What Do You Mean 'The Feast of Trumpets'?

Did you know that the Feast of Trumpets is the only holy day in the Bible where the purpose of the day is not spelled out anywhere? It's true! Since that is the case, and since Armstrongism teaches that observing the day is mandatory in the New Covenant, it has to create some form of interpretation. But chances are if you ask people what the day means, the majority will say something about end-time prophecy, a great deal will not be able to tell you very much about the day at all, and many will give differing explanations.
There is no orthodoxy in the COGs. There is no systematic theology. No catechism. No creed. No unified authority. There is no single place where doctrine is defined and recorded. Anyone can teach anything they like, in any way they like, about anything they like, so long as they appear to uphold the idea that Feast of Trumpets observance is mandatory.

So the way I figure it, we would do well to review the facts surrounding that day to choke off any well-meaning sermon with bad information before it can take root.

YOM TERUAH

The English phrase Feast of Trumpets is translated from the Hebrew phrase Yom Teruah. "Feast of Trumpets" is a poor translation, though. Yom Teruah is more precisely translated “Day of Great Shouting” or “Day of Sounding the Shofar”.

The words "the shofar" have to be added because the word Teruah is one Hebrew word that means a great shout or the sound of a shofar (not the shofar itself). Since English doesn't have just one word like that then it should become a phrase. "Day of Shofar" doesn't work well as a translation because it's the sound of the shofar that the word points to not the shofar itself. Notice, neither does "Feast of Trumpets".
First, even though this is one of the festival days, the English word "feast" isn't a direct translation of Yom. Yom means "day". Second, the English word "trumpets" isn't a translation of Teruah at all. Teruah refers to a shofar, not a trumpet, and it refers to the sounding of the shofar not the shofar itself. If anything, "Day of the Sounding of Trumpets" might work. But you should know the Jews specifically make a distinction on this day between shofars and trumpets, and trumpets are not used.

Rabbinical Judaism has preferred to call the day Rosh Hashannah, which means Head of the Year. It's the Jewish secular New Year's day. Yes, the Jews have more than one New Year's.

The main Biblical instruction is to be found in Leviticus and Numbers.

(LEV. 23: 23-25) 23 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 24 “Speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a sabbath-rest, a memorial of blowing of trumpets [shofars], a holy convocation. 25 You shall do no customary work on it; and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord.’”

(NUM 29: 1-6) 1 ‘And in the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work. For you it is a day of blowing the trumpets [shofars]. 2 You shall offer a burnt offering as a sweet aroma to the Lord: one young bull, one ram, and seven lambs in their first year, without blemish. 3 Their grain offering shall be fine flour mixed with oil: three-tenths of an ephah for the bull, two-tenths for the ram, 4 and one-tenth for each of the seven lambs; 5 also one kid of the goats as a sin offering, to make atonement for you; 6 besides the burnt offering with its grain offering for the New Moon, the regular burnt offering with its grain offering, and their drink offerings, according to their ordinance, as a sweet aroma, an offering made by fire to the Lord.

Notice the command to blow the shofar. This is central to the day.
As I mentioned, a trumpet will not do, not even a silver trumpet like the ones blown on the Sabbath day; it must be a shofar. When was the last time your Church of God group blew the shofar on this day? Mine never did. (The law! The law! Just not that law.) We blew a brass trumpet once. Ever. So, just as we never made booths at the Feast of Booths, we also never blew shofars at the Day of Blowing Shofars.
Needless to say, if your church isn’t blowing the shofar on the feast of blowing the shofar – you’re doing it wrong.

Teruah isn’t just the noise of a shofar; teruah can also describe the noise made by a large crowd of people. A ruah is a shout, and a teruah is a great shout.

(JOS. 6: 4-5) 4 And seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark. But the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets. 5 It shall come to pass, when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, that all the people shall shout [ruah] with a great shout [teruah]; then the wall of the city will fall down flat. And the people shall go up every man straight before him.”

If teruah is a great shout, then Yom Teruah is the Day of the Great Shout. Yom Teruah is a day of loud noise. Jewish scholars always count four additional verses as helping to describe teruah: Psalms 44: 7; 66: 1; 81: 1-3; and 100: 1.

