Tagged: Free Bible study
How do I know the Bible is true?
Christians generally believe in the reliability and authority of Scripture. But some have doubts and others raise serious objections to the Bible’s claim to be the Word of God. Click here to learn more about a free downloadable study that addresses eight of the more common objections, including: “No one really knows what the Bible says because the original manuscripts are lost,” and “The Bible is full of contradictions.”
A unique voice: Rev. 4:1
Previously: An open door in heaven (Rev. 4:1)
The scripture
Rev. 4:1 – After this I looked, and there in heaven was an open door. The first voice that I heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this” (HCSB).
John hears a voice and recognizes it instantly. It is “[t]he first voice that I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet” (v. 1). This is, of course, the voice of Jesus, who spoke to John many times during His earthly ministry. But now, with the sonic fullness of heaven’s atmosphere, John hears the Messiah’s magnified tones and remembers the sound from Rev. 1:10 as Jesus instructs him to write what he sees to the seven churches in Asia Minor. Now, however, the Savior tells John, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this” (v. 1).
Those who hold to a futurist view of Revelation argue that John’s call into heaven is a foreshadowing of the Rapture, which Paul describes as being accompanied by “a shout” from the Lord and “the trumpet of God” (1 Thess. 4:16). There is some connection between the shouts of Jesus and the opening of the graves. In John 11, Jesus stands outside the tomb of Lazarus and shouts loudly, “Lazarus, come out!” His friend soon emerges from the grave after being dead nearly four days. In Matt. 27:50, just before dying, Jesus shouts with a loud voice and then gives up His spirit. The very next verses record, “Suddenly, the curtain of the sanctuary was split in two from top to bottom; the earth quaked and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened and many bodies of the saints who had gone to their rest were raised. And they came out of the tombs after His resurrection, entered the holy city, and appeared to many” (vv. 51-53). And, of course, Paul’s teaching about the future resurrection of the saints in 1 Thess. 4:13-18 features Jesus descending from heaven with a shout, resulting in the resurrection of believers whose bodies rest in the graves.
The sound of the trumpet also is significant. Not only are trumpets used to herald kings, alert armies to prepare for battle, and forewarn God’s people of judgment, but Paul tells us a trumpet will sound when it’s time for the church to be called into heaven: “For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed” (1 Cor. 15:52b). Some argue that Rosh Hashanah, the feast of the Jewish New Year, prefigures the Rapture of the church – a feast in which shofars, or rams’ horns, play a prominent role.
Next: In the Spirit (Rev. 4:2)
Read about Christ’s letters to the seven churches (Rev. 2-3)
Read five views of the Book of Revelation
Read what every Christian should believe about the end times
Do Christians and Muslims worship the same God?
The idea that the world’s three great monotheistic religions — Christianity, Islam and Judaism — worship the same God is comforting to many people. It’s also a politically correct way to tone down the rhetoric that often generates more heat than light. But is is true? In this post from 2009 — one of the most visited posts on this site — we will ask three simple questions that enable us to compare Yahweh (the God of the Bible) and Allah (the god of Islam). If Christians truly love Muslims, as Jesus does, we must clearly and compassionately share the truth about the identity of the one true and living God.
Click here to view post.
An open door in heaven (Rev. 4:1-3)
The scripture
Rev. 4:1 – After this I looked, and there in heaven was an open door. The first voice that I heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” 2Immediately I was in the Spirit, and there in heaven a throne was set. One was seated on the throne, 3and the One seated looked like jasper and carnelian stone. A rainbow that looked like an emerald surrounded the throne (HCSB).
John’s first glimpse into heaven is of an open door. We see in Christ’s letter to the church in Philadelphia that Jesus, “the One who has the key of David,” is authorized as Messiah to open and close doors of ministry. He also has the keys of death and Hades (1:18) and ultimately tosses both into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:14). In the New Testament, an “open door” is an opportunity for the gospel’s advance (Acts 14:27; 1 Cor. 16:9; 2 Cor. 2:12; Col. 4:3). As the Head of the church, Jesus determines when and where the gospel will be effective (see Acts 16:6-10). Jesus also describes Himself as “the door” in John 10:9, the One through whom eternal life is granted.
