Table Of Contents
UNDER CONSTRUCTION
This was written in the 80's before I understood that the KJV is the only reliable English Translation.
REVELATION CHAPTER FOUR
Verse 1: “After this I looked and, behold, a door was open in heaven; and the first voice that I heard was, as it were, of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up here, and I will show thee things which must be hereafter.”
This verse clearly teaches that after the completion of “the things which are” (1:19), the Church Age (chapters 2 & 3), then the Rapture will take place and after that “the thiings which shall be hereafter” (1:19) will take place. “For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout (Come up here)…and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we who are alive…shall be caught up…with them…to meet the Lord in the air…” (I Thessalonians 4:16 & 17).
The door in heaven is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself (John 10:1,9 & 16). “Then Jesus said unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep…My sheep know My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.” (John 10:7 & 27).
The first trumpet that John heard (1:10) was a call for the Church to do battel against false doctrine and sin. Here the trumpet is a cal to worship God (I Corinthians 14:8, Exodus 19:10-19, Numbers 10:1-7, Psalm 150:3).
Verse 2 - 3: “And immediately I was in the Spirit and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and One sat on the throne. And He that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardius stone; and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like an emerald.”
“Again, as in chapter one, verse ten, the Holy Spirit takes complete control of John in order to give him the most glorious vision in all time or eternity…” (J.V.I. pg. 53) Verse five says:”…there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits (sevenfold Spirit) of God” We learned in chapter one that the seven lamps are symbols for the Church (1:20), but in this chapter the lamps symbolize the Holy Spirit. The solution is that the True Church consisting of all born again believers from all denomiantions that have existed from the day of Penticost till the day of the Rapture are at this point “in the Spirit,” like John “burning before the throne.” The Church by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit now restrains Satan from revealing the Antichrist (I Thessalonians 2:3-9). In the same way the Church being “in the Spirit,” in perfect harmony and subjection to God is seen before His throne. In other words the Spirit is in the Church; and the Church is here seen in the Spirit.
All believers in the Church having gone through Jesus Christ, “the door” now enter before the throne of the Heavenly Father. “Jesus said…I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me” (John 14:6, cf. 14:9, Revelation 3:21, Hebrews 1:3).
“He that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardius stone.” These two stones were the first and last of the twolve stones in the brestplate of the Old Testament high priest (Exodus 28:15-20). These twelve stones signified the twelve tribes of Israel (Exodus 28:21 & 29). The first stone of the brest plate, the sardius represents the tribe of Reuben (the name means: “behold a son”); the last stone in the brestplate, the jasper represents Benjamin (meaning: “the son of my right hand”). The description that John gives here of the Father appearing as “a jasper and a sardius stone” speaks of His Son’s incarnation and exaltation (Isaiah 7:14, Matthew 1:23, Psalm 110:1, Hebrews 1:3).
The “rainbow round about the throne, is sight like an emerald” refers to the promise of God to never destroy the earth with a flood of water again (Genesis 9:11-16). In wrath God will remember mercy (Habakkuk 3:2). “The emerald was Judah’s (Jesus is from the tribe of Judah) stone, and was green, denoting eternal freshness and eternal endurance… Instead of the usual combination of colors…in the rainbow today, the bow John saw…was like…an emerald, which in color is one of the most pleasant to the humand eye…The throne was encircled with a rainbow. This unbroken circle (the Greek word “iris” can mean bow or circle) symbolizes…the unbroken power…love and mercy of God.” (O.B.G. pg. 158 &159)
Verse 4: “And round about the throne were four and twenty thrones, and upon the thrones I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold.”
