As the interluded between the 6th and 7th trumpets continues, we are presented with a continuing vision of the Church Age, the Last Days between the Ascension of Christ and His Return. After his commission, John is presented with an image of what that commission will produce. Once again, in the parallel cycle of visions, we are presented the witness of the Church and the Word of God.
First, John is told to measure the Temple of God in Heaven using a measuring rod. While Ezekiel is allowed to watch an angle do this in chapter 40 of his prophecy, because the vision of the Temple in Heaven for him was a future promise, not yet accessible. For John, it is a current reality that we are members of this real Temple, as he noted in 3:12. However, the outer court is not yet sealed. Thus, the Church remains subject to persecution, as symbolized by spiritual Gentiles trampling the earthly Temple for 3½ years.
That period of time is an long-standing symbol of tribulation, specifically any period of tribulation. Thus, whether it be counted in days (1260), months (42), or years (3.5), any period lasting 3½ years is symbolic of tough times, just the sort of thing John and his flock were facing. It really didn't matter how long the actual persecutions and trials lasted. In this case, it turns out to be some 2000 years, so far. It is during this same period the outer court of the Temple will see the spiritual Gentiles facing the Two Witnesses.
These two are easily recognized from Zechariah 4 as the Two Trees -- Two Witnesses -- symbolic of Zerubbabel and Joshua. The former was the royal heir to the throne of David, representing the civil law in Israel during Zechariah's ministry, appointed by the Persian Emperor. The latter was the High Priest, representing ritual law. In the New Testament Kingdom of Christ, the place of the civil law is taken by our commitment to God's high standard or justice among humans, the standard which is required of civil governments under the Covenant of Noah, which we are pointedly reminded often figures large in John's Revelation. The ritual law is replaced directly by faith, in the Covenant of Christ. Thus, during these Last Days, the witness of God's Law and Faith remain on the earth. They are unassailable, just as the old Law of Moses required two independent witnesses to establish a testimony in court. These unfailingly point to God's standards of righteousness, before which no man can stand without Christ. We see from Genesis 9 the natural order of seasons and so forth were made dependent by God on humanity keeping a civil order on the earth. Failing such requirement, natural processes become chaotic to match civil chaos, as John notes with echoes of the Exodus Plagues.
There comes a time when that witness will be completed. In the previous cycle of Seals, this was mentioned as waiting for the final number of those to be sealed by God as His Own. Instead of the Four Winds let loose to destroy, here the final and most despicable of human governments -- the last Beast -- will rise from the Abyss and destroy any semblance of honoring either Justice or Faith. Thus, it will be a return to the conditions in the Days of Noah:
Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. (Genesis 6:5)
The Two Witnesses will be denied burial, which is ancient symbol of utter contempt. They will lie in the open in the symbolic places associated with evil governments. In Sodom it was a sacred duty to their gods to commit the unnatural sex acts now named for that city. Such wanton lust is a particular form of idolatry in spiritual terms. Egypt was the epitome of pagan magic, where even at their kindest, the pharaohs were racist and arrogant, holding themselves as gods. Together, they symbolize all the worst in human government, and naturally results in the ultimate injustice of all time -- the Crucifixion of Christ. Here, John reveals the root nature of human government, a tendency which climaxes in the final One World Government.
All of fallen humanity will breathe a deep sigh of relief, no longer accountable at any level for discerning right from wrong. All that matters is desire. For a brief season, things will be very hard on Christians left alive. The symbolic shortening of the 3½ years to 3½ days indicates a higher intensity, too. Still, it is notably short-lived, for no sooner than the world begins to celebrate this new freedom, but the Lord resurrects these Two Witnesses. We can surely read this as the Lord symbolically reasserting His rule in some way just before He withdraws them into Heaven. Immediately comes the beginning of The End, as noted by an earthquake. Of all the events in that part of the world, nothing made men feel smaller and more utterly helpless than earthquakes, against which there was no conceivable defense. We note the disaster kills immediately the same number of people God told Elijah He had reserved as His Righteous Remnant, a symbolic reversal.
That the rest suddenly began to acknowledge the God they had persistently denied comes far too late. The Seventh Trumpet sounds the last Great Judgment. However, we are spared that vision during this cycle, but instead the focus turns directly to the response in Heaven. We know only there is a declaration in Heaven Christ will personally take over as Lord of all governments. Eternity begins. The response is a hymn so grand no music can do it justice.
Then the inner sanctum, the Holy of Holies is opened in the Temple in Heaven. The Ark of the Covenant is exposed for all to see. Among the obvious symbols offered here is the final and ultimate revelation of God Almighty in all Creation. It is moments from being remade, as the elements of the Universe begin crumbling at the present of her Creator, with lightening, voices, thunder, earthquakes and hail. We are about the see the final unveiling of God.
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Ed Hurst
18 September 2007
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