THE TEMPLE OF REVELATION
THE CHURCH

PART 1

MF Blume

Hebrews 12:28 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:


INTRODUCTION

Have grace and serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. We must be established with grace. Grace must be our only foundation. Mount Zion speaks of Grace.

Throughout the Book of Revelation there is repeated implication of a heavenly temple. We know the temple of God today is the Church. God will never again consider a physical building made by man as His temple, regardless of whether the mid-east nation of Israel builds one. The Church is the Temple. The Church is the House which Jesus built on the Rock, Zion. And this Rock, Zion, speaks to us of the Grace of God, the foundation of the temple.

Let us go through the Book of Revelation and glean from the truths concerning the Heavenly Temple, the Church, that are found there.

JESUS AND THE TEMPLE

In Revelation Chapter 1, John saw seven golden candlesticks and Christ in their midst. He saw Jesus who wore a golden girdle upon His upper torso with His feet like brass.
The One upon the chariot which Ezekiel saw was identically clad.
This is temple and tabernacle imagery.  The appearance of Jesus Christ as seen by John is similar to the layout of the tabernacle furniture.  The following reference links you to a diagram on this site that shows how that a potrayal of Jesus Christ superimposed over the Tabernacle reveals how the golden girdle and the brazen feet coincide with the placement of the golden furniture and the brazen furniture within the Tabernacle.

Jesus is seen to have seven stars in His right hand that coincides with the placement of the seven golden candlesticks in the Tabernacle. These seven stars are the seven angels of the seven churches.

This is the beginning of the Temple imagery found throughout Revelation. What is God trying to tell us with this repeated temple imagery? Well, we have already noted that the Church is the Temple of today. And this a great part of the reason. Revelation is about the temple of the Church.

THE THRONE

In Revelation Chapter 4, John saw the throne of God with twenty-fourseats with twenty-four elders upon them around the throne. Four beasts were also seen around the throne having the likeness of cherubims -- the faces of an ox, lion, eagle and man. Seven lamps stood around the throne, also, They were the seven spirits of God. A crystal sea of glass was before the throne. And when John saw the four beasts worship God, he saw how that inspired the 24 elders to fall down and praise God for creation.

The picture of a throne is an aspect of temple imagery, since the Ark of the Covenant was situated in the holiest of holies with a lid called the Mercy Seat. This Seat depicted God's throne. Mercy is connected with the Throne of God today.

The note of worship of the elders due to the praise of the 4 beasts who had the likeness of earthly creatures, reveals that the temple of Revelation is highlighted with references to God's purpose for creation. The creatures partly depict earthly creation. Their faces are those of earthly creatures, particularly the heads of "kings" of the four earthly, animal Kingdoms which Adam named. The lion is king of the beasts, the eagle is king of the fowl and the ox is king of the cattle. With the head of a man, these four heads were seen on the four beasts. And when the twenty-four elders hear them praise God, these elders thank God specifically fro creation.

All these little thoughts must be considered in understanding the significance of the temple sitting in prominence throughout Revelation.

Since the Church is the Temple, we can take this reference to the creation and see how that the Church/Temple fulfills God's purpose for creation. This is so since God sought for Himself a Bride with whom He would be made One and upon Whom he would endow His very life. God made the world and He made mankind in the world to become one with Him. Adam failed, but the Church is the goal that God planned to achieve when he originally created the earth with mankind as its ruler. The Church is the goal God set out to accomplish by having created this earth.

THRONE, ARK AND TREE OF LIFE

The Reading of Revelation Chapter 5 continues and we read of a little book in the right hand of the One on the throne. It is a book that is remarkably similar to the tablets of commandments ministered to Israel by Moses. Recall that these tablets of Moses were placed in the Ark of the covenant. The picture of the ark and its mercy Seat in the midst of the tabernacle's holiest of holies coincides with the placement of the throne of God in the midst of Heaven. The throne was surrounded by the four cherubimic beasts, as the ark of the covenant was barred from human access by the veil that was embroidered with images of cherubims. Nobody could enter the holiest of holies due to the veil. Therefore, with the adjoining characteristic of being what was barricaded by cherubims, the Throne of God and the Ark of God are to be viewed as symbols of the same truth. There is also the aspect of the Tree of life in the Garden that was also barred from human access by cherubims. All three of these symbols speak the same single message to us. This is the goal of this study. What is the message God is telling us?

THE LITTLE BOOK

Let us look at more comparative elements in these pictures. As God sat upon the Throne in the midst of the heavenly temple and held a little book written on both sides in his Right Hand, the ark of the covenant contained the tables of Law that were written on the front and backside. With the thought of the ark and throne speaking a single message, it is more than coincidence that both items also involve the thought of a set of writings displayed on the inside and outside of a material.
The tablets were engraved on the back and the front. Ezekiel's roll was also written within and without. So we see the tablets of Law locked away in the Ark of the Covenant and inaccessible by man due to the veil that barred man away. Now, Israel did know what that Law dictated. So it is not as though it was hidden truth. But there is still that aspect of it being locked away in the single room where the common man could not enter.

