logo

 


Last Updated on : October 11, 2014

Eureka

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

Volume 2  Chapter 8

Section 1 Subsection 4

 

The Apocalyptic Temple

 

go directly to the [Tabernacle of the Testimony and the Nave]

 

 

The sealing of the 144,000 being inaugurated at the opening of the Seventh Seal, by which sealing process the Spirit "spued out of his mouth" the Laodicean Catholicism of the Nikolaitans of the day -- the Ariuses, Athanasiuses, Eusebiuses, Lactantiuses, and their coreligionists of the fourth century -- the Temple, or Tabernacle of the Deity, in which he would condescend to sojourn upon the earth, must be sought for in connexion with a community to which these ecclesiastics, whether Arian or Athanasian, were opposed.

The reader will understand that during that Half-hour Period of the Seventh Seal, there were TWO TEMPLES in the Greco-Latin, or Roman, world. They were two hostile establishments which would tolerate no fellowship between their respective members. The one was constituted of all who styled one another Arians and Athanasians; of all who professed a religion of sacraments; worshipped the ghosts of martyrs; venerated relics; practised celibacy and monachism; commanded to abstain from meats; and gloried in their alliance with the State. This was the temple in which Paul in 2 Thess. ii. 4, predicted "the Man of Sin, the Son of Perdition," would appear. That he would set himself up above all that is called god, or a power to which homage is paid; and that as a supreme power he would sit in the Temple of the Power, showing himself that he is a supreme power or god. The nucleus of this power had just been born, as the Man-child of the Catholic Woman; and, although an unbaptized emperor, sat in the temple and exhibited himself there as the supreme power, or god. He presided in the Nicene and other Councils, and made laws for his church; and punished with severe pains and penalties those who conscientiously refused submission to his decrees. He was constituted "Head of the Church," and determined all matters of discipline; and acted in all respects as the spiritual vicegerent of the Deity. He confiscated the buildings in which the Donatists assembled; and sent many of them into banishment, which he ultimately revoked. He ordered the observance of martyr-festivals; dedicated churches with great solemnity; preached discourses in them; ordered the sacred observance of Sunday, to which he added that of Friday also, as the week-day of the crucifixion; and taught the soldiers of his army to pray by a form made for their use. But, sound principle being wanting, all this was mere superstition. His sermons had as little scriptural teachings of the truth, as those of the clerical speculators of our own time; they were rhetorical and indistinct, so that no determinate propositions can be extracted from them. He was the living incarnation of the spirit inhabiting the temple in which he sat enthroned. The worst of ConstantineÍs character came out in the half-hour of this seal. "The conclusion of his reign" says Gibbon, "degraded him from the rank which he had acquired among the most deserving of the Roman princes. In the life of Constantine, we contemplate a hero, who had long inspired his subjects with love, and his enemies with terror, degenerating into a cruel and dissolute monarch, corrupted by his fortune, or raised by conquest above the necessity of dissimulation. An impartial narrative of the executions, or rather murders, which sullied his declining years, will suggest to our most candid thoughts, the idea of a prince who could sacrifice without reluctance the laws of justice, and the feelings of nature, to the dictates either of his passions or of his interest."

Such was the Imperial Bishop of the Catholic Temple, in which superstition and self righteousness flourished vigorously; while "the truth as it is in Jesus" was utterly unknown, or disregarded. The patience of Deity, however, waited until about the end of the half-hour, when he began to visit upon the family of Constantine, "voices and thunderings and lightnings and earthquake," in retribution of his crimes against the guiltless, his spiritual usurpation, and his blasphemy against heaven.

