God’s Trumpet

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In a recent sermon about church music, my pastor was making the case that God is musical, and even plays an instrument (trumpet). Some of what he said seemed like a stretch, and I couldn’t help but wonder if some of the items are more allegorical in nature rather than literal. I found an article that describes some of what he used as evidence. What do you theologians think?

The Trumpet of God
https://www.icr.org/article/9217
 
God created everything.

"Through Him all things were made, and without Him nothing was made that has been made." -- John 1:3

If music is a something, it was created by God. He created everything about it. He is the one who wrote the laws of physics such that when tones are produced either in harmony or succession, they possess certain characteristics. God also created man and wired him in such a way that the characteristics of these tones elicit certain responses. I've often wondered how it is that a flat third and seventh, aka a minor key universally elicits darker feelings but I digress...

Music is a creation of God, so, I imagine He would be quite adept at playing any musical instrument He desires.

The trumpets mentioned in the linked article are used more as communication devices rather than instruments of aestheticism. This was the days before loudspeakers and radio. When something needed to be communicated to many people over a great distance, trumpets were the instruments of choice.
 
HukNduck said:
In a recent sermon about church music, my pastor was making the case that God is musical, and even plays an instrument (trumpet). Some of what he said seemed like a stretch, and I couldn’t help but wonder if some of the items are more allegorical in nature rather than literal.
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Israel had musical instruments, of course, including trumpets. But the trumpets in the verses cited in that article are military and used to send clear signals to the troops. Think of a bugle used to signal to the cavalry to charge or retreat. It's musical, but not exactly music as we generally understand it. A bugle (or a shofar) isn't capable of more than a few notes. Just short musical phrases to communicate instructions clearly.
 
From C. H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David:

Verse 2. (last clause). It is said that David praised God upon an instrument of ten strings; and he would never have told how many strings there were, but that without doubt he made use of them all. God hath given all of us bodies, as it were, instruments of many strings; and can we think it music good enough to strike but one string, to call upon him with our tongues only? No, no; when the still sound of the heart by holy thoughts, and the shrill sound of the tongue by holy words, and the loud sound of the hands by pious works, do all join together, that is God's concert, and the only music wherewith he is affected. Sir Richard Baker.​
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I guess the verse I’m specifically referring to is the one about God sounding the trumpet before the rapture. Pastor specifically used that as an example of God using an instrument. I’ve heard this verse mentioned in my lifetime, but never heard preachers extrapolate the meaning. I noticed when the pastor did talk about it in this context, a lot of people in the congregation looked a little uncomfortable and glanced at one another, almost as if they weren’t sure the verse was literal in the way it was being spoken of.
 
HukNduck said:
I noticed when the pastor did talk about it in this context, a lot of people in the congregation looked a little uncomfortable and glanced at one another, almost as if they weren’t sure the verse was literal in the way it was being spoken of.
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It does smack of a puerile understanding.
 
HukNduck said:
In a recent sermon about church music, my pastor was making the case that God is musical, and even plays an instrument (trumpet). Some of what he said seemed like a stretch, and I couldn’t help but wonder if some of the items are more allegorical in nature rather than literal. I found an article that describes some of what he used as evidence. What do you theologians think?

The Trumpet of God
https://www.icr.org/article/9217
Click to expand...
God does not have a body. He could cause a trumpet sound to be heard ex-nihilo, but he does not physically blow a trumpet himself.
 
In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

It never says that God blows a trumpet. It merely says a trumpet shall sound and the trumpet of God will sound.

Probably an angel.
 
HukNduck said:
He said he didn’t know how a trumpet would be heard around the world, but that God would physically blow the trumpet.
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Is there a passage that says the trumpet will be heard around the world?
 
voicecrying said:
Is there a passage that says the trumpet will be heard around the world?
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Just like every eye seeing Jesus coming in the clouds in Rev. 1:7, it stands to reason that the announcement of the Second Coming would be known globally.

And just like Rev. 1:7 ("every eye" cannot literally see Jesus, unless you accept the pop-Dispensationalist assumption that it will be broadcast) the "trumpet" is safely taken figuratively.

it's either a martial metaphor (like a bugle sounding the charge) or a heraldic one (announcing an important event). Either way, the message is unmistakeable.
 
Ransom said:
Just like every eye seeing Jesus coming in the clouds in Rev. 1:7, it stands to reason that the announcement of the Second Coming would be known globally.

And just like Rev. 1:7 ("every eye" cannot literally see Jesus, unless you accept the pop-Dispensationalist assumption that it will be broadcast) the "trumpet" is safely taken figuratively.

it's either a martial metaphor (like a bugle sounding the charge) or a heraldic one (announcing an important event). Either way, the message is unmistakeable.
Click to expand...
I guess I’m leaning toward what Abcaines alluded to, which is basically God is not limited. From a purely physical standpoint, every person hearing a trumpet isn’t plausible, but perhaps it happens in such a manner that it defies the laws of physics. Obviously there are deaf people, so I’m not sure what that entails.
 
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