signals the end of our present existence and the beginning of our future existence.486
"We need not suppose that St Paul believed that an actual trumpet would awaken and summon the dead. The language is symbolical in accordance with the apocalyptic ideas of the time. The point is that the resurrection of the dead and the transformation of the living will be simultaneous, as of two companies obeying the same signal."487
Some posttribulationists equate this trumpet with the seventh or last trumpet of Revelation 11:15-18.488 This does not seem to me to be valid.
Other trumpets will sound announcing various other events in the future (cf. Matt. 24:31; Rev. 8:2, 6, 13; 9:14; et al.). However, Christians, believers living in the church age, will not be on the earth then, and those trumpets will not affect us. This last trumpet is not the very last one that the Bible speaks of.489 The fact that Paul included himself in the group living at the time of the Rapture shows that he expected that event to take place imminently (i.e., at any moment; cf. 1 Thess. 4:15, 17). If he had believed the Tribulation precedes the Rapture, it would have been natural for him to mention that here.490
"Christ's return is always imminent; we must never cease to watch for it. The first Christians thought it so near that they faced the possibility of Jesus' return in their lifetime. Paul thinks he too may perhaps be alive when it happens."491
"The simple fact is that Paul did not know when Christ would return. He was in the exact position in which we are.
All that he knew, and all that we know, is that Christ may come at any time."492
Paul did not answer the interesting questions of who will blow or who will hear this trumpet probably because the trumpet appears to be a metaphor for God's summons. Throughout Israel's history God announced His
486See Barnabas Lindars, "The Sound of the Trumpet: Paul and Eschatology," Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester 67:2 (Spring 1985):766-82.
487Robertson and Plummer, p. 377.
488E.g., Alexander Reese, The Approaching Advent of Christ, p. 73.
489Renald E. Showers, Maranatha: Our Lord, Come! A Definitive Study of the Rapture of the Church, pp.
259-69.
490For more evidence that the Rapture takes place before the Tribulation, see J. Dwight Pentecost, Things to Come, pp. 193-218; John F. Walvoord, The Rapture Question; idem, The Blessed Hope and the Tribulation; and Ryrie, Basic Theology, pp. 482-87.
491Gaston Deluz, A Companion to I Corinthians, p. 248. See also Gerald B. Stanton, Kept from the Hour, ch. 6: "The Imminency of the Coming of Christ for the Church," pp. 108-37.
492Lenski, p. 737.
working for the nation and He summoned His people to Himself with the blowing of literal trumpets (Exod. 19:16, 19; 20:18; Lev. 25:9; Num. 10:2, 8-10; et al.). So He may use a literal trumpet for this purpose at the Rapture as well.
The Scriptures reveal at least four times in history when there will be a resurrection. Christ's resurrection was the first. People raised back to life in Old Testament times experienced resuscitation and died again later. The bodies of the saints who were raised shortly after Christ arose (Matt.
27:52-53) also evidently experienced resuscitation—like Jairus' daughter, the widow of Nain's son, and Lazarus—and died again later. Second, Christians (believers in Christ alive during the Church Age) who have died will experience resurrection at the Rapture of the church (v. 52; 1 Thess. 4:16). Third, Old Testament saints and Tribulation saints will be resurrected shortly after Christ's Second Coming (Dan. 12:2; Rev. 20:4).
Fourth, all unbelievers throughout history, and presumably believers who died during the Millennium, will be raised at the end of the Millennium (Rev. 20:13).493
Will believers have scars on our resurrection bodies, as Jesus' resurrected body did? Will we be overweight then, if we were overweight when we died? These and many similar questions are unanswerable at the present time. I tend to think that the bodies that we will have in the future will be those that glorify God the most, whatever that may involve.
People sometimes ask if their pets will go to heaven when they die.
Heaven seems to be a place reserved for human beings and spirit beings such as angels. A mother was trying to comfort her daughter after her pet cat had died. She said, "Don't worry, dear. Fluffy will be in heaven." Her pragmatic little daughter replied, "What would God want with a dead cat?"
A little boy asked his father if his beloved dog would be in heaven. The father wisely answered, "If he has to be in heaven to make you happy, I'm sure he'll be there."
