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

Christ will open the seventh seal¹ at an unknown‒but precisely scheduled‒time after the extended period of the sixth seal.² When this occurs there will be remarkable silence in heaven.³ Immediately before the seventh seal opens, the 24 Elders, the four beasts, the great multitude, and a host of other angels will be in celestial paradise (heaven) loudly worshiping and praising God and the Lamb.⁴ The sound of their praise will literally stop when the seventh seal is opened.⁵ They will be awestruck⁶ and will reverently acknowledge the event with prayerful silence⁷ even as seven angels prepare to sound their trumpets of deadly judgments.⁸ On earth, the physical calamities of the sixth seal will bring an end to that era.⁹ However, the sealing of the 144,000 Servants will continue as much as possible in the aftermath of these final calamities at the end of the sixth seal.¹⁰

The silence in heaven is not, as some scholars believe, related to periods of earthly calm from past history.¹¹ The silence is a future event that will occur after worldwide calamities mark the end of the sixth seal.¹² The silence will correspond to a literal cessation of worldwide calamities on earth,¹³ just as silence followed the massive destruction in America at the time of Christ's crucifixion.¹⁴ That silence in history was followed by Christ's appearance to the more righteous people that survived the calamities.¹⁵ The silence at the start of the seventh seal, by comparison and contrast, is just a calm before the storm that will accompany much worse calamities and judgments before Christ's Second Coming.¹⁶

Silence is mentioned in many scriptures,¹⁷ and the silence often has a theological meaning.¹⁸ Silence is a time of spiritual renewal among the righteous.¹⁹ The silent worship of disembodied spirits in paradise at the opening of the seventh seal has its most significant foreshadow in the ancient Day of Atonement. On that day each year, Israelites worshiping at the temple stood in silence as the high priest entered and officiated in the Holy of Holies.²⁰ The Day of Atonement occurred five days before the annual Feast of Tabernacles, with its many ceremonies that foreshadow Christ's Second Coming.²¹

Spiritually sensitive people on earth will recognize the silence at the start of the seventh seal as a prelude to the judgments of God²² that will be poured out when the silence ends.²³ God withholds his earthly judgments against the wicked during the silence²⁴ to give them another opportunity to repent.²⁵ Most will be defiant, however, and will not repent even after the worldwide calamities at the end of the sixth seal.²⁶

According to Revelation 8:1, the silence in heaven will last for about the space of half an hour. This is a symbolic approximation rather than 30 minutes of actual time on earth.²⁷ It will be an indefinite pause or break that will be sufficiently long so that even the most wicked can recognize its occurrence as an act of God before the judgments of the seventh seal begin.²⁸

Some scholars equate the half an hour in heaven with 21 years on earth²⁹ based on the mathematical premise that a day with the Lord is as a thousand years on earth.³⁰ However, the premise is faulty because John estimated the half an hour as an earthly measure, not as the Lord measures time in heaven. Furthermore, the half an hour of silence has a specific purpose to worship Christ in heaven‒in a manner akin to the Day of Atonement‒that requires only a short measure of time familiar to John.³¹

John describes only one brief period of silence when the seventh seal is opened in Revelation 8:1. However, Doctrine and Covenants Section 88:95 identifies a second half-hour of silence that occurs immediately before the resurrection of exalted saints at the time of Christ's Second Coming.³² This second half-hour of silence must be very brief because it occurs after the grand sign of the Son of Man is given in Doctrine and Covenants Section 88:93, and before the first resurrection trumpet sounds in verse 95.³³ These events in Doctrine and Covenants Section 88 coincide in time with John's vision in Revelation chapter 11, where the Two Witnesses in Jerusalem are resurrected as the Second Woe ends and the Third Woe begins with the sign of the Son of Man in Revelation 15:1.³⁴ In that context (i.e., the transition between the Second and Third Woes) John states specifically that the Third Woe comes quickly in Revelation 11:14,³⁵ and the period of the Third Woe is also of very short duration.³⁶ Since the second half-hour of silence in Section 88:95 must be very brief as described by John in Revelation 11:14, this suggests that the first half-hour of silence in Revelation 8:1 must be equally brief.³⁷