Hope – Last Days Decoded

In the past year, I’ve discovered a new toy, a Gospel toy. Instead of relying on other spiritual teachers almost exclusively, I’ve learned to search my Church’s website, then learn directly from the scriptures – by topic. The Half Hour of Silence referred to in scripture has prompted a lot of theories about when it occurs and its length in real time. Here’s are the scriptures directly referencing it:

Revelation 8:1
Introduction: John sees fire and desolation poured out during the seventh seal
and preceding the Second Coming.
1 And when he had opened the seventh seal,
there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.

Doctrine and Covenants 88:95-98
95 And there shall be silence in heaven for the space of half an hour; and immediately after shall the curtain of heaven be unfolded, as a scroll is unfolded after it is rolled up, and the face of the Lord shall be unveiled;
96 And the saints that are upon the earth, who are alive, shall be quickened and be caught up to meet him.
97 And they who have slept in their graves shall come forth, for their graves shall be opened; and they also shall be caught up to meet him in the midst of the pillar of heaven—
98 They are Christ’s, the first fruits, they who shall descend with him first, and they who are on the earth and in their graves, who are first caught up to meet him; and all this by the voice of the sounding of the trump of the angel of God.

Doctrine and Covenants 38:9-12
9 Wherefore, gird up your loins and be prepared. Behold, the kingdom is yours, and the enemy shall not overcome.
10 Verily I say unto you, ye are clean, but not all; and there is none else with whom I am well pleased;
11 For all flesh is corrupted before me; and the powers of darkness prevail upon the earth, among the children of men, in the presence of all the hosts of heaven;
12 Which causeth silence to reign, and all eternity is pained, and the angels are waiting the great command to reap down the earth, to gather the tares that they may be burned; and, behold, the enemy is combined.

What do we learn in these scriptures?

The Half Hour of Silence begins right after the Seventh Seal is opened (Revelation 8:1).
The heading to Revelation 8 clearly states that the Seventh Seal is opened before the Second Coming and the beginning of the Millennium. This is supported by the fact that the rest of this chapter describes the “dreadful” events preceding Christ’s final Second Coming, but after the Seventh Seal is opened.
Christ comes immediately after the Half Hour of Silence, as well as those resurrected or translated at that time (D&C 88:95).
The Silence reigns because of wickedness on the Earth, and the angels in heaven are restrained from “reaping down the Earth” (D&C 38:12). My thought on why the angels are restrained: Satan and his minions must have their day, so that their final judgment will be just. FYI, the entire Chapter 38 is well worth reading and digesting.

And here’s a final tidbit, found embedded in those same search results, with the link to the scriptural topic, “Silence, Silent” and it provides counsel to “the prudent” that we might well remember when the time comes:

Amos 5:12-15:
12 For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right [the wicked, distinguished from “the prudent” below].
13 Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it is an evil time.
14 Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live: and so the Lord, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye have spoken.
15 Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate: it may be that the Lord God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph [that’s us, folks].

Now we come to the ongoing discussion about how long this Half Hour lasts. I have encountered two theories:

Option 1: Quoting Jst 2 Peter 3:8: But concerning the coming of the Lord, beloved, I would not have you ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
If we figure this out in a literal sense, this is the math:
1 day = 24 hours; 48 “half hours” = 1 day; 1,000 years ÷ 48 half hours = 20.83 years
Option 2: Quoting Daniel 9:27: And he shall confirm the covenant with many for ONE WEEK [here, one hour]: 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.
[NOTE that the Lord will “confirm the covenant” for the whole week (7 years), but the Antichrist will put a stop to public religious worship halfway through it. I take this to mean that neither he nor Satan himself can stop our inner spiritual growth – it’s beyond their power – even if they shut down all Christian worship services.]
Here One Week is “the Hour” which = 7 of something. It could be 7 days in the literal sense of a week, as in Revelation 3:10 and John 2:4 where Christ’s “Hour” = 7 days of the last week of His life. He came to Jerusalem on a Monday, was crucified on Friday, and resurrected “3 days and 3 nights later” on the next Monday, or over the course of 1 week.
Since we don’t think our time of severe tribulation will last only 3 1/2 days, we then consider that “the Hour” can also = 7 Years of Tribulation, foreshadowed by Pharoah’s dream of 7 years of plenty, followed by 7 years of famine.
So a Half Hour = 3 1/2 years, with this logic. This also lines up with some numbers in Daniel and Revelation: 1260 or 1290 days, 42 months or time, times, and half a time. These numbers paired with meaningful Hebrew Feast days are major ways the real timeline is defined, and this Half Hour of Silence fits into its progression of events perfectly.

A fuller explanation of these two options is given in Farrell Pickering’s video, Daniel’s Hour and the 1/2 Hour of Silence or available on a DVD at propheticappointments.com. He also makes the point that if 20.83 years was really the length of this very destructive time, no one would survive. So I agree with his analysis that 3 1/2 years is the actual time span, and that the Lord buried His messages even deeper in the scriptures than the scripture in 2 Peter, so that future religious leaders wouldn’t omit or alter it in the scriptures, as has been done with many other doctrines. This is also comparable to the Savior’s style of teaching in parables so that only those spiritually prepared to hear that truth and be accountable for living it would understand His message.

