Will the saints be resurrected on the Feast of Trumpets?

When does the resurrection of the saints (God’s faithful people) to eternal life, take place?  The Bible states it will occur at the last trumpet.

1Co 15:52  in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

What is the last trumpet?  It is no doubt referring to the seventh (and last) trumpet blast in the book of Revelation.

Rev 8:6  So the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.

Rev 11:15  Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!”

So from these Scriptures we see that the last trumpet is when the saints are resurrected, and when the kingdoms of this world become those of our Lord and of His Christ.

Many people think this will occur on the Feast of Trumpets?  Is this view correct?  What does the Bible reveal, if anything, regarding this?  To answer this question, it helps to understand when trumpets were blown.

When were trumpets blown?

Trumpets were used for calling the congregation of Israel and for directing the people when they needed to move.

Num 10:2  “Make two silver trumpets for yourself; you shall make them of hammered work; you shall use them for calling the congregation and for directing the movement of the camps.

Trumpets were blown when going into war.

Num 10:9  “When you go to war in your land against the enemy who oppresses you, then you shall sound an alarm with the trumpets, and you will be remembered before the LORD your God, and you will be saved from your enemies.

The Bible also mentions two feast days by name on which trumpets were blown, the Feast of Trumpets and the Day of Atonement.

Lev 23:24  “Speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a sabbath-rest, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation.

Num 29:1  ‘And in the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work. For you it is a day of blowing the trumpets.

Lev 25:9  Then you shall cause the trumpet of the Jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement you shall make the trumpet to sound throughout all your land.

Trumpets were also blown at the new moon (the beginning of the month), and at the full moon (the middle of the month) on appointed feasts when the people made offerings and sacrifices. 

Num 10:10  Also in the day of your gladness, in your appointed feasts, and at the beginning of your months, you shall blow the trumpets over your burnt offerings and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings; and they shall be a memorial for you before your God: I am the LORD your God.”

Psa 81:3  Blow the trumpet at the time of the New Moon, At the full moon, on our solemn feast day.

Listed below are the seven feasts of the Lord, (which can be found listed in Leviticus chapter 23). 

Seven Feasts of the Lord

  • Passover (beginning of the 14th day of the 1st month)
  • Unleavened Bread (7 days, 15th to 21st of the 1st month)
  • Feast of Weeks or Pentecost (50 days from the wave sheaf offering)
  • Feast of Trumpets (1st day of the 7th month)
  • Day of Atonement (10th day of the 7th month)
  • Feast of Tabernacles (7 days, 15th to 21st of the 7th month)
  • 8th Day (22nd day of the 7th month)

There is only one feast day which occurs on the new moon and that is the Feast of Trumpets.  There are two feast days which occur on the full moon, the First Day of Unleavened Bread, and the First Day of the Feast of Tabernacles.  Psalm 81:3 implies that trumpets were also blown on these two feast days falling on the full moon.  Num 10:10 implies that trumpets were blown on all of the appointed feasts.

If trumpets were blown on all of the feasts, then the argument that the saints are resurrected on the Feast of Trumpets simply because trumpets were blown, does not hold.  The trumpet blown on any one of the Feast days could represent the “last trumpet”, the one on which the saints are resurrected.

Three Feast Seasons

The seven feasts of the Lord occur at the three different harvests times or seasons during the year.  Three of the Feasts are specifically mentioned by name as times that an offering to God should be made.

  1. The Feast of Unleavened Bread
  2. The Feast of Weeks (also called Pentecost)
  3. The Feast of Tabernacles (also called the Feast of Ingathering)

Exo 23:14  “Three times you shall keep a feast to Me in the year:
Exo 23:15  You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread (you shall eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month of Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt; none shall appear before Me empty);
Exo 23:16  and the Feast of Harvest, the firstfruits of your labors which you have sown in the field; and the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you have gathered in the fruit of your labors from the field.

Exo 34:18  “The Feast of Unleavened Bread you shall keep. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, in the appointed time of the month of Abib; for in the month of Abib you came out from Egypt.
…
Exo 34:22  “And you shall observe the Feast of Weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the year’s end.
Exo 34:23  “Three times in the year all your men shall appear before the Lord, the LORD God of Israel.

Deu 16:16  “Three times a year all your males shall appear before the LORD your God in the place which He chooses: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Tabernacles; and they shall not appear before the LORD empty-handed.

The offerings made during three harvest feasts have very important meanings in terms of what they picture in the plan of God, which are discussed below.

The Feast of Unleavened Bread

About the time of Unleavened Bread, a wave sheaf offering was made.

Lev 23:9  And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
Lev 23:10  “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When you come into the land which I give to you, and reap its harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest.
Lev 23:11  ‘He shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, to be accepted on your behalf; on the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it.

Jesus Christ is described as the firstfruits.

1Co 15:20  But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
1Co 15:21  For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead.
1Co 15:22  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.
1Co 15:23  But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming.

Not long after Jesus was resurrected, He ascended to the Father.

