The Feast of Trumpets celebrates the second coming of Jesus Christ as the conqueror and deliverer, intervening in world affairs, resurrecting the firstfruits, and establishing the Kingdom of God on earth. This feast symbolizes a vast turning point in history, marking the transition from the age of man and darkness under satan to the age of God, the World Tomorrow, the Millennium, and the Kingdom of God. As part of God's redemptive plan, Christ will return in clouds, with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. At the seventh and last trump, Jesus Christ's direct intervention will conquer and demolish the world's Babylonian system of government, replacing it entirely with God's government. Despite its emphasis on severe troubles, the Feast of Trumpets offers great hope, lifting, encouraging, and inspiring us, giving sense and reason to life, while also carrying a somber and destructive side. Jesus repeatedly warned us to wait and watch for His second coming. The church's urgency for God's Kingdom to replace satan's world has often turned into impatience for Christ's return to establish God's government. This impatience was evident among Christ's disciples nearly 2,000 years ago, and He corrected them for seeking to know the time of His return. Biblically, waiting for God is a positive experience, a virtue involving patience, resignation, submission, dependence, and contentment amid challenging circumstances. The early church lived in expectation of Christ's immediate return, and in the late AD 50s, James exhorted scattered church members to wait patiently, emphasizing patience five times in his writings as a moderating force against urgent tendencies for immediate action. James urges us to establish our hearts while waiting for Christ's return, encouraging patience as a God-given restraint during trials, requiring significant mental effort to remain content. Patience, as seen in the Old Testament, reflects God's longsuffering and slowness to anger, offering encouragement that He does not abandon us. We must wait patiently for God to intervene, refraining from taking revenge into our own hands, trusting that vengeance belongs to the Lord. Trials test our faith, foster perseverance, and produce patience, enabling us to live under difficult circumstances with endurance. Establishing our hearts involves consistent self-examination and an intimate relationship with God, ensuring our faith is firm and unwavering, not merely a preference but a deep conviction. While waiting for Christ's return, we must not interfere with God's will, recognizing His trustworthy plan to train and complete us for responsibility in His Kingdom. Waiting is done with hope and expectancy, learning lessons as we anticipate God's timing. The New Testament provides signs warning the church of the approaching end, such as false saviors, wars, earthquakes, famines, pestilences, persecutions, apostasies, and false prophets, which intensify as the end nears. When all these events occur, we will know the Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord are imminent, followed by Christ's return. However, the exact date of His second coming cannot be known in advance, and human speculation about the time is in vain. Christ emphasized that no one knows the day or hour, reinforcing the need to keep watch and be ready at all times. To establish our hearts while patiently waiting, we must take responsibility for watching and praying, ensuring everything is ready for His return at any moment. We must not let delays produce hopelessness or depression, remaining steadfast in living God's way of life. We are called to work with God to establish our hearts with godly love, actively benefiting others, and to fellowship sincerely without irritability. Shared encouragement and selfless help become increasingly vital as Christ's return nears. We are also responsible for patiently enduring trials and persecutions to the end, standing firm with perseverance an

In the late 1960s, many members of the Worldwide Church of God anticipated that Jesus Christ would return on the Feast of Trumpets in 1975, driven by a sense of urgency fueled by societal turmoil and a desire to escape the evils of the world. This impatience mirrored the early disciples' eagerness nearly two thousand years ago, as seen in Acts 1, where Jesus corrected their fixation on knowing the exact time of His return. Even in the 50s AD, James urged scattered church members to wait patiently, emphasizing that patience is essential for properly awaiting the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. James, in his epistle around 60 AD, addressed the impatience among the scattered brethren facing persecution and moral decline, encouraging them to establish their hearts, avoid grumbling against one another, suffer affliction, and endure trials with patience. True patience, as described in James 5:7-11, is an active, God-given restraint while facing trials, requiring contentment and longsuffering, being slow to anger. This patience is vital to avoid frustration and maintain faith while waiting for Christ's return, trusting that God will care for us in the interim. James uses three illustrations to highlight patience: the farmer waiting for the early and latter rains, demonstrating active patience and trust in God's timing; the prophets, like Jeremiah, who endured severe afflictions with faith; and Job, who developed perseverance through trials, showing constancy in endurance. These examples underscore the need for patience in waiting for Jesus Christ's return, ensuring we do not force prophecy or alter God's timetable through impatience. Our responsibility while awaiting Christ's Second Coming includes watching and praying, avoiding despair over delays, establishing our hearts with godly love, fellowshipping sincerely without grudging, and patiently enduring trials until the end. This active patience, rooted in true doctrine and faith, prevents the restlessness of impatience and prepares us to meet Him at His return by fostering an intimate relationship with Him through love, faith, and endurance. We must maintain urgency for His coming without succumbing to impatience, trusting in God's plan and timing.

The return of Jesus Christ is a monumental event, far greater in impact than His first coming. He will return as King and Judge, intervening in mankind's affairs with catastrophic, earth-shaking transformation. He will tear down and clean up, raising low places, beating down high places, making straight what is crooked, and smoothing out what is rough. This will require immense power and wisdom, turning humanity on its ear. A war-weary, plagued, and famine-devastated humanity will be thoroughly prepared for the second coming of the Great King, Jesus Christ, with many brought to their knees, ready to hear their Creator's message, though some will still resist. On the Feast of Trumpets, the focus is on Christ's return, a day marked by the blowing of trumpets, symbolizing His arrival. Conditions are building, though not yet fully ready, and the exact time remains unrevealed. It will be a surprise, even to the elect, emphasizing the need for readiness. Our God is a planning and preparing God, ensuring all pieces are in place before He signals His Son to descend to the Mount of Olives. Just as He prepared for Christ's first coming, He is preparing now, and He desires us to be planning and preparing people, working together with Him for this tremendous advent. The preparation for Christ's return involves catastrophic events as God softens up humanity through plagues, sores, bloodshed, scorching, darkness, pain, war, and a final terrible earthquake that shakes the whole world. These events, culminating in thunderings and lightnings, signal that everything is ready, proclaiming to all that their God returns as King over the earth. Christ will come as righteous Judge, avenger of His servants, God and King, Husband of the church, Lamb of God, and Warrior-King, putting down rebellion with a sword, striking the nations. God's macro-preparations are visible to all, ensuring the unconverted witness His wrath and the coming of Christ, making a profound impression. As sovereign governor, He moves all pieces into position according to His plan. For His church, preparation is spiritual and requires active cooperation. We must work out our salvation with fear and trembling, obeying even when unseen, living without complaining or arguing, striving to be blameless and innocent, causing no harm, and holding fast to His Word. This involves moral purity, shining as a witness of His way of life. Our hope for Christ's glorious appearing is not static but active, a living hope. We must deny ungodliness and lust, live soberly with self-control, righteously with integrity, and godly with reverence and devotion to God. Christ redeemed us to purify us as His own special people, calling us to reflect Him perfectly. This purification is hard work, requiring us to take up our cross daily, believing and following His truth against the ways of the world. As Jesus Christ approaches, we are charged with preparing ourselves for His thousand-year reign on earth, ensuring we are useful to Him in every good work.