The noise isn’t always joyful, however. It can indicate a lot of noises, including the noise of alarm, or a battle cry. The Jews prefer the noise of alarm for this day and we'll see why later. One possible name for the day is "Day of Alarm".

Are you making a holy racket and blowing shofars on the Feast of Great Noise? If you feel that you are legally obligated to observe this day and you aren't making a great noise on the feast of great noise – you’re doing it wrong.

7,000 YEAR PLAN?

I wonder, if there is no shouting or shofar blowing on this day, how do the Armstrongist COG groups explain the Feast of Trumpets? How do they understand it? How do they justify it? What does it all mean?

One of the primary claims from Armstrongism to justify holy day observance in the New Covenant period is this: "The holy days reveal “God’s 7,000 year plan”. But do they? Let's investigate.

Let us ask the first big question – what is the meaning of the Feast of Trumpets? 

According to Armstrongism it points to, you guessed it, the seven trumpets of Revelation. Why? Because “trumpets”. Then what is Atonement? According to Armstrongism Atonement points to the time immediately after the return of Christ, at the start of the 1,000 year reign, when Satan is imprisoned.
Then what is Tabernacles? According to Armstrongism Tabernacles points to the one thousand year reign of Christ, called “the Millennium”. (Please read our article "You SHOULD Keep the Feast of Tabernacles!" for more on this topic.)
Then what is the "Last Great Day", which the United Church of God calls "The Eighth Day"? According to Armstrongism the Last Great Day represents the close of "the Millennium". (Please read our article "Is the "Last Great Day" In the Bible?" for more on this day.)

Notice anything odd there? Trumpets is the time immediately before the Millennium, Atonement is the time immediately before or even during the Millennium, Tabernacles is the Millennium, and the Last Great Day is the time during or just after the Millennium. If the seven holy days picture “God’s 7,000 year plan” then how can four holy days picture a time a few months or a couple years more than 1,000 years?

This all begs the question. We have not actually demonstrated that the 7 holy days picture the 7,000 years. So, in what way do the 7 holy days picture the 7,000 years?

If the 7 holy days represent 7,000 years then is there one holy day for each of the seven 1,000-year periods? Here we see four holy days representing the final 1,000 year period. Where then are the previous 6,000 years represented? You only have 3 holy days remaining! Which of those three represent the time before the Exodus?
We go over this in far greater depth in our article "Seven Thousand Year Plan".

Or maybe there isn't one holy day for each of the 1,000 year periods in "God's 7,000 year plan". Maybe the timing of the days in the year is the key of David. Then, why is Trumpets nine days from Atonement (ten if you count inclusively) and Atonement is five days from Tabernacles (six if you count inclusively)? What sense does that timing even make in this context?
If Trumpets represents something that should be up to three years long, and culminates in Atonement, then why are they nine days from each other? If Atonement represents something that happens during the Millennium, then why is it five days from Tabernacles? And if there are seven trumpets pictured, why aren't there seven Feasts of Trumpets each year? There are seven days in other places!

The only real, substantive thing we have here is the number 7. The 7 holy days apparently represent "God's 7,000 year plan" solely because of the number 7. There's a 7 in both. And that's all we have.

Let us ask the next big question - why would we conclude "the Old Testament holy days display God's 7,000 year plan" in the first place?

First off, where in the Bible does it say that there is a 7,000-year plan of God? Nowhere. The Sabbath day is a rest period at the end of the week, yes, but is the Millennium a "rest period"? Seems to me people will be working very busily in that time. This is just more speculation based on vague similarities.
Where in the Bible does it say that Jesus will return on or near the 6,000th year of man's history? Nowhere. Where in the Bible does it ever tell us what year it is? Nowhere. We can try to calculate what year it is from lifespans of the patriarchs, but you will run into a gap between Judges and Solomon. One would suppose that the Jews had tried this approach by now, yet they say it's the year 5774 [in Gregorian year 2014 when this article posted]. Most people that I've seen trying to add up the years come to different conclusions, and most of those conclusions say we're past that 6,000th year already. Herbert Armstrong at first taught that the 6,000 years would be up in 1936. Then again in 1975. I have an old document from Harold Smith that "proves" the 6,000th year is fall of 2016. Unfortunately, that would mean we are 1 year into the Tribulation right now in 2014.

