The major festivals and convocations of Israel— Rosh Hashana, The Days of Awe, Yom Kippur, and Tabernacles, are all deeply symbolic. The sounding of the trumpet at Rosh Hashana speaks of the ending of this present age. The Days of Awe and Yom Kippur, or the Day of Atonement, speak of our getting it right with God through Jesus. The Tabernacles festival speaks of God at last coming to dwell with us and we with him (Rev. 21:3).
Perhaps the sounding of the trumpet is of greatest significance, since it speaks of the end of this present evil age. In ancient times, the trumpet had many purposes but no doubt one of its most important ones was the crowning of Israel’s kings. As the last trumpet sounds, it will signify the crowning of the Messiah, who is about to be the king of the whole world. Revelation 10:7 assures us that the trumpet will sound at his appearing and coronation. At that point the present evil age will end and a new Messianic age will begin. Let us take a little time to try and understand these two concepts.
THE PRESENT EVIL AGE
The present evil age is mentioned specifically in Galatians 1:4. We might ask why this age is called an evil age. This likely goes back to the fall of humanity in the Garden of Eden. It seems that when man fell into sin his God-given authority to rule in the earth was somehow transferred to Satan. Still, we must not think that Satan has now become the ruler of the world. The Bible assures us that this world belongs to God. Psalm 24:1 states it, “The earth is the LORD’S…”
Although the earth is the Lord’s, Satan is very much involved in it. I once heard a missionary woman say that the cattle on a thousand hills belong to God, but Satan is out there milking them. In the Bible, Satan is called the prince of this world (Jn. 14:30), nevertheless, he must go to God to get permission to act and particularly permission to test us (Job 1:6-12).
What are some characteristics of this evil age? One major characteristic of this age is found in 2 Corinthians 4:4: “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers…” Worldly people are blind to God. In this world God is constantly being scorned. The word of God is being put down while the foolish theories of man are elevated and highly prized. One example is that of Macroevolution, the idea that all things came into being through some sort of cosmic accident. It takes a lot of faith to believe that. Another, is that the sacredness of marriage is being compromised. In the US, our highest court has just approved homosexual marriage. In addition, we are being overwhelmed with pornography. We are told that about one-fourth of all web searches has to do with porn.1 At least a fourth of Christians are dabbling in pornography.
Normal human relationships are being corrupted by the Internet. The average Facebook subscriber has 130 “friends,” but it is of note that he or she talks regularly with about 4 to 6 of them.2 At the same time, these probably neglect their true friends in church and other places.
In this present age the regular worship of God is being polluted by idolatry. We still worship blocks of stone and metal (our fancy houses and cars). It also seems that once we stop worshipping the true God we begin to worship people. In the US we are a people worshiping society. We cannot go through the checkout line at the grocery store without reading about these gods and goddesses in the tabloids. We should note that people make very poor gods. They regularly get addicted to drugs, get divorced, become involved in crime, or go to jail.
Another symptom of this present age is an increasing disintegration of world governmental systems. This is clearly pointed out in Daniel 2:24-45. Daniel assures us that after the fall of Israel in 586 BC, four world governments were established. These governmental systems would progressively decline in value, from gold to iron mixed with clay. Regarding the image of man as seen by Daniel, we are now probably in the lowly toe period (Dan. 2:41-42). Governments, including our own, are crumbling to pieces. Already there are several burned out nations in the Middle East with millions of refugees on the move from these nations.
Daniel makes clear that in this brittle and worthless period, the Antichrist will arise to take charge of the world. It ends well, as the Messiah, the Rock from Zion, will destroy this evil system and take total control (Dan. 2:45). It is interesting that these world governments all fall at the same time (Dan. 2:35). This means that they are still exercising authority over us. We can see this clearly with the Greek form of government, how the humanism from the Greeks continues to affect us.
One good thing about the present evil age is that it will end abruptly. It will end with the sounding of the trumpet. We see that as this age ends there will be much suffering and deep mourning among the lost (Rev. 1:7). These will be thrown into shock as they have to finally admit that there really is a God. This evil age will be purged by fire. The evil people will be gathered out of the world for their judgment (Matt. 13:39, 41, 49). At all this, the saints of God will rejoice at the coming of the Lord. Just as Noah was made waterproof, the end-day saints will be made fireproof. They will see the Lord and be made like him (1 Jn. 3:2).
I like what William Inge says about this age, “Whoever marries the spirit of this age will find himself a widower in the next.” 3
THE AGE TO COME
We can read about the age to come in several passages (Mt. 12:32, 34; Lk. 20:35). After the fire, a coming age will bring forth a new heaven and new earth (2 Pet. 3:13; Rev. 21:1). It does not appear that the world will be destroyed, but that it will undergo a sort of recycling (Psa. 78:19; 93:1b; 96:10; 104:5). At the sounding of the trumpet the righteous dead will be resurrected. Those righteous ones in Jesus who are still living will be instantly changed. They will immediately have new, immortal bodies like that resurrected body of Christ. This change is not a process but it will happen instantly, faster than one can blink an eye (1 Cor. 15:51-52).
