Study of Revelation

The 24 Elders - Wrap up

Now something I want to leave you with is this question concerning the timing of events: If we believe the book of Revelation isn't written in a linear fashion and from Revelation 5:1-3 we see that at a certain point Jesus, the one worthy to open the seals, isn't able to yet and isn't even present in heaven yet to open it, but the elder that tells John that Jesus later appears in heaven is the one worthy to open it...how is it that the elders have preceded Christ to heaven if we say they're the newly raptured church? How does that timing work? 

A possible idea I have for this is that at the time John was taken to heaven in the spirit and he sees the elders and the 4 beasts in Revelation 4, this is the "base" timeline he's currently experiencing, meaning in Revelation 5:1-3 he may be seeing a vision of the "past" in which Jesus was yet to ascend to the throne. I say this because Revelation 5:1 begins with "And I saw...". This may be him seeing in real time or seeing a vision of a different time from the one he's currently experiencing. I think this idea is supported due to the fact that an angel in verse 2 is the one asking who can open the scroll not one of the elders. I think this is key because in verse 5, an elder was the one to approach John concerning the matter and not the angel maybe because he wasn't in that specific time period of the angel but of the elder? This detail may actually not be significant and it just happened that the angel had that specific "role" to play in the passage while the elder served another purpose; just an idea nonetheless as I was trying to uncover the identity of the 24 elders. We need to also keep in mind that technically speaking, our definition of time here on earth is vastly different than in heaven.