The Gathering of Lights

1999-5-1 19:28:00

Question:

24:31 "And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other."

Questions: Who are the angels? A concordance would come in handy here.

What is the sound of a trumpet?

Who will be gathered and where? What could the purpose of this gathering be?

The standard interpretation of this scripture is interesting. Many Christians believe something like this:

Near the Second Coming, the whole earth will hear a great sound of a trumpet, and then millions of angels will descend and rapture up all believers who have mouthed a nebulous affirmation of Jesus. Then fire will descend and burn all the wicked as stubble. After this, the believers will float back down to a Garden of Eden type of new earth and live with God forever while they sharpen their harp playing skills.

I'm glad we received better interpretations of this from members of this group.

You felt that the angels could have been something other than spiritual beings and you were right. Angel comes from the Greek AGGELOS which means "messenger". Therefore an otherworldly person who is a "messenger" is an angel, but so is a regular mortal.

For instance, in the King James version here, we read that regular mortals are called angels:

Rev 1:20 "The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches."
Rev 2:1 "Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks."

The angel of the church of Ephesus was a regular mortal like you or I, and John was told to send him a physical message.

The angels prophesied here, are regular human beings; like you or I, who choose to come into incarnation previous to the return of Christ. We are the messengers or "angels" who are to deliver a message of hope to the world.

"Trumpet" is from the Greek SALPIGX whose root meaning imply "to shake or disturb".

"Gather together", as explained earlier, means "To gather into one place".

"Elect" is from the Greek EKLEKTOS which is usually translated as "elect" or "chosen", but its root meaning is "to make a choice". The elect are those who have power to make their own choices, without the consultation of an authoritative figure. They are independent of all but the God within, and have "chosen" the path that leads to the Christ consciousness. They are as the wise virgins with the oil in their lamps, and can stand alone against all odds and do not have to borrow light from others, but always recognize other lights presented.

The word "send" comes from APOSTELLO which is derived from the same root as "apostle" which means "one who is sent". APOSTELLO is usually associated with an enlightened message.

"Sound" comes from the Greek PHONE from which the modern word telePHONE is derived and means "to bring light or communicate".

Let us put all this together and create a more accurate translation:

"And he shall send out his messengers with enlightenment that will shake to the core, and they shall gather together into one place those who have chosen him, from the four winds, from one extreme of heaven to the other."

The gathering concept is the basic principle behind all evolution, physical and spiritual. Why do you suppose this is so?