Day 11 of Revelation Study: Chapter 4

Understanding the Key Phrase:

“After this I looked….” This statement is clearly referring to immediately after John was given the seven messages to the churches. However, this is not normally where people get hung up. The hang-up comes in at the end of verse one when Jesus says, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” It can easily be read over if we are not careful, but the second phrase is referring to something different than the first.

Again, the first “after this” is referring to what John sees immediately after Jesus finished telling him what to write to the churches. The second “after this” refers back to what Jesus meant when He made the exact same statement in chapter one. In 1:19 He tells John to “write therefore the things that you have seen, those that are and those that are to take place after this.” Within this verse, Jesus begins by commanding John to write three things:

1.                  What he has already seen (1:19a)

2.                  The current state of affairs (1:19b)*

3.                  What will take place after the current state of affairs (1:19c)

*The current state of affairs refers to the seven churches at the time of John’s writing.

Why does this matter so much? Believe it or not, but this simple phrase is often the setting of a theological battleground in deciding how exactly certain events are interpreted throughout the remainder of the book. Thus, this statement is the linchpin to what comes next and must be seen in light of Christ’s own words back in 1:19. Therefore, the “after this” mentioned in this passage is speaking, at the very least, of what is to take place after the current state of affairs in which the churches of John’s day found themselves in.

After This:

Many interpreters see John’s immediate teleportation into Heaven (4:2) as a parallel with the coming rapture of the Church, as seen in 1 Thessalonians 4:17 [“caught up”]. I see this as a valid argument since the Church is not mentioned again in this book until 22:16. Though the Bride of Christ is mentioned in 19:7, without going on too much of a tangent, the people of God [OT saints and NT saints] are His Bride. The explanation then would be that much of Revelation is about what is going on in the world and as such, since the Church is no longer on Earth, there is no need to mention them.

There is a description of the Father on His throne with twenty-four unknown characters on their thrones which encircle His. The twenty-four elders could be the twelve sons of Israel and the twelve apostles of Jesus which would represent both Israel and the Church. I believe this is most likely the case given the fact that we [all believers from all time] are in this thing together.

“The seven torches of fire” (4:5) are directly linked to the “seven spirits of God” (cf. 1:4; 3:1; 4:5; 5:6). This is not referring to seven literal spirits of God, as if to say that God was even more multifaceted than we originally thought. Rather, this phrase is speaking of the fullness of His Spirit’s manifestation. We know that this is the Holy Spirit because of how John uses the phrase in his greeting (1:4) and due to his reference in 5:6 regarding these seven spirits having been previously sent out into all the Earth [i.e. through the ministry of the Church].

Moving on, there is a description of four living creatures which are the seraphim found in Isaiah 6:1-7. They are said to be praising God day and night for all eternity. As they lift up their praise to Him, the twenty-four elders (representative of the people of God) join in on worshiping the Lord. Thus, both Heaven and Earth, which encompasses all of creation, are represented here in this chapter as worshiping Christ.

Continue on to read about chapter 5.

*Click here to read the purpose of this blog series.