A clear break in John’s book of visions is indicated by the events of 4:1. The seer sees an open door, and he hears the angel’s trumpetlike voice summoning him to enter through heaven’s portal. This passage into the visionary world will lead John to understand what will take place on earth. This is not to say that what follows in this chapter is unrelated to what precedes it; in fact, the various visions of this book are interrelated according to the seer’s own commission (cf. 1:19). In our view, it is theology rather than chronology that provides the compositional axis to relate the visions together in a coherent fashion. And it is this chapter of wonderful doxologies that introduces the seven congregations to Revelation’s essential theological conviction: God is the eternal creator in wh…