17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, 18 and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive for evermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades. 19 Write therefore the things that you have seen, those that are and those that are to take place after this. 20 As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.
The dispensational view of prophecy holds that 'the things that are' (19) must necessarily refer to things then existing, namely the churches, and that 'the things that shall be hereafter' speak of a time after the 'church period' ends. This means, it is maintained, that chapters 2 and 3 alone refer to the church, and that the bulk of Revelation, from chapter 4 onwards, deals with events taking place after the Church age has finished. But this is an arbitrary division of the book, quite missing its real point, as well as misinterpreting the meaning of the verse. There is nothing to indicate that John had in mind any such clear-cut separation of the letters to the Churches from the rest of the book, nor is it necessary to suppose that this is the only way of understanding what he means. It is surely more to the point to take his words to refer to the book of Revelation as a whole, that is to say, the letters to the Churches depict conditions which were then to be found in John's day, and also conditions which would obtain after his day; likewise, 'things which shall be hereafter' refer to events about to come in John's immediate future, but also in the much further future, down to our own day. In other words, both the letters to the seven churches and the remainder of the book have a double meaning, being not only 'things which are' but 'things which shall be hereafter'. This interpretation both preserves the unity of the book and gives it a relevance that is unmistakeable for our day.