"When the trumpet of the Lord shall sound, and time shall be no more." Though this old hymn was written by a Methodist Sunday School teacher (in 1893), we Baptists sang it anyway. After all, the Methodists were mistaken in only a few doctrinal points.
The reference, of course, is to certain passages in the Bible, my favorite among them being "Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 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." (1 Corinthians 15:51-52 -- see also Matthew 24, I Thessalonians 4, and Revelations 8 and 11)
The trumpet sound and the abolition of time is not just a Christian understanding. The Islamic mystics had (have) similar insights. For example, Shaikh Ahmad Ahsa'i (1753 - 1826) wrote about "the time of the cosmic pause marking the interval between the two blasts of Seraphiel's Trumpet. When Seraphiel causes the Trumpet to vibrate with 'fiery blast,' which is the 'breath of universal reabsorption,' every Spirit is drawn in, reabsorbed in the particular 'hole' in the Trumpet which is its matrix." -- Henry Corbin, Spiritual Body and Celestial Earth, p. 198-199. (Note: Seraphiel is an angel known as "The Guardian of the Throne of God.")
Not only am I continuously struck by the common vision of mystics across cultures, religions, and countries, but by this entire line of thought about the sounding of the trumpet and the cosmic pause.
If you take the time, you will notice there is a pause between your outbreathing and your inbreathing. This is analogous to the cosmic pause. Our Source brought all into existence and continues to do so by an Outbreathing. At some point, there will be a Pause. Followed by an Inbreathing.
The sounding of the Trumpet indicates that we will be notified of this Pause rather abruptly.
(Another Note: If you don't like mythopoetic language, you might translate this scenario into the language of a hardcore materialistic worldview. All that is matter will at some point cease to matter.)
The reference, of course, is to certain passages in the Bible, my favorite among them being "Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 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." (1 Corinthians 15:51-52 -- see also Matthew 24, I Thessalonians 4, and Revelations 8 and 11)
The trumpet sound and the abolition of time is not just a Christian understanding. The Islamic mystics had (have) similar insights. For example, Shaikh Ahmad Ahsa'i (1753 - 1826) wrote about "the time of the cosmic pause marking the interval between the two blasts of Seraphiel's Trumpet. When Seraphiel causes the Trumpet to vibrate with 'fiery blast,' which is the 'breath of universal reabsorption,' every Spirit is drawn in, reabsorbed in the particular 'hole' in the Trumpet which is its matrix." -- Henry Corbin, Spiritual Body and Celestial Earth, p. 198-199. (Note: Seraphiel is an angel known as "The Guardian of the Throne of God.")
Not only am I continuously struck by the common vision of mystics across cultures, religions, and countries, but by this entire line of thought about the sounding of the trumpet and the cosmic pause.
If you take the time, you will notice there is a pause between your outbreathing and your inbreathing. This is analogous to the cosmic pause. Our Source brought all into existence and continues to do so by an Outbreathing. At some point, there will be a Pause. Followed by an Inbreathing.
The sounding of the Trumpet indicates that we will be notified of this Pause rather abruptly.
(Another Note: If you don't like mythopoetic language, you might translate this scenario into the language of a hardcore materialistic worldview. All that is matter will at some point cease to matter.)
Om...
ReplyDelete--Gary