Can we even imagine what the new body will be like? The only example is that of Jesus. He was not restricted by space-time. He could be in the Galilee and quickly be back in Jerusalem. Jesus could appear and disappear. He could even walk right through locked doors. I am 80 years old and I am quite anxious to experience this new body. There will be no more pain, sorrow, suffering, and death, for all these things will be gone forever (Rev. 21:4). I truly believe there will be no more jet lag and no longer a need for us to travel by jet plane. If we wish to be in Jerusalem, we can just be there instantly.
In addition to having new bodies, we will be living in a new world. The Kingdom of God will be fully established on this globe. It will begin with a millennial age of one thousand years. Some of our early Christian fathers did not like the idea of a Millennium. They thought it sounded much too Jewish. Nevertheless, it is in the Bible and we had better believe in it. It seems that this period is a sort of prototype Kingdom of God where wicked people, wicked things and ideas are rooted out of the earth. The Messianic government from Jerusalem will deal sternly with rebellion. Swords and spears will be turned into plows and pruning hooks (Isa. 2:4).
Several Old Testament chapters deal with the Millennial Era (Isa. 11; 65; Jer. 3; Zech. 14). Some incredible things will begin to happen: “The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The infant will play near the cobra’s den, the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest. (Isa. 11:6-8). There will be peace, beautiful and wonderful peace, because the tempter of men and nations will be bound for the thousand years (Rev. 20:2).
There are many mysteries regarding this time since it is largely hidden from our eyes. However, through the Holy Spirit we can understand some things about it. Since believers will have already received their immortal bodies, and since some people on earth will still be growing old and dying (Isa. 65:20), we can only assume that both spiritual and fleshly people will be on the earth. After all, this wonderful age will end in one last rebellion against God.
When this age dawns, God’s saints will receive the kingdom (Dan. 7:22) and they will rule eternally with Christ. There is a verse that we have missed for the last two thousand years. It is found in Revelation 5:10, and it says, “You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.” We remember that Jesus essentially said the same thing when he pronounced, “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth” (Matt. 5:5).
Somehow we have gotten it all backwards. Today we teach that everything is going up to heaven. However, the Bible assures us that everything is coming down. Jesus is coming down with thousands of his saints. The New Jerusalem and the Bride are coming down. Even Satan is coming down – thrown out of heaven to earth with all his evil angels (Rev. 12:9).
The world-renowned teacher, Derek Prince, says that believers on earth will have a vital part to play in Satan’s fall. They will overcome him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony (Rev. 12:11). He says, “The believers on earth will also have their part to play…It is important for us to recognize that the victory in this conflict against Satan’s kingdom will only come through a joint action by God’s angels in heaven and the believers on earth. This challenges us to ask whether or not we on earth are sensitive to what is taking place in heaven and ready to play our part.” 4
When the average Christian thinks of heaven he or she likely thinks of sitting on some cloud playing a harp for eternity. This surely would be boring. We can now realize that believers on earth will be very busy administering the earth for God just as Adam was supposed to have done. We will be doing God’s work and thinking God’s thoughts. Let me just give one earthly example of this. Take for instance a grain of sand. Yet, some scientist, no doubt with the help of God, took that grain of sand, meditated on it, and discovered silicon. From this, our whole cyber/computer age came into being. Just think of all the other mysteries God would like us to discover in his new world!
God wants us to reign on earth through Christ. We need to begin reigning right now (Rom. 5:17). Young people, start reigning over your homework, and over your room (clean it up!). Adults, start reigning over your work, your home life, your bad habits and your thinking.
We can now understand why the early Christians were so happy and excited. They were almost jumping up and down. May we now rediscover some of their great joy. May we start praying, “…Thy Kingdom come…!” (Matt 6:10). May we also start crying out Maranatha! Or may we like John in Revelation 22:20 exclaim, “…Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.”
-Jim Gerrish
Published 2015 (Condensed from a sermon preached at Narkis St. Church Jerusalem, Oct. 3, 2015).
1 The Atlantic, Jan/Feb 2011, “Hard core-the new world of porn is revealing eternal truths about men and women,” by Natasha Vargas-Cooper, pp. 97-99.
2 Dick Staub, The Culturally Savvy Christian (San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons, 2007), p..3.
3 Scott Cleland with Ira Brodsky, Search & Destroy, Why You Can’t Trust Google Inc. (St Louis MO: 2011), p. 211.
4 Derek Prince, War in Heaven (Grand Rapids: Chosen Books, 2003), p. 145.