In the book of Revelation, did John time travel into the future?
Oh, yeah, man. This is gonna be EPIC.
First, we must consider the big picture structure of the book of Revelation. In fact, I would be so bold as to suggest that there really is only one proper Biblical breakdown of Revelation. And that breakdown was given to us by the Lord Himself.
Consider what the Lord says to John in Rev 1:19, “Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter…” The Lord Himself gives us three sections to the book of Revelation. The “things which thou hast seen, the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter.” The past, the present, and the future.
The things John had seen:
I’d suggest this is talking about everything John had just seen in chapter 1 prior to vs. 19.
Verse 2 also tells us he bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Christ, which I think also includes the Lord’s earthly ministry, evidenced by the references to the Lord’s crucifixion and resurrection (vs. 5). John was there. John could affirm the claims Christ made about Himself and His resurrection, as well as being the firstborn from the dead.
The things which are:
This refers to the things John is seeing in that moment while the Lord is standing in front of him speaking to him, which does not end in chapter 1 but continues to the end of chapter 3 with the seven letters to the seven churches. The seven churches are part of the things which are.
Notice how the Lord said, “the seven churches which ARE in Asia.” I’d suggest that this has to mean that those churches existed at the time of the Lord’s revelation to John.
The things which shall be hereafter:
This covers everything else from chapter 4 to the end of the book. The Lord would say to John in Rev. 4:1, “I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.” The Lord clearly uses the word hereafter to signify the change in the structure to focus upon future events.
Did John time travel?
Look at the famous verse of Rev 1:10, “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day…”
Notice that John doesn’t talk of a vision. He says he was there. He was there IN the Spirit ON the Lord’s day. How can we not conclude that John time-traveled into the future by the Spirit? John was there IN the Spirit. He personally observed everything ON the Lord’s day.
I can think of no Biblical reason to reject the idea that John time traveled. Time has no meaning in the spiritual realm. “One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (2 Pet. 3:8). I’d suggest that time is merely a construct of our physical universe for the sake of measuring periods of labor on the Earth, which is part of the sin curse and why man must labor (Gen. 3:19). This is why time is always divisible by six. Six is the number of man and six also represents human labor in Scripture.
A study of predestination teaches us that God can see into the future. God can even answer what if questions. Hence, the existence of prophecy. Hence, the perfect fulfillment of over 300 prophecies about the man, Christ Jesus. Hence the foreknowledge of even small details about the Lord’s crucifixion, such as Psa. 34:20 in which we read, “He keepeth all His bones; not one of them is broken.” We also find in Zech. 12:10, “And they shall look upon me whom they have pierced.” God revealed the piercing of the Lord’s hands and feet over 1,000 years before death by crucifixion had even been invented!
Plus, Paul told us in Rom. 8:29 that God foreknew each one of us personally before He ever created the universe.
If God can see into the future, if God can personally know each of us before the future ever existed, then why should we marvel at God transporting the Apostle John into the future to personally observe in the Spirit the conclusion to the Day of the Lord?
John himself told us he was there ON the Lord’s Day IN the Spirit.
I’ve heard some discussion about John using the word on, when he wrote, I was in the Spirit ON the Lord’s day. It was observed that usually, the word on is used to describe a single day, which is true. It was also pointed out that Peter said in 2 Pe 3:10 how “the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise…” To write IN the which points to the fact that he is referring to a broad period of time, but on would be used to describe a single day.
That is generally true.
Except for the fact that in and on are from the same Greek word and Webster’s 1828, in its many definitions of the word on would say that on can also mean “in the time of” or “at the time of”. Thus, if the translators had translated Rev. 1:10 as “I was in the Spirit in the time of the Lord’s day,” it would mean the same thing as “on the Lord’s Day.”
Notice also that John writes about being in the future in the past tense. He says, “I WAS in the Spirit ON the Lord’s day.” That’s like saying, “Yesterday, I time-traveled into the future to witness the Day of the Lord, and then I came back.” Or “I traveled into the future yesterday and came back to tell you this story today.”
Further, I think John time-traveled into the future between Rev. 4:1-2.
Consider the narrative before we arrive at Rev. 4:1. John sees this amazing vision of the Lord in chapter 1. After that, the Lord tells him he’s going to write down the things he had just seen. Then the Lord speaks at length about the things which ARE, which is the business involving the seven letters to the seven churches which ARE in Asia.
Then John is transported into the future and the things which shall be hereafter. He was, by the Spirit, taken into the future to the beginning of the Tribulation, in which the Day of the Lord has resumed. And I believe that took place in Rev. 4:1-2.
Rev 4:1, “After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.”
