Four and Twenty Elders
This essay is about what I believe to be the most compelling reason to believe in a pre tribulation Rapture gathering of the Body of Believers in Christ, The One True Church ( Matthew 16:18 )gathered to Christ in the air and returned to The Father's House. ( John 14; 1 ; Thessalonians 4:13-17 )
If we are seeing this accurately, the gathering unto Him event is very close, since the gathering unto Him happens before the Tribulation begins and assumes a period of business in Heaven before the final judgments begin with the opening of the seven sealed scroll. ( Revelation 5:5 and following ))
For those who have not yet believed in Jesus, time is short, very short. Don't continue to wonder and ponder and not make a choice. Choose you this day life in Him and don't be left behind for the horrors which will follow Him gathering those who believe in Whom God sent for their salvation. ( John 6:29 )
Most Christians believe The word of God teaches a Gathering unto Christ, because Jesus introduced the notion in John chapter fourteen. To those who believe the event will happen the issue filters down to 'when', as in before the Tribulation, during the Tribulation, or after the Tribulation (this is not about the specific day or hour).
There are those who call themselves and believe themselves to be Christian who reject the notion of a Rapture. So be it with them, I pray for them and pray earnestly that this essay might be of help for them, also.
If we can show that the Body of Christ, the Ekklesia, The Church per se is in Heaven when the seven sealed scroll is opened by Christ ushering in the Tribulation Time of Jacob's Troubles, there is no further argument on the when for the Rapture. Please follow along as we point to clues from The Word of God which take our presence in Heaven at the opening of the seals as axiomatic, a notion fundamental to the scene.
In 1st Chronicles 24 and following David identifies a category of priesthood involving many families from whom the duty as priests for the Temple work will activate. Though the Temple is not yet built, these are the category identified as the four and twenty elders. This is a category identity since the numbers are well beyond a mere twenty-four individuals and refers to the rotating priesthood of Temple workers drawn from many families named in the passages there in 1st Chronicles.
If these four and twenty elders are a category representation applied later to The Body of Christ in Christianity, there should be many clues in the New Testament which point to this conclusion. And there are! First, let's see how The Spirit had John the Revelator depict them:
Revelation 4:4
And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold.
For the readers' context, read Revelation chapters four and five from the beginning as John is suddenly in Heaven in the spirit ... he had not yet received his new body. Note please the identifying points of four and twenty, seated in the Presence of God ( Angels always stand in God's Presence ), clothed in white raiment ( the garb of the redeemed ), and they had gold crowns on their physical heads not spiritual heads ( they had heads, so these are not Tribulation saints who lose their heads during the Tribulation and before ) .
The scholarly question arises 'who are these 'twenty four'; do they represent specific men numbering twenty four ? I am convinced these twenty four represent a category of people numbering much more than twenty four, and I come to this conclusion as follows.
In 1st Chronicles the four and twenty elders represent a vast category of men who will be identified as priesthood serving the Temple work. These twenty-four seen by John are not twelve from the Hebrew patriarchy because the resurrection of the Jews comes at the end of the Tribulation, at the establishing of the millenial Kingdom with Jerusalem as the center of the Earth's nations.
During the Church Age / Age of the Ekklesia there is no differentiation of Jew and Gentile under The Gospel of Christ establishing of the Body of Christ Believers. The twenty four are not specific Apostles since John would be looking at his resurrected body which will have God's Spirit indwelling for eternity and John is still alive in his old body when the Spirit reveals the scene to him.
So next we address the clues fonud in the New Testament and in the Revelation to John which support the notion that the four and twenty elders represent The Body of Believers who have received their new bodies and rewards crowns at the Bema Seat of Christ.
A major clue is the seated position in the Presence of God in Heaven.
Ephesians 2:4-6
But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, 5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) 6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:Mathew 19:28 And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. [Note the saying twelve thrones does not omit the other twelve thrones for some different category, it addresses directly the positional status of these specific twelve among the four and twenty]
Another clue as to the status of the four and twenty elders is found early in the Revelation:
Revelation 1:5 And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, 6 And hath made us kings and priests unto God; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever.Revelation 5: 8 And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints. 9 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; 10 And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.
