“For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle (1 Corinthians 14:8)?”
Biblically, there were many functions associated with the blast of trumpets amongst God’s people. They called God’s people to assemble in certain places designated by the Lord. They blasted God’s Jubilee that was used to proclaim liberty throughout the land. They called leaders to assemble with the purpose of seeking God for national direction. They were used to prepare God’s people for battle. They sounded to alert God’s people of the proper time to embark on great journeys. They signaled God’s manifested deliverance against their enemies.
They preceded important announcements from appointed dignitaries. They were sounded to cease hostilities and usher in peace. They were instruments of praise that were used to inspire the high praises of God. They signaled the call to honor and celebrate feast days, holy convocations, solemn assemblies, and official times of fasting. They blew to warn God’s people of danger or even divine judgment in the midst of them.
In the New Testament, heavenly trumpets blasted to prepare the way for powerful eschatological events. The Apostle John received much of the Revelation after the heavenly trumpets sounded. This list is not exhaustive, but it provides a cursory view of the importance of trumpets as defined by God’s Word.
The Apostle Paul, in our opening Scripture, teaches the critical nature of correctly handling the trumpet and the sound it produces. I’m not an expert, but it seems to me that with all the purposes associated with the trumpet, it is vital to give a clear, distinct sound. One that would prepare God’s people for a proper response to perform His will. If the sound was uncertain, the message could become garbled, murky, and confusing. This would have a devastating affect upon God’s people. They would inevitably become paralyzed, neutralized, and incapacitated to follow the Lord in humble obedience. Recent decades of Church history could attest to this dilemma. Especially in times that tend to try the Church with overwhelming pressure to succumb and be conformed to the Spirit of the Age.
As licentiousness amongst American citizens and the acquisition of power by our civil government has steadily increased, it is important to ascertain the condition of the Lord’s trumpet in the pulpits of America. First of all, is the trumpet even being sounded? Isaiah the prophet declared, “Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins (Isaiah 58:1).” Unfortunately for the health, soundness, and wholeness of the Church, if men of God did this today it would be considered treason against the Gospel, unloving towards God’s people, and a misrepresentation of God’s holy character. My, how the mighty have fallen from our understanding of God and His Word.
If there is a faint blast sounding from a pulpit here and there, is it clear and distinct? Does it rally, mobilize, and call God’s people to be like the children of Issachar who knew the times and knew what God’s people should do in the midst of troubling times (1 Chronicles 12:32). Where is the prophetic call to reform our ways and doings before God? Who will arise to apply God’s tourniquet to stop the hemorrhaging of the bloodlust and perversion that threatens our national security? Who has the courage to pour salt into the deadly wounds of our moral rot? Do we perceive our sins have reached heaven and that we are vulnerable to God’s increasing judgments? Can we not discern the onslaught of our enemies from without and the wicked agenda foisted upon us from foes within our own national household?
If we do, certainly the time demands a clarion call to go forth and resonate throughout the pulpits of America. Men of God need to place the trumpet of the Lord to their mouths and sound the alarm. Our message needs to recapture the Church to be God’s instrument of reform, renewal, restoration, and reconciliation in our nation once again. Somehow the Church must regain her prophetic voice. We must break out of our self-imposed, spiritual ghettos and reenter the public square and market place of ideas with the claims of Christ and the truth of God’s Word. We must rise to provide moral guidance and help tenderize our national conscience that has been seared by our national sins, such as, abortion, homosexuality, and other idolatrous abominations.
In short, it is time to commence a GENTLE REVOLUTION. Not a revolution of guns, bombs, and carnal weapons, but a spiritual, moral, and godly revolution. To help define what I’m advocating, it would be prudent for the Church to take a lesson from the turbulent times associated with the 1960s. It was the decade that produced a major paradigm shift that rejected America’s godly heritage in exchange for the brutal darkness of paganism that ill-affects us to this day.
There is no question that the radicals of the sixties perceived some hypocrisy enshrined within the hallowed institutions of America, such as the family, the church, the state, and our educational systems. They struggled with certain aspects of the gates of our land that they believed didn’t ring true. Whether they were true in their assessments or not, I’ll let others decide. One thing is sure, instead of being young reformers that worked to restore these important pillars of our nation, they simply rebelled and trashed them. The treacherous course they blazed now sets the agenda that makes our nation vulnerable in the midst of this dangerous, fallen world.
The sixties generation created a rebellious sub-culture that eventually became the wicked establishment that we contend against today. Our nation, through their ungodly influence, now finds itself in the pathetic state described by Isaiah the prophet. He declared, “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink: Which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him (Isaiah 5:20-23)!” This is why if one seeks to be a rebel with a cause today, one must seek to live a godly life, simply because the mores of our nation have been defined by the enemies of the cross. Therefore they must be resisted by the Church, less we conform to this world system that is in defiance to God’s loving rule (Romans 12:1,2).