After Christ concluded relating his messages to the seven congregations John is invited into the heavens. The 4th chapter of Revelation opens with these words: “After these things I saw, and, look! an opened door in heaven, and the first voice that I heard was as of a trumpet, speaking with me, saying: “Come on up here, and I shall show you the things that must take place.”
Next john writes: "After these things I immediately came to be in the power of the spirit: and, look! a throne was in its position in heaven, and there is one seated upon the throne. And the one seated is, in appearance, like a jasper stone and a precious red-colored stone, and round about the throne there is a rainbow like an emerald in appearance.”
The Watchtower Society believes that the Lord’s day began in 1914. They also believe that the anointed remnant comprises a John class; that is to say, they re-enact the actual fulfillment of what John only saw in vision. So, if the Lord’s day began in 1914 then what evidence is there that the anointed remnant experienced anything paralleling the rapturous heavenly vision John received?
Stated differently, if the visions of Revelation had really begun to be unveiled back in 1914 shouldn't we, at the very least, expect God to have enlightened his people as to the meaning of Revelation back then? After all, that’s what revelation means – an unveiling. And no doubt that is what is portrayed in the fact that John is invited into heaven itself. In other words John was enlightened. And by the time the revelation to him was concluded there were no more sacred secrets hidden from him, and by extention to any of God’s chosen ones living during the Lord's day.
But, the realty is, the International Bible Students were woefully ignorant of much of Revelation long after 1914. Consider, that, in 1917 the Watchtower published the book called The Finished Mystery. The book has long since been discarded by the Watchtower – and for good reason. It is littered with childish nonsense. And even though much of the silliness has been refined out of their latest Revelation commentary, the embarrassing fact is the Watchtower still does not understand Revelation. For example, how reasonable is it that judgment day began in 1919 with the advent of the League of Nations and then again in 1944 with the institution of the United Nations? Indeed, is it sensible that mankind has already been given the mark of the beast and doomed to everlasting destruction simply for passively supporting or even being ambivalent towards the United Nations? Most sensible people can quickly see the foolishness of such a view, and yet the Watchtower teaches that very thing at the present moment. (See the chapter on Revelation in the book Jehovah Himself Has Become King.)
No, the vision of Revelation has not been unveiled yet. It remains sealed until the Lord removes the seven seals and the apocalypse begins. First though, the evil and foolish slaves must be expelled from the midst of the congregation, just as was envisioned in Christ’s letters to the seven congregations. Then indeed Jehovah will invite the remaining approved ones to “come up here!”
(Incidentally, the term “remaining ones,” or “remnant” in some translations, applies to those who are remaining over on earth after the harvest removes the lawless ones and the first resurrection begins. Since neither the harvest nor the first resurrection has begun yet it is inappropriate to refer to the anointed as the remnant.)
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