When “Time Shall Be No More”

Back in 1893 a Sunday School teacher named James Black wrote a hymn entitled “When The Roll Is Called Up Yonder”. This hymn is so well-known that many people can recite the first verse from memory:

When the trumpet of the Lord shall sound, and time shall be no more,
And the morning breaks, eternal, bright and fair;
When the saved of earth shall gather over on the other shore,
And the roll is called up yonder, I’ll be there.

This verse has convinced the world that time does not pass in Heaven. Countless people are looking forward to the day when “time shall be no more”. It is one of those things that everyone knows. The truth of the hymn’s first line is simply not questioned – which is unfortunate, because the hymn is wrong.

It is true that the phrase “time shall be no more” is found in the Bible (although not quite in those exact words), but it doesn’t mean what people think it means. The phrase can be found near the end of the Bible in the book of Revelation:

Revelation 10:5: “And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven,
6 And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer:
7 But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.”

Yes, it is true that the verse does contain the phrase “there should be time no longer”. However, it is not saying that time itself will suddenly cease to exist. What it is saying is that when the seventh angel begins to sound, the mystery of God would be finished. The time of waiting would be over. In other words, the mystery would have run out of time because God had finished it.

This is made a great deal more clear if you read a version other than the King James. For example, this is how Revelation 10:7 is rendered in the English Standard Version:

Revelation 10:6: “and swore by him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and what is in it, the earth and what is in it, and the sea and what is in it, that there would be no more delay,”

“no more delay” is a much clearer rendering than “no more time”. This passage was never intended to mean that time itself would stop. That very concept makes no sense; after all, time is the interval between two events. If time stopped then nothing else could ever happen! You have to have time in order to have events.

This passage does raise interesting questions, such as who the seventh angel is and what the mystery of God is, but I want to focus on the matter at hand. Despite what people believe, time does pass in Heaven. Revelation itself testifies to this:

Revelation 8:1: “And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.”

If time didn’t pass in Heaven then there couldn’t possibly be a half-hour of silence, since a half-hour is a unit of time.

I am very concerned that some of our favorite hymns have led us astray and taught us things that are not true. Despite what “When The Roll Is Called Up Yonder” says, there will never come a day when time itself will stop. Despite what “Hark the Harold Angel Sings” says, angels did not sing at the birth of Christ:

Luke 2:10: “And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
12 And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”

The angels said their message; they did not sing it. A whole generation of Christians believes that angels sang at the birth of Christ, when a simple reading of the text clearly demonstrates that this was not the case.

Despite what “We Three Kings” says, the Bible never states that there were three wise men. Matthew 2, which gives the account of the wise men, never gives their number.

Modern hymns seem to have the same problem. For example, take the very inspirational hymn “Give Thanks”:

And now let the weak say, “I am strong”
Let the poor say, “I am rich
Because of what the Lord has done for us”

This same sentiment is echoed in the song “Savior King”:

And now the weak say I have strength
By the spirit of power
And now the poor stand and confess
That my portion is served and I’m more than blessed

The idea “let the weak say ‘I am strong’” just sounds so right. It sounds so Biblical. It’s uplifting, encouraging, and inspirational. As it turns out, it really is a quote from the Bible. It is something that was said by God Himself, and you can read about it in Joel 3:10. However, if you read the context of the verse you’ll discover that it doesn’t mean what you think it does:

Joel 3:1: “For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem,
2 I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.
3 And they have cast lots for my people; and have given a boy for an harlot, and sold a girl for wine, that they might drink.
4 Yea, and what have ye to do with me, O Tyre, and Zidon, and all the coasts of Palestine? will ye render me a recompence? and if ye recompense me, swiftly and speedily will I return your recompence upon your own head;
5 Because ye have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried into your temples my goodly pleasant things:
6 The children also of Judah and the children of Jerusalem have ye sold unto the Grecians, that ye might remove them far from their border.
7 Behold, I will raise them out of the place whither ye have sold them, and will return your recompence upon your own head:
8 And I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Judah, and they shall sell them to the Sabeans, to a people far off: for the Lord hath spoken it.
9 Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up:
10 Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruninghooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong.
11 Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round about: thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Lord.
12 Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about.”

In this passage God is talking about the battle of Armageddon – the great conflict at the end of the Tribulation. At that time the Lord will draw all armies to Jerusalem, where there will be a terrible fight. During this conflict Jesus Himself will return from Heaven (in an event known as the Second Coming) and utterly annihilate the armies that have attacked His people.

When God says “let the weak say, I am strong”, He is actually mocking the invaders. He is telling them that they think they are strong, but they are actually weak. God is warning them that when they march with the Antichrist against Jerusalem, they are marching to their doom. Their strength is nothing. They are not marching toward victory, but toward judgment.

In the context of the passage, then, the verse is not inspirational. God is not encouraging weak people to stand up and be strong; instead He is doing exactly the opposite – mocking the strength of the mighty and calling them weak. This verse is not aimed at God’s people; it is aimed at God’s enemies, and it is a prelude to their utter destruction.

