One mid-morning last week Joy and I had a most puzzling experience. We were standing in my office at home when, suddenly—and seemingly out of nowhere—was this very loud, clear-as-crystal trumpet blast. It was “Reveille,” the well-known military bugle call: “You’ve got to get up; you’ve got to get up; you’ve got to get up in the morning!”
A few minutes later the same trumpet call sounded again. Three times it sounded. I felt like it was coming from my office. The second time, Joy felt like it was coming from her office. The third time, we were standing in the hall and we both thought it was coming from somewhere in the hall. It felt like we were in the middle of surround-sound without the vaguest idea from where the trumpet call was coming.
We live “next door” to Camp Pendleton Marine Base and wondered if it came from there. We noticed through our window that our neighbor across the street was in his front yard at this time, so we asked if he heard the trumpet call. He didn’t, so we concluded that the calls didn’t come from Camp Pendleton. Had they done so, it wouldn’t have been in mid-morning! Half joking and half serious, I said to Joy, “This isn’t God’s trumpet call announcing the return of Jesus, is it?” We waited … but nothing more happened.
Interesting, too, that Joy and I both heard these three trumpet calls. Had only one of us heard them, we may have been tempted to think the other one was losing it! But it was very distinct to both of us. Furthermore, we were equally puzzled—and still are.
Regardless from where they originated, they are a graphic reminder that sooner or later, just as suddenly, God’s promised clear-as-crystal trumpet will sound with the call: “It’s time to get up; it’s time to get up; Jesus has come; it’s time to get up and go with him to Heaven!”
As God’s Word promised, in writing about Christ’s return the Apostle Paul stated, “Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead [believers in Jesus] shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.1
Furthermore, Jesus Himself promised his followers: “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house [Heaven] are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.”2 See also What God’s Word has to say about Christians who have already died at the time of God’s trumpet call.3
Of this we can be absolutely certain—like the trumpet call Joy and I heard—when it is least expected, God’s trumpet call will sound. If it were today, would you hear it? Would you be ready to get up and go with Jesus? We will either go with Jesus, or we will be left behind—the latter of which is an extremely sobering thought.
Suggested prayer: “Dear God, thank you for your promise, and that of Jesus, that Jesus will return to earth to take all his true followers to be with him in Heaven forever. I look forward to your great trumpet call to announce that Jesus has come. Please help me to be ready for this day and this moment. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus’ name, amen.”
Note: If Jesus should come today and you are not absolutely sure you would be ready to be caught up with him, I urge you to read the article, “How to Be Sure You’re a Real Christian” at: www.actsweb.org/christian.
1. 1 Corinthians 15:51-52 (KJV).
2. John 14:1-3 (NKJV).
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