IS THE SEVENTH TRUMPET NOW SOUNDING?
By Uriah Smith
To ANSWER this question in the affirmative, saying, Yes, it is sounding, would be to make a most weighty and solemn announcement; but to answer in the negative, saying, No, it is not sounding, would be to make a statement that should not be made without extreme care and caution, lest we turn away the minds of some, inadvertently, from what the Lord has given to arouse and test his people in the last days. To ascertain a true answer to the question whether or not the seventh trumpet is now sounding, we must inquire what the seven trumpets are; for what purpose they are given; what they indicate; and what has taken place in the past to show that we have reached the seventh, and last, in this series of symbols. We refer to this question now, because the view heretofore held by Seventh-day Adventists, that the seventh trumpet began to sound in the autumn of 1844, is called in question. A letter from a brother in a Western State, just received, states, at some length, what no doubt seems to him a sufficient reason to dissent from the view that the seventh trumpet is now sounding, in place of which he claims that we are to look for that sounding somewhere in the indefinite future. We thus seem to be in something the same position the disciples were in, when, after the resurrection of Christ, the eleven went into Galilee, to meet the Lord, as he had appointed them. Of this interview we read, “And when they saw him, they worshiped him: but some doubted.” From our point of view, that would seem to have been a very poor time to doubt; but nevertheless, some of them doubted. And so it has been all the way along, and perhaps will be to the end of time. “Some doubted.” It is said that winds can be, and are, a proper symbol of war and strife, because wind is the instrument by which the destruction is accomplished. On the same ground it is alleged that trumpets can not be a fit symbol of war, because trumpets are not the instruments with which war is waged, and the strife carried on. But this point seems not to be well taken; for certainly it is not necessary that that which is used to symbolize any particular condition of things should be the instrument used to bring about that condition. Even the winds, which are acknowledged to be proper symbols of war and strife, did not themselves literally work the havoc and damage, but represented the raging passions of men which drove them on to their deeds of violence and destruction. So trumpets are symbols of political commotion and war; not that the trumpets are the weapons used as clubs and bludgeons to carry on the strife. In like manner, the work attributed to symbolic wild beasts is not done by literal beasts themselves; but the beasts in their movements represent the doings of governments, and the devastation of their armies. The last three trumpets are called “woe trumpets,” because, under their sounding, woes are to overshadow the world; and a woe signifies any calamity, judgment, or affliction that may in any shape come upon men. War is not therefore a continuously necessary element in the sounding of a trumpet. What good reason is there, therefore, why we should not hold that the seventh trumpet began to sound in 1844? and is sounding still? And what about the dates of the preceding trumpets, 1299, 1449, and 1840? If the application we10have made of the seventh trumpet is wrong, were they right? One of the most interesting prophecies, and one most remarkable in its fulfillment, was that of the sixth trumpet, or second woe, the period of which expired Aug. 11, 1840. The following declaration of the prophecy then had its application: “The second woe is past; and, behold, the third woe cometh quickly.” A little space was to intervene between the time when the second woe ended and the third woe began. This comes in all right, if we allow that, after the ending of the second woe in 1840, the third woe, and the seventh trumpet, began in 1844. Right there in that little space the first message, or the first installment of the great Advent movement of this generation, was fulfilled. The burden of the loud cry of that message was the ending of the twenty-three hundred days, which brought us to the beginning of the work of the cleansing of the sanctuary, which, following the lesson of the type, involved the opening of the temple of God in heaven; and when we come to an examination of the events to take place under the seventh trumpet, lo! that very service receives prominent mention. “The temple of God,” it is said, “was opened in heaven.” The prophet does not name the events of the seventh trumpet in their chronological order, but seems to give them priority of notice according to the force with which they struck his mind. He first speaks of the transfer of the kingdom to Christ and the great anthem of the elders, in which, in joyful chorus, they exclaim, “We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned.” But this involves the coming of Christ in his kingdom, in power and glory. And after this has come to pass, the other events mentioned in the trumpet can not take place. They must have occurred before this, and hence the events are not arranged chronologically. Then the prophet glances at the anger of the nations, showing the strange attitude of the different governments of the earth toward one another, in the last days, just as it is to-day. Then he speaks of the great judgment work to be accomplished in reference to the wicked, during the thousand years, and finally points to the destruction, at the end of that period, of all those who have been a curse and pollution to the earth. Thus the wicked are all destroyed, and all the débris of man’s rebellion—his sin and the curse—is