If this were spelled out in the Bible, you'd think we would point to verses a lot more and speculate a lot less, no?

So, once again, we are left with only one substantive explanation: that the 7 holy days represent "God's 7,000 year plan" because of the number 7. There's a 7 in both.

Now let's ask the next big question - in what way does the distinct nature of Yom Teruah teach us about the seven trumpet plagues of Revelation?

If it truly is so vital that God commands in the New Covenant period that we all observe this day in order to understand the "7,000 year plan of God" and enter the Kingdom of God, then in what way does observance of this day impart understanding that nothing else could have done? Do I have to observe the day to get this understanding? Does understanding come from the day itself, or from a sermon given on or about the day? Would that same sermon given on a different day give one the same understanding? The Jews observe this day; do they get this understanding from the day? Armstrongist COG's don't even so much as blow shofars on this day of shofar blowing. In what substantive way did this day teach me about the seven trumpet blasts of Revelation that any other day of the year could not possibly have taught me?

So we return again to our original question, why would we conclude that the Old Testament holy days display "God's 7,000 year plan" in the first place? The only substantive answer we have is because there are 7 of them and 7,000 years in the plan. That's it. That's the entire doctrine. So, 7 and 7,000 is the reason. In other words, it's the exact same thinking that we are given as to why the Feast of Trumpets means the seven trumpet plagues of Revelation. Because they both contain the English word "trumpets".
And I'm supposed to base my salvation around that?

I've checked several COG websites, reading articles about the Feast of Trumpets, and every last one of them base their doctrine on scant else than this. The one who comes closest to something more substantive is the Church of the Great God, who clearly put more thought into it than the others and try to point the reader to Jesus Christ - which I commend.

Let's pause before we conclude and think about what is being claimed here.
The claim is that God made a feast - a festival, a celebration - of the seven trumpets of Revelation. Have you read about the seven trumpets of Revelation lately? They are plagues. Plagues! The seven trumpet plagues and the bowl plagues are not something to be having a festival about! They are dark and terrible times. They are a godless time of suffering, death, and darkness according to Armstrongist interpretation of these things. Of all of the events in our history, why on earth would you feast over that??
I recognize that it's not in anyone's intention to celebrate the plagues themselves. The COG groups understand what they are doing as pointing towards the event of the Second Advent of Christ at the seventh trumpet blast. They focus on the seventh trump. The problem is that if Trumpets points to the trumpets of Revelation, then there is no escape from the implications of the first 6 trumpets.

Before the death of Herbert Atmstrong it was taught that Trumpets would be the day Christ would return to earth. Once again, this is more of the same Trumpets/trumpets business. A division arose after the death of Herbert Armstrong where people have started teaching that Pentecost will be the day when Jesus will return. This weighs heavily on the interpretation of Trumpets.
This division robs Trumpets of its Armstrongist meaning. To put meaning back in, people have speculated that Trumpets will be the day of the first trumpet blast rather than the seventh. Note how this greatly strengthens the day as being a celebration of plagues. Others speculate that Jesus will return to gather His saints on Pentecost, then He will have the Marriage Supper of the Lamb (REV. 19: 7-9) while the vials of God's wrath are poured out on the world (REV. 15: 5-7 and following chapters), and then He will return to earth yet again on Trumpets to fulfill Rev. 19: 19-21. Except, Revelation 19 isn't paired with a trumpet blast at all. So, what that has to do with Trumpets is anyone's guess.
This is all very interesting to think about! However, when we pause to calm our imaginations and evenly dissect what is being said, we see nothing at all of genuine substance is backing these claims up. All prophetic interpretation is speculation. These speculations on the timing of Jesus' second coming are particularly unsupported. It's not based in any fact at all, biblical or otherwise. But now, with these new timeline hypotheses, they don't even conform to the "Trumpets is trumpets" idea.

I recognize that at this point at least one person out there is thinking, "The author's mind is just too closed to accept the plain truth of 7 & 7,000 or trumpets & trumpets."

