A. There are two places in the Revelation where God wipes away the tears of His people. One is in Rev. 7:17 and pertains to Tribulation Martyrs newly arrived in Heaven, and the other is in Rev. 21:4 speaking of believers in the New Jerusalem at the beginning of the Millennium. In both cases the idea is that once a child of God arrives at his/her eternal home the old order of things passes away and eternal bliss characterizes the future. Once we leave Earth there are no more tears.

What got to me is, John only mentioned “the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God” and he did not see the souls of other believers who had died due to old age, sickness of killed by accidents, etc. And too, how about the souls of people like Noah, Abraham, Job, David, Samuel, etc. etc. Aren’t they too suppose to be under the alter as well?

A. The souls John referred to in Rev. 6:9 are the first of the Tribulation Martyrs.  I’m not aware of any place that says people who die of other causes, or Old Testament saints, will also petition the Lord for vengeance in this way.

In  Rev. 6:11 they’re told to be patient until the number of all those who would be killed in this way (martyred) was completed.  This confirms that John only had Triblation Martyrs in view here.

A. The Revelation is a book of signs and symbols.  This is explained in the first verse where it says that Jesus signified it to John.  This means he rendered it into signs.

Revelation 4 is one of 4 views of the throne of God in the Bible. In Isaiah 6 and Ezekiel 1 there is no mention of thrones other than the Throne of God.  Daniel had a vision of the Throne in the end times and saw other “thrones”, but gave no detail. (Daniel 7:9)  John’s view is the only one to identify 24 other thrones and describe those seated upon them.  They were elders, indicating they were not angels but men.  They were seated, not standing, meaning they were in a position of authority. They were dressed in white and had crowns on their heads. The Greek word translated crown there means the victor’s crown, or the crown of the over comer.  When King David organized the priesthood into 24 divisions, the number 24 became associated with priests.  But priests didn’t wear crowns and didn’t sit on thrones, only kings did.

So in Rev. 4 we see 24 thrones on which are seated elders who are over comers and have the appearance of kings and priests, and who have never been present in any previous view of the Throne of God. In Rev. 5:9 they sing a new song, the words to which are,

“You are worthy to take the scroll, And to open its seals;  For You were slain, And have redeemed us to God by Your blood Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, And have made us kings and priests to our God; And we shall reign on the earth.”

Only the Church can sing this song.  The 24 Elders signify the newly raptured Church.

We are grateful to you for all your help, and grateful to the Lord for you.

A. A careful reading of Rev. 20 shows that Verses 7-15 are a parenthetical insert  that John used to carry the dispositions of Satan and the unbelievers to their final conclusion while he was on the subject.  Then in Rev. 21 he returned to the beginning of the Millennium to describe the New Jerusalem, home of the Church.

There are several clues in the text that support this view.  First, Rev. 20:7 begins, “when the thousand years are over” indicating that John has skipped to the end of the  Millennium.  Second, Rev. 21:1 is a direct quote from Isaiah 65:17 where the context is clearly Israel’s Kingdom Age, aka the Millennium, and third the first 5 verses of Rev.22 are a summary of Ezekiel 47, which is also about the Kingdom Age in Israel. And then there’s the mention of the trees growing a different fruit each month in verse 2.  This reference to time confirms that John was not talking about eternity, which by definition is the absence of time.

In my opinion the view that Rev. 21-22 are about our eternal state is incorrect.

” And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.”  Rev. 16:12 (KJV)

A. It’s pretty early for the Euphrates to be drying up due to supernatural intervention like Rev. 16 calls for.  More likely it’s just what it appears to be, the effects of drought combined with poor water policies.  This is not the first time such a thing has happened to the Euphrates.  About 10 years ago the National Geographic ran a story on Turkey’s ability to control the flow of the river, and how upset the down stream countries were about it.

