The following has been selected to provide you, dear reader, with interesting and challenging subjects for your consideration. You will find that much contained herein, varies with traditional teachings and beliefs. However, it is my 'burden' to encourage as many as will, to honestly consider with an open heart and mind...then, trusting the Holy Spirit to teach each one as HE WILLS. =)

Chapter 1

Introduction…

Turning to the eighth chapter of the Revelation and verse 1, we read: “And when he had opened the seventh seal there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour. And I saw the seven angels which stood before God, and to them were given seven trumpets…and the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.”

We’ll first deal with the sixth verse briefly and look into the mentioning of the seals to get the understanding of the whole. We find in the fifth chapter of the Revelation, that the book that was in God’s hand was sealed with seven seals, or God, through the Holy Spirit sealing the Word. No man on the earth or under the earth could break the seals or open the book and look therein. John said, he wept, but one of the elders said: “Weep not, for the Lion of the tribe of Judah (for Christ) hath prevailed to open the book.” He took the book and broke the seals thereof. Christ broke the seals. That is, He through the Spirit of God revealed the truth that was sealed under that portion of the Word. The church, beginning at Pentecost, has gone through many situations and when she seemed doomed to fall and there would be no way for her to continue to exist, God would open up enough truth to let her see her way clearly and walk on through and out of the situation.

We’re trusting that God will help us get understanding. In the eighth chapter, verse 2 of the Revelation, we read: “I saw seven angels which stood before God, and to them were given seven trumpets.” This is a clear picture of the Christian ministry through the seven ages or periods of time throughout the Gospel Day. There are seven periods of time from Pentecost---down through the Gospel era to the end of the world. The seven letters to the seven churches cover these periods of time: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven; and John draws a picture in symbol of seven angels. We know that some symbols are explained in the Revelation and the rest are explained somewhere else in the Word---like precious golden nuggets that must be dug out of the mines. We don’t need to go outside the Bible to find the explanation for any of them. If we persist in doing this (“going outside”) we’ll find ourselves getting off the track and lose out in the true interpretation of the scripture. For whenever we go outside the Word for understanding of the Scripture, we will be led into deception. All we need is in the Word itself. I sincerely believe that if we needed to know so much history in order to answer and explain symbols, God would have told us the name of the history book. But He has said that His grace is sufficient for our needs and we know that His Word is also sufficient.

The Word of God says that the angels are the Christian ministry or as the Greek language says, the messengers; and this is the picture carried out through the seven periods of time that make up this Gospel Day.

Chapter 2

SEVEN TRUMPETS TO BE BLOWN…

Now the Word says, that there was given unto these seven angels, seven trumpets. The sounding of the trumpets is the sounding of the Word of God pertaining to salvation or a warning of a situation that would befall man. The Gospel is the sounding of a trumpet and in the Gospel we find the power of God unto salvation and the wrath (judgment) of God.

In the book of Romans, Paul writes: “I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith.” Also the wrath of God is revealed therein. Where? In the Gospel. The sounding of the trumpets is symbolizing nothing more than a sounding of God’s Word.

In Joel, the second chapter, the first verse, we read: “Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain.” God’s alarm never fails to go off. He set His alarm seven times down through the periods of time of the church and when the set time came, the alarm sounded. He had a man stand up and sound a trumpet and warn His people what was going to befall them. We’re living in the day of the last of these angels; the seventh angel is sounding. But what is his message? Warning the church of the lukewarmness, deadness, formality and the denying of the power of God; and telling them to turn back to the old paths where they will find rest to their souls.

The trumpet is the message of salvation or warning. Paul said in 1st Corinthians the 14th chapter and the eighth verse: “If the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself for battle?” The reason so few are joining the ranks to fight against the ungodliness and sinful conditions of our land is because there’s too much uncertain preaching going on in the pulpits. When the trumpet gives an uncertain sound, (and I repeat) people will not prepare themselves for battle. What do we mean by the words, “an uncertain sound?” They’re ceasing to call sin, sin. They fail to show how black sin is and to preach on hell as the end of man, if they fail to take Christ into their hearts and lives.

Because of this condition, we have people, so to speak, on the fence. When there’s a true revival and the plain Word of God is preached in honesty, there will be no people on the fence when the revival services are over. Why? Because God gives the true minister enough equipment to “tear down the fence” and leave nothing for anyone to sit on.

The uncertain sounding of the trumpet is putting the people in a neutral position, which is nothing more than a picture of this lukewarmness, not hot, not cold.

