#1) Do you know what a vision is?
#2) I am allowing John to show me the picture book and the panels to the mosaic. #3 I, unlike you, am not trying to force a chronological timeline where there is none. I, unlike you, am not trying to force a rapture into Revelation where there is none.
Indeed, you force a man-made dispensational theory, created in the late 1800s, into your reading of Revelation, rather than follow John's vast references to the Old Testament.
#4 You can have your dispensationalism. You will be very disappointed as nothing you imagine actually happens that way. In fact, I know many dispensationalists for which their theory of Revelation has become an idol, which they worship.
Concerning point
#1) above;
Yes, I actually do know what a vision is.
Concerning point
#2) above;
You are doing something John is not asking you to do. John is nowhere claiming he is presenting a mosaic, with panels in it. You made that one up. He is stating that he is writing the testimony of Jesus Christ. I have already showed you in three different places in the epistle where Jesus is making this claim that the Revelation is his personal testimony. He promises a blessing to all them who read, hear, and keep the words of this book. I will strive to do that. I will believe the words. I will look at the structure of this prophesy in the division he has assigned in the beginning, the things you have seen, the things that are, and the things that shall be hereafter. That is easy enough to understand, especially when the division is given clearly in the text. It is past, present, and future.
Which brings me to point
#3 above, timeline.
This division is not forced on the epistle, it is demanded. Past, present and future is chronological by its nature. I am not sure how you can miss that. So look at what our Lord Jesus said about the present tense churches;
Re 1:4 John to
the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him
which is (present tense), and
which was (past tense), and
which is to come (future tense); and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne;
This present tense is in context of the churches until chapter 4,where it is obvious by the language that he is moving from present things to future things. Here, do not take my word for it, read it for yourself;
Re 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; which said, Come up hither, and
I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.
That would be the future tense. Things that will be hereafter the churches. Consider this, even the different promises he made to the overcomers of each of those 7 of the churches he had adressed are to be given in the future, in the hereafter. This will take place in heaven, it is a prophesy, and the churches are still on the earth as you and I communicate in this thread, which means the prophesy has not been fulfilled.
The following statement is in the context of the churches, not creation, therefore Jesus Christ is claiming to be the beginning of the church and also the end of the church.
8 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.
9 I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.
John is the voice of the prophesy and represents the churches. He went up to heaven in Re 4:1.
BTW, this is not the only place in scripture where Jesus claims to be the beginning of the church AT HIS RESURRECTION. I will show you one for this exercise.
Col 1:17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
18 And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.
When the church is in heaven, it will be complete and these judgements in heaven and earth will all take place just as John describes them.
Concerning point
#4) above;
This is not dispensationalism, it is common sense and an example of believing the words that are presented to us from heaven. You have trained yourself not to believe them but to believe heretics that have imagined a sytematic theology that has all but a few verses in the whole 66 books of the Bible to be nothing more than a spiritualized mess.
I am calling on you to stop treating the scriptures in such a manner and to believe God and his words. You are deceiving and confusing people with your doctrines.There are none of the promised blessings to be had that way because "keeping" the words are part of getting the blessing.