Please note that scene -when the Lamb takes the scroll- is in Heaven happening before the seals are opened ushering in the Tribulation, and attended by the category identified as those whom Jesus has redeemed out of every kindred and tongue, and people and nation. This is the more personal identity of the category of four and twenty elders.
This category of The Redeemed are witness to the lamb being worthy AND before He begins to open the seven seal scroll.
The four and twenty elders are a category identified as those The slain Lamb has redeemed from the whole world through their faith alone in Christ alone, They are seated in God's Presence in Heaven. They have white raiment of the redeemed and crowns on real physical heads, crowns which they cast down at the feet of Him Who opens the seven sealed scroll. Folks, Christians,
ALL Christians since the day of Pentecost preaching by Peter and the internalizing of the Holy Spirit are gathered in Heaven before the seven sealed scroll which ushers in the tribulation is even opened. The Rapture Gathering unto Him is very very close, with the tribulation, the opening of the scroll to follow after that super natural event of His Church snatched out of this world.
Excellent points!
“The twenty four are not specific Apostles since John would be looking at his resurrected body...”
Wait. Not so fast. Being SHOWN the future, and actually BEING IN that future are two distinct things.
You may, as well, argue that they aren’t specific persons because the apostle John would have most likely been among them, and he didn’t say, “And I saw the Disciple whom Jesus Loved there on the third throne from the left.”
I’ll call it a “wait and see,” but I’m of the opinion that 12 are the sons of Jacob who became heads of the 12 Tribes of Israel, and the other 12 are the (11 + 1) Disciples of Jesus as their ranks were comprised after they replaced Judas Iscariot. We’ll see.
My greatest challenge with the whole explanation is it gets SO DEEP into the tall grass — scripture ENCOURAGES WISDOM from time to time; it never DEMANDS GENIUS. God doesn’t need to hide things deep in the fabric of scripture like the modern “Easter eggs” tucked away in some software; He’s perfectly capable of “hiding” them in the open, where they will be readily missed; breezed past by the droves who outfox themselves thinking they face the zenith of all mind puzzles. Go read “The Purloined Letter,” by Edgar Allen Poe; it drives to this very point.
So, then, let me put the matter extremely plainly:
“Now we request you, brethren, with regard to The Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and Our Gathering...”
— 2 Thess. 2:1
Here, The Coming and Our Gathering are juxtaposed in immediacy to each other by no lesser Authority than St. Paul, himself.
Being part of his second letter to them, they obviously had some confusion about his teaching in his first letter:
“For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air...”
— 1 Thess. 4:15-17
Paul CLEARLY sets out a defined sequence, here: an angelic shout with a trumpet with Christ coming, the dead in Christ are resurrected and taken up, and the living in Christ follow immediately.
WHICH TRUMPET? “THE LAST” one.
This same Apostle detailed this to the Church at Corinth, and we might benefit from reading over their shoulder.
“Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, AT THE *LAST* TRUMPET; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.”
— 1 Cor. 15:51-52
And there’s the sequence, again: the trumpet, the dead in Christ resurrected and taken up, then the living in Christ
There are SEVEN trumpets in Revelation, and none afterward, so “The Last Trumpet” is synonymous with “The Seventh Trumpet.”
AFTER The Seventh Trumpet in Revelation 11, but BEFORE The Bowls of wrath in Revelation 16 there are TWO HARVESTS in Revelation 14:
This is The First
“Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and sitting on the cloud was one like A SON OF MAN, having a golden crown on His head and a sharp sickle in His hand. And another angel came out of the temple, crying out with a loud voice to Him who sat on the cloud, ‘Put in your sickle and reap, for the hour to reap has come, because the harvest of the earth is ripe.’ Then He who sat on the cloud swung His sickle over the earth, and the earth was reaped.”
— Rev. 14:14-16
The one on the cloud “like a son of man” with the crown of authority — that is Jesus Christ, and he reaps his harvest, and gathers His own to himself.
THEN there is the Second Harvest
“And another angel [different than the one who came out of the temple crying out for Jesus to put in His sickle and reap] came out of the temple which is in heaven, and he also had a sharp sickle. Then [yet] another angel, the one who has power over fire [YIKES, that’s ominous], came out from the altar; and he called with a loud voice to him who had the sharp sickle, saying, ‘Put in your sharp sickle and gather the clusters from the vine of the earth, because her grapes are ripe.’ So the angel swung his sickle to the earth and gathered the clusters from the vine of the earth, and threw them into the great wine press of the wrath of God.”