First, John wrote, “After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven…” As soon as the Lord finished His discourse about the seven letters to the seven churches, John was caught up into Heaven. He traveled into Heaven so fast, it was as if he blinked, and he was suddenly there. It’s as if John is saying, “I blinked and the next thing I know, I was in front of a door in Heaven that’s opening before me, and I’m hearing a voice inviting me to enter to view things that will come to pass.”
What is that door to? The very throne room of God Himself.
John hears a voice. The voice says “Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.” Who is talking? Was this the mystery angel giving John the big end of the world tour (Rev. 1:1)? Was this the Lord Jesus Christ or was this God the Father?
John describes the voice as having the sound of a trumpet. There’s only one voice in Revelation compared to a trumpet, and that was the Lord Jesus Christ. The fact that he describes the voice as a trumpet points us back to Rev 1:10 in which John wrote, “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet…”
Whose voice was that? Christ, who in the next verse would go on to say famously in Rev 1:11, “I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last…”
And what did the Lord say to John in Rev. 4:1? He said, “Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter….” The Lord is telling him that now begins the things which shall be hereafter, which signifies a break in the structure and the fact that John will soon be in the future.
The door in Heaven opens to a vast room.
Then, John writes in Rev 4:2, “And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne.” Fascinating to me, the next thing John tells us isn’t just that he’s in the Spirit, but he says “immediately I was in the spirit.” He wasn’t in the Spirit when he was caught up into Heaven standing in front of the door to the throne room of God. But suddenly, after hearing the words of the Lord, he’s immediately in the spirit.
How do you know when you are in the Spirit? I guess you just know.
This is the moment John time traveled.
When he became in the Spirit, that’s when he traveled into the future to observe these future events in the Throne Room of God, all of which would again point us back to Rev. 1:10. “I was in the Spirit in the time of the Lord’s day.” John didn’t talk of a vision. He said he was there ON the Lord’s day IN the Spirit. Not only that, remember John wrote about being in the future in the past tense. He says, “I WAS in the Spirit ON the Lord’s day.” Yesterday, I went into the future and came back.
So the next thing John knows, he is in the unbelievably epic throne room viewing the very throne of God Himself. And he’s in the future witnessing what will take place at the beginning of the Tribulation. His entrance into the throne room marks day one of the Tribulation.
I’ll bet you the Spirit carried John into the throne room and transported him like lightning to bring him near the throne. I’ll bet you the throne room of God is so vast, it would take years to walk from the door to the throne. Picture the room as the size of the United States. This is the biggest room you could ever imagine. We know it has to be massive because in the last half of Rev. 7, John would see millions of people standing before the throne in white robes holding palms, all of whom were Gentiles who became believers during the Tribulation and died. Millions and millions of people and angels are in this room.
In fact, that throne room is so enormous, I’ll bet there’s plenty of space for a couple billion of us members of the Body of Christ to stand back and watch everything play out during the Tribulation just as we had read about it in the book of Revelation. And the reality will be so much more epic than we imagined when we read about it.
Oh, yeah, John totally time traveled.
And we’ll be there.
“WAIT A MINUTE, HAYES! There’s no way! You’re totally nutso!”
My dear brother! What’s the problem?
“Okay, you’re a writer, right? (Well, you like to think you are. You’re a bit wordy. Ha!) But you know good and well that every time travel story that ever existed always breaks down at some point! Right? Cause, like, time travel stories always have plot holes!”
How so?
“So, like, if we’re going to be in Heaven in the future and we’re going to see everything play out in the throne room like we were told in Revelation, will we see John there? Will we see John in the Spirit getting his ‘big end of the world tour’ with that angel like he wrote about?”
Yes! He was there in the Spirit on the Lord’s day. Of course, we’d see him! And the angel, too, giving him the big end of the world tour!
“But when he died, didn’t his soul go to Sheol like the others?”
Oh, sure he did! Ezek. 37:12, Acts 2:34…
“So his soul is in Heaven and Sheol at the same time?”
Oh yeah!
“What is wrong with you? THERE’S NO WAY HE CAN BE TWO PLACES AT THE SAME TIME!”
The soul of John at the time he was on Patmos had been transported into the future. In the future, his soul would have also been in Sheol along with all the other kingdom saints.
“So, theoretically, John could’ve also gone down into Sheol and had a conversation with himself?”
Yes, totally!
“THERE’S NO WAY! YOU’RE OUT OF YOUR MIND! How can one soul be in two different places at the same time?”
Time travel.
“YOU’RE CRAZY! THAT’S IMPOSSIBLE, I TELL YOU!”
For with God nothing shall be impossible (Luke 1:37).
SUPPLY OF GRACE 