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Eureka

AN EXPOSITION OF THE APOCALYPSE
Sixth Edition, 1915
By Dr. John Thomas (first edition written 1861)

 

 

Chapter 3

SECTION 2

7. A Pillar in the Temple

 


 
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After exhorting the faithful to hold fast the gospel of the kingdom and name, the Spirit-Man proceeds to assure them of reward. In addressing the victor who shall have overcome in the public games which he patronizes and conducts, the Spirit saith, "I will make, the victor a PILLAR in the Temple of my Deity." In thus saying, "pillar" evidently is representative of a saved person. Therefore to make such a pillar in a temple of Deity is to make him an integral part thereof; and for a saint to be part of the temple, indicates that the temple itself is composed of persons. Now a temple is a dwelling; not a common dwelling, but a habitation of Deity. A temple composed of the saints is a habitation of Deity, which the Lord pitches and not man.

Upon this principle the pillars and the house, temple, dwelling, or habitation, become identical and inseparable. But obvious as this may be to the enlightened, we propose to make it equally so to others; and to unfold the significancy and beauty of the phrase in the remarks which follow.

The idea of a pillar being a house of Deity is traceable to the conception of Jacob, who, doubtless, initiated it under the inspiration of Deity. The history of its origination is told in Gen. xxviii, as follows. Isaac called Jacob into his presence, and told him to go to Padanaram, and select for himself a wife there, from Laban's daughters. On his departure he blessed him saying, "AIL-Shaddai bless thee, and give thee the blessing of Abraham, to thee, and to thy Seed WITH THEE; that thou mayest inherit the land, wherein thou art a stranger, which ELOHIM gave to Abraham."

On his way thither, Jacob came to a certain place where he passed the night, making his pillow of the stones. While asleep, the vision of the Ladder appeared to him. This ladder seemed to connect the earth and heaven; and by it ascended and descended upon him angels, or messengers of ELOHIM. Above the ladder stood YAHWEH, known to Jacob by the name AIL-Shaddai, who said to him, "I am YAHWEH Elohim of Abraham thy father, and ELOHIM of Isaac; the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy Seed. And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west and to the east, and to the north and the south; and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in thee, and in thy Seed. And behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places where thou goest, and I will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee until I have done what I have spoken to thee of."

The gospel of the kingdom having been thus announced to Jacob, as it had been before to Abraham (Gal. iii. 8), he awoke, and under the vivid impression of what he had seen and heard, took the Stone upon which his head rested, and set it up for a pillar -- a monumental pillar -- and poured oil upon the top of it. This was the nearest approach he could make to the matter of the vision. The stone resting upon the earth and pointing upwards might represent the ladder; and the oil poured on the top of it, the Spirit, or Deity, who stood above it. Thus the Stone was converted into a pillar or monument, which, to the mind of Jacob, would suggest the promise he had heard in his dream. His recollection of this promise would be the monumental inscription of this pillar of Stone.

But when he awoke in a typical resurrection, he exclaimed, "Verily, Yahweh is in this place, and I knew not;" and he was afraid, and said, "How awful is this place! This is nothing else but a house of Elohim, and this a gate of the heavens!" Hence, that this idea might be perpetuated, he said, "Yahweh shall be to me for Elohim, and this Stone which I have set for a pillar shall be a House of Elohim."

Jacob's stone pillar, then, was typical of a House of Elohim to be set up after he awakes from his sleep of centuries. When he awakes, he will find himself in an awful time and place, the gate of heaven opened, and the house of Elohim in manifestation, but he, nevertheless, without dismay. What he saw in vision he will then see in fact -- "Heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man" (John i. 51).

But there is a sense in which Jacob's pillar of the stone exists as a house of Elohim even now, and in intimate connection with the house he will see when he awakes from his present know-nothing state. Paul presents to us this sense in the saying, that "a House of Deity is an ecclesia of living Deity, a PILLAR and material habitation, (hedraiwma from hedra, a habitation of gods,) of the truth" (1 Tim. iii. 15). This pillar and habitation is "built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Anointed being chief-corner" (Eph. ii. 20). As a monumental pillar, the inscription upon it is "the exceeding great and precious promises" believed by each saint, or "living stone," of which the pillar is composed -- "promises" concerning the kingdom and name made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as narrated by Moses. This pillar was anointed on the top of it on the Day of Pentecost, when the spirit was poured upon the apostles. That anointing was perpetuated in "the testimony for Jesus" which has reached even to us, and with which every true believer is anointed. An ecclesia, however, is not only a pillar inscribed with the truth, but is a hedraiwma of the truth. It is a material thing made up of "gods," as David styles them, or of "children of Deity," according to 1 John iii. 2; Psal. lxxxii. 6. These are anointed with the truth, and therefore they are a God-habitation, or hedraiwma of the truth.

