JESUS WINS THE SERIES VOL. 2

By BILL MEDLEY

By using the book's own words to interpret, along with drawing heavily on the Old Testament, Revelation may not be as inaccessible as many might think. In fact, this series is three volumes l

• Language: English
• Publisher: WhinePress
• Release date: May 29, 2020
• ISBN: 9780648415947

Book preview

1

The Temple is Measured

(Revelation 11:1)

At the end of Volume 1, Rev. 10 left us with the apostle John re-commissioned as a prophet. John is to proclaim the message to many peoples, nations, languages and kings. John couldn’t do that until he had internalized the message, literally. He was told to eat the scroll! This image was straight out of Ezekiel, who had also been told to eat a scroll. Now something else parallels with Ezekiel. Get out the measuring rod and measure the temple. Is there a connection between the great temple plan detailed in Ezekiel 40-48 and the temple mentioned at the beginning of Rev. 11?

In fact, we’ve come to one of the most crucial verses in the book of Revelation. Depending how you understand 11:1, it will drive how you understand the entire book of Revelation and the end times unfolding. This is big. It’s the future. It’s all here.

I was given a reed like a measuring rod and was told, ‘Go and measure the temple of God and the altar, with its worshipers. But exclude the outer court; do not measure it, because it has been given to the Gentiles. They will trample on the holy city for 42 months’ (11:1-2).

Which temple is being referred to here? The identity of this temple is one of the big issues in Christian circles. Is this temple referring to the hope of the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem at some future point? The hope that ethnic Israel will be restored to its former glory and that Jesus will reign from that temple in a future 1000-year millennial reign? It has been said the religious view of this temple has affected US foreign policy to Israel. I don’t know if that can be proved, and no doubt US support for Israel has many factors and motives. But the theory is founded on the idea that if you believe the kingdom of God will be ushered in by ethnic Israel restored to their land and rebuilding their temple, then you have a vested interest in what is going on in Palestine now. That could be of significance if you are in a position of political influence. Either way, the issue of the temple being rebuilt is as hot as ever, at least in some Christian circles.

For the Futurist, surely here is the proof that this most popular view is intact! Here the temple is being measured out for that very purpose. The Jews are restored to their former glory in Jerusalem. The temple is rebuilt and the sacrificial system reintroduced, not as atoning sacrifices but as memorial sacrifices to remember what Jesus did. In fact, Jesus will oversee it all, because he will be there enthroned for his 1000-year, or millennial reign.

I hope I can approach this with some humility, as I don’t believe we can judge faithfulness to the Bible from the different temple and millennial views, because, quite frankly, this is difficult! I can’t rule out what God will do in the future. What concerns me most is how views on a difficult secondary issue like this become in some people’s minds a test of whether or not you have a high view of Scripture. The gospel of Jesus should be the only test of our Christian fellowship with one another. Perhaps it’s a good time to recall what the Lord told us and be careful not to judge one another in areas like this ...

Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters (Rom. 14:1).

Don’t miss this. Maybe this is the most important thing I have to say in studying Revelation! There is such a thing as a disputable matter within the Christian church. So, if you don’t like what I am saying, you have to at least accept me as the weaker brother on this disputable matter! But how do you know what is disputable (or secondary), and what is of first importance? Well, praise God for his word, because he has told us that too! Remember when we looked at the apostle Paul’s list of things of first importance (1 Cor. 15:3-4), we noticed our view of the temple and the millennial reign was not on that list! So let’s keep that perspective as we study this.

The writer of Revelation, the apostle John, would have immediately thought of Ezekiel 40-48 and the same measuring out of that temple when he was told, I was given a reed like a measuring rod and was told, ‘Go and measure the temple of God and the altar ...’ But is this measuring signifying building surveying alone? Most of the different views on the temple agree that in some way the measuring signifies the security or protection of all within. ‘Measuring off’, as in setting apart the clean from the unclean. Inside is that which is measured by the Lord, protected and clean, but outside is unclean and unprotected, as it seems to be saying in 11:2 to ‘... exclude

the outer court; do not measure it

, because it has been given to the Gentiles. They will trample on the holy city for 42 months.’ The outer court is not measured and is not under protection. It can be trampled on. It’s like the measuring of the city later in Rev. 21, which concludes in 21:27 that nothing unclean can ever enter it. Same principle. Inside is measured, clean and protected. Outside not measured, unclean.