But, in opposition to all this, the Deity was building for himself a habitation, in which his Word should be enthroned. Illustrative of this, we may remark, that Paul, in writing to the ecclesia of saints in Corinth, says in 1 Cor. iv. 15, "I have begotten you in Christ Jesus through the gospel." This was the prime agent of their introduction into Christ -- the gospel ministered by the apostle; so that when, through a hearty belief of it, they came to be immersed for the putting on of him in whom they believed, he says to them in 1 Cor. xii. 13, "By one Spirit are we all immersed into One Body, whether Jews or Gentiles." The many members of this One Body being all the servants of the Deity sealed in their foreheads by the gospel, the apostle tells them in 1 Cor. iii that they are "a building of Deity;" "built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the foundation-corner; in whom, all the building fitly framed together groweth into a HOLY TEMPLE in the Lord; in whom ye are builded together into a Habitation of the Deity through spirit," or the truth (Eph. ii. 20-22).

Thus, "the Deity dwelleth not in temples," or "churches," "made with hands," but in a Holy Temple built by the formative power of the truth understood, believed, and obeyed. Every stone of this temple is living, and precious, and bought at the high price of the blood of Jesus Christ. Peter says, they are "lively stones built up a spiritual house," or temple (1 Pet. ii. 5; and in 2 Cor. vi. 16), Paul repeats the idea, saying to the true believers, "Ye are the temple of the living Deity." After such plain and pointed declarations as these, no one being acquainted with them, and comprehending them, can possibly believe, that the temples of the "religious world," whether the term be affirmed of a name, or denomination, or of all names and denominations collectively, or of cathedrals, churches, chapels, and conventicles, -- are temples of the Deity. These are none of his buildings. The impress of his workmanship is upon none of them; and therefore in none of them doth he reside, either by the truth, or spiritual gift.

The temples styled by the clericals "Houses of God," are what DanielÍs prophecy denominates !hebrew! mivtzahrai mahuzzim, "Bazaars of the Guardians" (xi. 38-39); or ecclesiastical edifices dedicated to angels and the ghosts of saints, which are regarded in the mystery of spiritual sorcery, as "guardian spirits," or protectors of those who honor them. In these church-bazaars are deposited "sacred" images and pictures of "saints." They are Demon-Temples, wherein are placed shrines for the repose of relics, supposed to have belonged to the demon, or ghost, when a dweller upon earth; also silver, gold, and ivory crucifixes; old bones, and divers junk-store odds and ends, and various kinds of votive trumpery. They are literally "dens of thieves," without ever having been houses of the Father -- dens where people are robbed of their money under divers false pretences. They are places where pews are sold by auction, the proudest sittings being knocked down to MammonÍs greatest favorites; places where fairs of vanity and deceit are beheld for "pious objects;" and where spiritual empirics pretend to "cure souls" in consideration of so much per annum. In view of these facts, the scriptural epithet bestowed upon the ecclesiastical edifices of the Apostasy is most appropriate. They are truly Bazaars of spiritual merchandize; and the prospering craft, "the great men of the earth" made rich by trading in their wares, are the Bazaar-men who extort all kinds of goods from their customers by putting them in fear, and comforting them with counterfeits upon some fictitious bank in the world to come. They "buy and sell" under license from the Ecclesiastical Power, having received its mark in their right hand or in their foreheads, or the name of the beast, or the number of its name (Apoc. xiii. 16,17). The catalogue of their merchandize is exhibited in Apoc. xviii. 12,13. Among the articles of trade are tithes, bodies,* and souls of men. But the trade of those soul-merchants is in any thing but a satisfactory state at present. Great numbers of their customers have discovered that the profit is all on one side; nor are they backward in proclaiming that when a favorable opportunity presents they will break up the iniquitous concern, and make the cheats disgorge their unhallowed gains. This will be a sad day, a day of universal bankruptcy for the weeping and wailing merchants of "Babylon the Great" -- the temple of the Man of Sin; "for no man buyeth their merchandize any more." When the manÍs trade is thus broken up, nothing but ruin stares the shattered tradesman in the face. This is the fate that awaits the preachers of all the gospels of the Bazaars -- gospels other than Paul preached, and which leave men in ignorance and disobedience; gospels which make them zealous partizans of human crotchets and traditions; and the apologists of anything sincerely professed as a substitute for the truth.

