Revelation 4/5 the beginning of the New Covenant Era

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Revelation 1:4-8 is a seal of John's testament of who confirms what is about to be said as a witness' testimony. 
John describes the Godhead as the trinity (Father, Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ) in these 5 verses basically stating that this is who gave him what he is about to describe to the reader as a testimony directly from Christ.  You should believe it because it's from God.  
This is sort of like what we do when we stand before a court judge and place our hand on the Holy Bible and swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, So Help Me God.
He is addressing this God-witnessed testimony to the 7 churches.
Revelation 1:4-8 is "present" tense as John is penning the actual letter in 95 AD (or whenever).

It's the same an eye witness would do when writing his account of what he saw while at a police station being interrogated or questioned by detectives:

I, John, affirm by God (the Trinity described) that what I saw that day, not long ago, is the truth. 
I saw it in the Spirit. 
I'm addressing this to the 7 churches as my testimony... of Christ's testimony... as He gave it to me.


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Revelation 1:10 through Revelation 4:1 are all written in the present tense describing what was witnessed when he had the vision.
The vision itself, as an entity, was received not long before John penned it to paper.
Lets for the sake of argument call the vision a VHS tape. 
For arguments sake let's pretend the VHS tape itself is about 5 years old and John is about to write whats on the tape.

Revelation 1:10 is where John receives the VHS Tape 5 years ago and hits play.  

John starts to write what he sees on the tape.

Revelation 1:11 - Revelation 3:22 in the VHS Tape are all present with respect to John's present time as he's watching the tape.  But since the recording was 5 years ago, it's not that long ago.  It could be past, but its really sort of present.

Revelation 4:1 is where the voice on the VHS Tape tells John, what you are about to see is future. ("and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.")
Then on the VHS Tape, John is whisked up to Heaven and sees the Godhead as the Father seated on the Throne, and the Holy Spirit as 7 flames (and potentially "the church" under the 7 flames... as candlesticks?).  The lamb (Jesus Christ) in the vision is not visible just yet but we get to see Him later as the VHS tape plays on.  

Now, what you are implying is that Chapter 5 is a past event, that it's the actual ascension of Christ that happened 60 years earlier from the perspective of being in Heaven.  I have to completely disagree.
I see a throne room scene on the VHS Tape, as John wrote it, that had 2 of the persons of God and then we pan around and see the 3rd appear, The Lamb, later on as the tape progresses.  Nothing in Rev says this was the actual ascension.
At no point does the voice say this is a historically past event playing out, we in fact have the complete opposite, it's future.
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Then the tape moves on to the wrath of God.

The tape ends at Revelation 22:6.

Then we have the closing remarks of the book after Rev 22:6.

That is what I see when I read Revelation.
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Now when you ask "How do you reconcile this:" with Revelation 1:5–6 vs Revelation 5:9–10 "How can it be both past and future?"
I say that:
the first is a seal of his testimony, identifying who authorized and gave the visual account; (I do solemnly affirm that God gave me this vision) 
the second is a play out of a recording of what was seen in heaven as a future event.

uscgvet, you are working on a lot of information at one time. So I would recommend smaller bites as in Rev. 4:2 wherein God is upon the throne and then Rev. 4:3 wherein he is described in terms of three stones to wit: jasper, sardine, and emerald (KJV). Thus it is easy to see that God on the throne includes three; The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. From this you can link to the end of the book in Chapters 21/22 and see the stone references again. As in the "jasper stone clear as crystal" (Rev. 21:11) and of course this is the Father; (Rev. 22:1 etc). The sardine represents Christ in the above referenced verses, and the emerald represents the Holy Ghost.

You make a good point about the rainbow. I understand the phrase "round about the throne" in Rev. 4:3 (KJV) to mean not only the throne location but before, behind, and to the sides of the throne. Something like several feet or hundreds of feet.

It follows that "the seats" (Rev. 4:4) being "round about the throne" are in the same space as the Holy Ghost that is "round about the throne (seen like unto an emerald in Rev. 4:3)."

These seats have 24 elders seated upon them; therefore, these 24 elders are in the same space as the Holy Ghost.