— Rev 14:17-19
Then the Seven Bowls [or Vials] of The Wrath of God follow in chapter 16.
It’s just manifestly clear: Seventh [and Last] Trumpet, Resurrection of The Righteous Dead, Rapture of the Righteous Living, we’re OUTTA HERE in chapter 14, “NOT appointed for wrath” which comes in chapter 16 after our exit, and it’s all bam, bam, bam, bam, part of a rapid-fire closeout of events — like the finale of a fireworks show — part and parcel with The Day of The LORD, and he caps it with His sweeping entry in chapter 19 and makes a resounding END of it.
And I think it’s a quick ending, too. By the time the Bowls of Wrath are done, there’s NO WATER anymore, so — strictly as a practical matter, it HAS to end within three days after that or there’d be nobody to gather at Armageddon; they’d all be incapacitated, dying of thirst.
I wrote an outline-level narrative for my Profile page, to evidence how straightforward it really is.
WILL WE BE SURPRISED?? NO!
“For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. ... BUT YOU, BRETHREN, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief; for you are all sons of light and sons of day.”
— 1 Thess. 5:2,4-5a
NO, we WILL NOT KNOW the day or the hour, BUT Jesus repeatedly admonished us to “watch and pray” and take note of the times and the seasons.
So, WHEN will The Day of His Coming be?
“Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless The Apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed...”
— 2 Thess. 2:3
“The gospel must first be preached to all the nations.”
— Mark 13:10, Jesus speaking
For more on that, here’s a perspective:
https://joshuaproject.net/
No matter how you parse it all, though, these are momentous times. With new overtures to peace in the Middle East, we’re seeing historical landmarks coming to pass that define a new “season” in the Earth.
Yes, DO keep looking up; the figs are ripening.
“In 1st Chronicles 24 and following David identifies a category of priesthood involving many families from whom the duty as priests for the Temple work will activate. Though the Temple is not yet built, these are the category identified as the four and twenty elders. This is a category identity since the numbers are well beyond a mere twenty-four individuals and refers to the rotating priesthood of Temple workers drawn from many families named in the passages there in 1st Chronicles.”
In 1 Chron. 23 & 24 I see David — as his last act before passing on — numbering the Levites, and ascertaining who was serving in what capacity. I do not see a definitive, “this, is that” here in Chronicles that connects the 24,000 (out of the 38,000) Levites with the 24 Elders John saw, BUT that’s not unsettling, because we might not expect to see it here in the historical record. Where we absolutely MUST find it, though, is in John’s Revelation.
John, to his credit, is good about indicating what things are as he literally sees them, and what things are symbols. The Seven Lampstands (Rev. 1:12,20), he records that they represent the Seven Churches; the bowls of incense (Rev. 5:8) he identifies as a metaphor for the prayers of the saints.
By contrast, the four living creatures — as fantastically as he describes them — are not identified as anything other than what he literally sees them to be: four really stunning creatures that tax the limits of his descriptive powers.
Likewise, the 24 Elders are not said to be representative of, or a metaphor for, anything; they are what he literally sees them to be. There is not the necessary verse in Revelation establishing a link to the accounting of the priesthood in Chronicles. Given John’s diligence to alert us to things that are symbolic, we should fully expect to see the 24 Elders explained as symbolic immediately following their first introduction to us in Revelation 4.
Around the throne were twenty-four thrones; and upon the thrones I saw twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white garments, and golden crowns on their heads.
— Rev. 4:4
If the Elders are anything other than just what they appear to be, here’s John’s GOLDEN opportunity to tell us so; there should be a verse saying something like, “These 24 Elders are the ...” whatever it is that they represent.
But there’s no such explanation given, and without it I have no scriptural basis to conjecture — much less conclude — that the 24 Elders are anything other than 24 as-yet-unnamed individuals of regal, crowned status, who sit upon 24 thrones in the Presence of God worshiping Him continually.
If you have that definitive scriptural linkage, I’m open to giving it a fair hearing, but I don’t yet see the connection you’re claiming is there.
Is there an author out there someplace who has synthesized this view out of a broader selection of the scriptural record? I’ve gotta admit I’ve never heard this idea in the 50 years of my Christian history, so I’m interested in its origins.