But in my defense, the things I'm being given aren't proof. The Armstronist explanation doesn't even remotely resemble proof. It's conjecture at best. I cannot reach the conclusion that Trumpets = trumpet plagues from what is being presented to me. It's drawing sweeping conclusions from the barest minimum similarities. Doesn't anyone but us see that one must already accept the conclusion before this evidence is presented?

And none of it, not a single thing, matches Jewish interpretation.

A JEWISH PERSPECTIVE

Yom Teruah is the only holy day in the Bible where the purpose of the day is not explicitly spelled out. That doesn't mean we can make up anything we darned well please, though. We've seen the Armstrongist interpretation already. So I wonder, how do the Jews see Yom Teruah? It would be wise to ask the Jews how they see the meaning of their holy day.

“The biblical name for Rosh Hashanah is Yom Teruah.

Numbers 29:1 commands us to observe a Yom Teruah, on the first day of the seventh month. (Why the Jewish New Year is celebrated in the seventh month is another issue: suffice it to say that the rabbis list a total of four new years in the Jewish calendar.)

Teruah means a massive shout, either by a crowd or by a horn. For example, the walls of Jericho came tumbling down when the people (Joshua 1:20) “raised a mighty shout” (teruah gedolah).

This is a form of prayer and appears many times in Psalms — for example, “All you people clap your hands, raise a joyous shout (teruah) to God” (47:2).

As for meaning a shofar blast, during their travels in the desert, a teruah of the shofar let the Israelites know that it was time to move on.

Both of teruah’s meanings, supplicatory shouting and the sounding of the shofar, unite in Yom Teruah. It is a day of blowing the shofar and a day of prayer. The feeling of yearning exemplified in the shofar’s ululations are meant to inspire us to long to connect to God in a way that is beyond what words can measure.”

-Rabbi Julian Sinclair, September 17, 2009, “Teruah”, Jewish Chronicle Online, http://www.thejc.com/judaism/jewish-words/teruah

Jewish tradition also sees a few other things in the day - for example it is believed to be the anniversary of the creation of Adam and Eve. But more importantly, the Jews believe that God writes names in His Book of Life on the Day of Atonement, so Yom Teruah is ten days to get your affairs in order, repent of your sins, and make right what you've done wrong in order to receive a better mark from God for the year.

In a nutshell, the Jewish perspective on Trumpets is that it points to Atonement. It The Bible never explains what Trumpets is about because by itself it isn't about anything. Trumpets is a time to prepare for Atonement.

Now, given what we’ve learned here, which makes more sense:
A) That teruah is a wake-up call to look at your life and refocus on your relationship with God, with praise and thanks?
-or-
B) That teruah was translated into the English word “Trumpets” and therefore it can refer to nothing other than the seven last trumpets of Revelation?

I'm going with A).

But… “trumpets”!

A MEMORIAL ...OF THE FUTURE

Yom Teruah is also called Zichron Teruah (LEV. 23: 24). The word Zichron is translated “memorial”. That’s a memorial, not a looking forward.

I want to point another thing out here. I often hear a certain argument in support of the weekly Sabbath. It’s a small, little argument and it goes like this: “Exodus 28:  says ‘Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.’ See? It says ‘remember’. Therefore the Sabbath had to already have been being kept.”

Well, it was being kept … since chapter 16. And it was supposed to be remembered from that time forward.
But the point I'm trying to get at is in one area a remembrance is supposed to be proof that an event had already occurred. However, in another area a remembrance means no such thing at all. It's inconsistent! The Jews have supposedly been “remembering” a dark and deadly prophetic event for the past 3,400 years that we ourselves haven’t even seen come to pass yet. 

Not too shabby for a memorial, eh?

The reason why I bring up this section here at all is to bring to your attention one idea - the day has no meaning given in the Bible and with the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD there is no symbolic meaning within the day either. What memorial? Without the shofar and without the sacrifices, the ritual has been completely gutted.
This being the case, Armstrongist doctrine has to fill something in. Anything! It grasps for meaning in a day where the only provided meaning is lost. Inherently knowing that a memorial is insufficient, any connection to modern time - even one employing the English word "trumpets" to arrive at seven horrible trumpet plagues - is better than accepting the hollowness of pointless hours ticking by on a clock for their own sake. How can a mandatory day just exist in and of itself? The question begs to be asked, "What is the meaning of Trumpets in a New Covenant context?" But the best, most obvious answer is skipped completely in favor of holding to a certain fickle speculation about how prophecy will unfold.