Where this fits in a sequence of events is shown clearly on Brother Pickering’s full timeline, and I’ll be addressing it in my upcoming book, hopefully finished by June this year. But this Half Hour (3 1/2 years) will be the time of The Great Tribulation where God’s true followers will be refined in their own personal fire of tribulation and then, if one stays faithful, he or she will emerge with their garments made white, being pure and spotless before God. . . (Alma 13:12). And this is when we all can belong to the Church of the First Born and enjoy the Lord’s Feast of Fat Things in Zion preparing for the glorious Millennium where missionary work and a fuller gathering of Israel continues, with Eternity beckoning beyond that. See the end of my previous post for a preview of this this coming glory.

Buckle your seatbelts, keep the faith, stay in the boat, and hang on for the ride!

Most people are still stressed because of economic worries, long pandemic restrictions, family worries, or just wondering, “What’s happened to our world”?

And I’m squarely in that camp. In February 2021, I signed up for a Church History tour that July that I wasn’t able to fully anticipate because it might be cancelled due to COVID restrictions. In normal times, I could have signed up and enjoyed months of happy anticipation, but I couldn’t allow myself that pleasure because it would just set me up for a bigger disappointment should it be cancelled.

This made me both sad and angry, mostly angry. Somebody STOLE our future! I’m not alone in that feeling and have heard others’ frustrations expressed in many forms: indignation, anxiety, negativity – abnormal for those people in better times. I tried all my usual emotional “bandaids” – good chats with uplifting people, doing service, watching escapist TV, and reading good novels – but finally turned to inspirational reading.

I got one of my favorites off the shelf: The Hiding Place, a memoir by Corrie ten Boom, a Dutch survivor of the WWII women’s concentration camp Ravensbruck where she and her sister were sent because her family helped Jews escape the Nazi net in Holland. She also lost her father after only 10 days in prison, a beloved nephew, and a brother who died soon after being released from their local prison.

Why did a Christian family put themselves in harm’s way? They could have just sat out the war safely repairing clocks, all while enjoying their large, happy family and many friends. Corrie’s father Casper ten Boom was a devout Christian who put his faith into action and gave a message of hope and faith to everyone he met.

He loved the Jewish people because of their great destiny and heritage. While out walking with Corrie during the German occupation of their town, Corrie commented on the many people forced to wear a yellow star marking them as Jewish: Father, those poor people!

Her father replied: Those poor people. But to Corrie’s surprise she saw that he was looking at the soldiers now forming into ranks. I pity the poor Germans, Corrie. They have touched the apple of God’s eye [the Jews]. He really lived the commandment to Love Your Enemies, a lesson Corrie would have to work hard to master later on.

Casper was also a wise father and knew how to teach difficult lessons. After Corrie had accompanied her mother and older sister to a family grieving the death of an infant, she was invited to touch a small, cold hand. Corrie was shocked by her sudden introduction to the physical reality of death. Later that night, she burst into tears upon seeing her beloved father, declaring, You can’t die! You can’t. I need you! Her father wisely counseled her:

Corrie, when you and I go to Amsterdam – when do I give you your ticket?
Corrie: Why, just before we get on the train.
Exactly. And our wise Father in heaven knows when we’re going to need things, too. Don’t run out ahead of Him, Corrie. When the time comes that some of us will have to die, you will look into your heart and find the strength you need – just in time.

And isn’t that how our Heavenly Father works with us? We are expected to move forward in faith, believing that we’ll “get our ticket” just when we need it. Many of us gaze into the future and try to see what’s coming. While it is good to be prepared, there comes a time to turn the future over to God – a burden only He can really carry – trusting Him to give us our ticket when we really need strengthening, direction, or protection.

An example from my own life: I sometimes worry excessively about my children and grandchildren before they take a long trip or when my son goes mountain biking on rough terrain. During one of his outings, I couldn’t control my anxiety for him, so I remembered God’s promise to quiet our inner storms (2 Corinthians 1:3-7). Then I knelt and said a formal prayer asking that my fears be removed and peace descend. As I arose, that peace did appear and anxiety didn’t return. Sharing my concerns with my son when he returned for his hero’s breakfast, he replied, Don’t worry, Mom, I’m careful and I don’t want to die!
But it would have helped if he hadn’t sent me videos of a true dare-devil on that same trail! In any case, I got my ticket from an understanding God just when I needed it!

Corrie always looked up to her two sisters, Nollie and Betsie, as well as her father as model Christians, living their beliefs every day. But she acknowledged her own struggles to match their faith. In Ravensbruck, they spent many hours in a room infested with fleas that caused much discomfort. Betsie counseled her to be thankful in all things, even in this.

1 Thessalonians 5:18:
In every thing give thanks:
for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

Corrie couldn’t believe that meant being thankful for fleas, but they proved a blessing when they could teach their fellow prisoners from a hidden Bible, unmolested by the guards who wouldn’t go into that room!