In regard to this word hedraiwma, it may be remarked here, that it occurs nowhere else in the New Testament, nor in any classical author. The word is derived from hedra, which signifies "a seat, habitation, especially of gods, a temple, altar, etc." Hence, the expressiveness of the word, and its peculiar and exclusive application to a habitation of the truth constituted of gods, or children of Deity, who are, as represented in the Apocalypse, "the Altar," "the temple," "the Holy City," or, as Paul expresses it, "an habitation of Deity by spirit" (Eph. ii. 22).

The ecclesia in the aggregate is the Pillar of the Stone to be placed in Zion, and a hedraiwma, or House of Elohim, as Jacob termed the type he set up at Bethel. But while the saints collectively are an Elohal Pillar and House of the truth, this house also contains two classes of pillars, and many individual pillars in each class. This is seen in type and antitype. Typically, the two classes are represented in the Two Brazen Pillars in the Porch of Solomon's temple, the one on the right hand being named Jachin, and that on the left, Boaz. These names were significative of the things represented by the pillars, which were of brass, eighteen cubits, or about thirty-two feet, in the shaft, which was twenty-one feet girth, and surmounted with a chapiter nine feet high. Here were loftiness and strength. The chapiters were ornamented with nets of checker-work, wreaths or stephans, of chain-work, pomegranates, and lily work, all of which were representative of things pertaining to the pillars. As a whole, they were styled !hebrew! yahkin, and boaz, or in plain English, He shall establish by strong ones.

In Canticles, Solomon, who had much to do with lily work and pomegranates, and fragant and choice woods in the building of the temple, makes the Bridegroom term the Bride "the Lily;" and speaking of herself, she says, "I am his, feeding among lilies" and, "a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valley." And in another part of this Song of Songs, the bridegroom says of the saints forming collectively the Bride, "A garden enclosed is my sister spouse; a spring locked up, a fountain sealed. Thy shoots are plants of Paradise, pomegranates with delicious fruits." Moses styles Palestine "a land of pomegranates," so that they came to be used as a similitude for those who shall inherit the land. They therefore constituted the hem of the typical robe of Aaron, being of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and alternating with golden bells. These plants of Paradise typifying the two classes of saints from Israel and the Gentiles, are concretely the !hebrew! "strong ones, by whom HE, Yahweh, will establish" the kingdom of David. They are, therefore, Yahkin and Boaz, the brazen pillars of the porch.

But while these pillars of fine brass represented "the Feet" of the Eternal Spirit, which in their progress are as "pillars of fire" glowing in a furnace (Apoc. i. 15: x. 1; Ezek. xliii. 7), there are other representative pillars, which typified the same agents in a different position. Within the tabernacle were "four pillars" upon which was suspended the Veil inwrought with Cherubim (Exod. xxvi. 32). These pillars were of wood overlaid with gold. Brass pertained to the Porch and Court of the Priests; Gold to the Holy and Most Holy compartments of the tabernacle. These four cherubic-veil pillars answer to the Four Living Ones of Apoc. iv. and v. These, who are the redeemed, have entered the temple, "the smoke from the glory and power of the Deity" having altogether passed away (Apoc. xv. 8). To be "a pillar in the dwelling of the Deity," is to be a constituent of these four cherubic-veil pillars, and an element of Jachin and Boaz, the diversity of metals having reference not to different classes of saints, but to the same individuals in different states. As brass, they are glowing in the furnace of divine wrath, "executing vengeance upon the nations and punishments upon the peoples; binding their kings with chains and their nobles with fetters of iron;" in short, "executing upon them the judgment written," in the time appointed for them to possess themselves of the kingdom under the whole heaven (Psal. cxlix. 7; Dan. vii.); as brass, they are "standing upon the sea of glass mingled with fire," and treading down the wicked as ashes under the soles of their feet (Apoc. xv. 2; Mal. iv. 3); but as gold, they stand upon the sea, sounding their harps to the song of the victory they have achieved over the kingdoms and empires of the world.

The saints in the execution of judgment in the approaching "hour of judgment," are also typified by the sixty pillars of brass, pertaining to the court of the tabernacle (Exod. xxvii. 9-17). This dwelling in Song iii. 7, is styled "His litter which is for Solomon." It is seen "ascending out of the wilderness as pillars of smoke." The Bride asks "Who is this?" Her attendants reply that it is "His litter which is for Solomon himself. Sixty valiant men surround it, the stoutest heroes of Israel; every one of them grasping a sword, being expert in war; the Commander his sword upon his thigh without fear in nights." This scene is introduced in Apoc. xix. 14. Here the Commander and his sixty heroes, or brazen pillars, are in battle array, and prepared to smite the nations, and to tread the winepress, without fear or apprehension of defeat.

