Is It Just My Imagination?

In his message tonight on 1 Thess 4:16, a teaching elder (who converted from being a pastor) just preached that "thinking ‘the last trump’ of 1 Cor 15:52 is the last trump of the 7 trumpets to blow in Revelation" is "a hallucination .... when the WISH is father to the THOUGHT." The dictionary defines hallucination as ‘the apparent perception of sights, sounds, etc. that are not actually present: it may occur in certain mental disorders.’ WHO would ever WISH to go through a world-wide day of slaughter for refusing to worship the beast? Not me! The THOUGHT of ‘the last trump’ really BEING ‘the last trump’ was certainly not my WISH! But I would rather believe the VERSES and be prepared, instead of turn a blind eye:

Jeremiah wrote:
Jer 12:3 But thou, O LORD, knowest me: thou hast seen me, and tried mine heart toward thee: pull them out like sheep for the slaughter,
and prepare them for the day of slaughter.

Paul wrote:
Rom 8:36 As it is written, (see Psa 44:22) For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

James wrote:
James 5:5 Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter.

John wrote:
Rev 13:15 And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.

Better to be ready for the day of slaughter .... than to be ashamed for not rightly dividing, thinking that the ‘rapture’ (?), actually, the RESURRECTION, had past already, and have one’s faith overthrown:

2 Tim 2:15-18 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
16 But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness.
17 And their word will eat as doth a canker: of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus;
18 Who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of some.

The phrase in question here is ‘the last trump’:

1 Cor 15:51-52 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

The fabricated 3 toots (which has been the ‘mid-Acts-ers’ previous stand) must have been a real embarrassment, because the presentation has just changed, and now their teaching elder has instructed them that there are only 2 toots .... but they both come from the same trump! "One instrument that sounds twice! Why? Because there are 2 groups of people. The dead come up at the 1st trump, and the alive are changed at the 2nd (or last) trump."

The teaching elder’s explanation was to "first look in the CONTEXT of 1 Corinthians chapter 15 to find out what ‘last’ means." What a great idea! Watch how he did it.

He went to:
1 Cor 15:45 And so it is written (Paul referring to ‘prophecy’ in Gen 2:7),
The first man Adam was made a living soul;
the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.

.... and he used it with:
1 Cor 15:47 The first man is of the earth, earthy:
the second man is the Lord from heaven.

.... to say that the ‘last’ Adam is equivalent to the ‘second’ man .... which, to him, established that ‘last’ meant ‘second’. Therefore, he made 2 trumps .... which he said was "one instrument that sounds twice"!

He referenced the CHAPTER of 1 Corinthians 15, but he only backed up a few verses. What if we started at the beginning of the chapter "to find out what ‘last’ means"? What would happen then .... using HIS method?

1 Cor 15:1-8 Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;
2 By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.
3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: (Note: We will have to start counting in the next verse, because in verse 8, we get to the ‘last’ .... so count with me):
5 And that he was seen of Cephas, (Peter is the first 1)
then of the twelve: (1 + 12 = 13 so far)
6 After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; (13 + over 500 = over 513)
of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.
7 After that, he was seen of James; (over 513 + 1 = over 514)
then of all the apostles. (We don’t know how many apostles there were, and we know ‘the twelve’ were already counted in vs. 5b .... so we will just have to say that there were ‘more’ than 514.)
(Here comes the word ‘last’ in the count of all the people that SAW Jesus Christ, beginning in vs. 5a. FYI, it is the SAME Greek word as used in 1 Cor 15:52 and 45 .... so, get ready):
8 And last of all he was seen of me (Paul) also, as of one born out of due time.

So, using the teaching elder’s formula for finding out the correct number of the word ‘last’ by using the context, still in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 .... ‘last’ would be ‘some number’ that is MORE THAN 514!

Oh, but there’s yet another ‘last’ in the chapter! If we allowed the teaching elder to have his way .... to say that the ‘last’ means the ‘second’ .... then DEATH would only be the SECOND, but the 'last' of ALL His enemies?

1 Cor 15:22-26 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. 23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming.
24 Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.
25 For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet.
26 The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.

The teaching elder’s recipe for counting the last ‘whatever’ would not even work in 1 Cor 15:25-26, because the verse does not say HOW MANY ENEMIES Christ has, so that we could know WHICH NUMBER of His enemies that ‘death’ is, and thereby assign the number of 'the last enemy'.

The point is, ‘the last trump’ is not talking about ‘the last MAN’ .... nor about ‘the last ENEMY’ .... it is ‘the last TRUMP’ .... so rather than wresting what the verse actually says .... let’s just let ‘the last trump’ be ‘the last TRUMP’. I thought ‘mid-Acts-ers’ preached to always allow the natural meaning of the verse! Evidently, they just SAY that and only DO it when they WISH to, for their paradigm!

Is it just my imagination or is the teaching elder WISHING? It seems to me that the people who are hallucinating .... when the WISH is father to the THOUGHT ... are those who WISH to escape from Planet Earth 7 + years before Daniel’s 70th week (which-they-call TRIBULATION) ever begins?!

Stay tuned to the daily thoughts for continued examinations of the teaching elder's messages in 1 Thessalonians 3-4.

This is David Dowell, (speaking Greek) saying, "Maranatha!" (1 Cor 16:22)
This is David Dowell, saying, "Think about it!"
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