[* How remarkably is this illustrated in the trade carried on by "ministers of religion in dead bodies!" They "consecrate" their bazaars, or a piece of ground for the burial of the dead. Having provided these "holy" receptacles, they persuade their dupes that not to be buried there, is to have the burial of a dog or a heathen. This causes the bodies of the dead to be brought to them for religious burial which they perform for a sum of money expressed, or understood. Thus they trade in bodies.]

It is a remarkable characteristic of this designation, that the bazaars for priestly and clerical wares, are distinguished from houses or stores of fair and honorable trade, by the word Mauzzim, being styled Bazaars of Mauzzim. When jewelers, bakers, hardwaremen, and such like, open stores, they emblazon their signs with their own names; but when the clergy open houses for the sale of their "spiritual things," they impose upon the ignorant public the idea that the houses belong to the apostles, and to those whom the apostles fellowshipped as saints and brethren! They make their dupes believe that these ancient christian worthies are not dead, but alive in heaven, and greatly interested in human affairs, especially in church-edifices, and the spiritual things vended therein by clerical and ministerial auctioneers! Hence, they put their statues in niches and on parapets, and make them presents of the "sacred buildings" in dedicating them, as is clear from the names they bear; as the "church of the Holy Apostles," and St. Sophia, at Constantinople, St. PeterÍs at Rome, Our LadyÍs at Paris, St. PaulÍs at London, New York, and Richmond, and so forth, in all cities and countries of the Gentiles. The grossness of the imposition, however, is not confined merely to the dedication of their auction-rooms to nonentities as if really in being; but, while they give them to their alleged "departed spirits," they will not permit the gospel the apostles preached, and the institutions they ordained, to be announced within their walls; but perversely persist in excluding it, and in making it of none effect by their vain and foolish traditions. But the whole system is a cheat, and a very profitable one for the present to those that live by it. It is ecclesiastical craft caused to prosper by the civil and military power; witness Rome, for instance, in the occupation of the French; what would become of church-craft, if the military power of France were withdrawn" Nay, what would become of it anywhere, but for the protection of the State? But this is emphatically the hour of church imposture and hypocrisy; which will certainly continue to prosper, until IsraelÍs Commander shall appear; and by his energy cause the mightiness of the truth to prevail, to the disruption and annihilation of all unprofitable and lying vanities.

But to return. The temple of the Deity has no community of faith, interest, or practice with the spiritual bazaars of "the religious world." The apocalyptic temple is founded upon intelligence of the word, and is undefiled by the impostures and superstitions of the Apostasy. This is a temple the purity of which must be maintained, and he that defiles it by word or action will be certainly destroyed; as saith the apostle to the faithful in Christ Jesus, "If any man defile the temple of the Deity, him shall the Deity destroy; for the temple of the Deity is holy, which temple ye are" (1 Cor. iii. 17).

Now this temple of the Deity is apocalyptically manifested in two states. In the first state, the "Tabernacle of the Testimony" alone is visible, and that not in the heaven, though in heaven in a certain sense (viii. 3; xiii. 6); but, in the second state, "the temple of the Tabernacle of the Testimony" becomes visible; and its interior even is opened, and the Ark of the Covenant is seen therein; and the whole developed in the heaven (Apoc. iii. 12; xi. 19; xv. 5; xxi. 22).

These apocalyptic temple states answer to the Altar-Court, the Holy Place, and the Most Holy within the Vail of the Mosaic Building. The apocalyptic Altar-Court and the Holy Place are what Paul styles in Eph. i. 3, "the Heavenlies in Christ." They are constituted of "the saints and faithful in Christ Jesus," who are partakers with the Altar, and worshippers therein (1 Cor. ix. 13; x. 18; Heb. xiii. 10; Apoc. xi. 1). An Ecclesia of Christ is, apocalyptically speaking, "the Altar and them that worship therein." They who constitute it have all been "cleansed in the Laver of the Water with doctrine;" and in passing through the water have passed into the Christ-Altar, and become one with it. When they die, they lie under the Altar, or "sleep in Jesus;" when they are slain for the word of the Deity and for their testimony, they are blood-souls under the Altar, crying for vengeance. But while they are living in the present state of tribulation and patience waiting for Christ, they are Altar-worshippers "having access by faith into" the heavenlies where Christ sits at the right hand of Power (Eph. i. 20; Rom. v. 2).

