Revelation 10:5-7

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.”

First of all, when verse six says “there should be time no longer” it does not mean that time itself ceases to exist. This is just another way of saying “they will have run out of time” or “the appointed time has come to an end” or “their time has run out”. When you tell someone “you’re out of time” you’re not telling them that time itself is going to cease to exist; what you are telling them is that their opportunity to do something has come to an end.

In this case, the “seventh angel” is the angel who blows the seventh trumpet. It is interesting how this works: there were 7 seals, and the 7th seal contains the 7 trumpet judgments; the 7th trumpet judgment contains the 7 bowl judgments.

What this angel is saying is that when the seventh angel starts sounding (and it will take some time, since there are 7 bowl judgments to process), the “mystery of God” will be finished. That is all that this passage means. It doesn’t mean that there is no time in Heaven; it means that when the seventh angel sounds the mystery will be over.

I don’t completely understand what mystery is finished. However, when the seventh angel sounds we are told this:

“And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.”

Perhaps that is the mystery: when the seventh angel sounds, the last judgments occur and the Millennial Kingdom begins. The kingdoms of the world are forever given over into the hands of Jesus. That is a mystery that was not revealed in the Old Testament. The prophets said there would be a kingdom, but no one knew when it would start or what events would precede it. While some facets were known, there were a lot of things that were kept hidden. Here that mystery is revealed and finished.