The Revelation Part 2 – Who are the 24 Elders
"Write therefore, what will take place after this"
Revelation 4-22 includes the rapture of the Body of Christ, the 144,000 from the tribes of Israel, the great multitude of Tribulation Saints, the seventieth week of Daniel and The Great Tribulation, the Day of the Lord, and finally the New Jerusalem. One thing to note is that the Book of Revelation overturns any pretence that the Church replaces Israel (Replacement Theology). The position of Israel becomes abundantly clear as we move through the details of the revelation.
There's little doubt that God intended this vision for all his servants (plural)—Rev 22:6 The angel said to me, "These words are trustworthy and true. The Lord, the God who inspires the prophets, sent his angel to show his servants the things that must soon take place " There are simply too many allusions, mathematical rhythms, and repeating patterns for the Book of Revelation to be anything less than the transcendent hand of God.
The "Doctrine of immanence" necessitates that no one knows when Christ returns for the Saints-–he raptures away the Body of Christ without signs or visions preceding, and joins them in the air, NOT on the Earth. At that time, if anyone sees signs consistent with the biblical account they might consider what they’ve missed. The rapture is not the same event that's illustrated in Mat 24:30: "Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory." Matthew's account speaks of the "Second coming of Christ," which occurs on Earth after the Great Tribulation and before the "Reign of Christ" on Earth.
Chapter 4 opens with, "After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me, like a trumpet, said, "Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this." John is transported forward to a fixed position, outside of time—he sees from the future to the past, in real time. For us, reading the Book of Revelation, is looking back to the future. This explains how John sees the 24 Elders seated on thrones, in Heaven, before it happens. John is summoned to "come up here." This "come up here" is a symbolic foreshadowing of the Saints' rapture and of when it occurs. The word rapture is derived from several New Testament passages, one being 1Thess 4:16-17, where the word comes from the Latin "simul rapiemur", and conveys the idea of "we shall be suddenly taken together with them" in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
These 24 Elders were not Angels (Rev 5:11). They sit on thrones and are dressed in white robes, with crowns of gold on their heads. Those dressed in white robes, wearing crowns and sitting on thrones are typically identified in the bible as justified believers, but this doesn't adequately explain who they represent here. We find a more complete answer in Revelation 21:12-14, where an Angel identifies the significance of the twenty-four Elders in the architecture of the "New Jerusalem." Here, the 24 Elders are represented by 12 gates, named after the 12 tribes of Israel, and 12 foundation stones, named after the 12 Apostles of Jesus Christ. Together, they represent the ecclesiastical foundation on which the New Jerusalem is built—the New Jerusalem that comes down from Heaven—the Church, built on the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets in Eph 2:20.
After this, the scroll (Chapter 5). Jesus, the Lamb of God, takes the scroll, opens it, and reveals seven seals. When Jesus takes the scroll, the 24 Elders in Heaven sing a song which clearly indicates who they are. Each Elder has a harp and is holding golden bowls of incense, which are the prayers of God's people. The Elders sing this song in the first person—about themselves, and thus claim representation of the raptured believers in 1Thess 4:16-17. They also acknowledge that Jesus has made them Kings and Priests to reign on the Earth, a fact that John himself identifies with in Rev 1:6.
"And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth" (Rev 5:9-10).
After this, six of the seven seals are opened. At the end of seal 6, those still alive on the Earth cry out, "Hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!" They know the day of wrath follows immediately after the sixth seal, which supports the seventh seal as the beginning of "The Great Tribulation." (Rev 6:17). The great Tribulation cannot begin until the seventh seal is opened. Unfortunately, "The Great Tribulation" is often taught as 7 years, which is misleading because only the latter three and a half years of the "seventieth week of Daniel" are identified with this event (Dan 9:7).
Why is there a pause before the seventh seal? The pause introduces two groups of believers who stand before God after the first six seals have finished. The 144000 are Jewish believers who have survived the horror of the first six seals and are about to experience the wrath of the seventh seal. But Jesus pauses the proceedings and says, "Do not harm the land or the sea or the trees until we put a seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God."
This pause also introduces "the Great multitude." These believers have been killed during the first six seals, an echo from Rev 6:9 "When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. They called out in a loud voice, How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood? Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the full number of their fellow servants, their brothers and sisters, were killed just as they had been." The great multitude here are Saints who have died for the faith in the period leading up to the seventh seal; they are not the raptured saints in 1Thess 4.
KJV "And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? And whence came they? And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb (Rev 7:13-14). Note that the definite article "the" before "great tribulation" is missing.
In Rev 7:15, we see that the full number of tribulation Saints has been reached, and they now stand before the throne of God, in Heaven. Unfortunately, the NIV has added the "Definite Article", which is not found in the Greek, so instead of "great tribulation" conveying the idea of "coming out of difficult times", i.e. the six seals, it implies they've come out of a specific period we know as "The Great Tribulation." I’ve listened to a number of prominent speakers who makes this fundamental mistake—-this is largely due to the addition of the definite article. The Greek is emphatic and the addition is incorrect because "The Great Tribulation" has not begun; it comes "after this."
The great Tribulation - In Rev 8, the seventh seal is opened, and there was silence in heaven for half an hour. The anticipation of this moment—the dread of what was about to happen—all can be felt in the heaviness of the language.
"And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand. And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake" (Rev 8:4-5).
This echoes 1Cor 6:2 where it states, "Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world"? The opening of the seventh seal begins the Great Tribulation and initiates the seven trumpet judgments. Because this commentary is centred on the progress of the Church, I‘ve skipped forward to Rev 21.
The New Jerusalem - Jesus has already described Himself as “The Rock” (Matt 16:18), on which the Church is built, and now positions Himself as “The Temple” in the New Jerusalem. He also identifies the 12 Apostles, named as the 12 foundation stones on which the City rests, and the 12 Tribes of Israel, which are named as the 12 gates of the New Jerusalem. These patterns are developed in both the Old and New Testaments, and together they are the 24 Elders representing the Body of Christ. Thus, the final assembly of the Body of Christ is both Gentile and Jewish—the grafting of Gentiles into a Jewish vine. How might those who think that the Church replaces Israel answer this question from God?
Rev 1:6 And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
To conclude: the question of when "The Rapture" occurs is a question we must decide for ourselves. This will largely depend on whether we interpret the book of Revelation literally or metaphorically. It also depends on whether we see it as a direct map to a fundamental reality, or a blank canvas—not tied to any particular event or transcendent truth. If it's just a fantasy, then God went to a lot of trouble creating a narrative with direct allusions in the Old and New Testaments. This book only makes sense if we attach the metaphor to specific prophetic events. If this is the case, there's only one view that provides coherence to the conclusion of the story.
The Great Tribulation cannot begin until the 24 Elders are in Heaven—the 24 Elders must be seated on 24 thrones and offering up the incense of the Saints, before Jesus can take the scroll. The crowns belonging to the Elders must be laid on the sea of glass before the seals are opened. The seventh seal cannot begin until the incense and prayers are filled with fire from the altar, and judgment is hurled on the earth.
Rev 1:3 Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.