But, being constituents of the Altar, they are "a Holy Priesthood," consecrated for the purpose of "offering up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to the Deity through Jesus Christ" (1 Pet. ii. 5). Now these sacrifices have to be offered both in the Altar-Court and in the Holy Place, where are the Bread and the Wine, and the ministry of the word, prayer, praise, and fellowship. As a community of priests, the faithful come together on the First Day of the Week, and in their session are manifested as a Heavenly; as a Holy Place; as the Tabernacle of the Testimony, "showing forth the praises of Him, who hath called them out of darkness into his marvellous light" (ver. 9). In their ministrations and worship they stand, as it were an angel at the altar in the court, with the golden frankincense bowl of prayer. They are themselves this golden bowl, in which is much incense of prayers and praises, which they offer upon the golden altar. Their petitions and thanksgiving are kindled into odors of acceptable perfume by the fire taken from the altar of the court; and as constituents also of the golden altar of the Holy Place, the perfumes ascend before the Deity as it were out of the angelÍs hand.

The reader will perceive that we are now in view of the scene dramatically exhibited in ch. viii. 3-5. In this the angel, the altar, the golden censer, and the golden altar, are all symbolical of one body the temple of the Deity; or the saints in their spiritual apparatus of worship. They were the thousands being sealed in the half hour, whose prayers against Constantine and his Clergy, in their perversions of the truth and blasphemies against heaven, were answered when the half hour was about expiring, by the "voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and earthquake," which retributively scourged their enemies, the family of the emperor, and the excessively corrupt and vicious Catholic Church. The answer to the prayers from the Divine Temple is dramatized by the angel filling the censer or frankincense bowl with fire of the altar of sacrifice and casting it into the earth. This scene indicates that the judgments inflicted upon the church-peoples or Gentiles of "Christendom" are in the interest of the true believers. In writing to these, Paul says, "All things are for your sakes" (2 Cor. iv. 15). These voices, and thunders, and lightnings, and earthquake, were for the sake of those "whose prayers ascended before the Deity out of the angelÍs hand." The voices, and so forth, would work no harm to them, provided they "loved the Deity, and were the called according to his purpose" (Rom. viii. 28). The sealed of the 144,000 Foursquare Community prayed, and, in so doing, sent up many perfumes from their burning hearts, which smoked before the Deity. In his presence is their Forerunner, the Head and Chief of their community, no longer like themselves, "compassed with infirmity," but perfected, and, as the Quickening Spirit, makes intercession for them according to the Divine Will (Rom. viii. 26,27). He returned the answer to their prayers; for to him is given all power in heaven and in earth (Matt. xxviii. 18). The judicial fire, therefore, went forth from the Christ-Altar, and kindled judgment upon the Arians and Athanasians of the Laodicean Apostasy, styled "the earth," illustrating the saying of Paul, "our Deity is a consuming fire."

The reader will observe that, during this half-hour of silence in the heaven in which the prayers of the sealed saints are odoriferously and fragrantly ascending, the Seven Angel-Trumpeters are standing inactive before Deity. They are represented, in ch. viii. 2, as having received their trumpets, but they are not in the attitude of sounding. The powers they represent are quiescent; for, in ch. vii. 1-3, four of them -- the first four to sound -- were commanded not to operate until the sealing was effected to a due degree. They stand by, therefore, waiting during the half-hour of incense-burning, during the "voices, and thunders, and lightnings, and earthquake," and during all the years elapsing between the earthquake and the consummation of the sealing, when they "prepare themselves to sound" (viii. 6).