In Exod. xxiv. 4, the Twelve Tribes of Israel are typified by twelve pillars surrounding the altar. Jeremiah was made "a fortified city, and an iron pillar, and brazen walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against the princes thereof, against the priests thereof, and against the people of the land." This represented an antagonism between him and the state; but as he was likened to iron and brass, he was thereby shown to be unconquerable. It is therefore added, "and they shall fight against thee; but they shall not prevail against thee, for I am with thee, saith Yahweh, to deliver thee" (i. 18,19). James, Peter and John were also pillars in the hedraiwma, being with the rest, as the twelve pillars of Moses around the altar, and the future rulers of the pillar-tribes (Gal. ii. 9; Matt. xix. 28).

From these premises, then, we perceive quite an array of pillars pertaining to the house, or kingdom of Elohim. They are Wisdom's pillars. They are being "hewn out." The work of hewing is not yet complete; but when the work is finished, and the pillars are all set up, or established, in their proper places, they will then constitute "her Seven Pillars." It will then be said that "Wisdom hath builded her house, and she hath hewn out her seven pillars" (Prov. ix. i.). The wisdom that was with Yahweh "before the earth was;" and called by John "the Word that was Deity." Wisdom's house is the house of the Deity, who is "the builder of all things," commonly styled "the kingdom of God." Those who are to possess this are the "pillars of the earth," which in Psal. lxxv. 3, the Spirit in Asaph says, "I have established." This testimony is worthy of particular attention in connection with the promise to the Philadelphians. "When I take the congregation I, by righteous ones, !hebrew! maisharim, will judge. The earth and all its inhabitants are dissolved; I have fixed its pillars." In this we are pointed to the time when "the Great Congregation" of Israel, consisting of its Twelve Pillars, shall be taken possession of by the Deity, who says, he will judge "by Righteous ones;" that is, by Messiah and his Brethren, the Saints, who then constitute the Deity in corporeal manifestation -- "pillars in the Temple of my Deity." The idea of the Deity ruling the habitable in or by others was announced by Paul to the Athenian Areopagus. He called upon the members of this body to abandon the idols and embrace the true Deity, "because He had appointed a Day (of a thousand years) in which he will rule the habitable in justice in a man whom he hath ordained, having offered assurance to all, having raised him from among the dead." Deity in Man the future ruler of the nations; and that man the Spirit-Man of Multitude, symbolized in Apoc. i. 13. This is a grand idea -- a multitudinous Spirit-Man, every individual member of which will have been either raised from among the dead like Jesus; or transformed, like Enoch and Elijah. This is the "One Body the Ecclesia," which is the pillar-house of Elohim; the Christ. This is the Seed of Abraham, or the Christ, that rules the world for a thousand years -- a Christ, or Anointed Body, consisting of Jesus and the Saints, every one of whom is "a pillar;" and collectively, "the temple of Deity" from which "he shall not at all go away out more."

But before this post-resurrectional state can be attained, "the earth and all its inhabitants" must be "dissolved." Its constitution, as symbolized by the beasts of Daniel and John, must be abolished. This is the work of Jachin and Boaz in the Porch, which, as we have seen, typify omnipotence in the saints in the execution of judgment. When they shall have become "victors," they will pass from the brazen into the golden state. They will then be fixed, or established, as the golden pillars of the earth under its millennial constitution. Once a pillar in the house of wisdom in the golden state, he will "not at all go away out more" To perceive the force of these words we must remember that "the Temple of Deity" exists in two states -- the present, and the future. Paul, addressing the saints in Corinth, who were as we are, of the present, or flesh and blood, state, says to them, "Ye are a building of Deity -- a temple of Deity, and the spirit of the Deity dwells in you." But they have all "gone away out" of "the tabernacle in which they groaned being burdened" (2 Cor. v. 4); "the earthly house of the tabernacle," formerly the temple of Deity in Corinth, is all "dissolved;" and its constituents are all sleeping in the dust of the earth unconscious of everything. There they lie awaiting the action of the power which shall raise them from the dead; and constitute them "a building, a house not made with hands, an AION-HOUSE in the heavens;" when they shall become pillars in this house where they will continue fixed. Death will affect them no more, and consequently, being then immortal they will "not at all go away out more."!greek!

 

 


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