<p>4:1 <em>After these things I looked, and beheld a door opened in heaven- </em>John is being given a peep into the heavenly throne room. The 'court of heaven' was a common Jewish idea. The events on earth are reflected there, with representative Angels standing before God and receiving His judgments. The Angels may represent sinners and sinful entities, but Angels themselves do not sin. The comfort is that situations in earth are not out of control, but are known and perceived totally and instantly in Heaven. The opening of a door speaks of an opportunity being provided, perhaps in response to a knock (see on 3:8,20). It could be that John and others had sought desperately to understand their persecutions and how things really were in Heaven; and John's visions were the answer.</p><p><em>And the first voice that I heard, as if a trumpet was speaking to me, was as one saying: Come up here, and I will show you the things which hereafter must came to pass- </em>Unlike Hebrew, the tenses in Greek are precise and have specific reference. In Rev. 1:19 John was told to write down the things which he had seen, the things which presently are, and the things which shall be &ldquo;hereafter&rdquo;. I suggest the things he had seen were the things of the vision of the Son of Man; the things which are refer to the messages to the seven churches; and &ldquo;the things which shall be hereafter&rdquo; is a phrase developed here in Rev. 4:1, where John is bidden come and see &ldquo;the things which must be hereafter&rdquo;. The things from then on all refer to the future, the last days and the coming of Christ. The vision of the Heavenly throne room in chapters 4 and 5 therefore refers to how things are in the Heavenly court <em>in the last days</em>. That is confirmed by comments on many of the following verses in chapter 4. The vision is in the form of &quot;a voice of a trumpet&quot;. The same Greek words are found in Mt. 24:31 and 1 Thess. 4:16 about the &quot;sound s.w. &quot;voice&quot; of a trumpet&quot; which will be heard at Christ's return. The same words are used of the trumpets heard at the final outpouring of woe upon the land at the Lord's coming (Rev. 8:3). The vision therefore has a clear end time reference, and describes the scene in Heaven at that time, rather than being a general picture of how things are in Heaven.</p>