THE OMINOUS THIRTY MINUTES OF SILENCE.
On November 11 1918 history was made: the end of a murderous war, in which millions of young lives were callously killed in a dispute that had no other cause than stupidity and vainglory. The world – Europe actually – had not seen a war for 100 years, and the generals had become restless, while the wisdom to prevent a conflict, was absent. The German Kaiser was a stupid person, not inclined to listen to reason, so in August 1914 the guns started roaring, not to be silenced for 4 years.
To commemorate this tragic event – and tragic it was – since then, now for 106 years, on every November 11, 2 minutes of silence is maintained, a pause to reflect on human bellicosity.
However, there is a silence-precedent. The last Bible book, Revelation 8: 1, records a similar event: When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.
J. H. Bavinck, in his book on Revelation, entitled And On and On the Ages Roll, comments on this text: “We don’t have the slightest idea of what this means. Who can state this with any certainty?”
Well, I am fool enough to venture an explanation.
I believe that our ‘2 minutes of silence’ may indicate a possible explanation. Just as we now, for more than a century, have reflected on the folly of war, and, annually, have recalled the uselessness of the millions of deaths in Flanders Fields, wars and rumors of war have intensified, especially our relentless rebellion against God/Creation.
That brings me to the angels, who for thousands of years, have fought the vain attempts by humans to outwit God. However, today, for ‘thirty minutes’, these very same angels have stopped their efforts to influence human behavior, and have given humanity a free hand to challenge God for the last time. Trump is leading the way by abolishing all efforts to stop Climate Change: a daring bid to be like the Almighty! And, so far, God is letting him get away with it: just as ‘Old Testament religion’ was successful in crucifying the Christ, so God is allowing the human race to destroy creation.
Everything becomes what it is.
Bavinck sees the purpose of the Bible’s last book, as ‘everything becomes what it is’. He bases this on Revelation 22: 10-11: “Let they who do wrong, continue with their sinful conduct; let they who do right, pursue their good works”. So, for ‘30 minutes’ the angels will not intervene: We are on our own for good or ill!
That really means that God is retreating and giving us the liberty to follow our own way. We see how, in 2025, the result of the widespread use of pesticide and fertilisers, of light and chemical pollution, leads to loss of habitat and the growth of industrial agriculture; we see how this has reduced the number of insects, has imperiled the existence of wild life, has aided the disappearance of birds; we see it in Climate Change, drought and floods, forest fires and ever stronger and more frequent hurricanes; we see it in the fading of ‘faith’, the advent of rulers like Trump and Putin, dictators and right-wing thinking, wars and rumors of war; we see it as the heavenly silence endures.
So, how long is the heavenly 30 minutes of silence?
Everybody knows that in the Bible a minute is not 60 seconds, nor does ‘soon’ mean in a day or two.
So, how long is ‘the heavenly 30 Minutes’? The Bible gives no hint, so God allows me to speculate, because the divine timetable is different: “One day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day”, says 2 Peter 3.
That is no help, so, here is my – possible – explanation. A day has 24 full hours, and thus 48 thirty minutes periods. Historians have determined that ‘history’ runs back some 4800 years to Mesopotamia and Egypt, or 48 x 100 years. By connecting the two, my tentative answer is that ’30 minutes’ heaven-time indicates roughly 100 years: perhaps 1914-2025.
Why 1914-2025?
The Lord gave me a hint: last week, I, at random, picked up a book “Sinners and the Sea”, the untold story of Noah’s wife, written by a Jewish author, Rebecca Kanner. We know the story, how, after the God-induced Flood, wiping out all human life, the Noah clan makes a new start.
The same will happen after ‘the 30 minutes’ have expired, but this time the ‘destructors are us’. And we are well on the way: since 1914 we have seen TWO World Wars, are preparing for a THIRD, while the War against Creation/God is intensifying, and AI, the ultimate Tower of Babel, looms.
When Noah’s Fludde came, the people then ridiculed the effort of building the Ark. Noah’s explanation was ignored, just as today the signs are not heeded. I believe that “the 30 minutes’ are now in force and will soon expire.
Will there be a repeat of global demise, now human-generated?
Yes.