In the 33rd chapter of Ezekiel, God chose to set the ministers to be watchmen on the wall and He said, “When I bring the sword, and the sword would come on the land and you warn them, if the sword take them, the blood would be on their own hands. But if you fail to sound the trumpet to warn them, they will be taken, but I will require their blood at your hands.”

Chapter 3

THERE MUST BE PREPARATION FOR BLOWING THE TRUMPETS…

It takes preparation to do this blowing. God doesn’t want an uncertain sound. God’s true trumpeters make a plain and certain sound. You can count on that. Let’s learn a bit more about this trumpet. Jesus said that a scribe well equipped would bring out things new and old. In the 19th chapter of Exodus, beginning with the 13th verse, we go back to where Moses was bringing the people to Mt. Sinai. We see a trumpet back there. Let’s turn to the 12th verse: “And thou shalt set bounds to the people round about.” Shall we digress again? People of today don’t not like this “bounds business”, but there are some. “And thou shalt set bounds unto the people round about saying; Take the border of it; whosoever toucheth the mount shall surely be stoned, or shot through; whether it be beast or man, it shall not live; When the trumpet soundeth long they shall come up to the mount, and Moses went down from the mount unto the people, and sanctified the people, and they washed their clothes.”

We are going to have to be clean to be able to go up to God’s mountain. “And he said unto the people, be ready against the third day; come not at your wives. And it came to pass on the third day that there were thunderings and lightnings.”

Here’s the answer to the symbol we are to teach after while, “thunders and lightnings”, and the thunder and lightnings back there mean the same thing as those in the Revelation. “There were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceedingly loud; so that all the people that were in the camp trembled.” Moses brought forth a people out of the camp to meet with God and they stood at the nether part of the mount, and Mt. Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire. We have the answer to every symbol of the 8th chapter of the Revelation. It’s nothing more than a symbol that God moved on the mount. When God moves, the lightning will still flash, the thunder will still roll, and there will be voices, just as we read here.

He said, “When the trumpet sounds long let the people go up.” The trumpet is the voice of God or the voice of Christ or the Word of God. To seal that a little farther let us go to the first chapter of the Revelation and the 10th verse, the beginning of the Revelation. John said: I was in the spirit on the Lord’s Day and I heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet, saying, “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.” You know who that is. The trumpet is the voice of God or the Word of God. God, help us to see it. The sounding of the trumpet is going to be responsible for Babylon’s fall. The seals had to be opened, the vials had to be poured out, and the trumpet sounded, to “break Babylon down”. Just the sounding of the trumpet alone, won’t do it.

JERICHO IS A TYPE OF BABYLON…

There’s a type in God’s Word, that we should look at to lead into this thought that we’re dealing with. Israel, when they crossed Jordon into Canaan, is a type of entering into our spiritual rest in Christ. The first thing they ran into, was the wicked city of Jericho, with walls so many feet high, so thick and so wide. God told them to march around that city seven days and seven times the seventh day, and as they went around each day to have the priest blow the trumpet. The priest blowing the trumpet had as much part in the walls falling, as any other part of God’s plan. Had that been left out, the walls would have stood, just as they were after the seven days had passed. There was only one saved out of Jericho: the harlot Rahab, who believed God’s message.

The Word of God teaches us that Jericho is a type of spiritual Babylon---almost the first obstacle that people of God run into today, after they enter their spiritual rest and consecrated to God’s will. Rahab, a harlot, confessed her condition, had faith in God’s message and came out of the city before God destroyed it.

The Word of God tells us, that a man or woman who joins himself (spiritually) to any portion of Babylon’s harlot daughters: becomes a harlot (spiritually). God’s message to his people is to “come out of her”. Joshua followed God’s plan and marched around the city seven days with the priests blowing the trumpets each day, and seven times the seventh day. This is a type: Babylon is fallen---not, has fallen. Too many people go out and preach Babylon has fallen. The Word does not say: Babylon has fallen. It says: Babylon is fallen. In about 1880, when the resurrection of the two witnesses took place, just a tenth part of the city fell. There’s nine tenths of it still to go. She had to be marched around seven days and seven times the seventh day.

This is the seventh day. The saints have marched around Babylon seven times and now we have the last day and the seventh seal light. The truth is marching around her the seventh time and the seventh day. Read Isaiah, the 30th chapter and the 26th verse: “Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be seven fold as the light of seven days in the day that the Lord bindeth up the breach of His people and healeth the stroke of their wound.” What has been the breach of God’s people? False religions that divided them and tore them asunder and left them in captivity in different sects and divisions have been preached to them by false shepherds until the generations have lost sight of the true church, the one bride of Christ.

