The first thing John saw in Heaven was a Throne.

             


 




Some One sat on it, who looked like sparkling gems.

      The One on the Throne was none other than God Himself.

"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 Jasper and a Sardius stone: and there was a Rainbow round about the Throne, in sight like unto an Emerald.

And out of the Throne proceeded Lightnings and Thunderings and Voices; and there were Seven Lamps of Fire burning before the Throne, which are the Seven Spirits of God.
And before the Throne there was a Sea of Glass like unto Crystal."
Revelation 4:2-3, 5-6

The presence of the Holy Spirit in Heaven is evidence that the events that follow are to take place after the Church is gone, and the Church is not to go through the Tribulation.

This is evidence that the Church has been 'caught out' and is no longer on the earth, for when the Holy Spirit goes back to Heaven, He will take the Church with Him.

In none of the Epistles is the Holy Spirit referred along with the Father and the Son, except in 2 Corinthians 13:14, because He is viewed abiding on the earth with the Church, but here He is no longer on the earth but back in Heaven, and before the Throne.

The Church is 'caught out' at this time and place, we have in the description of the Throne, the statement that the Holy Spirit is back in Heaven.

As it was a Trumpet like voice that summoned John, so it will be a Trumpet call that will summon the Saints at the Rapture.

The "Rapture" of the Church is described in
1 Thessalonians 4:16-17.
         "For the Lord Himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord."

John lived until ,in his vision, he saw the Return of the Lord.

         Its fulfilment is in John's being caught up in vision and beholding, before his death, what he would have witnessed and experienced if his life had been prolonged until Jesus came back.

After Peter's confession that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God in Matthew 16:13-28, and Jesus had said that upon this rock [Peter's confession that He is the Christ, the Son of the living God] He would build His Church; then Jesus said to His Disciples,
"Verily I say unto you, there be some standing here which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of Man coming in His Kingdom."

In this "Rapture" of John, we have a type of the Rapture of the Church, and it is at this place in the Book of Revelation that the Rapture of the Church takes place.

Immediately after John was called to "come up hither", he was in the spirit: "and, behold, a Throne was set in Heaven, and ONE sat on the Throne."

          John's experience was similar to that of Paul, who was caught up into Paradise.

               Whether in the body or out of the body they are uncertain,

                      The difference between them was that while Paul heard words that he was forbidden to speak; John was told to "write in a book" the things he saw and heard, and send them to the Seven Churches.

John says that 'after this' after the vision of Christ in the middle of the Seven Candlesticks,
and His view of the history of the Churches
according to the messages given to the Seven Churches,
that brought him to the end of the Church Age;
he [John] looked and behold a door was opened to heaven,
and the same voice that spoke to him from the middle of the candlesticks,
which was the voice of Christ [Revelation 1:10-13],
said, "Come up hither and I will show the things which must be hereafter."

THE HEAVENLY DOOR   Revelation 4:1

"After this I looked, and, behold, a DOOR OPENED IN HEAVEN: and the first voice which I heard was as it were a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter [after these]"

           The scene now changes from earth [Patmos] to Heaven.

Chapters four and five of Revelation introduces and prepares the prophetic action of the "Seals", "Trumpets" and "Vials".

The Church disappears from view at the end of the third chapter and isn't heard of again until the nineteenth chapter, where her marriage to the Lamb is announced.  Revelation 19:7-9

       The removal of the Church at the end of the third chapter opens the way for God to renew Himself with Israel.

                   From chapter three to the end of chapter nineteen is made up of symbols, the conclusive evidence that God is back on Jewish ground and that the last or "Seventieth Week" of  Daniel's "Seventy Weeks" is being fulfilled.

THE THINGS WHICH SHALL BE HEREAFTER

         The word translated "hereafter" would be better translated "after these things."

         The word "hereafter" permits a time of space, while the words
'after these things' refers to the things that shall immediately follow the completion of the Church Age.

Happy New Year 2013!