13 Aug 2013
Revelation 8:1
Revelation 8:1: “And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.”
Many people believe that there is no such thing as time in heaven – but that is highly illogical. Time simply means that one event happens and then another event happens. If there was no time then nothing could ever happen; it would mean that there could be no such thing as a sequence of events. It would be like hitting the “pause” button while watching a movie: nothing else would ever take place. You can’t have events without the passage of time.
At any rate, this verse proves that time does pass in heaven. After all, it clearly says that “there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour”. If 30 minutes passed in Heaven then time must pass there.
But getting back to the subject at hand: when the 6th seal was opened, all sorts of terrible supernatural disasters occurred (earthquake, meteors, the sun was blackened, etc.). After those disasters took place people realized that God was judging the world, and they panicked. God then delayed the seventh seal and sent out 144,000 witnesses, who preached the gospel to the world. God used those Jews to save an incredible number of people – and those new converts were promptly martyred. Now the delay is over and seventh and final seal is opened.
Incidentally, we are still in the first half of the Tribulation. There is a great deal more that is yet to come.