"After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” 2 At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne. 3 And he who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and round the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald. 4 Round the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty-four elders, clothed in white garments, with golden crowns on their heads. 5 From the throne came flashes of lightning, and rumblings and peals of thunder, and before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God, 6 and before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal.
And round the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind: 7 the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight. 8 And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all round and within, and day and night they never cease to say,
“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty,
who was and is and is to come!”
9 And whenever the living creatures give glory and honour and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives for ever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying,
11 “Worthy are you, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honour and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they existed and were created.”"
Revelation 4:1-11
Chapter 4, all shades of interpretation agree, commences a new section of the Book. On the view we have already decided to follow, it opens the second vision, continuing to the end of chapter 7, and again covering the entire Church-age from Christ's first coming to His second, and describes conditions obtaining throughout the whole period. This has, however, been vehemently disputed as an interpretation by those who hold 'dispensational' views of prophecy, and we must needs pause at this point to establish the position we take, and vindicate it with adequate evidence and reason for holding it.
It is asserted that between chapters 3 and 4 of Revelation the Rapture of the Church takes place (see 1 Thessalonians 4:16) and that therefore what is related from chapter 4 onwards, concerning the fearful tribulation that is to come, has no application to the Church since it has been removed from the scene. If this view is correct, however, then the interpretation we have already given in chapters 1-3 must go by default, for there we assumed the existence of a Church in tribulation, as indeed John (1:9) and Jesus (2:9) seem to do. Two things in 4:1 are significant in this connection. It is sometimes held that the words 'Come up hither' refer to the Rapture of the Church, but this is surely very precarious as an explanation of the words, which, after all, were spoken to John, not to the Church, and it is fanciful to make them refer to anything else than John's own immediate experience. Also, there is a vital connection between the 'door opened in heaven' and the 'door' opened in 3:20, which maintains the continuity of thought and message. He who admits Christ unreservedly will be admitted into the secrets of heaven. Indeed, we might very legitimately take chapter 4 with its vision of the Throne as an explication of the promise Christ has just made in 3:21 that those who overcome will be given to sit with Him in His Throne. The new vision, therefore, is a fresh incentive and encouragement to the Church to hold fast and be faithful in the midst of all its tribulation.