"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
The significance of the vision of the Throne, towering over the affairs of men, is that it underlines the message of the sovereignty of God, and is therefore a repetition, an elaboration and a variation of the message of chapter 1 which showed us the living Lord, to Whom all power is given, in the midst of the candlesticks. It speaks to precisely the same circumstances and the same people, the Church, encouraging it to keep on trusting, because God is on the Throne and no tribulation can finally harm them. It is another 'Fear not' like that in 1:17. Indeed, chapter 4 may be said to be an exposition of that wonderful verse.
The question whether the Church is to pass through the tribulation or not must be answered, it seems to us in the affirmative, for the following reasons. If we compare 1 Thessalonians 4:16 and 1 Corinthians 15:52 and Revelation 11:15 with Matthew 24:30-1, it should become clear that, if any consistency in interpretation is to be maintained, the same event is referred to in each case, namely, the return of Christ, associated with the Last Trump. But in Matthew 24:27-29 it is clearly indicated that this takes place after the tribulation of those days - that is, having passed through it, the Church will then be called home to be with Christ forever. This seems to be a decisive answer to the question. In addition, however, we may say this: Having examined every reference in the New Testament to the word or thought of tribulation (sometimes the word is translated 'affliction', 'anguish', 'persecution', 'trouble') we conclude that there is no real scriptural evidence for supposing that there will be any specific 'great tribulation' at the end-time involving the Jews only. All that can legitimately be adduced from the evidence is that tribulation is the hallmark of Christian experience, that it will be the lot of Christians all through the Church age, and that it will intensify greatly at the end-time prior to the Second Coming of Christ, when Satan will know that his time is short.