So what is this open door in heaven? First, we need to understand that the door is “standing open,” not suddenly opened as we see in Ezek. 1:1; Matt. 3:16; and Acts 7:56, 10:11. From an earthly perspective heaven must be opened for God’s servants to be granted revelation, but for John, who is taken up into heaven – most likely by a vision rather than physically – the door already is opened and he may gaze upon things that Paul, who only heard them, could not express (2 Cor. 12:4).
The word “door” appears in about 180 verses of scripture and three times in Revelation. In Rev. 3:8, Jesus honors the faithfulness of believers in Philadelphia by placing before them an “open door” of ministry that no one is able to shut. In Rev. 3:20, Jesus stands outside the door of the church at Laodicea and knocks, seeking entrance and fellowship. But in Rev. 4:1, John sees an open door that leads into the throne room of heaven. No one there may close the door. No one desires to do so. While C.S. Lewis once observed that the door to hell is locked from the inside, entrance into heaven is by invitation only and requires belief in the One who is “the door.”
The door in this verse may symbolize the free access granted to those who have trusted in Christ and who, while on earth, were invited to “approach the throne of grace with boldness” (Heb. 4:15). Whatever the “open door” may be, it is a door not made with human hands; nor is it a door that human hands may open or close. John crosses the threshold by God’s grace through faith and enters the riches of the Creator’s throne room.
Next: A Unique Voice
Read about Christ’s letters to the seven churches (Rev. 2-3)
Read five views of the Book of Revelation
Read what every Christian should believe about the end times
An open door: Revelation 4:1-3
Read about Christ’s letters to the seven churches (Rev. 2-3)
Read five views of the Book of Revelation
Read what every Christian should believe about the end times
The scripture
Rev. 4:1 – After this I looked, and there in heaven was an open door. The first voice that I heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” 2Immediately I was in the Spirit, and there in heaven a throne was set. One was seated on the throne, 3and the One seated looked like jasper and carnelian stone. A rainbow that looked like an emerald surrounded the throne (HCSB).
With Christ’s letters to the seven churches now complete, John is given a glimpse into the throne room of heaven. Twice in the first verse John uses the words “after this.” Those who hold a futurist view of Revelation point to these words as a clear transition from “what is” to “what will take place after this” (Rev. 1:9). In other words, with the start of Revelation 4 we are taken beyond the church age and into the interlude before Christ’s return. Many futurists see this as a seven-year tribulation period that begins shortly after the Rapture of the church, or the bodily removal of all New Testament saints, alive and dead, from the earth (see 1 Cor. 15:51-58; 1 Thess. 4:13-18). The voice of Jesus, telling John to “Come up here,” previews the day when Jesus will step into the clouds of heaven and call His church to meet Him in the air. Additionally, futurists argue that since the church is not mentioned from Rev. 4-19, the church is in heaven with Jesus while an unprecedented time of tribulation falls upon the earth.
But there are other points of view. Preterists, for example, teach that since John is told in the first century that these things must “quickly take place” (v. 1) and that “the time is near” (v. 3), we should be prepared for a first-century fulfillment of the things described in Revelation, specifically the Jewish crisis of 66-70 A.D.; the war between Rome and the Jews; and the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in 70 A.D. Preterists, you’ll recall, tend to hold to an early authorship of Revelation, which allows for these things to take place in John’s lifetime. Historicists see John’s vision as a call to pay heed to God’s sovereignty over history and the authority of Christ to unveil the future. Spiritualists reject the notion that the words “after these things” mean this is what will happen next. Rather, the entire church age, depicted from an earthly standpoint in chapters 1-3, may now be viewed again – this time from a heavenly perspective. In any case, the first three verses of Rev. 4 are rich with imagery and meaning.
Next: An open door … a unique voice … and in the Spirit
OnceDelivered.net 