What does the apostle Paul mean by “the last trumpet”?

The apostle Paul says, “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” (1 Cor. 15:52). By saying “in a moment” he means an indivisible point in time, and the words “in the twinkling of an eye” refer to what is almost an unmeasurable time — in that timeframe, all of this is achieved. This suggests that the resurrection will occur through a

1331 St. Gregory of Nazianzus, Select Orations 7.21 (NPNF II/7:237). Translators’ Note: Cæsarius was Gregory’s recently deceased brother.

1332 St. Augustine of Hippo, City of God 20.20 (NPNF I/2:439).

1333 St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on the First Epistle of St. Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians 42.3 (NPNF I/12:256) amended.

divine power that needs not time to accomplish it. The blowing of the trumpet on the day of the coming of the Lord is a biblical teaching found in Zech. 9:14; Matt. 24:31; and 1 Thess. 4:16.

St. Jerome says, “Then at the sound of the trumpet (1 Thess. 4:16) the earth and its peoples shall tremble, but you shall rejoice. The world shall howl at the Lord who comes to judge it, and the tribes of the earth shall smite the breast … You may seem a poor man and country bred, but then you shall exult and laugh, and say: Behold my crucified Lord, behold my judge.”¹³³⁴