THE IMPORTANCE OF THE FEAST OF TRUMPETS TO MORMONS

Have you ever wondered about the High Holy Days or Appointed times that are written about in Scripture? Many of us who call ourselves Mormons seldom think about Biblical Holidays as anything more than a Jewish tradition. But these specific days were actually ordained by God and given to ALL of the House of Israel as perpetual ordinances. In these Appointed Times, we find the root of our tradition to engage in General Conference. We are to remember during the Holy Days the covenants and promises of God's loving-kindness, mercy, and grace in history and the fulfillment in Jesus Christ. These set-apart days point to God’s plan for all of mankind regarding salvation and having a relationship with Him.

The sound of the trumpet signifies the voice of God or the revelations of God from Heaven. It foreshadows the destiny of the House of Israel as a called-out people. Thus, the coming forth of the Book of Mormon on The Feast of Trumpets (Rosh Hashanah) was not a coincidence.

The golden plates were delivered on September 22, 1827. The Feast of Trumpets is observed as a day of prayers for God's remembrance for his scattered people.  On that day, truth came up out of the earth, and righteousness came down out of Heaven.

The Feast of Trumpets – A Message to the Nations 

“These are the feasts of the Lord, holy convocations which you shall proclaim at their appointed times….The LORD said to Moses, “Give the following instructions to the people of Israel. On the first day of the appointed month in early autumn, you are to observe a day of complete rest. It will be an official day for holy assembly, a day commemorated with loud blasts of a trumpet.” (Leviticus 23: 4, 23-24)

The Feast of Trumpets or Day of Blowing (Yom Teruah) is an Appointed Time of God to Israel and the Seventy Nations divided up among the Council of the Gods (Elohim) in the Ancient of Days.  Today it is commonly called Rosh Hashanah or “Head of the Year” in Judaism.  Its’ message and appointment, though, are much more ancient than many have supposed.  Its roots are found in the creation among the Council of the Gods, while its fruits are seen in the disinheritance of the nations at the Tower of Babel.

IN THE BEGINNING- THE COUNCIL OF GODS – THE DIVIDING OF THE NATIONS

To understand the importance of the Appointed Times and God’s purposes for Zion, we must consider an ancient Israelite worldview.  Portions  of this worldview were restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith:

“The head one of the Gods brought forth the Gods.” That is the true meaning of the words. Baurau signifies to bring forth. If you do not believe it, you do not believe the learned man of God. Learned men can teach you no more than what I have told you. Thus the head God brought forth the Gods in the grand council.

I will transpose and simplify it in the English language. Oh, ye lawyers, ye doctors, and ye priests, who have persecuted me, I want to let you know that the Holy Ghost knows something as well as you do. The head God called together the Gods and sat in grand council to bring forth the world. The grand councilors sat at the head in yonder heavens and contemplated the creation of the worlds which were created at the time.” (Joseph Smith – King Follet Discourse)

In an Ancient Israelite worldview, Yehovah was God who ruled among a divine council.  “God (Elohim. singular) has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods (Elohim. Plural) he holds judgment” (Psalms 82:1)

His council consisted of seventy Elohim (plural) or divine beings among whom the nations were divided:

“Remember the days of old; consider the years of many generations; ask your father, and he will show you, your elders, and they will tell you. When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God (benai  Elohim). But the LORD’s (Yahweh) portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage” (Deuteronomy 32:7-8)

Other preserved records known as the Targum describe the posterity of Noah being divided into seventy nations and languages, each ruled by a different or lesser Elohim or Divine Being presided over by Yehovah:  

“When the Most High made allotment of the world unto the nations which proceeded from the sons of Noah, in the separation of the writings and languages of the children of men at the time of the division (the days of Peleg), He cast the lot among the seventy angels, the princes of the nations.” (Aramaic Targum, Deuteronomy 32:7-8)

The Tower of Babel and the Day of Trumpets

As a result of covenant disloyalty, the nations and many of their elohim were disinherited by Yehovah at the time of the scattering at the Tower of Babel.   This cataclysmic event was called the Deluge of the Winds (a day of blowing) in early literature.  Even as God had destroyed the Ancient World by Water, he also destroyed their tower by Winds (a place where heaven and earth met) and divided them after their disinheritance at the Tower of Babel.  (Book of Jubilees chapter 10:18–27) The nations were divided by language and land at the trumpet of God's voice.

After some time, God led Abraham out of the midst of the nation where this judgment took place and re-established his covenant to bring him to the land of Promise. Thus, from Abraham to Isaac and from Isaac to Israel, Yehovah continued the covenant he had established with the Fathers like Noah, Enoch, Seth, and Adam.  

Adam and the Ancient Order of Things

The Israelite mind is one of cycles and patterns.  Often times those things of the most ancient order may be hidden in plain sight. Symbols are meant not only to reveal to those who ask, seek, and knock but also to conceal from those who have no desire for the truth and do not exercise their due diligence to obtain.  God is the same yesterday, today, and forever.  In him is no variance.  

