4 Jun 2013
Revelation 4:1
Revelation 4:1: “After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.”
In chapter 4 a significant shift takes place. Back in chapter 1 Jesus provided an outline for the book of Revelation:
Revelation 1:19: “Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter;
“The things which thou hast seen” would be chapter 1 – the appearance of Jesus. The “things which are” would be chapters 2 and 3 – the letters to the churches, which give an overview of the entire church age. (As of this moment we are still in that period of history.)
In chapter 4, however, the scene changes. From this point on until the end of the book, we are seeing “things which shall be hereafter”. This refers to things that happen after the church age (meaning after the Rapture), and which are still in our future. The rest of the book will talk about the Tribulation, the Millennial Kingdom, and the Eternal State.
All of the things that John was about to see were still in his future, and so far they are still in our future as well.