Although Harold Camping understood that the half hour of silence points to the first part of the great tribulation--he did not recognize that this time of silence was entirely focused on the church. In this regard, this time of silence is not used to indicate that no one in the world is being saved for a period of 2300 days. The context of Revelation 8 teaches that God used the seven angels to destroy the "third part" which represents the church. In this regard, the "third part" was destroyed to demonstrate that the church is no longer being used of God to evangelize the world.

God executed judgment on the church because she began to teach works gospel (e.g., accept Jesus or be baptized in water to become saved). As a result, there was silence in heaven as opposed to "joy in heaven" because the church refused to repent of her evil works.

Camping was also mistaken about the time line of the half hour of silence. This half hour of silence began in the year Jubile sabbath year of 1994. The church was judged for violating the seven year sabbaths and the jubilee sabbaths year which was supposed to be a time to rest that land by not polluting it with idols (i.e., works gospels).

Wonderfully though, in 2000 AD, after this time of silence, God helped the believers see the abomination of desolation so that they could "repent" by cleansing their temples and removing their idols/high places (works gospels) while leaving the church.