This commentary holds the pretribulational view that the church has already been raptured, translated to heaven, before the outpouring of God’s wrath. Though the book of Revelation itself does not determine this important question with finality, it is significant that the church that was so prominent in chapters 2 and 3 is not mentioned again until 22:16, except as the wife of the Lamb at the close of the tribulation. Nowhere in scenes of earth that describe the end time (chaps. 6–19) is the church pictured as involved in the earthly struggle.