15:53 The dead will rise in bodies that are not subject to corruption, and the living will receive immortal bodies too. Paul may have wanted to contrast the dead and the living by the terms he chose for each in the first and second parts of this verse respectively.494 Still the distinction is not strong enough to be significant. Both the dead and the living will receive imperishable (i.e., immortal) bodies.
15:54 This transformation will fulfill the prophecy in Isaiah 25:8. What Paul just revealed harmonizes with prophetic Scripture: God will overcome death (cf. vv. 23-28).
493See Appendix 3 "What happens to a person after he dies?" at the end of these notes.
494Joachim Jeremias, "Flesh and Blood Cannot Inherit the Kingdom of God," New Testament Studies 2 (1955-56):152.
15:55 Paul modified for his own purposes Hosea's defiant challenge for death (personified) to do its worst (Hos. 13:14) and used the passage to taunt death himself. Death is man's last enemy (cf. v. 25). God will defeat it when He raises His people to life.
15:56 The fatal sting of death touches humans through sin (Rom. 6:23). What makes sin sinful is the law of God (Rom. 7:7-11). Because Jesus Christ overcame sin and fulfilled the law, death cannot hold its prey (Rom. 5:12-21). Death is still an enemy in the sense that it robs us of mortal life.
Notwithstanding it is not a terror to the believer because it is the doorway into an immortal life of glory.
15:57 The victory over the condemnation of the law, sin, and death comes to us through Jesus Christ (cf. Rom. 8:2). For this Paul was very grateful to God, as every believer should be (cf. Rom. 7:25).
15:58 Paul concluded his discussion of the resurrection with an exhortation to be faithful in the present (cf. 4:16-17; 5:13; 6:20; 7:40; 10:31-33; 11:33-34;
12:31; 14:39-40).
"Despite the magnificent crescendo with which Paul brings the argument of chap. 15 to its climax, the last word is not the sure word of future hope and triumph of vv. 50-57;
rather, in light of such realities, the last word is an exhortation to Christian living (v. 58). Thus, eschatological salvation, the great concern of the epistle, includes proper behavior or it simply is not the gospel Paul preaches."495
"Eschatology has moral implications (6:13-14; 15:30-32, 58)."496
Specifically, Paul's exhortation does not just call for ethical behavior (cf.
vv. 33-34) but for continued involvement in fulfilling the Great Commission, which is the work of the gospel.
This chapter began with a review of the gospel message from which some in the Corinthian church were in danger of departing by denying the resurrection. The charge to remain steadfast (v. 58) therefore probably means to remain steadfast in the gospel as the Lord and the apostles had handed it down. Paul's readers should not move away from it but should remain immovable in it. They should also increase their efforts to serve the Lord even as Paul had done (v. 10). Rather than living for the present (v. 32) believers should live in the present with the future clearly in view (cf. 1:9; 9:26). One day we will have to give an account of our stewardship (3:12-15).
495Fee, "Toward a . . .," p. 58.
496Keener, 1—2 Corinthians, p. 135.
No one except Jesus Christ has come back from the dead to tell us what is on the other side. However, His testimony through His apostles is sufficient to give us confidence that there is life and bodily resurrection after death. We will live that life in a changed body that will be incapable of perishing. It is therefore imperative that we make sure that we, and all around us, enter that phase of our existence with our sins covered by the sacrifice of Christ.497
G. THE COLLECTION FOR THE JERUSALEM BELIEVERS 16:1-12
I have chosen to include this section with the others that deal with questions the Corinthians had asked Paul rather than with Paul's concluding comments because it begins "peri de" (7:1, 25; 8:1; 12:1; 16:12; cf. 8:4). Probably they had asked about the collection Paul was assembling in a letter or through messengers. This is the least confrontational section in this epistle, though we can detect tension here too. Problems over this collection emerge clearly in 2 Corinthians.
"Most ancient letters were brief, and a large number were business-related.
Whereas most of Paul's correspondence more closely resembles philosophers' letters discoursing on moral topics, he is ready to address business as well."498
"This chapter may seem unrelated to our needs today, but actually it deals in a very helpful way with three areas of stewardship: money (1 Cor. 16:1-4), opportunities (1 Cor. 16:5-9), and people (1 Cor. 16:10-24). These are probably the greatest resources the church has today, and they must not be wasted."499