Joh 20:17  Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.’ “

Jesus ascended to heaven on the same day that the wave sheaf offering was made.  Jesus’ resurrection and ascension were the complete fulfillment of what the wave sheaf offering portrays. 

The meaning of the wave sheaf offering made in the Feast of Unleavened Bread period is that it pictures Jesus Christ as the firstfruits.  He was the first person to be resurrected to eternal life.  (He had eternal life before coming to earth as a man, but He divested Himself of that.)

The Feast of Weeks

The Feast of Weeks is mentioned in Deut 16:9-10, where instruction is given to count seven weeks, from which it gets its name.  It is a bigger harvest than Unleavened Bread but not as big as the autumn harvest of the Feast of Tabernacles.

Deu 16:9  “You shall count seven weeks for yourself; begin to count the seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the grain.
Deu 16:10  Then you shall keep the Feast of Weeks to the LORD your God with the tribute of a freewill offering from your hand, which you shall give as the LORD your God blesses you.

More instruction is given in Leviticus 23 about this feast.  The counting started on the day of the wave sheaf offering.

Lev 23:15  ‘And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering: seven Sabbaths shall be completed.
Lev 23:16  Count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath; then you shall offer a new grain offering to the LORD.
Lev 23:17  You shall bring from your dwellings two wave loaves of two-tenths of an ephah. They shall be of fine flour; they shall be baked with leaven. They are the firstfruits to the LORD.

Note that two loaves of bread, baked with leaven, were offered as firstfruits.  Christians are described as firstfruits.

James 1:18  Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.

Rev 14:4  These are the ones who were not defiled with women, for they are virgins. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These were redeemed from among men, being firstfruits to God and to the Lamb.

The meaning of the offering made on the Feast of Weeks is that it pictures Christians as firstfruits to God.  Although Christians are firstfruits now, they become firstfruits in fullness when they are resurrected to eternal life, for that is when God “reaps” the work of His hands.

The Feast of Tabernacles

The Feast of Tabernacles in mentioned in Leviticus 23.

Lev 23:34  “Speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days to the LORD.
Lev 23:35  On the first day there shall be a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work on it.
Lev 23:36  For seven days you shall offer an offering made by fire to the LORD. On the eighth day you shall have a holy convocation, and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the LORD. It is a sacred assembly, and you shall do no customary work on it.

This is a joyful feast where people used a tithe saved up during the year to spend on food and drink during this feast.

Deu 14:23  And you shall eat before the LORD your God, in the place where He chooses to make His name abide, the tithe of your grain and your new wine and your oil, of the firstborn of your herds and your flocks, that you may learn to fear the LORD your God always.
Deu 14:24  But if the journey is too long for you, so that you are not able to carry the tithe, or if the place where the LORD your God chooses to put His name is too far from you, when the LORD your God has blessed you,
Deu 14:25  then you shall exchange it for money, take the money in your hand, and go to the place which the LORD your God chooses.
Deu 14:26  And you shall spend that money for whatever your heart desires: for oxen or sheep, for wine or similar drink, for whatever your heart desires; you shall eat there before the LORD your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your household.

The feast of Tabernacles pictures the thousand-year reign of Jesus Christ on earth.

Rev 20:4  And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.
Rev 20:5  But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.

The 8th day pictures the resurrection and judgment of all who have died.

Rev 20:11  Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them.
Rev 20:12  And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books.
Rev 20:13  The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works.

This is the time when most of humanity will be offered salvation.

The meaning of the offerings made during this last festival period is that they picture the salvation of the rest of humanity.  This vast harvest is when God “reaps” the work of His hands, and vast numbers of people enter into eternal life.

Conclusion

The three feast seasons, which occur at the three harvest times throughout the year, picture the three harvest times of God when people are resurrected as spirit beings and enter into His family. 

  1. The wave sheaf offering of the Unleavened Bread period pictures the resurrection of Jesus Christ. 
  2. The first fruits offering of the Feast of Weeks picture the resurrected saints, those, relatively few, faithful to God who have lived in the 6,000 years or so of human history prior to the return of Jesus Christ. 
  3. The offerings made during the Feast of Tabernacles period picture the resurrection to eternal life of the rest of humanity,

With this in mind, the question when does the resurrection of the saints to eternal life take place, has an obvious answer.   The Feast of Weeks (or Pentecost).

There is an additional consideration which adds weight to this conclusion, and that is the length of time between when the last trumpet sounds (when the saints are resurrected) and when Jesus Christ stands on the mount of Olives and fights the nations.  During this period, the bowls of God’s wrath are poured out on the earth.  This period of time is months.  For more information on this see, “What are the Stages of Jesus Christ’s Return?”.

If the resurrection of the saints and Jesus Christ’s battle with the nations both occur on the Feast of Trumpets, then what time is there for pouring out the bowls of God’s wrath?

A far better fit is that the saints are resurrected on the Feast of Weeks (or Pentecost), the bowls of wrath are poured out over a few months, and then Jesus Christ stands on the mount of Olives and fights the nations on the Feast of Trumpets.