“…We have such an High Priest, who is seated on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a minister of the sanctuary…For if He were on earth, He would not be a priest, seeing that there are no priests that offer gifts according to the law, who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things…” (Hebrews 8:1-5, cf. 9:19-23). The twenty-four elders are the twenty-four chief men appointed by God after the Rapture for service in the heavenly sanctuary (I Chronicles 24:1-19). The Old Testament tells how “David (a type of Christ) distributed them (the chief men of the sons of Aaron the high priest, who is another type of Christ)… according to their offices in their service” (I Chronicles 24:3, cf. 24:1). These twenty-four priests that David divided by lot and set as officers of the sanctuary “serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things” (Hebrews 8:5). They typeify the twenty-four elders, the Church.
The twenty-four elders are seated on thrones because they are the officers of “a royal priesthood” (I Peter 2:9). The “white raiment” depicts salvation and the “crowns of gold” depict rewards (Revelation 2:10, 3:11, 7:14, 19:8).
Verse 5: “And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderclaps, and voices; and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the Seven spirits of God.”
The “lightnings and thunderclaps and voices” coming from the throne speak of the judgement which God is about to pronounce upon unrepentant mankind left on earth after the Rapture (cf. Exodus 9:22-26; I Samuel 7:8-10, 12:17).
Again in this chapter as in chapter one we can see all three members of the Trinity. We saw Jesus, the door (v. 1); we saw the Father upon His throne (v. 2 & 3); and here we see the sevenfold Spirit of God (cf. 1:4, 3:1).
Verse 6: “And before the throne there was a sea of glass like crystal; and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four living creatures full of eyes in front and behind.
“Our attention is…directed to the “sea of glass like crystal”… The “sea” is often used in the Bible to symbolize masses of humanity (Luke 21:25; Jude 3: Daniel 7:2, 3&7)…John tells us in Revelation 13 that the Antichrist will arise from such a sea a restless, roaring, muddy sea. But Heaven has a clear, calm crystal sea…This heavenly sea before the throne is symbollic of the redeemed saints of our Lord’s Church…(D.F.W. pg. 41)
The four living creatures introduces here are also seen in the Old Testament (Isaiah 6:1-7; Ezekial 1:4-25).
Verse 7 - 8: “And the first living creature was like a lion, and the second living creature like a calf, and the third living creature had the face of a man, and the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle. And the four living creatures had each of them six wings about him, and they were full of eyes within; and they rested not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.”
The four living creatures represent the Four Gospels: (1) the lion (Revelation 5:5) communicates Christ’s office af King as seen in Matthew; (2) the ox calf (Deuteronomy 25:4), a beast of burden communicates Christ’s office, a servant as seen in Mark; (3) the face as a man speaks of the Lord’s humanity as emphasized in Luke; (4) the flying eagle (Exodus 19:4; Deuteronomy 32:11&12) refers to Christ’s deity as expressed in John. “Are they not all minister(s)…for them who shall be heirs of salvation” (Hebrews 1:14).
The description of these living creatures prove that they are asgelic beings called “Seraphim”.
The seraphim “were full of eyes in front and behind (v. 6), and they are also “full of eyes within” (Verse 8). The eyes speak of extreem intelligence and constant watchfullness as “the rested not day and night, saying Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.”
Verses 9 - 11: “And when those living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him that is seated on the throne, who liveth forever and ever, the four and twenty elders fall down before Him that is seated on the throne, and worship Him that liveth forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created.”
Whenever the “living creatures give glory and honor and thanks” to God then the twenty-four elders fall down before Him and worship the Creator of the universe. The worship of our holy and powerful and glorious and al knowing and gracious God will be continual in heaven. If you don’t like to praise the Lord, then you wont like heaven.
After Jesus hands out the crowns of reward at the judgement seat of Christ, I am sure every one will feel most unworthy. Can you imagine wearing your crown before the King of the universe. Only He is worthy; we can do nothing without Him (John 15:4). For this reason we, following the example of the twenty-four elders who “cast their crown before the throne,” will do the same. “Thou art worthy, O Lord,” not me (Colossians 1:16-21; II Corinthians 5:17).
E-mail: KJV@LandmarkBibleBaptist.net
Table Of Contents