Revelation 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 said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.

John's final letter to the seven churches in Asia¹ was addressed to the lukewarm Laodiceans, who were told that if they opened the door of their heart to Jesus Christ and overcame Satan they would obtain a throne in heaven.² After this concluding letter,³ Revelation chapter 4 begins⁴ with the same metaphor, saying: a door was opened in heaven.⁵ When the door was opened, the saints from the seven churches could see through John's eyes the throne that awaited them⁶ in heaven (i.e., celestial paradise).⁷ Other prophets have gazed upon this heavenly scene at other times,⁸ but John's vision was specifically timed to encourage and give hope to beleaguered saints in the seven churches in 96 AD.⁹

Today, members of Christ's church¹⁰ can have the same hope if they have ears that hear, eyes that see, and hearts that understand John's visions in the Book of Revelation.¹¹ Ether 4:16 promises people today that the "revelations which I have caused to be written by my servant John [will] be unfolded in the eyes of all the people." All the people of the latter days must open the door of their heart to Christ and overcome Satan, so that the door of heaven will be open to them.¹²

After John saw the door standing open in heaven in Revelation 4:1,¹³ the first voice [he] heard was as it were of a trumpet talking.¹⁴ This is again the voice of Jesus Christ, as was the case with the trumpet voice in Revelation 1:10.¹⁵ The symbolic trumpet¹⁶ means that Christ spoke with a loud, majestic, and commanding voice,¹⁷ rather than the subtle feelings that come through the still small voice of the Holy Ghost.¹⁸

Christ directed John to come up hither¹⁹ into God's temple in heaven.²⁰ From this heavenly vantage point, John could then see the things which must be hereafter²¹ according to God's foreknowledge²² and from God's perspective.²³ The things hereafter include events that would come to pass shortly,²⁴ including Satan's continuing war against the remnant of saints from the ancient church in 96 AD as described in Revelation 12:17,²⁵ and their martyrdom as described in Revelation 6:9.²⁶ In addition, the things hereafter included the Great Apostasy when Satan overcame the saints of God in all the world as described in Revelation 13:7.²⁷ The Great Apostasy was followed by the latter-day restoration of the gospel represented by the four angels John saw in Revelation 7:1.²⁸ The hereafter events also include the future Second Coming of Jesus Christ described in Revelation chapters 14 to 19,²⁹ the millennium represented in Revelation chapter 20,³⁰ and the celestialization of the earth represented in Revelation chapters 21 to 22.³¹