Is the Silence in Heaven During the Cleansing of the Sanctuary?
By Editor
As John was shown in vision things which must shortly come to pass, he was carried forward to an event which he describes as follows: "There was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour." Rev. viii, 1. Is this the time during which the Sanctuary in heaven is being cleansed? We answer, It is not, and will proceed to offer our proof, simply premising at first that we are called to the subject by the following from a correspondent: "I think your views (in the main) relative to the Sanctuary are correct; but I do not believe that our great High Priest has yet entered the Most Holy of the heavenly Sanctuary. When he enters there, I believe there will be silence in heaven about the space of half an hour—then the Son of man will be revealed." We can assign no grounds on which a man can entertain such a view as this, only a want of attention to the order in which events are brought to view in the book of Revelation. We are well aware that all events from first to last in that book are not presented in their chronological order; but there are certain series presented which can in no wise be disarranged, but must take place one after the other in regular succession. Such are the seven seals of chapters vi, vii. The seven trumpets, commencing with chapter viii, the three angels of chapter xiv, and the seven angels with the plagues of chapter xvi. Such series of events as these, we say, cannot take place in any other than their regular order. This all will admit. We will now look more particularly at some of the events transpiring in order under the seven seals; for with these seals our subject is connected. We read, "And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour." This silence as far as we have any account, occupies the whole of the seventh seal, and is the only event to transpire under it. But the seventh seal cannot be opened before the sixth; and the events of the sixth cannot take place before the fifth; but they must come in their order: the fifth, then the sixth; and after the events of the sixth have all transpired, the seventh, is opened which brings silence in heaven. Fixing this fact in our mind, we will go back a little and see what took place under the sixth seal: "And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; and the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig-tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind: and the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places: and the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every freeman, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?" Rev. vi, 12-17. No one can be at a loss to understand the events here brought to view. If we are not here carried to the end of this present state, and the coming of the Son of man, we know of no scriptures carrying us to those events. It must be evident to any one, therefore, that when the great men of the earth shall call for the rocks and mountains to hide them from the presence of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, Christ will have left his mediatorial position, and the cleansing of the Sanctuary will have been finished. But it is not till after these events that the seventh seal is opened, and there is silence in heaven for the space of half an hour. Therefore it is fixed beyond the least shadow of a possibility of contradiction that the silence in heaven has nothing to do with the cleansing of the Sanctuary; for this cleansing is all finished under the sixth seal, before the seventh seal is opened, under which the silence occurs; and this objection therefore to the view that our great High Priest is now doing up his last work for the salvation of mankind, vanishes into thin air.