sealed by that seal do not occur (Revelation chapters 5 and 6). When the fifth seal was opened, a time frame was given encompassing the period when all martyrdom will be completed. This time frame includes the great tribulation, since during that period the Bible says some of God’s saints will be martyred for their faith in Jesus and their obedience to God (Revelation 13:10; Revelation 14:9–13). Thus, the great tribulation period is expected within the fifth seal.
When the sixth seal was opened, John reported the following: “I looked when He broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood; and the stars of the sky fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind” (Revelation 6:12–13). Now, the Book of Revelation is not “the revelation of John.” The Bible says it is “the revelation of Jesus Christ” (Revelation 1:1). Before John recorded what Jesus showed him, Jesus had already taught on the same subject in Matthew chapter 24. When Jesus described the events leading up to His coming, He covered the same events seen in the sixth seal and identified them as happening immediately after the great tribulation: “But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky…” (Matthew 24:29–30; cf. Revelation 6:12–13). This makes it evidently clear that when the sixth seal is opened, we are seeing the immediate period following the great tribulation. In other words, the end of the great tribulation is indicated at the sixth seal.
However, from Revelation chapters 1 to 6, and from the opening of the first seal through the sixth, where the great tribulation and its end are indicated, no mention is made of the last trumpet being sounded, nor of the resurrection of the dead in Christ occurring. Yet without the sounding of the last trumpet there is no resurrection of the righteous, and without that resurrection there is no rapture (1 Corinthians 15:51–52; 1 Thessalonians 4:15–17). So what happens when the seventh seal is opened, following the great tribulation?
“When the Lamb broke the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them… and the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound them” (Revelation 8:1–6). When the seventh angel sounded the seventh trumpet, the last of the seven, this is what John wrote: “Then the seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and loud voices called out in heaven: ‘The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He will reign forever and ever.’ And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying: ‘We give thanks to You, O Lord God Almighty, the One who is and who was, because You have taken Your great power and have begun to reign. The nations were enraged, and Your wrath has come. The time has come to judge the dead and to reward Your servants the prophets, as well as the saints and those who fear Your name, both small and great, and to destroy those who destroy the earth'” (Revelation 11:15–18, BSB).
In the words of Jesus, the time when the righteous are rewarded is at the resurrection of the righteous (Luke 14:14). So when the last trumpet was sounded and it was declared in heaven that the time had come for God’s servants to be rewarded, it was also declared that the time of the resurrection of the righteous had come. It is at that resurrection that the righteous receive their reward. This agrees with what Paul wrote, that at the sounding of the last trumpet the dead in Christ will be raised to life: “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” (1 Corinthians 15:52). This is also the time of the rapture, since the rapture and the resurrection of the dead in Christ are tied together (1 Thessalonians 4:13–17).
The great tribulation period and its end are indicated in the fifth and sixth seals (Revelation 6:12–13; Matthew 24:29–30). The sounding of the seventh and last trumpet, where the resurrection and the rapture occur, comes in the seventh seal. Six comes before seven. Thus, the Scriptures show emphatically that the resurrection of the dead in Christ and the rapture happen after the great tribulation, and give us no reason to assume otherwise.
Kwadwo Omari, PhD
April 30, 2026