As post-tribulationists, how do you respond to the fact that the word “church” does not appear after Revelation 4:1? This means that the Church is missing and has been raptured to Heaven.
In the opening chapters of Revelation (chs. 1-3), the Apostle John was given specific instruction by Yeshua the Messiah which he was to deliver to the seven assemblies of Asia Minor (Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea). After John relayed Yeshua’s messages to these congregations, John was told by the Lord, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after these things” (Revelation 4:1b, NASU). Notice what John said as this command was given to him: “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” (Revelation 4:1a, NASU). This was a directive which is given only to the Apostle John, as he was called to step into the Heavenly realm, and be shown a vision of the future which, as far as Yeshua and those assembled were concerned, had already taken place. John was asked to step forward in time and be shown things which he did not know about.[1]
This was not some command given to “the Church.” To be sure, as Messianics are often keen to emphasize, the Greek word ekklēsia should be properly translated as either “assembly” or “congregation” in our English Bibles, as opposed to the anachronistic term “church.” Likewise, ekklēsia was used in the Greek Septuagint to render the Hebrew word qahal, referring to the congregation or assembly of Israel, and the Apostolic writers most often use ekklēsia with this understanding in mind.
In Johannine literature (John, 1-3 John, Revelation) ekklēsia is never used to refer to the Body of Messiah at large, but instead the localized assembly. Douglas J. Moo poignantly remarks in Three Views on the Rapture, “John, himself, never uses [ekklēsia] other than as a designation of a local body of believers. Moreover, it is important to note that John never in chapters 4-19 calls any group in heaven the church.”[2] The reason why ekklēsia does not appear after Revelation 4:1, is because the letters Yeshua had John write to the seven, localized assemblies of Asia Minor were complete. It was not because “the Church” had somehow been raptured up into Heaven. In fact, at the end of Revelation, readers witness how the apocalyptic revealing of Yeshua to John was for the ekklēsia, indeed implying that the Body of Messiah will be on Earth when these events take place:
“I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star” (Revelation 22:16, ESV).
It is notable that there is an urban myth which frequently circulates among various Hebrew Roots post-tribulationists, relating to Revelation 4:1. It often goes along the lines of, “The Church is mentioned after Revelation 4:1—and it is the whore of Babylon!” Unfortunately for those who adhere to this line of reasoning, it is not based in a sound exegesis of the text, neither in a sound examination of what end-time Babylon actually is. While there are religious elements of the end-time Babylonian system, there are also political and economic elements. To simply say that that end-time Babylon is “the Church,” is to misidentify end-time Babylon, which is ultimately a multifaceted, anti-God world system.
NOTES
[1] For a further review, consult the McKee Moment from 24 June 2024, “Many Cannot Think Multi-Dimensionally,” accessible via <youtube.com/MessianicApologetics>.
[2] Douglas J. Moo, “The Case for the Posttribulation Rapture Position,” in Gleason L. Archer, Jr., and Paul D. Feinberg, Douglas J. Moo, Richard R. Reiter, Three Views on the Rapture (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996), 201.
