Chapter 18 Half an hour
Rev 8:1 And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.
Adventists cut the first verse of Rev 8 off that chapter, and have it stand on its own. We believe that the seventh Seal is the Second Advent of Christ. Ellen White wrote that it will take a week for us to reach heaven after the Second Advent. In day-years half an hour is a week. With all the angels accompanying Christ at the Second Advent, heaven will be empty and thus quiet for a week. That is the meaning of the half hour silence in heaven.
If we cut Rev 8:1 off from the rest of Rev 8, what do we do with it? We cannot connect it to Rev 7, because it is parenthetical, interrupting the progress of the Seven Seals. What happens if we do not cut it off from Rev 8? Then the Seven Trumpets become a part of the seventh Seal. This turns out to be an important hermeneutical principle in understanding Revelation’s chiastic structure.
Rev 1:9 through chapter 7 forms the first of four units in Revelation. It focuses on the Seven Churches era. I like calling these units in time dispensations. The Churches stretch in time from Christ to somewhere in the very near future. The Seven Churches of Rev 2 and 3 are the chronological sequence of the Christian era from Christ to Laodicea, the last Church, and we are in the very end of Laodicea. Soon we will go over into the next dispensation which is the Trumpets dispensation.
The Seven Seals of Rev 6 and the first verse of Rev 8, do not narrate chronology, but rather serve as a descriptive portion of Revelation, associated with the Seven Churches dispensation. The Seven Seals have judgement as a theme, which is well placed with the Churches dispensation, because the transition from the Churches to the Trumpets is marked with the judgement of the 144 000. This is also why Rev 7 is an interlude in the flow of the seals, elaborating on sealing and judgement. Two groups are sealed: the 144 000 in the first 8 verses of Rev 7, and the great multitude in the rest of Rev 7. The 144 000 are sealed before the Trumpets, and the great multitude at the seventh Trumpet at the end of the 3.5 years.
So the last Seal actually serves as a bridge from the Churches dispensation to the Trumpets dispensation. The point in time between the two dispensations is the outpouring of the Latter Rain. The introduction to the Seven Trumpets (Rev 8:1-6) describes the sealing of the 144 000. As we saw in the previous chapter, the sealing of the 144 000 is of great significance. It appears at least four times in Revelation (7, 8, 11 and 12), elaborating on what the sealing of the 144 000 entails. We see how it enrages Satan. The sealing also marks the letting loose of the winds of strife. It is the beginning of 3.5 years in which our normal way of life is completely disrupted.
We find the same constructs when we transition from the Trumpets dispensation to the Plagues dispensation, the second and third dispensations of Revelation. We see the same again when the Plagues dispensation transitions to the Millennium, the last of the four dispensations of Revelation. We will look at the bridges between the dispensations in a later chapter.
When someone dies, we often bring honour to the deceased in a public gathering by standing up for a minute of silence. This half hour silence in heaven is similar, where heaven gives recognition to the very important transition that has occurred. The wheels of the end of time are now set in motion. After the 3.5 years, there will be a very short time in which the Seven Last Plagues will be poured out on Earth, and then Christ will come. Besides the half hour silence in heaven, the importance of the sealing, and the transition from the Churches dispensation to the Trumpets dispensation is “announced” on Earth with earthquakes, voices, thunder and lightning. The whole world will experience this, and everyone will take note of the seriousness of what has just happened:
Rev 8:5 And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake.
The transition from the Churches to the Trumpets could take place this year. It is the next major event to take place in Revelation’s chronology. Are you praying? Are your prayers ascending with the smoke from the censer in Christ’s hand? He is waiting for His 144 000 to be ready for the sealing, then this stupendous event will take place, marked by half and hour of silence before the throne of God.
Rev 8:1 And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.
Adventists cut the first verse of Rev 8 off that chapter, and have it stand on its own. We believe that the seventh Seal is the Second Advent of Christ. Ellen White wrote that it will take a week for us to reach heaven after the Second Advent. In day-years half an hour is a week. With all the angels accompanying Christ at the Second Advent, heaven will be empty and thus quiet for a week. That is the meaning of the half hour silence in heaven.
If we cut Rev 8:1 off from the rest of Rev 8, what do we do with it? We cannot connect it to Rev 7, because it is parenthetical, interrupting the progress of the Seven Seals. What happens if we do not cut it off from Rev 8? Then the Seven Trumpets become a part of the seventh Seal. This turns out to be an important hermeneutical principle in understanding Revelation’s chiastic structure.
Rev 1:9 through chapter 7 forms the first of four units in Revelation. It focuses on the Seven Churches era. I like calling these units in time dispensations. The Churches stretch in time from Christ to somewhere in the very near future. The Seven Churches of Rev 2 and 3 are the chronological sequence of the Christian era from Christ to Laodicea, the last Church, and we are in the very end of Laodicea. Soon we will go over into the next dispensation which is the Trumpets dispensation.
The Seven Seals of Rev 6 and the first verse of Rev 8, do not narrate chronology, but rather serve as a descriptive portion of Revelation, associated with the Seven Churches dispensation. The Seven Seals have judgement as a theme, which is well placed with the Churches dispensation, because the transition from the Churches to the Trumpets is marked with the judgement of the 144 000. This is also why Rev 7 is an interlude in the flow of the seals, elaborating on sealing and judgement. Two groups are sealed: the 144 000 in the first 8 verses of Rev 7, and the great multitude in the rest of Rev 7. The 144 000 are sealed before the Trumpets, and the great multitude at the seventh Trumpet at the end of the 3.5 years.