Then in Rev. 4:6 we see that in the midst of the throne as well as "round about the throne" are four beasts. Since only The Father and Son are in the midst of the throne (Rev. 4:2-3) and 24 elders are "round about the throne" then two of the beasts are The Father and Son and two of the beasts are two of the 24 elders. That is, the four beasts are The Father, The Son, and two elders. These four individuals are stated in Rev. 1:1 as:

1) The revelation of Jesus Christ (in the midst of the throne)
2) which God (The Father in the midst of the throne) gave unto him to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass 
3) and he (Jesus) sent and signified it by his angel (one of the 24 elders round about the throne)
4) unto his servant John (one of the 24 elders in the midst of the throne)

In support of this analysis Rev. 1:13 shows that John was in the presence of the throne wherein he saw seven candlesticks (round about the throne in the same space as the Holy Ghost) with the Savior in the midst; on the throne. Thus, John was one of the 24 elders in Rev. 4 etc.

Keep in mind that this is my personal analysis and not representative of any church doctrine.


Post Script: It follows that anyone having the Holy Ghost as a companion is likewise round about the throne of God. From this it follows that anyone round about the throne of God is one of the seven spirits of God and of the seven churches as identified in Rev. 2-3.

Try again with the King James Version.  Words matter... 

And John 3:8 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. 

uscgvet,

in fact it makes a huge point that the players of ch 4 are two separate entities. One on the thrown, and one from the tribe of Judah having the flesh aspect, being able to take the scroll form the right hand of one on the throne.

Continuing with my analysis from my previous post: we have John on the isle of Patmos (Rev. 1:9) having the Holy Ghost and he (John) is before the throne of God. Although, that throne may be thousands or millions of miles away, the fact remains that John was before the throne by virtue of him having the Holy Ghost as a companion and the Holy Ghost is round about the throne (Rev. 4:2-3).

So we have John before the throne of God, even though he is at the isle of Patmos.

Next, John sees the Savior in the midst of the seven candlesticks (Rev. 1:13). We know that these seven candlesticks are the seven churches (Rev. 1:20). Therefore, before the throne of God in the same space as the Holy Ghost are the seven churches; additionally in this space are the 24 elders (Rev. 4:4).

Next, John sees an event as described in Rev. 4:8 wherein these four individuals (as referenced in Rev. 1:1) saying "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty which was, and is, and is to come." That is, John sees the four individuals as referenced in Verse 1:1 saying this about Christ of which he (John) and Christ are two of the participants saying these words. Therefore, within the vision that John is seeing of which started at Patmos (Rev. 1:9) and wherein he (John) was called up to heaven (Rev. 4:1); he now sees a future event. That is, prior to this point in Chapter 4 John is viewing within the vision the interactions between God and the church from the perspective of a future event; but now he begins viewing a new dynamic within the vision wherein he is more of an active participant as one of the 4 beasts.

That is, the vision in which John began seeing and participating within in Chapter 1 expands in Chapter 4 wherein he is called to heaven (Rev. 4:1) to participate more abundantly in the vision. This participation includes John witnessing himself in an active future role as one of the four beasts (Rev. 4:8).

Next we see the Savior called to perform a function (Rev. 5:2). Keep in mind that John is still viewing the vision wherein he is a participant and he develops the thought (no doubt given by God) that no one is worthy to answer the call. With this thought John weeps (Rev. 5:4). At this point John is reassured that the Savior will answer the call and in fact has opened the book. That is, John now sees in the vision that Lord Jesus by virtue of giving his life as payment is worthy to open the book (Rev. 6). That is, we are still seeing John participating within the vision seeing the Savior giving his life making him worthy to open the book. Thus, it is a vision of sorts within the vision to quantify what makes the Savior worthy to open the book. Then at Rev. 5:7 the Savior answers the call from Rev. 5:2 and he takes the book. That is, between Verses 5:2 and 5:7 is the proof of Lord Jesus' worthiness to open the book.

Then at Rev. 5:7 we return to John viewing the vision wherein he is a participant as one of the four beasts. That is, John is seeing himself in a future experience wherein he is at a place with the church that I might add includes countless millions as stated in Rev. 7:9 etc. as "a great number that no man could count." That is, we are seeing through John the point in time wherein the Savior takes the book and we will be there with countless millions.

Then beginning at Chapter 6 the Savior opens the book. From this it follows that the seven seals (Chapters 6-11) are the seven seals of the book (Rev. 5:1). Thus, the book is The Book of Revelation as it is opened into reality one seal after another.

Post Script: It follows that after all the seals have been opened then God comes to the earth as described in Chapters 21-22. It was for this reason that John was weeping (Rev. 5:4), for without opening the seals of the book then God would not come to the earth as shown to John in Chapter 4 wherein the earth was a sea of glass (Rev. 4:6, 15:2).