Biblical Basis --Silver Trumpets LAPEL PINS`

From: "Christopher" I think the idea of a pair of silver trumpets to represent mission mobilizers is "capital," as they say in the UK. The pair of silver trumpets from Numbers 10 are ordained by God for use by the priests to:

1. Call people of Israel to come together before the Tent of Meeting`

2. Call the people of Israel to [break] camp and follow the Lord`

3. Go into battle and remind the Lord of his promise of victory.`

4. Rejoice at times of festivals & sacrificial offerings to the Lord`

The trumpets were to be sounded by the priests for these ceremonial purposes and were later used in the temple as musical instruments of worship. By that time the original two had increased several fold.

Another type of trumpet is also mentioned throughout the OT. The shofar, or ram's horn, was used by Joshua's men to bring down the walls of Jericho, by Gideon's men to cause confusion in the enemy's camp, and to celebrate the Lord with a joyful noise. Both the ram's horn and the silver trumpets were used in worship, but it seems as if the silver trumpets were used mainly for ceremonial events, while the shofars were used more widely.

In any case, trumpets are good symbols for mobilizers who have to call God's people to sacred assembly, to call God's people to move out of their comfortable camps, and to call God's people to go into battle and to worship the Lord. It's important that mobilizers sound the right note on the trumpet so that God's people know what they are being called to do.

From: Wetterholm@XC.Org (Jon Wetterholm)`

..The following company did a really nice job for us in making the lapel pin for...Peace Officers For Christ. They are very easy to work with and I am confident they will do a good job in helping you design and then producing the silver trumpet pin. Contact: Gary or Gerrie Tousley, I.T.L. Patch Company Inc., 886 21st Avenue Southeast, Minneapolis, MN 55414-2516 (612) 331-9245 (612) 331-9121 FAX

PROPHETS and MOBILIZERS (By NateWilson@XC.org)

I see a clear distinction between the role of "prophet" and "priest" in the Bible. Generally the priest organizes the people of God and their worship, whereas the prophet relays messages from God to God's people and challenges them to conformity with His Word. In the Bible, the prophets and the priests were usually different people: Moses was the prophet, Aaron was the priest; Jeremiah was a prophet when Pashur was the Priest; Jesus was a prophet when Caiphas was the priest, etc. In every case, the prophet is outside the jusrisdiction of the priest/ established church, sometimes even disobeying ecclesiastical orders to challenge the people of God to greater obedience. I see that this carries down through church history as various early monastic groups and later the Reformers and the present-day para-church organizations continue in that role outside the ecclesiastical structure, calling God's people to be true to His Word.

I believe that when God's Word is not available in the form of written scripture, God, throughout history has given prophets His Word through special revelation. However, in a nation like the U.S., where everybody has a zillion Bibles, there is little place for special revelation through prophets. In my work, I simply use the Scripture I have studied, and that is more than enough. Therefore, I am not using the word "prophet" in the sense of a soothsayer or fortune-teller or even in the sense of exercising a Charismatic gift.

Basically I see the prophetic office to be a "check" or "balance" to the human leadership of the church, to help God's people stay true to God's Word. While this puts the prophet's ministry outside the jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical structure, it does not exempt the individual from the authority which the church should rightly exercise over his personal life. Therefore, while my "prophetic" ministry is conducted through Caleb Proejct, I am personally a member of a local church and submissive to it's authority in my life.

Some people have countered with the concern that if the prophetic sodalities are outside ecclesiastical jurisdiction, they are without accountability and thus prone to error. That is a good concern, but if we follow the Bible's patterns for accountability, the church is held accountable through its form of government and through its prophets, but the prophets are held accountable by God's Word and by other prophets. The story in I Kings 13, and the principle laid out in I Cor. 14:32 give a biblical basis for this accountability structure of prophets to other prophets. This is part of the reason why people with the prophetic ministry tend to work together in groups, or at least they like talking with other prophets. There is a historical pattern of people in the prophetic office banding together in groups--From the band of prophets that got King Saul prophesying, to the school of the prophets that Elijah and Elisha directed, to the monastic communities, to the modern para-church organizations like Focus on the Family, Prison Fellowship Ministry, and Caleb Project. So, in that sense, I believe that I hold the office of a prophet.

There is also the GIFT of prophecy exercised in the local church, which Paul mentioned in His epistles. I would distinguish the office from the gift, but the idea is the same. Someone with the gifting of prophecy will notice the ways in which God's people are out of line with God's Word and will challenge them to obedience.

So, what does that have to do with missions? Most of the prophets in the Bible were very concerned that God's people were not making known God's glory among the nations. It is totally unbiblical to say that God had no concern for the nations around Israel until the Apostle Paul's day. If you look at the prophets throughout the Old Testament, you see that they wanted God's glory to be made known among all the nations of the earth, and they rebuked God's people for hoarding God's blessings. (Gen. 12:3, Gal.3:8; I Sam. 17:46; Psalm 67; Isa 12:4; 49:6; Jerem. 4:2; Ez. 36:22-23; Hav 2:14; etc, etc, etc.) Did you know that Isaiah and Jeremiah both exercised their prophetic ministry in a dozen nations outside of Israel? So the call to mission involvement has always been a part of the prophetic office, and I believe that fits right into the paradigm out of which I'm operating in Caleb Project as a para-church mission mobilizer.

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