We read in the New Testament that the Law is placed within our hearts by the ministry of the New Testament and Spirit. It was only engraved upon stones in the Old Testament. And incidentally, Jesus commented about the hardness of the people's hearts during Moses time, which moved God to demand certain laws in that time. But now things are different.

The stone tablets depict the hard hearts of the people before Christ's ministry. Their hearts could not be anything but hard, after sin had infected mankind in the Garden, and Christ had not yet come to remit sins.

Moses and the law and hard hearts seem to be hinted at in the putting of Laws onto stone tablets. But now, in the New testament times, the Law is placed in a contrasting place of the fleshly tables of the heart.

Since the Law was not placed within the human heart before Christ, we see that the people really did not know the Law, although it was read to them often. Their minds knew it, but it was not yet in their hearts. And until it was placed into their hearts, they could not really know it. So it stands that the aspect of the law being locked away from access to man, behind the veil in the Ark, represents something that mankind had not been able to truly receive in more than just "head-memory."

It is interesting that John later was told to eat the little book which Jesus retrieved from God on the throne, as though symbolizing that the Law is placed into our hearts rather than secluded away from mankind in an ark barricaded by cherubims.

Recall that John saw the throne with God and the little book barred away from him by cherubims. And when one was called upon who was worthy to come and take the book, nobody could come. Law, in other words, could not be placed within our hearts as of that time. Nobody could come and take it and eat it up, placing it within themselves. Jesus only appeared in the holiest and took the book and gave it to John to eat in Rev. 10 after He died and resurrected. The Lamb stood in the holiest as having been slain. That implies resurrection from the dead.

John saw the slain Lamb stand between the 4 beasts and the throne to retrieve the book that no man was worthy to retrieve. This depicted how that Christ carried His own blood as High Priest to the Father so mankind be redeemed to God so that man might approach God. Man could enter the holiest -- the Garden -- due to Christ's resurrection. As the High Priest had to have blood when entering the holiest where the ark of the covenant held the Law, Jesus had to die and be resurrected. He had to have BLOOD. Possessing blood indicates the price required for mankind's sin -- death -- to allow Him to pass into the holiest to take that book and give to man to eat.
 

THE LITTLE BOOK IS UNSEALED

Let us return to the thought of the Garden of Eden.  This is reminiscent of the fruit of life which mankind could not pluck from the tree of life.  As the fruit that hung from the branches of the tree of life became inaccessible to Adam due to sin, the little book in the right hand of God on the throne could not be taken by any man.  Jesus alone walked into the Garden, as it was, and plucked the fruit of life for mankind to come and take.

Before eating the book in Revelation 10, Revelation Chapter 6 shows the Lamb opening the seven seals. And John was invited by the beasts to come and see the scroll's contents.  John came and saw.

The first events John saw in visionary symbol involved the riding of horses and riders.  We must recognize that these "troubles" were actually the tribulations that Jesus foretold would come upon Jerusalem due to the rejection of her King, Jesus Christ.

Let us go to the Gospels at this time.
 

THE REJECTION OF  JESUS CHRIST

Jesus Christ rode into the City to be accepted as the promised King that He might enter the Temple and receive the fruit of praise from the people.
 
He was rejected rather than praised.
 
Instead of finding fruit of praise, He found nothing in the temple.  To symbolize this, He walked from the temple and approached a fig tree that bore no fruit.  Jesus cursed the fig tree because He found no fruit on it.  He was representing the praise he desired from Jerusalem but found not, and how He would curse the City due to its rejection of Him.
 
That rejection is the entire reason  there is Church today.  We will find in this study that it is the entire reason for the theme of the New temple that stands as a constant symbol throughout the Book of Revelation.

I cannot stress enough how that the Temple of the Church came about all because the Israeli temple was destroyed due to Christ's rejection.  This rejection of Christ must be understood to be the catalyst that moved Christ to raise up a temple of lively stones.  Since that is the case, the book of Revelation must be read with this great aspect of history in mind.  The thought of a temple rejected by Jesus and another temple built by Himself, called the church, is to be kept in mind throughout the Book of Revelation.  When we see a reference to the temple, we are meant to think of this great Church.

The Temple of the Church was erected because it was foreordained from the beginning.  But the manner in which it came about was due to the rejection of Jesus by Jerusalem.  The Old Temple of Jerusalem, in which Christ found no fruit of praise, would be destroyed and replaced by a living temple of lively stones instead.  The Church is the group of rocks that will surely cry out.  The Temple of Jerusalem was built of stones quarried without the city.  The new temple, however, would be built of living stones -- people. And these stones of this temple would worship Jesus all because Jerusalem held their peace.

