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NASB | Revelation 4:1 After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven, and the first voice which I had heard, like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me, said, "Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after these things." |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Revelation 4:1 After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice which I had heard, like the sound of a [war] trumpet speaking with me, said, "Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after these things." |
Bible Question: God has impressed my mind with this verse of Scripture from Rev 3:8 "Behold, I have set before you an open door . . ." Is this the same open door in Rev 4:1? What is this "open door?" |
Bible Answer: Hello: I found your question while looking for discussions in Revelation and wondered what further thoughts you might have had on the subject, the door, since 6/28/02. You noticed that there is a door in Revelation 3:18 and a door in Revelation 4:1 and wondered if they were the same. It was said the first door was an entrance into the kingdom or a door of opportunity, while the second was a view into heaven or an entrance into heaven in order to see certain things. Mention was made also to the door in John 10, which represents the Lord himself. It seemed to me significant that in all these cases it was a door and not a window. Surely a window could provide a view, but a door is the one we actually go through. As Jesus would say (John 10:9) “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.” So it seems that a door is that which allows entrance and exit. Not that a window cannot be used for the same purpose, but Jesus referred to that in John 10:1. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber”. He would go on to say that those who enter in that way come to kill and to steal and to destroy. It is evident that he was talking about false prophets who may come into the church. Interesting that Jesus himself enters through the door. This seems to say that he enters in the right way, legitimately, but also that someone lets him in. In John 10 it is the porter who opens the door, and it would seem that the Porter is usually the Holy Spirit. In Revelation 4:1, John heard a voice. Whose voice? It does not say. But in the next verse there is the influence of the Spirit leading him through the door and into heaven. In 1 Corinthians 12, it is the Holy Spirit who brings new believers into the church. Otherwise it may be a leader of the church or any believer in the church who can open the door, as in Revelation 3:20. I might note in passing that the door in this last instance is evidently the entryway into the church and not into the heart as is often supposed, though Ephesians 3 does picture him settling down in the heart. But then Jesus is himself the door into the fold, which I take as another reference to the church, the body of believers. It is through this door that we pass in and out (John 10:9). We go through that door, into the world, and one purpose is to find sheep that are lost and to bring them in. He did say that there are sheep who belong to him that are not yet in the fold. He might have been referring to the Gentiles at that time, but I take it there is a double meaning there and it applies still today. And all of this to say that a door is different from a window and it is more than a view that is in view. A door is to let people in and out, and there is a door to the church. We should let Jesus in and not the false prophet. They will enter anyway, but it is partly through their mode of entry that we will know them. A door is for us to go in and out of. It was used in Revelation 4 to let John into heaven. It remains a fixture in the church to let us go outside the church and to come back in, bringing something with us. Interesting that Jesus comes through the door, he is the door, and he is also the shepherd who leads us in and out the door. “When he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him” (John 10:4). Have you thought about these things? |