THE GRAND FINALE: Heaven, Hell & The Last Days

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“For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?” .
In the Pauline days the trumpet was the means of assembling the people for war, or for any communal activity. However, the sound of the trumpet differed for each occasion. Trumpet sounds for marriages and war were different. Each sound represented a specific call.
I grew up in a military barracks and so was used to the sound of the bugle, a form of trumpet. Each sound of the bugle differed for each occasion. However, the Bible says
that if the sound were uncertain you wouldn’t know what to do. Unfortunately, this is what we in today’s world are witnessing. There is an uncertain sound in the Church and
in the secular world. What sound is the church trumpeting when 70% of the national population here in Ghana are “Christian,” yet the crime wave is ascending and sin
abounds in frightening dimensions? This is a worrying signal; it means that we are giving an uncertain sound as Christians. The repercussion is the disparaging diatribes
the world is heaping on the Church and Christianity. As leaders we need to give a certain sound.
In the world in which we live currently, the Church led by its pastors is trumpeting an uncertain sound. Church leaders cannot say whether homosexuals will go to heaven or not because they don’t want to offend anybody. The church in its political correctness does not trumpet anymore that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life and no one can go to the Father except through Him. He is the only name by which all must be saved
Acts 4:12 ‘Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.’
In writing this book I have in mind God’s warning which He gave a Jewish Prophet 2,500 years ago to the watchmen of Israel in Ezekiel 33:1-9 a famous passage about the role of the “Watchman on the Wall.” A long portion of Scripture which I believe is deeply relevant to our times.
Ezekiel was a man of God, born in Israel, exiled and living in Iraq amidst rising grave dangers rising. What Ezekiel was commanded to do is so clear in the text.
• Listen to God
• Watch for threats
• Warn the people, come what may His was a divine calling – a grave responsibility. And God was clear. Some would listen to Ezekiel’s warnings. Some would not. Ezekiel was not going to be held responsible for the decision others made to obey the Lord or not. He
would be held responsible for obeying the Lord, teaching people the Word of God and warning the people when God told him to. Fortunately, Ezekiel was faithful to the task. As followers of Jesus Christ and as Pastors and ministry leaders each of us is, in these modern times, also a watchman on the walls. In many ways, we have the same
calling and the same responsibility.
• To be attentive to the Word of God found in
the Bible
• To speak the Word of God - to tell people the bad news and the good news according to the Scriptures.
• To warn people of rising threats.
• To speak the truth in love, come what may God warned Ezekiel as He warns us today - that if He speaks and we don’t share His Word with others, we will be held accountable. What’s more, if we see threats rising, and we do not warn people, we will be held to account.
In the book The Grand Finale: Heaven, Hell and the Last Days, I am trying to give a “certain sound” to alert God’s watchmen to take their place and warn a generation at risk of eternal damnation.