The temple and altar of the Deity are measured, which is equivalent to saying that the saints who constitute the temple and altar are measured. Their measurement is 144,000 furlongs, or 144 cubits. This is the "measurement of the Man, that is, of an Angel" (Apoc. xxi. 17). None are included in this measurement who are not in the Man, who have not believed into Christ, and are, consequently, not members of the One Body, which is the almighty angel or Messenger of the Apocalypse. All not of this measured community constitute "the Court which is without the temple." This is cast out unmeasured and given to the Gentiles (Apoc. xi. 1,2) -- who, in relation to the temple of the Deity, are mere outside barbarians, "walking after the imaginations of their evil hearts." This ejected Court of the Gentiles is wholly occupied by those symbols of their civil and ecclesiastical organization, the beast of the sea, the beast of the earth, and the image, and the scarlet-colored beast and drunken woman that sits thereon. What are termed "the Names and Denominations of Christendom," all belong to this outside arena or court, reeking with pollution, and with the blood of the saints and witnesses of Jesus (Apoc. xvii. 6). No fragrant perfumes ascend from this court before the Deity. It is the arena of "philosophy and vain deceit;" of "science falsely so-called;" of "voluntary humility and worshipping of angels;" of "ordinances after the commandments and doctrines of men, which are a mere show of wisdom in will-worship;" of vain heathen repetitions, in which they think they will be heard for much and loud speaking; of professional prayer-making and sermon-mongering; of "seducing spirits and teachings of demons, who speak lies in hypocrisy with a seared conscience, forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from meats;" of pietistic riotings for religion-getting; it is the arena of all these abominations and blasphemies, and yet more than we have time or space to set forth. These are the pestiferous odors that ascend to heaven from this "court without the temple." They are a thick and heavy fog, too dense to transmit a ray of light from the anointing that shines within the Tabernacle of the Testimony. "Darkness," therefore, "covers the earth, and gross darkness the peoples." The worship of this court, according to the rituals of the Greeks, Latins, and Teutons, is mere will-worship. The Deity has not required it of them; and that which he has required they will not observe to do. Catholics and Protestants, churchmen and dissenters, are all outer court worshippers of Deity "according to the dictates of their own consciences," not according to his appointment. Their worship, therefore, is vain, and not a spiritual sacrifice. "Spiritual sacrifices acceptable to the Deity through Jesus Christ," do not belong to this ejected outer court. Worship in spirit and in truth (and the Father-Spirit seeks only such, John iv. 23,24) belongs exclusively to the Altar and Holy Place -- to the Tabernacle of the Testimony. In this only are spiritual sacrifices offered according to the truth. The sacrifices of the Names and Denominations of the Outer Court are offensive abominations; for "the sacrifice and way and thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to Yahweh; he is far from them, and heareth not their prayer" (Prov. xv. 8,9,26,29). And that they are wicked, though professors of piety, they themselves confess in their liturgy, saying "Lord have mercy upon us, miserable sinners! We have done those things we ought not to have done, and we have left undone those things we ought to do; and there is no health in us!" Miserable sinners in whom there is no health are unquestionably the wicked. The Outer-Court Church, or "Religious World," is constituted of the wicked; who confess that the charge made against them by the Spirit is true -- that they "are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked" Laodiceans. Now the scripture saith, "the Deity heareth not sinners" -- "they cry unto Yahweh, but he heareth them not;" but of the true worshippers of the Tabernacle of the Testimony it saith, "if any man doeth his will, him he heareth;" and "the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayers."

The faithful in Christ Jesus are styled apocalyptically, "His Tabernacle," because they constitute the only habitation the Deity has on earth. "He dwells not in temples made with hands," but in the hearts of his worshippers in spirit and in truth. In writing to these, the apostle saith, "Let Christ dwell in your hearts by faith;" and Christ said, "I am the truth." When the truth, therefore, dwells or tabernacles in a man, the Deity dwells there. Hence, an ecclesia of such men is the DeityÍs Tabernacle preeminently.

