9. That there should be time no longer: The words of finality spoken by the angel required that they be sealed with the binding force of an oath. In the Old Testament God is said to have sworn by himself. (Genesis 22:16; Isaiah 45:23; Psalms 110:4; Psalms 89:35; Psalms 132:11) In the New Testament Peter refers to God having “ sworn with an oath” to David. (Acts 2:30), and Paul declares in Hebrews 6:18 that God “ confirmed by an oath” his immutable counsel, in which it was “ impossible for God to lie.” So if the voice from heaven was Christ himself, or “ another mighty angel” there was nothing inconceivable or incompatible that he should sware by the eternal Creator of heaven itself, and the earth and the sea, “ and the things that therein are.” Standing on the sea and the earth, as if to survey the full sweep of all human powers, Roman and Jewish, the angel proclaimed that there should be time no longer. The time for the seventh angel to sound the seventh trumpet was near, and the culminating events would be no longer delayed. This angelic proclamation did not refer to the end of all time, but rather to the end of the events signified in the vision. The word time here means delay, the time, or delay, of these events was about to end. In chapter 6:9-10 the souls under the altar cried “ how long, 0 Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?” In the response to this prayer, in verse 11, “ it was said unto them that they should rest yet for a little season” --that is, wait for a time, until the vision “ should be fulfilled.” That “ little season” was about to end with the approaching proclamation of the seventh angel, the time should be no longer. The prayer of the martyrs for avenging judgment was about to be answered and would speedily come with no more delay. In chapter 8:3 the prayers of all the saints are seen superadded to the cry of martyrs. The visions of the seven seals and the seven trumpets, with their intermissions, have been unfolded, and the vision having reached “ the days of the seventh angel” there should be no more delay.