The Preterist is the one whose view is that all this occurred in the first century before the destruction of the temple in AD 70. So the Preterist sees this measuring as the measuring of the old Jerusalem temple before it was destroyed. This raises an immediate difficulty. The Jerusalem temple was not protected! The Preterist then responds that it’s only the holy of holies that is protected, because the Greek word for ‘temple’ in 11:1 usually only refers to the holy of holies. But the trouble is that the Jerusalem temple was destroyed lock, stock and barrel, and none of it was protected! And if 11:1 was the first century temple, what are all those worshipers doing in the holy of holies where only the high priest can go?

So if this temple is not the old Jerusalem temple, then are these verses pointing to a future temple to be built in Jesus’ millennial reign? Well they could be, but what have we learned so far in Revelation that should make us cautious? We were told right from the very first verse that Revelation was going to be revealed through signs and symbols.

The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it known

by sending his angel to his servant John, ... (1:1).

Remember the Greek word translated made it known is usually used in the context of to make known by signs or symbols. There is another common word in Greek that means make known that John chose not to use. Why? Because it wouldn’t have conveyed that element of revealing by signs. The only other place where we have this combination of wording of what must take place and made it known is in Daniel 2, which is unashamedly filled with symbolic language.

Isn’t this what we have seen in Revelation? Symbols! We are told up front to expect signs and symbols. Does anyone expect when the first four seals are opened that four literal horses will ride all over the earth to deliver death, plagues and famine? Does anyone expect that in heaven Jesus literally will look like a lamb slain with seven horns? Or with a sharp sword coming out of his mouth? We have seen throughout what we were told at the beginning. Symbolic language to describe literal truth just as Daniel did, because it’s that kind of literature that we call apocalyptic.

Many people say Revelation should be taken literally unless otherwise stated, but if we took the genre of literature seriously, we should be looking at it as we do with the book of Daniel. We should expect symbolic language, images and numbers. Most importantly, we have been using the Bible to interpret those symbols rather than our imagination or the Internet or the newspaper. A slain lamb is not literal but a symbol of Jesus’ perfect sacrifice as the Lamb of God.

There are more than a few hints that the vision of this temple measuring is pointing to something greater. Did you notice John the apostle was told to measure the temple along with its worshipers? In the original language, this is even clearer as it literally says John is to measure the temple, measure the altar and measure the worshipers. So this is already giving us a problem if we are talking about literal measuring. How do we measure worshipers? Are they tall enough, or too small? What does he mean by measure the worshipers? Why are they being measured along with the temple?

Are we getting a hint this vision is teaching us something more than just the architecture of a building when John is told to measure the worshipers? Is this heading the same way as that great city at the end of Rev. 21, where we are told specifically the heavenly building that is measured is not a literal building? In Rev. 21 we are told the temple in that city is God and Jesus, not a bricks and mortar building. And the names on the foundation of that building are from the 12 tribes of Israel and the 12 apostles. The people themselves in the presence of God make up the temple.

Weren’t the first readers of Revelation prepared for this when Jesus told God’s people in the letter to the church at Philadelphia they would become what? Pillars in the temple ... The one who is victorious I will make a pillar in the temple

of my God ... (3:12). Did Jesus mean, ‘I will make you to stand next to the pillars in the temple? Or lean on the pillars?’ No. You are a pillar! You are part of the temple! Clearly it’s symbolic. We noted when we looked at the letter to Philadelphia (vol. 1, ch. 9) that we don’t expect to be literal pillars in heaven throughout eternity. ‘Don’t move for the next 50 billion years or otherwise the whole thing is gonna come down.’ Rather, this is the way the temple is referred to in Revelation, which climaxes in Rev. 21 where it specifically says this Holy City, the New Jerusalem being measured, is not literal. We are told in no uncertain terms it is symbolic of the bride of Christ. Don’t miss it! It doesn’t say the people live in the New Jerusalem, but that they are the Holy City ...

I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem

, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride

beautifully dressed for her husband (21:2).

We know who the bride is. Jesus’ people. The Holy City, the New Jerusalem, is the bride! The Church. What does the Holy City, Jerusalem and the temple all point to? The presence of God!

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Look! God’s dwelling

place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them (21:3).

Dwelling in the original language is literally from the word tabernacle, the forerunner of the temple. So now the tabernacling of God is with men, and he will live with them. And then he identifies the people of God ...

One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, ‘Come, I will show you

the bride

, the wife of the Lamb’ (21:9).

Who is the bride? The church! Next verse tells us ...

And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City

, Jerusalem

, coming down out of heaven from God (21:10).

They are not in the Holy City, they are the Holy City. And note this Holy City, the New Jerusalem, the people of God, also get measured!

The angel who talked with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city

, its gates and its walls ... (21:15).

