The seven seals ended with a surprising silence. When the seventh seal was broken, there was silence in heaven for half an hour. It was the calm before the storm, the final judgment.

The seven trumpets recapitulate the same epoch as the seven seals. The Seals and the trumpets both follow a pattern of four and three. The first four seals (The four horsemen) are followed by three seals. The first four trumpets, which go together, are followed by the three woes. Each records an earthquake signaling the beginning of the end. Each series contains an interlude between the sixth and seventh portraying two vantage points of the church. In chapter seven the church is depicted both as 144,000 Jewish men and a great multitude of souls from all the nations. The interlude between the sixth and seventh trumpets depict the church as the temple and two witnesses in the world; threatened yet secure (10:1-11:14).

But there is one remarkable difference. The seals end not with a hush but a mighty song. “Revelation is a noisy book; twenty times we read of a loud voice as if the ‘war of words’ on earth corresponds to a war of praise in heaven, with the loud praises of God and the declarations of his salvation drowning out all other, rival voices” (Ian Paul, 207). The song of the heavenly host declares themes which will dominate the remainder of John’s vision as the eternal kingdom of the Lord and His Christ is fully realized at the consummation of the age.