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

Dr Ruckman mentioned that he wasn’t sure why there would be silence in heaven about the space of half an hour. Some conjecture is that since this is after the sixth seal, this is referring to Armageddon where the saints are coming down, which is why there is silence in heaven for about 30 minutes. But that’s a pretty loose interpretation. If you read from verses 2 through 13 and then chapter 9 and 10, there’s a five month-long period within these trumpets sounding out of the seventh seal. Unless we’re going in very very slow motion when we’re coming down in Armageddon, but that doesn’t make sense.

There’s definitely no doubt this is an account summary though.

Here is Pastor Gene’s opinion, NOT a doctrine, of why there was silence in heaven about the space of 30 minutes because it’s self explanatory from verses 2-5.

Revelation 8:2 “And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets.”

The reason why there was silence is that God is doing a ceremonial procession where the angels are preparing something and all of heaven is quiet to observe this. This would make a lot of sense when you look at today’s ceremonies, whether it be secular or religious, there’s always quietness in the room to observe the procession going on. There’s going to be altar incense and everything going on right here, that’s the pastor’s guess.

So, the seven angels have seven trumpets and they’re standing before God. There’s no doubt a royal ceremonial procession going on.

Revelation 8:3 “And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.”

“And another angel came and stood at the altar,”

Remember the Jewish things on earth are patterned after the things up in heaven. There’s an altar in heaven too, not just down on earth.

“having a golden censer;”

See what the Catholic church tries to imitate and copycat. Satan wants his own ceremony, his own church.

“and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.”

Remember the tribulation saints with their prayers in Revelation 5 and 6, as they were being persecuted by the Antichrist and praying to the Lord for vengeance. All that vengeance was being saved up here, and this thing contained the prayers of all saints but God said “wait”. These stored prayers were getting bigger and bigger, He stores it up and then answers these prayers later on.

Revelation 8:4 “And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel’s hand.”

The smoke of the incense contains the prayer of the saints.

That can still happen today, look at Acts 10. This guy is not even a Christian, he’s an unsaved person, yet his prayers comes up as a memorial before God. As a Christian, we have Jesus Christ as our high priest interceding the prayers of the saints. During the tribulation, you have the angel bringing the incense. Don’t you think at the church age, Christ is going to take care of the prayers of His children better than an angel could at the tribulation?

Acts 10:2-4 “A devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God alway. He saw in a vision evidently about the ninth hour of the day an angel of God coming in to him, and saying unto him, Cornelius. And when he looked on him, he was afraid, and said, What is it, Lord? And he said unto him, Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God.”

In verse 2, he was not saved yet. If you read at verse 32 all the way to the end, that’s when he got saved by Peter.
In verse 4, an unsaved person’s prayers still come up for a memorial before God. This still goes on today.

Revelation 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.”

“And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth:”

So he’s casting all that fire because it contained all the prayers and that prayer is burning sky high. The angel swishes it around and casts that fire down on the earth. No wonder tribulation is known as God’s wrath. Wrath is also known as fire.

“and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake.”

Basically cataclysmic chaos with all the prayers.

Revelation 8:6 “And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.”

The seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to blow it.

Revelation 8:7 “The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.”

When the first angel sounded, there goes one-third of mother nature and all the preservation of wildlife and nature.

The seventh seal contains seven trumpets and it does sound like an overview and it looks like there’s a huge time that’s going on. Let’s go through the 7 trumpets.

The first trumpet is hail and fire, probably from verse 5 when the angel slams down the censer into the earth. But it is also mingled with blood. You’re going to see a lot of reference toward blood, why? Because Revelation 6:10, God didn’t forget, He hears the cries of the tribulation saints. That’s why He deliberately sent down blood. A third of nature, trees, and wildfire is burnt up. That’s the reason why we’re not afraid of global warming because you’re still going to have a lot of land leftover at verse 7. We don’t believe in burning up trees and throwing garbage outside but neither are we worried and concerned about that.