all cleared up, and the long-promised and waited-for reward to the servants of God, the prophets, and all that fear his name, is bestowed upon them. All this mighty sweep of events, and their blessed results, is covered by the seventh trumpet. There is not lacking, in the sounding of this trumpet, any element of woe to those who are obnoxious thereto. Nor is there anything there, unless it is exceptional, like a little holding of the winds, out of the nature and object of a trumpet. It is the object of a trumpet to arouse and alarm the people in reference to dangers that are impending; and is not this emphatically true of the movements in the scripture under notice? In 1848, only four years after the beginning of the trumpet in 1844, occurred that great political earthquake in Europe, which toppled nearly every throne to the dust,—just a gust that broke loose from the pent-up whirlwind, which is struggling to sweep down upon the earth and the sea. About twenty years later, in 1870, came the great blow to the papacy, which stripped it of the last vestige of temporal power, which is not, from any human standpoint, likely to be restored again, and which Victor Emmanuel declared never is to be restored again. Finally another of these associated events catches the eye of the prophet, an event in which the people of God are more directly and personally concerned than in any of the others; and that is the beginning of the final work, in the court of destiny above; and he covers this at once with the declaration: “And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.” He briefly states the accompaniments of this opening, ending with the hail of the seventh of the seven last plagues. Considering where the opening of the temple is placed in the prophecy, it is the earliest, and, consequently, the first, event to take place under that trumpet. But this can be nothing else but the beginning of the cleansing of the sanctuary; but that was to take place only at the end of the twenty-three hundred days; and the twenty-three hundred days certainly ended in 1844. Right at that point, therefore, the third woe began, and the seventh trumpet began its sounding. With this view, everything fits into its place most harmoniously. It does not do so with any other plan. One of the most striking features of that system which we call “the present truth,” is that it is all linked and dovetailed together in such beautiful adjustment that you can not take out any part without disjoining and weakening the whole. This is no doubt the reason that “Spiritual Gifts,” Vol. I, page 121, speaking of the messages, said, more than thirty years ago: “Woe to him who shall move a block or stir a pin of these messages.” To every great theme of our well-established faith, we believe the same remark would apply, in a general way. Just notice what the result would be of removing this block that we are now discussing: If we say that the seventh trumpet did not begin to sound in 1844, then the temple of God in heaven was not opened at that time; then the sanctuary did not then begin to be cleansed; then the twenty-three hundred days did not then end; then those days were not reckoned from the right starting point. Then what about the seventy weeks, the revelation of Christ as the Messiah, his baptism, and the beginning of his ministry, in A. D. 27, and his crucifixion, in A. D. 31?—These are all thrown out of their place; and the whole prophecy must then be gone over again, and readjusted. And the same may be said with reference to the prophecy of the seven last plagues, which, in times past, some were disposed to throw largely into the past, claiming that we are now living under the sixth plague, because Spiritualism is so prominently brought to view under that plague. Rev. 16:12-14. But the very first plague falls upon the men who have received the mark of the beast; but that is something against which the Third Angel’s Message warns the world. Therefore if the first plague is in the past, the third message is in the past. But the third message follows the first; and the first is a time message, based on the ending of the twenty-three hundred days. And if that message is in the past, then the twenty-three hundred days ended in the past; and the same difficulties and queries arise in regard to the Messiahship of Christ, the seventy weeks, and all the associated dates, which can not be moved. No; none of these schemes will work. We enter our emphatic dissent against bringing the “higher criticism” into the realm of present truth. Don’t lose your adjustments; don’t slip any cogs; don’t throw any necessary pinions out of gear. But see that all parts of the system have their proper bearing on one another, and that all work harmoniously together. But you would not stick to a view simply because it has long been advocated in the past?—Not for that reason alone; but when, in a specially prophetic era, a view gives evidence of having been brought out by the light that the Lord caused to shine upon his word, and by the providence that directed the efforts for its production, we believe it is entitled to respect, and should not be displaced except by something that is clearly and tangibly a better view. But it is said that since 1844 the winds have been held; and how can we have a trumpet sounding, and the winds being held at the same time? The very fact that the winds have to be held, shows that the spirit of war and woe is abroad in the world, which would comport very well with the sounding of a prophetic trumpet; and the winds are held only temporarily, only till a special work of the Lord is done, which could not otherwise well be completed. This certainly can not militate against the general application of the prophecy.