Have you ever given serious thought to the sounds that make up the audible portion of our lives?  For most of us, being able to hear is taken for granted.  From birth, we start storing sound bites.  Some are pleasant.  Some are upsetting.  Then there are the unnecessarily loud TV commercials.  Not pleasant.  Sometimes, I can sit with my eyes closed and “mentally hear” my mother calling, “Time to come in.  It’s supper time.”  I can’t recall the last time I actually heard that call to come home.  It seems like a lifetime ago.  I can call up sound bites of my dad giving me advice.  I can hear the sounds of our three boys that filled our house as they grew up, but I can’t quite single out their individual voices.

Sounds serve many purposes in our lives.  The soft singing of a mother can set a child adrift in peaceful slumber.  The blaring horn of a diesel locomotive can save lives by way of warning.  Whatever our taste might be in music, it can affect our emotions and thoughts in a wide variety of ways.  The squeak of dry door hinges can motivate us – to get up and grab the oil can!  The cries of an infant in the night can cause both spouses to fake out the other, to see who gives in, and gets up first.  Those cries in the night always affected me in the same manner as would a shot of ice water in the small of my back.  And later, when the child could talk and often called out for “daddy,” I knew who was on night duty.  But, that is in the distant past.  That will never happen again.  Those sounds exist only in my memory.

Ah, yes - the telephone.  I once worked with a man who frequently said, “Baby, nothing good ever happened to me over the telephone.”  With only very slight reservation, I can truthfully make the same statement.  I’ve tried to figure out my feelings about that.  I think, it probably stems from going to work at such a young age and being expected to answer the business phone.  Having no, or limited knowledge of the products, or the business policy, I know that I often felt like I was working at the back end of a shooting gallery as soon as I picked up the receiver.  Over time, I learned how to accommodate the customers, and things got easier.  But, it’s hard to pick up a horse shoe when the first time you grabbed one at was hot.  To this day, a ringing phone still does something to me that I can’t explain.  That sound triggers some sort of negative memories.

What about the sound of someone saying, “I love you.” when you don’t exactly have the same feelings?  What about when you do have the same feeling?  Those sounds create vastly different emotions.  How about when you hear yourself say for the first time, “I love you.” to that very special person?

When one of our sons was in high school, we attended a musical presentation one evening in the high school auditorium.  The program started with unaccompanied, opening notes on trumpets (or coronets).  I can’t tell them apart.  I just know which end to blow into.  The sound was strong and clear.  Unknown to me, and the majority of the audience, there were two musicians with like instruments, standing in both corners at the rear of the room.  The instant the sound ceased from the stage, it was repeated from the rear of the auditorium.  That got everyone’s attention!  I think the hair on the back of my neck stood up!  That was stereo!  Similar sound projections are fairly common these days, especially in theaters, and with home sound-surround equipment.  Occasionally, the sound of the alarm signal from an emergency vehicle seems to be coming from everywhere, until we are finally able to isolate the true direction from whence it comes.

One day in the future, we are going to hear the most spectacular sound of a trumpet that the world has ever heard!  The sound will seem to reach from horizon to horizon, and beyond.  In fact, it will reverberate around the world!  Following the attention getting, crystal clear, trumpet sound, will be heard the most loving voice in the whole universe, as Christ appears in the clouds and bids us, “Come up here.”  This will be like the call to “Come home.  It’s supper time.”  This will be the grandest call to come home, that any of us will ever hear. 

That trumpet call will wake the dead – the dead in Christ, that is.  His call to join Him will restore physical bodies from dust, and cause dry bones to be covered with flesh, and rise to join him in the air, and in those moments they will be transformed into glorified, spiritual bodies – all in the twinkling of an eye.  As a Christian, we’re all going to be caught up in this spectacular, climactic event! 

What will be the sounds on earth after the believers are gone?  Rejoicing?  Confusion?  There will be weeping for sure, as some unbelieving family members are left to face an entirely different world.  Some will know what has happened, because they deliberately put off admitting their sinful nature to a waiting God, and refused his gift of salvation.  Others will claim that the Hale-Bopp Comet made its return and gathered up those who are missing.  Initially, many will call it a “hoax.”  Mysteriously, graves around the world will be wide open.  Millions and millions of people will have simply “disappeared” in a matter of seconds.  Speculation will run rampant.  What kind of news stories will the biased media run?  Christian influence on this planet will be virtually non-existent.  Churches that taught the true word of God will stand vacant.  There will be no further guidance found there.  Mankind will be free of radical individuals who want to pray on school property.  There will be no conflict in removing the Ten Commandments from any place they may be posted.  One might think that man’s conscience will at last be free of guilt, but during the following seven years, man’s conscience will probably be the most active part of his being, and there will no longer be a place to unload his burden of guilt!  More people will develop 20-20 hindsight than ever, in the history of the world.

During this time of world-wide terror, the likes of which have never been seen before, those who were not caught up will review over and over where they were when they realized what had happened.  Most of us can vividly recall where we were when we witnessed that first moon landing on TV.  Likewise, etched in our memories is where we were when we heard of John F. Kennedy’s assassination.  The 9-11 disaster also made lasting memory impressions.  But, none of these memories will have the depth of meaning that will compare with the realization that God has basically turned his back on the remaining inhabitants of earth!
 
If a man will not believe in God, will he believe the antichrist?  Yes!  Definitely!  Either that or he will perish.  God is longsuffering in his call for us to accept Him and salvation.  The antichrist will not display any patience.  Everything will be under the control of the antichrist’s one world government.  Without taking the compulsory identification code of this new ruler, no one will be able to buy or sell.  Everyone will have to swear allegiance to this new diabolical “Caesar.”  To accept his required identification means eternal separation from God.  This is a dilemma that all mankind should strive to avoid.

What a difference that trumpet sound will make!  What a difference it makes when we hear the sound of our own voices contritely confessing to God that we are sinners, and accept His grace in the form of His resurrected son, Jesus Christ, and then repent of our sins. 

What would you call a world devoid of Christian morals, principles and laws?  How about this?  -  “Hell on Earth!”    

     
Harley