Previously Christ/the Angel of the Lord, bringing the earth back to the rightful Owner, standing on the earth and the sea, and Who had His face directed towards Jerusalem, did not allow John to write down what the seven peals of thunder had said.
Previously Christ/the Angel of the Lord, bringing the earth back to the rightful Owner, standing on the earth and the sea, and Who had His face directed towards Jerusalem, did not allow John to write down what the seven peals of thunder had said.
When Ezekiel has to measure Jerusalem, he has a lot of work doing so, but this proves that Jerusalem is nevertheless to become the real and true city of God. The measurement is made by a man whose appearance was like bronze, with a linen cord and a measuring rod in his hand.
There are no godless people in the New Jerusalem, and there is no Temple either. “I did not see a Temple in the City, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its Temple.” So this Temple in the Book of Revelations refers to the earthly Jerusalem, called the holy city.
The true Jewish worshippers are found in the inner section of the Temple, close to the altar, just as the true Church is found as a nucleus, a holy remnant, within the many churches and denomination of Christianity
How often, in its history, has the church not been a collaborating church? Sailing under the Christian flag, there was an endless amount of cargo, dead weight that was covered by that flag but which had nothing to do with true Christianity.
We must learn to measure things by the divine standard, which is the canon of the Word of God. We are living in a time in which the Word of God – the Bible – is measured by human standards. What people are able to accept with their rationalistic mind is accepted.
The Temple built after the Babylonian exile, the Second Temple, apparently serves as a ‘spiritual’ model for the times of the Third and/or Final Temple. The prophecies in the Book of Revelation have a world encompassing significance.
The ‘two witnesses’ prophesy clothed in sackcloth. They are in ‘sack and ashes’ like prophets of punishment and judgement. They are in mourning, deep mourning2 because of the unrighteousness of the City, the land, the people—indeed even of the Temple.
The nature of these ‘two witnesses’ is becoming clearer. When Elijah first appeared to Ahab he said, “As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word.”
The witnesses strike the earth. Is this ‘the earth’ in the sense of Haéretz, the land of Israel? Or are their ‘plagues’ spread out over the whole world? This question also plays a role in Zechariah 13:8–9 NIV, where the prophet says: “In the whole land, declares the Lord, two-thirds will be struck down and perish; yet one-third will be left in it.
The ‘two witnesses’ who are killed are witnesses, in Jerusalem, in Israel for that is the name of the great City, where their Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ, was crucified. The two prophets could be faithful Jews who confess the Messiah as He is their Lord.