A. Let’s correct two widely held but mistaken assumptions about Rev. 22:1-6.  Correction number one is this river will be in Israel on Earth, not in the New Jerusalem.  So as lovely as the passage is, it doesn’t describe the heavenly home of the Church. Our home is described in Rev. 21:9-27.

And the second is that due to the mention of time and growing cycles this passage has to be talking about the Millennium, not eternity.  These verses are a summarized version of Ezekiel’s view of the Kingdom Age in Israel which he described more fully in chapter 47.  Beyond telling us there is one, The Bible doesn’t give any detail about eternity.

A. The verse that describes the Holy city coming down out of heaven but doesn’t mention it landing (Rev. 21:2) is the only one. The rest is deduction.  Rev. 21:16 says the city is 12,000 stadia square and just as tall.   12,000 stadia is roughly equivalent to 1,400 miles.  That means if it landed on Earth it would have a footprint bigger than all of Israel.  In fact it would cover most of Western Europe.    And 1,400 miles in height would make it 4,000 times taller than the next tallest building on Earth. If it was shaped like a ball, it would be 1/6th the size of Earth. (Most scholars believe it will be shaped like either a cube or a Pyramid.)

Since the Earth spins on its axis at the rate of about 1,000 miles per hour, something that big simply couldn’t sit on its surface without causing it to spin off into outer space and fly apart.

So, John saw it coming down out of Heaven, the Kings of Earth bring their splendor into it, and its light illuminates the Earth (Rev. 21:24) But nothing impure can ever enter it (Rev. 21:27)  That tells me it has to be close enough to be near Earth, but far enough away to prevent it from de-stabilizing Earth’s orbit. To me that describes a low orbit satellite, but that’s just my opinion.  We’ll all be truly amazed when we see what it’s really like.

Although I know the seven churches represent churches that literally existed at the time as well as prophetic throughout the church age, pretty much modern Christians can be classified into the seven descriptions of those churches. Is it possible the letters to the churches pertain to what you are saying here and that only the ‘Philadelphia style’ Christians go while the rest of the Christians stay behind?

Thanks for your time if you can reply! Also, what about the virgins when some were taken but some were left behind?

A. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that every person who attended those seven congregations was part of the Church. The leadership in each one (except Philadelphia) was accused of promoting false doctrine. Read my study on the overcomers of Rev. 2-3 to see what I mean.

All born again believers will go in the rapture.  I’m guessing that when it happens almost every congregation will find some of their members have been left behind. Just because you attend a church doesn’t make you a Christian. You must be born again. (John 3:7)

The parable of the 10 virgins is about tribulation believers at the time of the 2nd Coming and has nothing to do with the Rapture. Click here for my study on this parable.

A. You’re making an assumption that sounds logical but isn’t necessarily so.  Who says we have to live on Earth?  John 14:2-3 clearly says that Jesus went to Heaven to prepare a place for us there, and that’s where He’s going to take us in the Rapture. Rev. 20:4-6 says that those from the first resurrection will reign with Christ, but it says nothing about where we’ll live.

We find out from Rev. 21 that the home He built for us and will take us to is the New Jerusalem which is seen coming down out of heaven.  But  it never says that it lands on Earth.  In fact a comparison of its dimensions shows that it’s too big to fit in Israel or any other place on Earth.  Personally, I believe the New Jerusalem, which is 1/6th the size of Earth, will orbit Earth in close proximity like a satellite would. From there we’ll reign with Christ.

A. If you read carefully, you’ll see that everything the Lord warned them about had to do with religious works or pagan practices they added to their worship instead of relying on faith alone. He warned them to overcome the human tendency to add works to faith, because if they didn’t it would destroy them.

The two passages you cited tell us that the phrase about eating meat sacrificed to idols is symbolic.  It actually refers to paying homage to false gods. The most frequent modern equivalent is taking credit for our own successes, when what we’ve really done is use abilities God gave us to take advantage of opportunities He provided. (Deut 8:18 & Romans 8:28)

For more detail on who the overcomers of Rev. 2-3 are and what they do, click here.