Joel 3:10 happens to be the only place in the entire Bible where you will find that phrase. The songs that use it are taking a statement uttered by God Himself and using them wildly out of context to mean exactly the opposite of what God was saying. Those uplifting, encouraging songs are brutally butchering the Word of God. This is what the Bible actually has to say about weakness and strength:

2 Corinthians 12:10: “Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.”

Notice the subtle but enormous distinction. We can do all things through Christ, but we can do nothing without Him. What honors God is our weakness, not our strength. When we are reproached, troubled, tormented, and tried – when we have no strength of our own and are utterly empty – that is when the power of God is greatest in our lives. In the Old Testament God did mighty works through the tiny army of Gideon. He shows His great power through our weakness, not through our strength. The truth is that I am not strong, but God is. My only hope is for Him to show His strength through me.

There are other hymns that are an odd mixture of truth an error. For example, take the classic hymn “Days of Elijah”:

These are the days of Elijah
Declaring the Word of the Lord
And these are the days of Your servant, Moses
Righteousness being restored
And though these are days of great trial
Of famine and darkness and sword
Still we are the voice in the desert crying
Prepare ye the way of the Lord

CHORUS:
Behold he comes
Riding on a cloud
Shining like the sun
At the trumpet’s call
Lift your voice
It’s the year of jubilee
Out of Zion’s hill salvation comes

And these are the days of Ezekiel
The dry bones becoming as flesh
And these are the days of Your servant, David
Rebuilding the temple of praise
And these are the days of the harvest
The fields are as white in your world
And we are the laborers in your vineyard
declaring the word of the Lord

Let’s take a closer look at some of the theology in this hymn. For example:

These are the days of Elijah
Declaring the Word of the Lord

Yes, Elijah did declare the words of the Lord, and we should be doing that too. However, when the Bible talks about the “days of Elijah” it is talking about this prophecy from the last book in the Old Testament:

Malachi 4:5: “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord:
6 And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.”

Throughout the Bible the phrase “day of the Lord” is a reference to the Tribulation. At some point before the Tribulation begins, Elijah will be sent back to Earth to complete his ministry. (This is probably why he was taken up to God by chariots of fire instead of dying like everyone else; his work is not yet finished.) The days of Elijah will consist of Elijah actually being here, on Earth, preaching. Those days are not here yet. These are not the days of Elijah.

The song then talks about Moses:

And these are the days of Your servant, Moses
Righteousness being restored

Did Moses restore righteousness? Not exactly. Moses did give the Law, but Israel could not keep it. The Israelites constantly rebelled against Moses in the wilderness, and when Moses finally brought them to Canaan they refused to go in and take it – so God let them all die and raised up another generation. At the end of Moses’ life God made it clear that the Israelites were not going to obey Him:

Deuteronomy 31:16: “And the Lord said unto Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers; and this people will rise up, and go a whoring after the gods of the strangers of the land, whither they go to be among them, and will forsake me, and break my covenant which I have made with them.
17 Then my anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall befall them; so that they will say in that day, Are not these evils come upon us, because our God is not among us?
18 And I will surely hide my face in that day for all the evils which they shall have wrought, in that they are turned unto other gods.”

Moses did not restore righteousness. In fact, the most prominent characteristic of Israel during his lifetime was rebellion, not obedience. God gave them the Law and they could not keep it.

Then there is this:

And these are the days of Your servant, David
Rebuilding the temple of praise

You will not find the phrase “temple of praise” anywhere in the Bible. King David did not build a temple; the first temple was built by his son Solomon. No temple was “rebuilt” until centuries later, after the Babylonian captivity. On top of that, God actually prohibited David from building Him a temple! David did a lot of great things, but temple building was not one of them.

Then there is this:

Behold he comes
Riding on a cloud
Shining like the sun
At the trumpet’s call
Lift your voice
It’s the year of jubilee
Out of Zion’s hill salvation comes

The Bible does refer to Zion’s hill. We find it in Psalm 2:

Psalm 2:1: “Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?
2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his anointed, saying,
3 Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.
4 He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.
5 Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure.
6 Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.”

This Psalm is talking about the same events that are mentioned in Joel 3. At the end of the Tribulation there will come a day when the kings of the world will come together to attack Jerusalem; when that happens Jesus will return and destroy them. Christ will then literally reign as king over the world from the holy hill of Zion. Salvation will come out of Zion’s hill. All of this happens at the Second Coming.

However, the time when the Lord comes “at the trumpet’s call” is when He comes at the Rapture for His Church:

I Corinthains 15:51: “Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
52 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.”

At the Rapture Jesus will return at the sound of a trumpet to raise the Church from the dead. At the Second Coming Jesus will return with the armies of Heaven to defeat the armies of the Antichrist that are waging war against the Jews. (Revelation 19 discusses this event but does not mention any trumpets.) The song has taken these two distinct events (which are separated in time by a number of years) and merged them into one.

I am not trying to be argumentative here. The point I am making is that some hymns have an unfortunate tendency to play fast and loose with the Bible, taking things out of context or inventing things that the Bible just does not say. This has caused entire generations of Christians to believe things that are not true.

I think it would be wise to be more careful about the songs we’re singing. After all, as Christians we are charged with rightly diving the Word. Is it really too much to ask that our hymns be theologically accurate?