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Gramps,
Could you please explain in detail, along with your opinion of the three
trumpet sounds before Christ’s coming? I realize it will not be all at
once, but I’m also sure it will be a scary thing even for the saints who
are living righteously. In your opinion, when do you think the first will
occur? I appreciate your
answer, and thank you. Donna, from Indiana |
Dear
Donna,
The
three trumpet sounds mentioned in Revelations 8:13 are the last of seven
trumpet sounds described by John. The sounding of the seven trumpets is also
described in Doctrine and Covenants 88:92-110. That these two accounts
describe the same events is apparent by their common elements— “silence in
heaven for the space of half an hour” (Revelations 8:1; Doctrine and
Covenants 88:95), and “there shall be time no longer” (Revelations 10:6;
Doctrine and Covenants 88:10).
As
is apparent from the Doctrine and Covenants accounts, these trumpets shall
sound at the conclusion of the
testimony
of the voice of thunderings, and the voice of lightnings, and the voice of
tempests, and the voice of the waves of the sea heaving themselves beyond
their bounds. And all things shall be in commotion; and surely, men's hearts
shall fail them; for fear shall come upon all people
(D&C 88:90-91).
These
trumpets shall announce the coming forth in the first resurrection of “the
first fruits” of the resurrection (D&C 88:98), then “those who are
Christ’s at his coming” (D&C 88:99), and finally “those who are
found under condemnation” (D&C 88:110). So it is apparent that the
trumpets will sound at the time of the coming of the Savior.
Orson
F. Whitney, in “Saturday Night Thoughts,” p.3-4 described these events as
follows:
“What
are we to understand by the book which John saw, which was sealed on the back
with seven seals?
“We
are to understand that it contains the revealed will, mysteries, and works of
God; the hidden things of his economy concerning this earth during the seven
thousand years of its continuance, or its temporal existence.
“What
are we to understand by the sounding of the trumpets, mentioned in the 8th
chapter of Revelations?"
“We
are to understand that as God made the world in six days, and on the seventh
day he finished his work and sanctified it, and also formed man out of the
dust of the earth; even so, in the beginning of the seventh thousand years
will the Lord God sanctify the earth, and complete the salvation of man, and
judge all things—unto the end of all things; and the sounding of the
trumpets of the seven angels are the preparing and finishing of his work in
the beginning of the seventh thousand years—the preparing of the way before
the time of his coming.
“The
book which John saw represented the real history of the world—what the eye of
God has seen, what the recording angel has written; and the seven thousand
years, corresponding to the seven seals of the Apocalyptic volume, are as seven
great days during which Mother Earth will fulfill her mortal mission, laboring
six days and resting upon the seventh, her period of sanctification. These seven
days do not include the period of our planet’s creation and preparation as a
dwelling place for man. They are limited to Earth's ‘temporal existence,’
that is, to Time, considered as distinct from Eternity.”
Gramps
Revelation
10:5
5
And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his
hand to heaven,
Revelation
10:6
6 And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer.