“The Church isn’t Mentioned After Revelation 4”

Some say the Church isn’t mentioned after Revelation 4, because we’re raptured before these things occur.

The word translated “church” in Revelation 2-3 is the Greek word ekklesia. This word is actually used in the Septuagint (a Greek translation of the Old Testament completed three centuries before Christ came) to refer to the Israelites. In Greek culture, ekklesia means an assembly or a gathering, and can also refer to the people. It’s also used is secular contexts.

Is God required to use the word “ekklesia” to describe His followers?

There are number of passages after Revelation 4 referring to followers of Christ—for example:

Revelation 6:9-11 (NKJV)
9 When He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held. 10 And they cried with a loud voice, saying, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” 11 Then a white robe was given to each of them; and it was said to them that they should rest a little while longer, until both the number of their fellow servants and their brethren, who would be killed as they were, was completed.

Revelation 12:10-11 (NKJV)
10 Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. 11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.

Revelation 12:17 (NKJV)
17 And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

Revelation 13:7 (NKJV)
It was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation.

Revelation 14:12-13 (NKJV)
12 Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.
13 Then I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.’ ”
“Yes,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, and their works follow them.”

These are just a short list, but it’s clear they are followers of Jesus.

Usually I will hear the following, “These refer to people who accept Christ after the rapture.”

“Ekklesia” actually isn’t found in Revelation 4, either. Some teach that John is symbolic of the Church, and the command, “Come up here,” refers to the Church being raptured, rather than the apparent context of John’s vision transitioning from one scene to another.

Revelation 4:1 (NKJV)
4 After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, “Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this.”

If Revelation 4:1 can refer to the ekklesia not by name, when the clear context is it’s given to John, why can’t the previous verses, which are clearly about followers of Christ, be acknowledged as part of the ekklesia?

Is this rightly dividing the word of truth (2 Tim 2:15)?