The Feast of Trumpets
and YOUR Future
Most
of Christianity believes that God's Holy Days, including the Feast of
Trumpets, were "done away with" — that they have no relevance today.
But nothing could be further from the truth!
You may have heard the term "planned obsolescence."
People
often use this term to describe products that, seemingly by design,
outlive their usefulness within a given period of time.
We've
all had experiences
with manufactured goods, such as automobiles or
appliances, that function for
only a short time and then cease to work.
Consider,
for instance, the car that breaks down even before it is completely
paid for. It's as if the manufacturer wants you to be forced to buy
another!
Is God's law outdated?
It's
unfortunate, but some who consider themselves Christians are under the
impression that God uses "planned obsolescence" when it comes to His
law and His plan for mankind!
Millions believe that Christ's
crucifixion "did away with" the need to keep God's
commandments, including God's Holy Days, which outline His
plan.
It's true that God no longer requires certain acts of His
people. For example, Christ's sacrifice eliminated the need
for God's people to perform animal
sacrifices (Heb. 10:1-6).
But man has taken it upon
himself to declare obsolete other areas of God's instructions that God
definitely has not (Mark 7:6-9). Christ Himself said: "Think not that I
am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy,
but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass,
one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be
fulfilled" (Matt. 5:17-18).
God's law, including those instructions that concern God's Holy Days, is in force today.
One
of the festivals God commands us to keep is the Feast of Trumpets,
which this year falls on September 18. Most professing Christians have
not even heard of it. They have been blinded to this important Festival
of God, though the Feast of Trumpets is designed to have important
meaning for us in the 20th century.
Christ's death did not at
all do away with the need for us to keep the Feast of Trumpets today.
This Holy Day of God is relevant now, and very much so.
Origin of the Feast of Trumpets
God
first introduced the Feast of Trumpets to ancient Israel after the
dramatic Exodus from Egypt, commanding them to keep this day as a
Sabbath, a holy convocation (Lev. 23:23-25).
Notice
that the Israelites were to
mark this particular day as a memorial of
the meaning trumpets
had for their nation, both physically and symbolically.
God
instructed them to use silver trumpets to gather the tribes for
assemblies and to signal when it was time to move during their
migration to the promised land. The Israelites were to blow the
trumpets when they were preparing to attack or to defend against an
attack. Moreover, trumpets were blown during God's festivals and at the
beginning of each month. Each use of the trumpets gave
added meaning to the festivals as the Israelites understood them
(Num. 10:1-10).
Since the Israelites, awestruck and trembling,
had already experienced God's tremendous use of
a blaring trumpet when God gave them the Ten Commandments at Mt.
Sinai (Ex. 19:19), they were familiar with the use of trumpets in
correlation with momentous events in their lives!
God continued to associate trumpet blasts with important events after that era as well — and He does so for us today.
The warning message for today
The
Bible shows that during Israel's later history, which was
heavily punctuated with conflicts and rebellion, trumpets continued to
be used as warning devices, to call to arms or as preludes to important
messages — always to mark an event of tremendous import to the whole
nation.
God used the prophets, among them Isaiah, Ezekiel, Hosea
and Joel, to warn Israel about punishments He would bring upon them for
their constant rebellion against His laws. These prophets were to use
their voices like trumpets to blare their warnings to God's people.
Notice,
for example, God's instruction
to Isaiah: "Cry aloud,
spare not, lift up thy
voice like a trumpet, and shew my people
their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins"
(Isa. 58:1). See also Hosea 5:8 and Joel 2:1.
Portions
of the prophets' warnings were fulfilled, in type, by ancient Israel's
captivity. Yet many of these prophecies are dual, having both ancient
and modern fulfillments. Such is the case with the message of the
prophet Ezekiel.
God set Ezekiel as a watchman to Israel.
Ezekiel, through his message, symbolically blew a trumpet of warning to
God's people (Ezek. 33:1-7).
Ezekiel's warning, however, did not
reach the house of Israel, because they had already gone into
captivity! Ezekiel's visions of Israel's impending destruction were
given "in the fifth day of the month, which was the fifth year of king
Jehoiachin's captivity" (Ezek. 1:2). Jehoiachin went into captivity in
597 B.C., or about 125 years after the removal, to Assyria, of the last
of the northern tribes, which occurred from 721-718 B.C.
If Ezekiel's message did not reach ancient Israel — could not have reached them — for whom was it intended?
God's
warning through Ezekiel was intended for the modern descendants of the
ancient Israel — the peoples of the United States, Britain and, in
general, northwestern Europe today!
For more information on who
the modern descendants of ancient Israel are, and how they are
identified in Bible prophecy, write for a free copy of our booklet, The
United States and Britain in Prophecy.
Ezekiel's message is
reaching the modern Israelites. God has set a modern-day watchman to
thunder to our peoples the impending consequences of their sins. That
watchman is Christ's present-day apostle, Herbert W. Armstrong, and
this Work.
The trumpets of Revelation
The
book of Revelation outlines God's future use of trumpets. This message
is for the entire world, and concerns events before and including the
return of Jesus Christ, who will soon return to rule this earth with
God's government.
