I have come up with a theory on the seven thunders of Revelation 10 that I’d like to share here and get your feedback on.

As you likely already know the whole chapter is a prophecy of the Millerite movement with the last verse in the chapter commenting on the rise of the Seventh-day Adventist Church afterward. The little book being the book of Daniel, it‘s message was taken in, which was sweet at first but then bitter as the disappointment itself came. Revelation 10:3,4, in speaking of the angel that symbolizes the movement, says “And cried with a loud voice, as [when] a lion roareth: and when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices. And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write: and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not.”

(Daniel 8:13 augments this understanding. There are two saints here. It was the second saint that asked the first one to explain the prophecy. The Millerites figured out what the timing was going to be, but as we all know now, they were wrong about the event itself. Adventists have looked back to the experience of the disappointment for meaning and purpose as a people ever since.)

Look carefully at those verses. The thunders are not spoken by God or the mighty angel. They come in reaction to the message of the angel. So who is left to speak them but the people who heard the message?

In Revelation 14, the first angel’s message is proclaimed with a loud voice, so is the third. The second however, is not. This implies a time delay. There is also an angel in Revelation 18:1,2 who speaks with a loud voice. I submit to you that a thunder is a loud voice and that the seven thunders are not seven different messages, but the same message seven times over in the seven generations of time that have passed from 1844 until now.

This theory explains why it seems to have taken so long for Jesus to return. Look carefully at this quote from Early Writings, page 40: “I begged of my attending angel to let me remain in that place. I could not bear the thought of coming back to this dark world again. Then the angel said, ‘You must go back, and if you are faithful, you, with the 144,000, shall have the privilege of visiting all the worlds and viewing the handiwork of God.’” Did you notice there are two different sets of people mentioned by the angel, ‘you’ and ‘the 144,00’? Things were always meant to turn out the way they did. It never was possible that that generation would see Jesus in their time. The angel knew it. But if they weren’t faithful, they wouldn’t have made it to Heaven.

Now again, it’s a theory. But what’s wrong with wanting it to be true? What’s wrong with doing everything we can to make it true as well? If the theory is corre