- Chapter 9: "Blow Your Trumpets!"
THE HUMAN RACE HAS ALWAYS been quick to blame the world’s disasters and tragedies—floods, famines, plagues—on” natural causes.” But in the end of the age when the final judgments of God begin to fall, how long will it be until people confess that there is another real, though invisible, force in operation? Truly the wrath of God will leave no hiding place for sinning men and women.
We are told by John the apostle of the mighty trumpets God gives to the seven angels “who stand before {Him},” and of the dreadful woes descending upon the earth as the trumpets begin to sound. I link these events to the climactic period throughout the earth when the antichrist has prevailed by means of deceit and force, enslaving the major portion of the world and violating every natural and spiritual law. Even then, as the judgments of God are being felt, I have no doubt that people will offer” rational explanations” for what is transpiring and logical excuses for their not taking heed.
God has spoken to us in a variety of ways. Our general response has been, “We did not hear His voice. We did not hear any thing!” John recorded in his gospel the reactions of an audience who heard God speak audibly. When Jesus talked of His coming death, asking God to glorify His name through it, “a voice came from heaven, ‘I have glorified it, and will glorify it again’ “ (John 12:28). And what were the reactions of the bystanders? “The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to him” (John 12:29).
People prefer their logic, their powers of reason. Even when God speaks, they refuse to recognize His voice. They will not confess that God has spoken through Jesus Christ, the eternal Son. When He confronts them with their sin, they consult a psychiatrist and hope they can get their personalities “properly adjusted.” But in a coming day, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord of all.
First, however, the trumpets of God will have sounded!