If we were to examine the records and knowledge we have of Noah, his sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth and the division of the inheritance of the Seventy Nations that came from Noah and his Sons, we would see God’s divine pattern.  Don’t get me wrong, there is no intergalactic 501c3 corporation.  This is the basis for the government of Patriarchal families that can be found from the times of Adam, the ancient of Days, even down to Enoch and Noah.   It is the same structure that was given to Adam, Enoch, Noah on to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and the Seventy Families that went down into Egypt.  It is also the same kingdom established among Moses, Aaron, and Joshua, the Seventy Elders (who represent God’s representatives to the Nations),  and Twelve tribal rulers in Israel, and the Eloheim (judges) called and elected as captains by the families they represented 

In re-establishing an earthly council on earth among Israel that was in similitude of his original divine counsel that existed at the time of Eden, we see that God establishes a kingdom on Earth as it is in Heaven. The Mountain of Assembly, like Sinai, is the place where the unseen and the seen meet. Like Eden, it is a high place where the sons of God minister in the tabernacle of Heaven before the throne of God. The tabernacle of Israel is but an earthly pattern of the tent or tabernacle of Heaven. 

God's original intent was to restore the nations (gentiles) to a proper covenant relationship with him.  Israel was intended to be a kingdom of Priests whose duty was to be the means of that restoration.  Their corporate failure was as real as the failure and fall in Eden.  As was planned from the beginning, it would take God tabernacled among men to do the job right--Jesus (Yeshua) the Messiah.  The Feast of Trumpets or Day of Blowing is the sounding of God's warning to the nations--The Day of Yehovah is upon us.

The Day of Trumpets: 

“Blow a trumpet in Zion; sound an alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the LORD is coming; it is near…Blow the trumpet in Zion; consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly; gather the people. Consecrate the congregation; assemble the elders; gather the children, even nursing infants. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her chamber...“And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit. And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes.” (Joel  2: 16, 16, 28.29)

The Time of the Gentiles/Nations Fulfilled:

Three times like a sounding trumpet from Heaven on the Day of Trumpets, the Angel Moroni appeared to Joseph Smith, “He also quoted the second chapter of Joel, from the twenty-eighth verse to the last. He also said that this was not yet fulfilled, but was soon to be. And he further stated that the fulness of the Gentiles was soon to come in.”

On September 22nd, 1827 (The Feast of Trumpets), the heavens were parted, and a trumpet was sounded in fulfillment of this Appointed Time for All Israel throughout their Generations.  And again, what do we hear? Glad tidings from Cumorah! Moroni, an angel from heaven, declaring the fulfilment of the prophets—the book to be revealed. (D&C 128:20) And the Book to come by way of the gentile carried the voice of the Lord like a trumpet at Mt. Sinai to all Israel – Awake and Remember. It is also a trumpet of judgment and salvation for the nations (gentiles)

As in the Days of the Tower of Babel and in the Fall of Jericho, we see that the rule of the nations (gentiles) will come to an end even as God sets his hand again to advance his Kingdom.  It is a day of repentance and spiritual conquest.

The Dry Season Draws to an End

On September 11-12, 2015, the month of Elul and the dry season of Israel draws to an end. Yet, even as the closing of one day overlaps into the birth of another, on September 13, 2015, the memorial of the Day of Trumpets arrives, “Awake, awake, put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city; for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean. Shake thyself from the dust; arise, sit down, O Jerusalem; loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion.”

The Days of Awe- God's Warfare Among the Nations- Zion to Put on Strength

In reality, we are faced with War- a turf War, if you will. A jubilee of jubilees wherein the rightful owner of the vineyard is reclaiming that which he owns.  The decree has gone forth and will be fulfilled in preparation for these events, "Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who is on the Lord’s side? let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi  gathered themselves together unto him." (Exodus 32:26)

To do this, we must respond to the voice of the Trumpet and put on our strength in preparation for battle.  We must become loose from the bands that tie us down:

"7. Questions by Elias Higbee: What is meant by the command in Isaiah, 52d chapter, 1st verse, which saith: Put on thy strength, O Zion—and what people had Isaiah reference to?

 8 He had reference to those whom God should call in the last days, who should hold the power of priesthood to bring again Zion, and the redemption of Israel; and to put on her strength is to put on the authority of the priesthood, which she, Zion, has a right to by lineage; also to return to that power which she had lost.

 9 What are we to understand by Zion loosing herself from the bands of her neck; 2d verse?

 10 We are to understand that the scattered remnants are exhorted to return to the Lord from whence they have fallen; which if they do, the promise of the Lord is that he will speak to them, or give them revelation. See the 6th, 7th, and 8th verses. The bands of her neck are the curses of God upon her, or the remnants of Israel in their scattered condition among the Gentiles.(D&C 113)

THE PURPOSE OF THE APPOINTED TIMES

The appointed times of Israel were given as an observance through all our generations. They were the appointed times which God's people were to prepare for and observe as they gathered to the Temple of God to hear the word of God. The Feast of Trumpets, in particular, was a warning call to all Israel to wake up and prepare for the times ahead, including the Day of Atonement and the Feast of Tabernacles.