Revelation 5:7

And he came, and he taketh it out of the right hand of him that sat on the throne.

The scene here is still in the past tense from the standpoint of the apostle John. "The moment is that of his appearance in heaven, fresh from the suffering and triumph of the cross."[28] This was, of course, some decades prior to the writing of Revelation. The tense of the verbs here, as noted by Carpenter, bears this out: "He came, and he has taken the roll out of the hand of him that sat on the throne."[29] Mounce and many other interpreters of the same school do not apply this to a past event but "to an event yet to take place at the end of time."[30] This we consider to be incorrect. Hendriksen's correct view of this is:

The Lamb has taken the scroll out of the hand of him who was seated on the Throne. This very clearly refers to the fact that Christ, as Mediator, at his ascension received authority to rule the universe.[31]

Any doubt that this is the proper view of this passage is forever removed by reading Matthew 28:18-20. It is impossible properly to interpret Revelation without a thorough knowledge of what the rest of the New Testament teaches. People who expect Christ to be enthroned at some future time have forgotten that he is already enthroned. "Psalms 110 indicates the date (when this occurred); it was the moment when Christ sat down on the Throne at God's right hand."[32] See also Hebrews 1:3,6,8,9; 2:9.

[28] F. F. Bruce, A New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1969), p. 643.

[29] W. Boyd Carpenter, Ellicott's Bible Commentary, Vol. VIII (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1959), p. 556.

[30] Robert H. Mounce, op. cit., p. 146.

[31] William Hendriksen, More Than Conquerors (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1956), p. 110.

[32] R. C. H. Lenski, op. cit., p. 202.