We must remember, however, that no one can see the hearts of men. The churches of our day are filled with men and women who are altogether convinced that they are saved. But by their disobedience to the command of God to come out of their local congregation, because God’s judgment has come upon it, they are showing that they may not be true believers. We must listen to the Bible and not trust at all in what we think. Therefore, during this half hour of silence, we can know that those who were convinced they were saved in that time could not have become saved.

The Church Age, that is, the time when the local churches were bringing the Gospel to the world, is typified by two witnesses. God says in Revelation 11:3- 6:

And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth. These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth. And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed. These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will.

The time these two witnesses are to preach is 1,260 days. This equals forty-two months of thirty days which equals three and a half years. These three and a half years can be shown to be the last half of the seven years spoken of in Daniel 9:27, where we read:

And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

Please note the language God uses in Revelation 11:8. There God indicates their dead bodies lie in the streets of the great city called Sodom and Egypt where also our Lord was crucified. Jesus was crucified in Jerusalem. Jerusalem in Jesus�?day was the external representation of the kingdom of God. During the Church Age, the local congregations became the external representation of the kingdom of God, so they are the Jerusalem that is in view in this verse.

But now Jerusalem �?the local churches �?have become Sodom and Egypt. That is, they, like ancient Sodom which was destroyed because of its extreme wickedness, are under the judgment of God (Jude 3-4, 7). They have become like ancient Egypt of Moses�?day which God used to typify being in bondage to sin and being under the rule of Satan (typified by Pharaoh) (Exodus 13:14-15; II Peter 2:18-19).

That is why Revelation 11:7 speaks of the beast that comes from the bottomless pit making war against the true believers who are the two witnesses. The beast represents Satan. As Revelation 9:1-2 discloses, it is Christ Himself who has loosed Satan from the bottomless pit. The bottomless pit typifies Hell. Satan was loosed from the bottomless pit in the sense that he would be allowed to rule in all of the local churches, throughout the world, as the man of sin (Revelation 20:1-3, 7-10). Therefore, Satan (the beast) is now ruling in the local congregations and is able to drive out the true believers (the two witnesses). He is ruling in the local congregations because God Himself has abandoned all the local churches (II Thessalonians 2:3-7).

Now God has shifted the responsibility of evangelizing the world away from the institution of the local churches and to individuals. You will remember that for the first approximately 9,000 years of history, God had used individuals like Enoch and Noah to represent the kingdom of God to the world. Then beginning with Abraham, God raised up the nation of Israel to be the external representation of the kingdom of God. Then after Jesus was crucified, as God continued to unfold His salvation plan to the world, God shifted to the utilization of local churches to provide an external representation of the kingdom of God to the world.

God’s utilization of the local churches ended when the half an hour of silence from Heaven commenced. Temporarily, God the Holy Spirit was not saving anyone anywhere in the world. True, preachers continue to preach and individuals continue to witness. However, remember we learned that two very important things are required before God can save His elect. (The elect are those who were chosen by God to become saved.) First of all, they must read or hear the Word of God which is the Bible. Secondly, God Himself must apply that Word to the hearts of those whom He plans to save.

These principles were in evidence in a striking way when Jesus preached. He was the Perfect Preacher since He was God Himself. Yet, do you remember that even though He diligently preached for three and a half years, only a few people became saved (Mark 2:1-12; 5:1-20; Luke 23:39-43; John 8:3-11)? But later, when the Holy Spirit was poured out on Pentecost, about 3,000 became saved (Acts 2:1, 41).

Thus, when Revelation 8:1 reports that Heaven was silent for about half an hour, it means that for this symbolic period of time, no one was being saved throughout the whole world. It was at this time that the churches lost their commission to represent the Gospel to the world.

In the Bible, this dreadful situation is called the Great Tribulation. This is referred to in Matthew 24:21-22:

For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.

In several verses, the entire period of the Great Tribulation is referred to as a period of one hour (Revelation 17:12; 18:10, 17, 19). Revelation 17:12 is especially significant:

And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.

We, therefore, conclude that the ten horns represent the rule of Satan within the local churches throughout the entire time of the Great Tribulation.

No situation can be imagined that is more terrible, more awful, more traumatic than this. During this half hour of silence in Heaven, which identified with the first part of the Great Tribulation, even though many true believers, who are eternally secure as saved people, brought the Gospel outside of the local congregations, no one was becoming saved. Indeed, during the half hour of silence, which was the first part of the Great Tribulation, the whole world was in the most awful predicament, the greatest spiritual trouble it had ever seen