This message about God's end-time use of
trumpets begins with the opening, in heaven, of Revelation's seventh
seal (Rev. 8:1-2). Seven angels are given seven trumpets to blow. The
blowing of these trumpets represents God's intervention in world
affairs just after the world has endured Satan's wrath and the heavenly
signs (Rev. 6:9-14).
Notice what happens when the first four
trumpets are blown: At the sound of the first trumpet supernatural fire
will burn the grass and one third of the earth's trees. At the sound of
the second trumpet God will kill a third of all sea life. People will
no longer freely sail the oceans. Dead, bloated, stinking carcasses of
sea creatures will abound.
After this, a third trumpet is blown
and a third of the earth's fresh water will turn bitter. The result?
The death of many humans. Finally a fourth trumpet is blown, and one
third of the light from the sun, moon and stars will be eliminated
(verses 7-12).
These terrible plagues are released on the earth
by an angry, righteous God, who will be forced to shake carnal,
rebellious humanity to its senses!
We come now to the final three trumpet plagues or "woes" (Rev. 8:13).
When
the fifth trumpet is blown, the bottomless pit is opened (Rev. 9:1-11).
What emerges is the beast power described in Revelation 17:8-14, the
final resurrection of the Holy Roman Empire. This beast will have
ensnared the world in its satanically inspired, Babylonish religious
and political system.
If you have not already done so, why not request a copy of our informative booklet, Who Is the Beast? It's absolutely free.
Horrible
weapons, symbolized by locusts, are unleashed. They have the power to
torment men for five months, perhaps through the use of chemical,
biological or radiological weaponry. The beast power will use these
weapons on the nations to the northeast of Palestine (Dan. 11:44).
This
attack will result in a counterattack. The sixth angel sounds and an
army from east of the Euphrates River — an army of 200 million men! —
emerges, wielding more frightening weapons. This conflict will destroy
one third of mankind (Rev. 9:13-19, Isa. 13:4-10)!
And yet, as
unbelievable as it may seem, mankind still will not repent (Rev.
9:20-21). The third "woe" — God's final trumpet plague — is yet to
occur.
The seventh trumpet
"And
the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven,
saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord,
and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever" (Rev. 11:15).
Jesus
Christ will return in power and resplendent glory to seize control of
this world (Rev. 19:11-21). The saints will be resurrected to eternal
life to rule with Christ (I Cor. 15:51-52, Rev. 5:10).
But it will
take the seven last plagues, which compose the seventh trumpet, to
complete the job of bringing mankind under the control of God.
These
final plagues are described in Revelation 16. First, painful sores will
appear on those still subservient to the beast (verse 2). The second
and third plagues turn the seas, rivers and springs of water into blood
(verses 3-7).
The fourth plague turns the normally life-giving
sun into a life-destroying power as the sun heats the earth to
incredible temperatures. This fourth plague will still not bring
mankind to repentance (verses 8-9). The fifth plague plunges the
beast's realm into darkness (verses 10-11.)
With these
nightmarish plagues completed, mankind will be united to fight Christ
at His return. Satan the devil, working through the beast (the end-time
military leader) and the false prophet (religious leader) will gather
the "kings of the east" to join the armies that remain from the
devastated beast power. The gathering location will be Armageddon
(verses 12-16), the site of ancient Megiddo, in the valley of Jezreel
about 20 miles south of the modern port of Haifa. Many wars have been
fought at this site.
But the combined efforts of these
Satan-inspired powers will be to no avail. The seventh and last plague
will seal their fate. The mightiest earthquake in history will occur.
Dormant volcanoes will erupt. Hailstones weighing 100 pounds (the
modern equivalent of a "talent") will fall from the skies (verses
17-21).
Christ's climactic battle with these armies will
occur at Jerusalem: "Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, and thy spoil
shall be divided in the midst of thee. For 1 will gather all nations
against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and houses
rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth
into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from
the city.
"Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those
nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. And his feet shall
stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem
on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in
the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall
be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward
the north, and half of it toward the south" (Zech. 14:1-4).
God's
government will be established. Those of us who qualify to be born into
the Family of God will start the process of reconstructing the world —
the right way, this time — through the remaining human beings.
A trumpet will be blown to gather Israel from the places in which they have been captive.
The Israelites will be brought to the land of Israel to live and worship God (Isa. 27:12-13).
A
new age will dawn upon
mankind — an age filled with
happiness, abundance and true
peace, which the world has not known since creation.
Meaning of this Feast
The
meaning, then, of the Feast of Trumpets, which pictures Christ's return
to establish God's Kingdom on earth, is revealed by the various uses of
trumpets throughout the Bible.
Old Covenant Israel had a
limited, physical understanding of the Feast of Trumpets. But the
Philadelphia era of God's Church understands, through God's Word, and
with the help of God's Holy Spirit, its commission to offer this dying
world this tremendous news about the future. We are to provide the
trumpet blast that gives the Gospel of Jesus Christ to this world.
The
Feast of Trumpets is not obsolete at all. God has placed great meaning
in it. We need to rehearse that meaning each year by keeping this
Festival.
By doing so, we show our obedience to God's Word. We
proclaim our belief in God's warning messages, the return of Jesus
Christ and the resurrection of the saints. In addition, we prepare
ourselves for the Family of God.
Truly, God has been gracious to give us this Festival!
By George Kackos The GOOD NEWS August 1982