But God is binding up the breach. He said that in “that day” the light of the moon would be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun would be seven fold, or seven days in the one day at the close.

THE LIGHT OF THE SEVENTH DAY IS EQUAL TO SEVEN...

Seven days all covering the day, the Gospel Day, that which the prophet spoke of as a day. The moon is a symbol of the Old Testament. The sun is the symbol of the New Testament. In the teaching of the parables, Christ said the souls that received seed among stony places: when the sun came up, were scorched out. Then He gave the understanding of that verse, “These are they that received the Word and also persecution.” This was the Word of the Gospel in the New Testament or the Word of the sun. If it were not for the sun, there would be no moonlight. The moonlight is a reflection of the sun. Even so, the Old Testament light is symbolized as the moonlight a reflection of the sun. Paul called it the reflection of the sun. Isaiah said that when this day would come the light would be sevenfold . What else would happen? The light of the moon would be as clear as the sun. In this seven fold light of today, we can understand the Old Testament just as clear as we can understand the New Testament.

Many things that were done through Old Testament Prophecy never fit into the picture before and no understanding was given. In this day, when the light is sevenfold, the clarity of the Old Testament is come out clear to clinch the truth in the New Testament, yea, as the light of seven days, in the day that the Lord bindeth up the breach of His people and heals the stroke of their wounds. In our day, through the power of the Holy Spirit, we can understand the Old Testament as well as the new. What has caused man to cast aside the Old Testament? They could not understand many of the Prophesies and took them literally. They have a spiritual meaning, which is made clear by the Holy Spirit in these closing days of time. God is giving us understanding of the Old Testament (or the moon) even as He does the New Testament. The Word tells us that: “Holy men of God as they were moved by the Holy Ghost inscribed the words therein.”

The trumpet needs to be blown, loud and long. People of today say that thirty minutes is long enough for a sermon (for a minister to preach), but God said, “Moses, when the trumpet blows loud and long, the people are to come up to the mountain.”

Chapter 4

THE TRUMPET IS NOT SOUNDING CLEAR NOTES…

But we’re not coming to Mt. Sinai (a mountain that cannot be touched) “but ye are come to Mount Zion, to the general assembly, the church of the first born to the spirits of just men made perfect.” The reason that more are not coming to the mount is that the trumpet is not sounding loud, certain, and long.

It takes deeper preaching to get people out of confusion. We’re striving to lay a foundation for understanding of what the scripture means when it said, “The seven trumpeters prepared to sound.” Too many messengers don’t know how to blow the trumpet. Come on now…it one should go near a home where a boy is learning to blow a trumpet and listen; he will in all probability hit 23 sour notes before he hits a good one. God is made to be sickened by people going out and tooting their horns and don’t know how to do it. The saints of God, are having to put up with these sour notes and only one good note here and there. Before God sent them out, He told them to prepare to sound the trumpet, and they are to make sure they know how to blow it.

If the ministers blow the trumpet properly, God’s people will hear His voice. In the army, we went by the sound of the trumpet or the bugle and there was a different call for reveille than there was for taps, or for dinner call, or for assembly. Once in a while, a new bugler would sound and it would be 28 below zero out there in Kansas. The horn was cold and he was cold and when he would blow in the morning we didn’t understand the call of his bugle. Well, the same thing is happening today. That’s why the saints are in confusion. They, in so many words, don’t know if it’s reveille, dinner, or where they’re going. It won’t take too long for some certain sounding of God’s eternal Word to get them settled down, and straightened out. Then, they’ll understand where they’re going and what they’re going for. They’ll be able to prepare for battle. We’ve not lost confidence in God’s people. We believe under the sounding of truth, preached under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, they will still prepare for battle.

Revelation, the 8th chapter and the 6th verse says: “And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.” May God help us to see what it’s going to take in the thought of preparation, to even sound the trumpet for God---as He would have it sounded. In the second verse, we read: “I saw seven angels stand before God and to them were given seven trumpets.” Let’s remember, that having a trumpet is no sign that one knows how to blow it. And in the sixth verse we read that they prepared themselves to sound.

There’s a sound these days of the trumpet, declaring that men get all (spiritually) God has for them at once. No doubt this may be true if they never press on for the deeper life hid in Christ, which Paul urged when he said, “Go on to perfection.” There were several things happened after the second verse, which we must look into, but we repeat, that the seven angels which received the trumpets prepared themselves to sound.

We’re made to see, that it’s one thing to have the truth and another thing to be able to sound it out. Something happened that caused these angels to stand on their feet and begin to blow their trumpets.