So the last Seal actually serves as a bridge from the Churches dispensation to the Trumpets dispensation. The point in time between the two dispensations is the outpouring of the Latter Rain. The introduction to the Seven Trumpets (Rev 8:1-6) describes the sealing of the 144 000. As we saw in the previous chapter, the sealing of the 144 000 is of great significance. It appears at least four times in Revelation (7, 8, 11 and 12), elaborating on what the sealing of the 144 000 entails. We see how it enrages Satan. The sealing also marks the letting loose of the winds of strife. It is the beginning of 3.5 years in which our normal way of life is completely disrupted.
We find the same constructs when we transition from the Trumpets dispensation to the Plagues dispensation, the second and third dispensations of Revelation. We see the same again when the Plagues dispensation transitions to the Millennium, the last of the four dispensations of Revelation. We will look at the bridges between the dispensations in a later chapter.
When someone dies, we often bring honour to the deceased in a public gathering by standing up for a minute of silence. This half hour silence in heaven is similar, where heaven gives recognition to the very important transition that has occurred. The wheels of the end of time are now set in motion. After the 3.5 years, there will be a very short time in which the Seven Last Plagues will be poured out on Earth, and then Christ will come. Besides the half hour silence in heaven, the importance of the sealing, and the transition from the Churches dispensation to the Trumpets dispensation is “announced” on Earth with earthquakes, voices, thunder and lightning. The whole world will experience this, and everyone will take note of the seriousness of what has just happened:
Rev 8:5 And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake.
The transition from the Churches to the Trumpets could take place this year. It is the next major event to take place in Revelation’s chronology. Are you praying? Are your prayers ascending with the smoke from the censer in Christ’s hand? He is waiting for His 144 000 to be ready for the sealing, then this stupendous event will take place, marked by half and hour of silence before the throne of God.
Chapter 18 Half an hour
Rev 8:1 And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.
Adventists cut the first verse of Rev 8 off that chapter, and have it stand on its own. We believe that the seventh Seal is the Second Advent of Christ. Ellen White wrote that it will take a week for us to reach heaven after the Second Advent. In day-years half an hour is a week. With all the angels accompanying Christ at the Second Advent, heaven will be empty and thus quiet for a week. That is the meaning of the half hour silence in heaven.
If we cut Rev 8:1 off from the rest of Rev 8, what do we do with it? We cannot connect it to Rev 7, because it is parenthetical, interrupting the progress of the Seven Seals. What happens if we do not cut it off from Rev 8? Then the Seven Trumpets become a part of the seventh Seal. This turns out to be an important hermeneutical principle in understanding Revelation’s chiastic structure.
Rev 1:9 through chapter 7 forms the first of four units in Revelation. It focuses on the Seven Churches era. I like calling these units in time dispensations. The Churches stretch in time from Christ to somewhere in the very near future. The Seven Churches of Rev 2 and 3 are the chronological sequence of the Christian era from Christ to Laodicea, the last Church, and we are in the very end of Laodicea. Soon we will go over into the next dispensation which is the Trumpets dispensation.
The Seven Seals of Rev 6 and the first verse of Rev 8, do not narrate chronology, but rather serve as a descriptive portion of Revelation, associated with the Seven Churches dispensation. The Seven Seals have judgement as a theme, which is well placed with the Churches dispensation, because the transition from the Churches to the Trumpets is marked with the judgement of the 144 000. This is also why Rev 7 is an interlude in the flow of the seals, elaborating on sealing and judgement. Two groups are sealed: the 144 000 in the first 8 verses of Rev 7, and the great multitude in the rest of Rev 7. The 144 000 are sealed before the Trumpets, and the great multitude at the seventh Trumpet at the end of the 3.5 years.
So the last Seal actually serves as a bridge from the Churches dispensation to the Trumpets dispensation. The point in time between the two dispensations is the outpouring of the Latter Rain. The introduction to the Seven Trumpets (Rev 8:1-6) describes the sealing of the 144 000. As we saw in the previous chapter, the sealing of the 144 000 is of great significance. It appears at least four times in Revelation (7, 8, 11 and 12), elaborating on what the sealing of the 144 000 entails. We see how it enrages Satan. The sealing also marks the letting loose of the winds of strife. It is the beginning of 3.5 years in which our normal way of life is completely disrupted.
We find the same constructs when we transition from the Trumpets dispensation to the Plagues dispensation, the second and third dispensations of Revelation. We see the same again when the Plagues dispensation transitions to the Millennium, the last of the four dispensations of Revelation. We will look at the bridges between the dispensations in a later chapter.
When someone dies, we often bring honour to the deceased in a public gathering by standing up for a minute of silence. This half hour silence in heaven is similar, where heaven gives recognition to the very important transition that has occurred. The wheels of the end of time are now set in motion. After the 3.5 years, there will be a very short time in which the Seven Last Plagues will be poured out on Earth, and then Christ will come. Besides the half hour silence in heaven, the importance of the sealing, and the transition from the Churches dispensation to the Trumpets dispensation is “announced” on Earth with earthquakes, voices, thunder and lightning. The whole world will experience this, and everyone will take note of the seriousness of what has just happened:
Rev 8:5 And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake.
The transition from the Churches to the Trumpets could take place this year. It is the next major event to take place in Revelation’s chronology. Are you praying? Are your prayers ascending with the smoke from the censer in Christ’s hand? He is waiting for His 144 000 to be ready for the sealing, then this stupendous event will take place, marked by half and hour of silence before the throne of God.
English
Arabic
French
Spanish
Portuguese
Deutsch
Turkish
Dutch
Italiano
Russian
Romaian
Portuguese (Brazil)
हिन्दी