"With these wonderful words John introduces the New Testament church to Old Testament understanding. For the first time in the book of Revelation, here at the very beginning, he is bringing the Old Testament literal types and shadows over into the New Testament fulfillment. The Old Testament was all about natural, physical, earthly types and shadows of kingship and priesthood. Their kings and priests sat on physical thrones and offered animal sacrifices upon brazen altars in temples made with hands. But now John is raising this kingship and priesthood into a higher, spiritual dimension and announces to the saints that Christ now “hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father.” With this simple beginning John does what we have seen him do constantly throughout the book of Revelation — refer to Old Testament terminology within the context of New Testament spiritual reality! And then, shortly, we are shown another scene."
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"The four Living Creatures are four expressions of the POWER AND DOMINION OF THE THRONE! If you want to know what the God of the throne is like, then take a look at the four Living Creatures in the midst of the throne. In them (in their symbology) is manifest the attributes of the life of the God of the throne. If you wish to know the nature of the authority, rule, and dominion of the throne, then understand the nature of the four Living Creatures in the midst of the throne, for these embody within themselves the character of the dominion of the God of the throne. Not only do they represent the life and nature of the God of the throne, not only do they express within themselves the character of the dominion of the throne — they likewise reveal the very life, nature, character, and dominion of A-L-L WHO SHARE THE THRONE!"