It is furthermore styled the Tabernacle of the Testimony, because the faithful in Christ are the community of saints "who keep the commandments of the Deity, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ" (xii. 17); and "the testimony is the spirit of the prophecy" contained in the apocalypse (xix. 10). The apostle John was one of this tabernacle, for he bare record of the testimony and suffered for it in Patmos (i. 2,9). The souls were laid under the altar in blood because of their faithfulness to this testimony (vi. 9). The tabernacle overcame the Dragon, red with their blood, by the word of their testimony (xii. 11). It is synonymous with "the Name," and "them dwelling in the heaven;" for all the constituents of the tabernacle are constituents of the Name, having been all immersed into the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and they "dwell in the heaven," in the sense that "the Deity hath made them to sit together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus" (Eph. ii. 6). Saints walking in the truth, and being in fellowship with the apostles, and therefore with the Father and the Son (1 John i. 3), are a holy, heavenly community; and, being all in Christ, when they sit down to break bread and to drink wine, as Aaron and his sons did in the typical heavenly place, and to be instructed by the exposition of the word, which shines into their understanding and illuminates them, after the type of the seven branched lamp enlightening Aaron and his sons, the faithful sit down together in Christ, and apocalyptically "dwell in the heaven" (xiii. 6).

But, though the Tabernacle of the Testimony is visible on earth and may be discerned by all who have spiritual understanding; and though it is now the temple of the Deity, it is not the tabernacle and temple as it will be in the future state. The whole temple of the Deity consists of the Altar-Court, the Holy Place or Tabernacle, and the Most Holy Place or naos. These are the apocalyptic divisions, and answer to like divisions in SolomonÍs building. The word naos is applied in Greek to the inmost part of a temple occupied by the Deity worshipped. In ch. xv. 5, the whole divine habitation is styled ho naos tes skenes tou marturiou en to ourano, the Nave of the Tabernacle of the Testimony in the heaven, understanding by nave the place where "Deity manifested in Flesh justified by spirit" dwells. In this sense, the apocalyptic nave is separated from the tabernacle by the Veil of flesh. That is, those who constitute the tabernacle are believing men and women, in the flesh and mortal; while those who constitute the nave will be flesh and bones incorruptible and deathless, that is, spirit, as Jesus Christ is now. The way into "the Nave of the Deity" has been demonstrated by him -- first, wash in the Laver of immersion, through which the Altar is approached; then the Tabernacle is entered; death places under the Altar, and the Veil is rent; but, secondly, resurrection to incorruptibility and life constitutes the subject who had been a constituent of the Tabernacle a constituent also of the Nave. At present, the Nave is not opened. It is not yet in manifestation as the Tabernacle is. Jesus is the Nave, being a quickened as well as a Quickening Spirit; and true believers have the promise that "they shall be like him." They, therefore, now enter within the veil where he is, not in person, but by faith; for now they "walk by faith, not by sight."

The grand difference between the Tabernacle and the Nave is the difference between flesh and spirit. When the true believers shall be perfected, they will have been both flesh and spirit. As flesh, they are the Tabernacle of the Testimony, witnessing for Jesus against the Apostasy enthroned in the Outer Court; and, as spirit, they are the Nave of the Deity with "the Ark of his Covenant" in their midst, ready to consummate the wrath of the Deity in developing "the lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and earthquake, and great hail," by which the lies, superstitions, and institutions of the Outside Arena will be utterly swept away.

The opening of the Nave is "the apocalypse of the Sons of the Deity" (Rom. viii. 19). "We are now the sons of the Deity," says John, "but it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He (Christ) shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is" (1 John iii. 2). This is apocalyptically expressed by the words, "The Nave of the Deity was opened in the heaven, and the Ark of his Covenant was seen in his Nave." It is nowhere seen in the Tabernacle of the Testimony in the apocalyptic visions, because the Ark belongs to the Most Holy, not to the Holy, heavenly ecclesia. These words of Apoc. xi. 19, are interpreted in ch. xiv. 1, by "the Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with him an 144,000." The Lamb of this vision is the Ark of that, and the 144,000, in the midst of whom he dwells, the Nave of the Deity.