THE MEANING OF TRUMPETS

If the Feast of Trumpets has a meaning in the Bible at all, and if the Feast of Trumpets looks forward to anything, it is this -- Jesus Christ. All of the shadows of the Old Testament point to the substance that casts the shadow -- Jesus Christ (COL. 2: 16-17). Not necessarily to His second coming, but to His first - to prove He is who He says He is and does what He says He will. To know anything about the holy days, one must go to the source and goal.

Take the Day of Atonement for example.
Who knows the secrets of our hearts? Jesus. Who is the sacrifice for our atonement? Jesus. Who was led outside of town? Jesus. Who was innocent, yet our sins were placed on his head? Jesus. Who is the Great High Priest? Jesus. Who heals the rift between us and God and makes right the broken relationship? Jesus. When did Jesus do these things? At His first advent.
Atonement points to Jesus!

I must make it absolutely clear at this point - we vehemently disagree that Satan is the Azazel goat, as many of the COG groups teach including the UCG.

Our sins are not placed on Satan, but on Jesus. Jesus alone carried away our sins. The Azazel goat isn't sent away for its own sins, but for the sins of Israel. Satan is imprisoned for his own sins. The sins of others were laid on Jesus. The Azazel goat was innocent! Satan isn't innocent, as Jesus is. The Azazel goat was led out of Jerusalem just as Jesus was led out of Jerusalem to be crucified. The Azazel goat was sent away. Satan isn't being sent away, he's being imprisoned and kept. The Azazel goat was sent away into the wilderness just as Jesus was sent away into death and the grave. The ritual sacrifices (and the Azazel was a sacrifice) all point to some aspect of Jesus and who He is and what He does for us. And we haven't even begun to discuss the High Priest as mediator and the temple cleansing. All Jesus.
The Armstrongist interpretation of the Day of Atonement as representing the first event of the Millennium where Satan is imprisoned, hangs on Satan being the fulfillment of the Azazel goat. Not only does it ignore every other symbol of the day but it gives Satan a role in our atonement. Jesus is unmistakably the fulfillment of the first goat that was sacrificed, and that happened at His first Advent, and Jesus is the fulfillment of the second goat as well, and that happened at His first Advent.

The Day of Atonement was entirely about the necessity of Jesus' sacrifice. It was about the broken relationship, the need for a mediator, our complete inability to do this on our own, and in short our need for Him. If Passover is about the fact that He died to successfully wash away our guilt, then Atonement is about why He needed to die to successfully wash away our guilt.

If Satan isn't the Azazel goat but rather Jesus is, then Atonement pictures His first Advent and there is nothing at all that ties Atonement to the Millennium.

So, what is Trumpets? No one alters the course of their life without first evaluating their situation. It is the call for Israel to see themselves as they really were! The Bible says "Watch!" but it never says "watch the news". The call is to watch yourself. The shofar blows an alarm to startle Israel from their contentment and complacency and sin so that Atonement can come. The shofar called to Israel, "See your need! See your need!"

Israel surrounded Jericho and marched, but it was not their direct assault that brought down the walls. Gideon and 300 men rushed at the Assyrians, but it wasn't their swords that drove out the whelming horde. The Apostles hid in the upper room and prayed, but it wasn't their own righteousness that brought the mighty sound of rushing wind and the in-dwelling of the Holy Spirit.
You have sinned. We all have! Merely humble yourself and acknowledge your need for Him. He takes care of the rest, and indeed has already taken care of it. His grace is sufficient even for your sins. Hear the jolting alarm of the shofar - see your need! Then, "Do not be afraid; only believe." (MAR. 5: 36).

Now, I'm not talking about hating yourself. The Worldwide Church of God used to teach people to hate themselves:

"Far from being fond of ourselves, let us, like Job, come to see ourselves from a God's-eye view, so that the next time you ask yourself the question, "What am I?" you can say, "I'm carnal, I'm selfish, I hate myself!" and really mean it!" 