In her follow-up book, Tramp for the Lord, the Years after The Hiding Place, Corrie feels called by the Lord to travel the world and teach the Christian lessons from her childhood and years of Nazi oppression. Each short chapter teaches another lesson she learned from almost 40 years of learning to trust the Lord to lead her in her travels and ministry.

Called reluctantly to return to post-war Germany with a message of hope and God’s love, she wrote:

The Germans had lost face in defeat. Their homes had been destroyed and when they heard the enormity of Hitler’s crimes (which many Germans knew nothing about), they were filled with despair. As they returned to their Fatherland they felt they had nothing to live for. . . . Then in a refugee camp, Corrie spotted an elderly woman who had been a concert pianist. Finding a broken-down piano, she played the Chromatic Fantasy of Bach beautifully. Tears came to Corrie’s eyes as she thought of wounded Germany, left with only the remnants of the past, but still able to play beautiful music. Such a nation will survive to create again, she thought.

Then Corrie told this woman what she had learned in Ravensbruck: Love still stands when all else has fallen. In the concentration camp; they took all we had, even made us stand naked for hours at a time without rest, but they could not take Jesus from my heart. Ask Jesus to come into your life. He will give you riches no man can take away from you.

While it was hard for Corrie to face a return to Germany, it was harder still to face a former guard, who came forward after one of her speeches on God’s love and forgiveness. Here’s her account of that meeting:

“It came back with a rush: the huge room with its harsh overhead lights; the pathetic pile of dresses and shoes in the centre of the floor; the shame of walking naked past this man. I could see my sister’s frail form ahead of me, ribs sharp beneath the parchment skin. Betsie, how thin you were! The place was Ravensbruck and the man who was making his way forward had been a guard – one of the most cruel guards. Now he was in front of me, hand thrust out. A fine message, Fraulein! How good it is to know that, as you say, all our sins are at the bottom of the sea!

“And I, who had spoken so glibly of forgiveness, fumbled in my pocketbook rather than take that hand. He would not remember me, of course . . . but I remembered him and the leather crop swinging from his belt . . . You mentioned Ravensbruck in your talk. I was a guard there. But since that time, I have become a Christian. I know that God has forgiven me for the cruel things I did there, but I would like to hear it from your lips as well, Fraulein – again the hand came out – will you forgive me?

“And I stood there – I whose sins had again and again been forgiven – and could not forgive. Betsie had died in that place – could he erase her slow terrible death simply for the asking?”

But she knew that God’s offer of forgiveness has a prior condition: that we forgive those who have injured us. If you do not forgive men their trespasses, Jesus says, neither will your father in heaven forgive your trespasses. Corrie saw many war victims and commented: Those who were able to forgive their former enemies were able also to return to the outside world and rebuild their lives, no matter what the physical scars. But those who nursed their bitterness remained invalids. It was as simple and horrible as that.

“And still I stood there with the coldness clutching my heart. But forgiveness is not an emotion – I knew that too. Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart. Jesus, help me! I prayed silently. I can lift my hand. I can do that much. You supply the feeling. And so woodenly, mechanically, I thrust my hand into the one stretched out to me. And as I did, an incredible thing took place. The current started in my shoulder, raced down my arm, sprang into our joined hands. And then this healing warmth seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes.

“I forgive you, brother! I cried. With all my heart. . . . I realized it was not my love. I had tried, and did not have the power. It was the power of the Holy Spirit as recorded in Romans 5:5: because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.”

And the promise of God’s strengthening grace is given to us in all circumstances when our own powers are inadequate. I remember when I was asked only a day before Father’s Day to fill in for a speaker in my church’s Sacrament Meeting the next morning. I thought, “this isn’t hard.” We have the greatest Father of all in God, plus the great ancient patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But no matter how I approached this talk, nothing came together. Everything I wrote came out sounding like an essay or lesson, not a tribute to everyday fathers. Finally, I just gave it back to the Lord and walked into church knowing He would help me and “give me my ticket” just as I needed it. I sat on the stand completely relaxed, smiling at the congregation anticipating along with them what message the Lord would have me share!

When my turn came, I walked calmly to the podium, never looked at my notes, and quietly heard words from God: Stand aside, your talk’s rubbish. I’ll take it from here. And He did. It suddenly came to me to pay tribute to my earthly father, then my great-great grandfather who was the last Christian in the Kent line to that point (a human spiritual father look up to), and finally to my son, a devoted dad to my two grandchildren. The talk flowed easily. I enjoyed it and several people later told me that they did too.

In many years of living, I’m slowly learning that God will fill our gaps. Gaps of courage, of faith, of inspiration, of direction when we truly need it and ask for it. I just have to keep reminding myself of that: to ask. And the more we exercise our faith muscles, the stronger they grow. The Christian road is often hard but there is a paradise waiting at the end. And not just in the next life but also at the end of every struggle, every challenge!

Category: Hope

The Half Hour of Silence

Inspiration from the Life of Corrie ten Boom