<p>1:19 <i>Therefore write the things which you see, and the things which are, and the things which shall hereafter come to pass</i>- This command to &quot;write&quot; was asking John to commit a seriously criminal offence. For within the Roman empire, such application of emperor and kingdom language to another king, the Lord Jesus, and articulating a plan for His Kingdom to come and the destruction of earth's proud empires... all this meant that the written form of the book of Revelation would have been forbidden literature, and the writing and production of it was criminal and even a capital offence. John's motivation was therefore in order to strengthen by all means the believers with the hope of the Kingdom and ultimate victory against all evil empires. He is encouraged to make this sacrifice and &quot;write&quot; these things <i>because</i> the Lord has the keys of death itself (:18). If even death itself is no barrier for us, and we are not finally under the power of it; how much less are we under the power of all structures which appear to lock us down in this life.</p><p>Unlike Hebrew, the tenses in Greek are precise and have specific reference. Here 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 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 <i>in the last days</i>. That is confirmed by comments on many of the verses in chapter 4.</p>