-David P. Wainright, Good News magazine, Feb-Mar 1966, p.14

That approach is absolutely wrongheaded and dangerous. God does not want you to hate yourself. Hating yourself is not humility. Not thinking of yourself at all is far closer to humility than hating yourself. Godly sorrow has nothing to do with hating yourself. God doesn't demand you grovel, just acknowledge. He's not going to berate you for your sin; He's going to blot out the sin. He's takes the punishment in our place. No need to punish yourself! Just be honest.

So, when the teruah alarm wakes us up to our misbehavior, who paid that price for that misbehavior? Jesus. When we see our helplessness and recognize our need, to whom should we cry out? Jesus. Who accomplished a victory for us on the cross 2,000 years ago? Jesus. Who should we have in mind for Trumpets? Jesus. Who is the solid reality that fulfills the shadow of the sabbaths and holy days? Jesus. The shofar was yet another tool of the nanny that leads all who understand its lessons to Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by faith (GAL. 3: 24-25). Not at His second coming, but at His first - and every day.

Now that we've gone over these things, we must reevaluate whether or not either The Feast of Trumpets or the Day of Atonement primarily represent the return of Christ. We must challenge the assumption that Trumpets is trumpets. And if not, then the Armstrongist interpretation of the holy days picturing "God's 7,000 year plan" goes from starting weakly to nearly unworkable.

CONCLUSION

The Feast of Trumpets is translated from the Hebrew phrase Yom Teruah, which means "Day of Blowing the Shofar" or "Day of Great Noise". "Trumpets" isn't really the best translation there since there is a clear distinction in tradition between the shofar and a trumpet. So the Armstrongist Church of God groups give the day a name that is imprecise to begin with.

The Armstrongist Church of God groups teach that the Feast of Trumpets points to the seven trumpet plagues of Revelation. They conclude this because the Feast of Trumpets has the word trumpets in it, and the trumpet plagues of Revelation also have the word trumpets. And that's really the long and the short of it. The connection between Trumpets and trumpets is 'trumpets'. But if the name really should be shofar, then this connection is as weak as any could be.

Since the Armstrongist Church of God groups teach that Trumpets points to the seven trumpet plagues of Revelation, then they are actually celebrating devastating plagues. They also conclude that the Azazel goat sacrificed on the Day of Atonement represents Satan being imprisoned, which gives Satan a role in mankind's atonement.
Unfortunately Satan is a terrible match for this symbol; Jesus Christ Himself is by far a better match - and that at His first coming. There is no strong reason whatsoever to believe that either Trumpets or Atonement point to the time of Jesus' second coming. And if you are willing to read our Tabernacles and Day of Atonement articles, you'll see there's no strong reason to believe those point to Jesus' second coming either.

As supporting evidence, the Armstrongist Church of God groups also teach that mankind will have 7,000 years on this earth and the seven Old Testament holy days teach about that time. The reasoning for this is no stronger than the "Trumpets/trumpets" connection. This time, there are 7 holy days and 7,000 years. So, "Trumpets/trumpets" and "7/7,000".

I find none of the proofs to be convincing. It's all conjecture and speculation towards a predetermined conclusion. The conclusions about the Feast of Trumpets don't come from the evidence. The conclusion was already reached then evidence had to be found to justify it post facto.

As you sit in sevices this year, listening intently to the sermon, after everything you hear please ask yourself these things:

• Is there anything tying this verse to the Feast of Trumpets besides the English word "trumpets" or the number seven?
• Would this evidence convince a non-believer, or do I only accept this only because it agrees with what I already believe?
• Does this really help me to understand the larger picture? 
• How much of this content points me to Christ so that I can be justified by faith versus how much points me to prophetic speculation (that changes quite often) so I can be justified by my own efforts at law-keeping?

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It is important that you understand; Everything on this blog is based on the current understanding of each author. Never take anyone's word for it, always prove it for yourself, it is your responsibility. You cannot ride someone else's coattail into the Kingdom. ; ) Acts 17:11

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