He warned the people of Jerusalem that a new temple that would replace the old temple of Jerusalem, though they understood Him not.  His rejection by Jerusalem moved Him to curse the city and the temple and to go about building the CHURCH as the New City and New Temple.
 

Jerusalem's house was the temple.  Their house was to be left to them desolate!

After having spoken of the temple destruction, Jesus began to relate how certain troubles would come.  He addressed the Jerusalem rejection and the temple destruction.  Then he told the disciples the words that are understood by all prophecy students to regard the events in the Book of Revelation.  We must recognize that these troubles are linked to the rejection of Christ by Jerusalem.  They are linked with the thought of His plan to erect a new temple of lively stones, called the church.  And since these troubles are found in the Book of Revelation, and the aspect of the new Temple is also found in that book, we can more readily see the intention God had in giving us this book of Revelation.  And this will unlock some of the hard-to-be-understood messages in that book of symbols.

If we miss the implications of the troubles of Matthew 24 being linked to the rejection of Jesus and the creation of a new temple of lively stones, we will miss the implications we are intended to understand in the Book of Revelation.  We will have an incorrect interpretation of the book. We will miss the meaning behind these very troubles as found in the Book of Revelation itself, which comprises most of that book!  The reason there is so much temple imagery in Revelation is that of the rejection of Jerusalem and the subsequent replacement of its temple with the new temple of the Church!  It all is linked to the rejection of Christ by Jerusalem as we shall clearly see as we continue in this study.
 

FOUR HORSEMEN

The four horsemen of Revelation 6, which comprise the contents of the first four seals of the little book, opened by Jesus, the slain lamb, were (1) false doctrine, (2) wars, (3) famine and (4) death.  Jesus Himself said that these tribulations occur until the sixth seal, if we care to compare Matthew 24 with Revelation 6.
 

Seal One:  White horse -- False Doctrine
 

 First sign given by Jesus of the end:  
 

Seal Two: Red Horse -- warfare

 Second sign given by Jesus:  
 

Seal Three: Black Horse -- famine

 Third sign given by Jesus  
 

Fourth Seal: Pale Horse -- death

 Fourth sign given by Jesus:  
 

The fifth Seal would naturally follow the fourth seal of death because the fifth seal speaks of martyrs slain.

Fifth Seal: Martyrs slain and under the altar as blood flowed under the altar after a sacrifice.

 Fifth Sign given by Jesus:
 

 

Then we read Jesus words regarding elements found in the sixth seal of revelation.
 

This is found under the sixth seal.
 
 Jesus said these events occurred "after the tribulation" of the days involving the events of the first five seals.  Then heaven and earth are shaken during the days of the church on Mount Zion.  A great earthquake occurs while the heavens shake in the sixth seal!  The earthquake depicts earth being shaken.  The stars falling, the sun turning black, and the moons becoming blood represent the Heavens being shaken.  Hence, heaven and earth are shaken in the sixth seal.  The first five seals show humanity being attacked.  But the sixth seal affects heaven and earth.
 

HEAVEN AND EARTH SHALL BE SHAKEN

Hebrews chapter 12 reads of the days of grace in the church.
 
During these days, all is shaking and we must be established with grace so that we will not fall.
 
This is notably connectable to the thoughts of the heavens and earth shaking after the temple was cursed to destruction and desolation and during the days of the church age.  The Book of Hebrews places the shaking of heaven and earth, mentioned by Jesus in Matthew 24, as occurring during the church age to remove all that is on a faulty foundation so that the Church on the Rock of the Kingdom can remain.  The Kingdom cannot be removed.  The Kingdom is Mount Zion.
 
It is the House of the Wise man built upon the Rock that stands while the House of the fool on sand falls.
 
With all this in mind, we can see that Revelation 6, and the opening of the seals, is associated wit the new temple of the Church.  All the events of Matthew 24, which clearly parallel those in the sixth seals of the little book, in Revelation 6, were associated with the temple destruction and the erection of a new temple called the church.
 

TEMPLE DESTRUCTION

Notice the reason Jesus gave these prophecies:
 
After referring to the temple destruction in particular, the disciples asked him two questions.

When would this destruction occur?

What will be the sign of His coming and of the end of the world?

Jesus answered the questions in the order they were asked.  Could Christ have meant that there will be destruction of the temple, as the great event of the church age, and as a general shaking of all other error?  Jesus said the reason the temple was destroyed in 70 A.D. was His rejection.  Their ERROR moved them to reject Him.  And He commenced to curse their temple and erect a new temple.  The shaking of this error and its doom having been sealed in 70 A.D. as the temple indeed was destroyed, are what Christ referred to in speaking about shaking all remaining error. 


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