Sounds Out Of Heaven?

Sounds Out of Heaven? - By Gary Stearman – www.prophecyinthenews.com Among the many strange phenomena we’re watching, a new development has emerged. There is a mystery afoot. Around the world, people have begun to hear strange sounds … bone-chilling, unexplainable, echoing, resonating, harmonic, crashing, metallic clamoring racket. It has forced many to think again about the coming apocalypse. All over the world, people are experiencing strange music and noise from the earth and the firmament above. Sometimes, it comes from the sky as droning trumpets that sound notes in the lower to middle registers, but are nevertheless musical in nature. Invariably, as they moan out their somber blasts, people are swept into a state of emotion. Some reports have them thinking of the end of the world … Judgment Day! Others tell of various listeners swept into a state of foreboding. That’s not all.There are growing numbers of reports on sounds of an entirely different type. These are explosions that come without any warning, are heard for a few days, then fall silent once again. Sometimes, they appear to come from underground. Often, they seem to come from just outside a living room or bedroom wall … reported to resemble the sound that might result from the head-on crash of two speeding locomotives. They come at so high a volume that they should be heard over long distances. But this is not always the case. Furthermore, though unbelievably loud to the immediate hearers they seldom, if ever, register traces on local seismographs. Imagine a thud, a roar and the clanking of metal at unbelievably high volume. Residents rush outside, but discover nothing out of the ordinary, nothing at all. This is an emerging mystery. But it is far more than a simple mystery; it portends a threat of some sort. Aerial trumpets remind one of nothing quite so much as the sound of war. The trumpet, after all, has long been the sound that moves armies into battle. The shofar is the biblical call to judgment each year at Rosh HaShanah. And devastating explosions are, of course, the very essence of battle. All the mysterious sounds have one thing in common: Sooner or later, listeners report that they find themselves contemplating things supernatural. This isn’'t the first time that such sounds have been heard. Particularly in the last three decades of the nineteenth century, strange sounds were reported in the heavens, ranging from explosions to metallic clanging and even “harp like” sounds. In the current wave, some percipients have reported what sounds like the jumbled voices and music of a distant radio or television set. To date, scientists theorize about “distant sounds,” that might somehow be transported to faraway locations due to unusual meteorological conditions. But what about aerial harps … or the continuous droning of trumpets? That, of course, would require conditions not known to exist. Nor are there any substantiating seismic events, explosions or head-on collisions. The sounds seem to come out of nowhere. Trumpet Chorus of Kiev The trumpets first gained attention on August 11th, 2011, when a video from the apartment district of Kiev, Ukraine, was uploaded to the popular website, YouTube. It was a home video 11 minutes and 28 seconds long, showing the city and the sky. As the camera vainly searched for a source, an eerie trumpet ensemble moaned and blasted an inscrutable message. Its notes range from baritone to bass, repeated in a sighing chorus. It echoed throughout the landscape in a way that suggested origination high above the Earth’s surface. Absolutely nothing was observed at any time as the source of the bizarre sounds. As might be expected, the sounds quickly caught the public imagination. Phrases like “end of the world,” “Judgment Day” and “the Apocalypse” were quickly heard. Many were reminded of the Seven Trumpets of Revelation, saying that they had never been so frightened in their lives. Throughout Eastern Europe, similar sounds began to be heard. After that, a week or so later, the western hemisphere began to take part in the chorus. On January 12th, 2012, the sounds were recorded in central Chili. They seemed to play variations on the calls made by the first trumpets. On January 19th, in Olive Branch, Mississippi, newspaper delivery man William Wilson Smith heard what he called a “chorus of trumpets” that seemed to come from every direction, and to consist of “6 or 7 frequencies.” As a part-time audio engineer, he marveled at their preternatural quality. Like many others, he couldn'’t help feeling that Judgment Day had arrived, or that Gabriel was blowing his legendary horn, even though that precise expression doesn’'t occur in Scripture. He remarked that the sounds had made him review his lifestyle. Then, on Sunday evening, January 22nd, another video surfaced on YouTube, again featuring the mysterious baleful, droning trumpets, this time in the city of Mönchengladbach, Germany. As a young couple playfully took videos of their dog in their living room, they heard the sounds and finally followed them outdoors, after first believing that they were vibrating pipes in the walls. The trumpets were both loud and completely out of the ordinary. Most importantly, the video showed all the signs of being absolutely authentic. This is very significant, because when any phenomenon goes viral on YouTube, there are instant imitative hoaxes launched by attention seekers. Predictably, these were soon being launched by the dozens. Legitimate