THIRD INTERPRETATION IS THAT OF BEING PROPHETIC

The Third Interpretation is That These Seven Spiritual Types  Were Also Prophetic in Their Significance

There are not only seven spiritual types of congregations existing in the time John wrote, but these seven types must extend to the very time the entire Church is translated.

This conclusion is demanded by the fact that the meaning  of 1:19, which must be taken as the key to the analysis of the book, suggests that 4:1 to the end of the book follows immediately after the seven churches.

"Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter."
"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 show thee things which must be hereafter."
He is instructed to write the vision of things which shall be after these things. "And the things which shall be hereafter."
Literally this reads, "And the things which shall be after these things." This must of necessity refer to the future after the churches have run their course. This begins with chapter 4:1 and runs through 22:5. There is a definite verbal connection between 1:19 and 4:1. The first phrase of 4:1 and the last is the phrase of 4:19.
"after these things" (meta tauta). This surely is not accidental. Hence we may conclude:
This period begins with the rapture into the heavens (4:10). Then follows:
The introductory vision in heaven (4:3-5:14). The tribulation period (6:1-19:21).
The millennium (20:1).
The eternal state (21:1-22:5).

If these churches are historical only, then there is a gap of 1900 years between then and now, and how much longer we do not know. Hence it must be that the seven types persist through to the end, and are therefore prophetical to that extent. Otherwise there is a gap in analysis of time.

It would have been impossible to have written to specific congregations, other than the seven mentioned, for that would have undermined the truth of Christ's imminent return. But it was possible to write to seven congre­gations who within themselves were types and contained within themselves the unfolding of those types in history until the coming of the Lord.