First of all, confidence was gained. We read, “And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets (or the seven ministers which had the Word of Truth) prepared themselves to sound.” There’s nothing from the second verse to the 6th verse to tell us that they prepared in a college or a seminary. You cannot take a golden altar and a censor of fire and prove that it is a symbol of the college or seminary. No disrespect intended regarding education, but we must clearly understand the true source of the resource for the preparation.

THE REASON FOR THE UNCERTAIN NOTES...

We’re just trying to dig deeper and uncover why we have so much uncertain sounding. The preparation for sounding the trumpets has been made in the wrong way. The way you sound the trumpet will show where you have done your preparing.

Are we fighting against higher education in the colleges of our country? No! But we are explaining that we have found something greater than all colleges combined.

Paul was a trumpeter. He was of this group that sounded. He was with the group that made the very first trumpet sound. He too, was a college preacher. He preached a certified Gospel. When one can hang a tag on that reads: “certified”, you know pretty well it will produce the goods. Farmers know what “certified” seed is. They’re not afraid to put it in the ground. It will work.

In Galatians, the 1st chapter, Paul said: “I certify unto you, brethren, that the Gospel I preach unto you was not received of men, neither was I taught of men, but by the divine revelation of Jesus Christ. Whether a man received his education in a college or seminary or whether he finds it necessary to dig it out for himself, he will only get the truth through divine revelation. Paul said that this light shone upon him and gave him a change of heart and he immediately went out and preached Christ. Then he said, “I did not confer with flesh and blood, neither did I go up to Jerusalem, but I went down to Arabia and for three years was there.” But God gave him a revelation of the truth. He came back up to Jerusalem not only preaching the truth that the other early apostles did, but a greater light. He said that God had a message for the Gentiles also. Brother, go down to Arabia for a while. Where and what is Arabia? It’s a place where you can get alone and shut out the world and open your heart to God. If you get your vessel emptied, God will fill it with His glorious truth and give you breath to blow the trumpet.

PROPER PREPARATION TO BLOW THE TRUMPET…

Some people think that no one can understand the Revelation unless he has a DD. The first man that got it was an ignorant fisherman. Let’s remember also that the man who received the Revelation first and understood it and wrote it down for us, was not in a college, but on the lonely island of Patmos. There, he was surrounded by the lonely waters and heard from God. We’re told that John was put on the island of Patmos for: standing for the truth, but this is not really true. He was put on the isle to get the Revelation. It seems impossible to get the wonderful Revelation to John in the busy city of Ephesus or other places of the country. We know a little personally about this. It’s only when we go behind closed doors and lock them up, take the telephone off the hook and stay shut in with God and pray until God hears from heaven and floods our soul with His Eternal spirit and there pours out His Word into our heart. God put John on the Isle of Patmos to give him the Revelation. John was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, and he said: “I heard a voice back of me as a voice of a trumpet saying, “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end;” I am all you need, John.

It takes some preparation, not something we can rub on; not something we earn. The word teaches us that these gifts are given. “When He ascended up on high He led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men.” Thank God for His wonderful goodness. Jesus aided in the dealing of the mysteries of the kingdom, and He said, “It is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom, and to them it is not.” We get it all through the Spirit of God.

The 12th verse of the 16th chapter of John, he said, “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye are not able to hear them yet. Howbeit, when He, the Spirit of Truth is come, He will guide you into all truth; He shall glorify me.” That will put all the “glorified” preachers out of business. Somebody needs to get after them. They’re leading God’s sheep away from the fold fast enough. We need to cry out and put a stop to it. Too many preachers are taking the glory to themselves. The 4th vial of the Revelation will put it on them. They repent not to give God the glory. Why? They want the glory to themselves. One old colored brother put it down real well, when he said half the preachers, when the pastor tries to introduce them, has to take 15 minutes to tell where all they had studied, and how many degrees they have on their name, and when they finally get up to preach, they take 45 minutes to tell all about themselves and what they’ve done, and the last 15 minutes they come draggin in poor Jesus. Brother, you can tell when the Sprit of God is in the thing. He will glorify Jesus Christ.

Paul was a trumpeter. Every time he did a mighty work and stirred the people and saw multitudes moved, he feared they would worship him. They tried to once, but he resisted, saying, “not me but Christ that liveth in me.” “When He, the Spirit of Truth is come, He will guide you into all truth. He will glorify me, He will not speak of Himself.” As great as the Holy Ghost is, He will not speak of himself, nor will he speak of you or me. He will guide you into all truth. He will take the things of Jesus and show them unto you. Why should we want to sit at the feet of Gamaliel, when we can have such a teacher?