But, when the Nave is apocalypsed, it is accessible only to the glorified community of the saved, each of whom is a pillar in the Nave (iii. 12). When opened in the heaven of the apocalypse, it is "filled with smoke from the glory of the Deity, and from his power." The door of admission into it is closed against all occupants of the Outside Arena. Only those who are ready enter into the marriage, and, against all who are without light, "the door is shut" (Matt. xxv. 8,10). This exclusion, however, is not perpetual. "No man is able to enter into the Nave TILL the Seven Plagues of the Seven Angels are fulfilled" (xv. 8). When the judgment given to the saints is fully executed, and they have possessed themselves of the kingdom and dominion under the whole heaven (Dan. vii. 18,26,27), then the smoke of the power of Deity in wrathful exercise will be dispelled; and the nations shall walk in the light of it, being "blessed in Abraham and his Seed," and "the kings of the earth shall bring their glory and their honor into it" (xxi. 24).

[Tabernacle of the Testimony and the Nave]

Though this is especially affirmed of the Holy City, it is also affirmable of the Nave; for the glorified saints who constitute the one also constitute the other. But, in respect to the saints in their relation to Deity, the Nave, as distinct from the Holy City, no longer obtains. While judgment is being executed by the saints, as the Most Holy smoking with wrath, the Kingdom is being set up; when this is established, the smoking Nave becomes quiescent, and the Holy City is apocalypsed in all its glory. "I saw no Nave therein," says John. If he had seen a nave in the Holy City, he would have seen a community higher in dignity, glory, honor, and nature, as the peculiar habitation of the Father, than the Holy Municipality constituted of the Lamb and his Bride, the saints glorified together with him (Rom. viii. 17,32). He saw "no nave therein," for Jesus and his Brethren glorified are the incorporation of the Spirit of the Father, between whom and them there are no intermediates in whom he dwells. Between him and the Tabernacle of the Testimony there is intermediation, because the Nave is not yet opened in the apocalyptic heaven, and that intermediate personage is the Forerunner into the Nave-state, even the Lord Jesus; but when the Forerunner and the runners after him shall meet in the glorious Nave-Convention, all intermediation between them and the Father will have been done away, and he will be epi panton, kai dia panton, kai en pasin, "over all, and through all, and in all," or ta panta en pasin, "the all things in all" (Eph. iv. 6; 1 Cor. xv. 28); so that this "all" will be a DIVINE UNITY, or Deity manifested in Flesh, justified or perfected by spirit. This is the great, glorious, and omnipotent "e Pluribus Unum" of the apocalypse -- a Nave or Unum, constituted of a Multitude "which no man can number." It is in direct and intimate union with the Deity, as Jesus is at the present time. Between the Father and Son there is no intermediate, neither will there be between the Father and all his Sons -- Jesus and his Brethren -- when the Nave is "opened in the heaven."

But JohnÍs declaration that he saw no Nave in the Holy City is immediately followed in the Common Version by the intimation causatively expressed, to wit, "For the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it" (xxi. 22). But what John penned is preferable to this version of it; as, "For the Lord the Deity, the Almighty, is the Nave of it, even the Lamb." This, presented in harmony with the Mosaic teaching, would read, "For Yahweh Elohim, the Almighty, is the Nave of it, even the Lamb." "Not by army, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith Yahweh TzÍvaoth." Now, the Lamb with Seven Horns and Seven Eyes is the symbol of the Seven Spirits of the Deity, or omnipotence, that is, of the Eternal Spirit. Yahweh Elohim is the multitudinous apocalypse of this the "One Spirit," apocalypsed or manifested in Jesus and his Brethren "glorified together." They, in "the Time of the End," and in all subsequent aions, will be "Yahweh Elohim, the Almighty, the Nave of the Holy City," in which John saw no Nave; for the Holy City, being a sinless, guileless, faultless, incorruptible, and deathless municipality in all its constituents, is no longer in need of temple arrangements. The Ezekiel temple is a "house of prayer for all nations," in which the "Yahweh Elohim Almighty" will officiate as the sacerdotal intermediation between him who dwells in light, whom no man can see and live, and all the enlightened, justified and regenerated nations of the Millennial Age (Exod. xxxiii. 20; 1 Tim. vi. 16).

 

 

All Books/Booklets, Editorials, and Articles are FREE and can be downloaded without permission

 

 

spacer spacer spacer