recordings of the trumpets were dubbed into faked scenarios by would-be video stars, taking advantage of the natural curiosity that emanates from the strange phenomenon. But serious observers could discern the authentic originals. Then the phenomenon seemed to move westward into various parts of Canada and the northwestern United States. Canadian lumberjacks and urban residents of Vancouver recorded them, as did citizens in Washington and Oregon. Still, authentic recordings continued to come from Czechoslovakia, Hungary and other European locations, including England. They were all variations of the original strange trumpets. This latter point is important, because for a time, the fake recordings seemed to outnumber the originals. Then, normal, everyday citizens living in a variety of locations recorded several additional choruses of horns, each emanating slightly different musical patterns. They lived in a variety of locations, including Topeka, Kansas and Los Angeles, California. That, however, was only the beginning. The trumpet choruses began to be blended with other strange sounds, including several reports of mingled conversation and metallic noises, resembling television sets being run at high volume, yet at a great distance. Voices and music could be heard, but not distinguished clearly. Big Bangs Everywhere Finally, and continuing at this writing, a new series of spectacular sounds came into being. It consists of loud bangs, booms and explosions. Some are dull thuds; some are tympanic resonations, others are metallic crashes described as sounding exactly like two cars, trucks or even trains colliding head-on. On March 6th, southeastern Georgia and Birmingham, Alabama residents heard these sounds. No cause was found. March 15th, witnessed another series of loud, crashing sounds. Then they blasted Montello, Wicsonsin. On March 18th, the city of Clintonville, Wisconsin made the national news when a series of booms with metallic, clanging overtones began to be heard by most of its population. The whole city was upset, as municipal workers scoured the water, sewer and gas systems. All was found to be in perfect condition. Experts were puzzled, then frustrated as all their investigations showed nothing out of order, in spite of the extreme intensity of the sounds. On March 19th, emergency crews were summoned again as a new round of percussive sounds plagued the city. The booming, clanging sounds took place in the early morning hours, then ceased at daybreak, leaving everyone puzzled. The mystery of these sounds deepened further, when it was discovered that seismic readings remained normal in the area. National media featured their experiences on the evening news. For two weeks, the little town was torn apart by the sounds. Every professional assessment was summarily dismissed for lack of evidence. Earthquakes were eliminated as a cause. One thing is certain, there is a uniform belief among those who experience the strange hums, choruses and blasts, that they portend some great disaster that is about to befall them. Is there any precedent for such strange happenings? Are people right to expect that these sounds carry a message? Heavenly Battles More to the point, can we expect heavenly sounds of various kinds as we approach the day when the Lord finally judges this world? The answer from Scripture comes in a remarkable series of decisive historical events. A good example is found in David’s significant victory over the Philistines: And the Philistines yet again spread themselves abroad in the valley. Therefore David inquired again of God; and God said unto him, Go not up after them; turn away from them, and come upon them over against the mulberry trees. And it shall be, when thou shalt hear a sound of going in the tops of the mulberry trees, that then thou shalt go out to battle: for God is gone forth before thee to smite the host of the Philistines. David therefore did as God commanded him: and they smote the host of the Philistines from Gibeon even to Gazer” (I Chr. 14:13-16). Actually, both Scripture and history are replete with examples of the Lord’s voice being associated with judgment. The prophet Jeremiah spoke about a classic “Day of the Lord” prophecy. Here, in no uncertain terms, we find supernatural sounds from on high associated with the Lord’s judgment: “For, lo, I begin to bring evil on the city which is called by my name, and should ye be utterly unpunished? Ye shall not be unpunished: for I will call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, saith the LORD of hosts. Therefore prophesy thou against them all these words, and say unto them, The LORD shall roar from on high, and utter his voice from his holy habitation; he shall mightily roar upon his habitation; he shall give a shout, as they that tread the grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth. A noise shall come even to the ends of the earth; for the LORD hath a controversy with the nations, he will plead with all flesh; he will give them that are wicked to the sword, saith the LORD. Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Behold, evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great whirlwind shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth. And the slain of the LORD shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth:they shall not belamented, neither gathered, nor buried; they shall be dung upon the ground” (Jer. 25:29-33). Given the example of these verses, those who have recently been driven to frightened self-examination have had every reason to do so. When God moves in judgment, it is apparently an acoustic event of fearful proportions. The Law and the Temple And so it has been from ancient days. At the giving of the Law, the Lord came down upon the top of Mt. Horeb. The gravity of the event is recorded forever, characterizing the voice of the Lord as a gigantic trumpet: There shall not an hand touch it, but he shall surely be stoned, or shot through; whether it be beast or man, it shall not live: when the trumpet soundeth long, they shall come up to the mount. And Moses went down from the mount unto the people, and sanctified the people; and they washed their clothes. And he said unto the people, Be ready against the third day: come not at your wives. And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled. And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God; and they stood at the nether part of the mount. And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly. And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice” (Ex. 19:13-19). Fourteen hundred years later, in the first century, the historian Flavius Josephus wrote of many supernatural disturbances that took place around the time that the Romans destroyed the Second Temple in AD 70. A “star resembling a sword” was seen over Jerusalem. It remained in the sky for an entire year. About a week before Passover, a brilliant light shone down upon the Temple Mount, making it as bright as day. The Temple’s huge inner eastern gate, so heavy that it took twenty men to move them, opened of its own accord. Following Passover, the following event was noted: “Besides these, a few days after that feast, on the one-and-twentieth day of the month Artemisius [Iyar], a certain prodigious and incredible phenomenon appears; I suppose the account of it would seem to be a fable, were it not related by those that saw it, and were not the events that followed it of so considerable nature as to deserve such signals; for, before sun-setting, chariots and troops of soldiers in their armor were seen running about among the clouds, and surrounding of cities. Moreover, at that feast which we call Pentecost, as the priests were going by night into the inner court of the temple, as their custom was, to perform their sacred ministrations, they said, that, in the first place, they felt a quaking, and heard a great noise, and after that they heard a sound as of a great multitude, saying, ‘Let us remove hence.’” [Josephus, Wars of the Jews Book VI., v., 2] In this quote of a famous passage, Josephus reported what we would interpret as angelic activity taking place at the destruction of the Temple. Note that these strange events feature an unusual star and soldiers running to battle in their chariots. One can only imagine the sounds that must have accompanied this battle in the heavens. As the day neared for the Temple’s final destruction, the priests there heard something. We’re not told exactly what it was, but it was loud, and accompanied by voices of warning. We know that there is an ongoing war in heaven. Perhaps at critical moments of history, the battle bleeds over into our dimension. The Barisal Guns Approaching the modern era of history, we find that there have been several periods of sounds emanating from the heavens. One such was called “The Barisal Guns.” In India, Barisal is a small seaport at the mouth of the Ganges River, on the north shore of the Bay of Bengal. In the decade of the 1870s, there were long periods when residents there heard sounds that they described as the firing of distant cannons. No cannons were being fired. Over a long period of time, these explosions in the heavens sounded with some regularity, and residents became convinced that they were definitely not associated with ordinary, earthly cannon fire. Sometimes they were loud, and at other times, muffled and distant. But they continued for years. And these sounds weren’'t the only nineteenth-century reports. Others came from Ireland, the Florida Keys and Australia. All the reports seem to suggest sounds like distant cannons or thunder. But the current rash of incidents, many of them recorded and replayed, are something entirely different. They are deafening booms described as only a few feet away. Nor are they simple explosions. They are described as complex metallic clanging and crashing, sounding exactly like the crushing destruction of glass and metal. But who can explain the airborne trumpets? The only precedent for these sounds is found in the Bible, where climactic events are accompanied by the trumpet sounds that are eagerly awaited by many Christians. The resurrection of the righteous dead is signaled by the call of a trumpet: “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” (I Cor. 15:52). And this is no ordinary trumpet. It is literally the voice of God, as can be seen from another description of the rapture, also written by Paul: “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” (I Thess. 4:16). Everywhere, Bible-believing Christians are eagerly awaiting the sound of the trumpet. Others display an innate knowledge that the sound of the trumpet portends God’s judgment. Both beliefs are true. After the departure of the Church, judgment will surely come … accompanied among other things, by the sound of trumpets. Seven angels will sound them from the heavens. Perhaps we’re now hearing the warm-up chorus … the rehearsal for the big day. One can only hope that this is the case!