So the bride (the people of God) is measured. They are the Holy City. They are the New Jerusalem. The tabernacling, or the templing of God means God with his people. In 11:1 the worshipers are measured with the temple. So I am suggesting the temple fulfillment in Revelation is God with his people. Now, is this a new idea? And if so, is it only in Revelation? Let’s have a look at some of the other places where the word of God speaks about this concept.

The deposit or foundation of God dwelling or tabernacling with his people began from the day of Pentecost and the outpouring of his Spirit. It’s God coming down to dwell with his people in that new and special way. With Jesus offering the once for all sacrifice, the temple building has become redundant and now God is with his people by his Spirit. Look at what the NT says about the temple.

Don't you know that you

yourselves are God's temple

and that God's Spirit

dwells in your midst? (1 Cor. 3:16).

English fails us here. In Greek, as with most non-English languages, there is a distinction between you in the singular and plural. In modern English, there is no distinction. But in this verse the Greek you is not singular but plural. So he is not referring to individuals, but you the church are that temple. The gathered people are the temple. Why? Because Jesus’ Spirit dwells in their midst. We’ve learnt that already in Revelation. He walks amongst his golden lampstands (his churches). In Matthew 18 he promises to be in our midst even if we are down to two or three elders, even in the difficulty of church discipline. He is there by his Spirit ...

What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God

. As God has said: ‘I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people

’ (2 Cor. 6:16).

Sound familiar? That is the end of Revelation (21:3-4). God’s people are the temple. It’s a theme in the NT ...

In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple

in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit (Eph. 2:21-22).

The context here is Jew and Gentile in Christ, joined to become a holy temple. What are the names of the foundations in the Holy City in Rev. 21? The 12 tribes of Israel and the 12 apostles joined together to become one holy temple. The NT deliberately uses the old covenant language of the OT temple to identify the fulfillment of God’s people, Jew and Gentile in Christ, gathered with him ...

... you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house

to be a holy priesthood

, offering spiritual sacrifices

acceptable to God through Jesus Christ (1 Pet. 2:5).

So Peter says the offerings of this temple are spiritual, not literal sacrifices, because Christ has been sacrificed. As Hebrews says, we offer a sacrifice of praise for that which Christ has already done.

But isn’t Ezekiel’s temple in the OT a physical temple that is pointing to this temple in Rev. 11? Yes, Ezekiel’s temple is pointing to this temple in Revelation. Read about Ezekiel’s temple in Ezekiel 37:26-28 and 43:1-12 and notice the purpose of the temple is to teach about the presence of God in perfect worship, perfect sacrifices and the perfect presence of God — with his people forever (Ezek. 43:7). You will also see his presence is not for just 1000 years but forever! How will God’s relationship and presence in this temple be forever? In the gospel of Jesus Christ! The temple to the OT believer represented the presence of God. God with us. Now we know Jesus is Immanuel, God with us. Jesus is the true and final temple to which all other temples/tabernacles were pointing. Wasn’t that a theme of John from his gospel?

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us (John 1:14).

Made his dwelling is literally he tabernacled amongst us. The forerunner for the temple, the tabernacle, is fulfilled in Jesus in the midst of his people. Isn’t this the temple theology that Jesus gave us himself?

Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.’ They replied, ‘It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?’ But the temple he had spoken of was his body (John 2:19-21).

Jesus is the true temple! The fulfillment! So John is told, Go and measure the temple of God and the altar, with its worshipers

(11:1). John has to measure the worshipers and the altar in the temple, which points to the ultimate altar, Christ and his cross. How did all this happen? What happened when Jesus died on the cross? The curtain of the temple was torn in two. The access into God’s presence is no longer through the temple building but through Jesus! The true temple! Allowing the worshipers into God’s presence!

I like to ask Jewish people why they don’t offer sacrifices anymore. After all, it’s in the Torah! The usual answer is, ‘We don’t have a temple’. ‘Why not?’ I ask. ‘It was destroyed.’ ‘When?’ ‘AD 70.’ ‘Oh, you mean right within the generation that Jesus predicted the temple would come down. Jesus, who also predicted that he was the ransom, the true sacrifice and the true temple! You mean that time?’ And it just happens from within a generation of Jesus’ sacrifice there is no more physical temple. No more opportunity to offer the old sacrifices. The true temple has come!

If you want to know what Revelation is all about, it’s like the all of the Bible, it’s revealing Jesus! He is the temple along with his people in his presence. This is the goal and eternal destination for those who love God. To be with God. This is the fulfillment of all things to which the OT was pointing, including the temple. It is all about Jesus.

How do you understand the OT including the temple? Jesus said how slow the disciples were to understand all that was written about him in the Law and Prophets. The OT was all about Jesus! The temple was about Jesus!

Now if everything in the OT was pointing towards Jesus, would that include Ezekiel’s temple? I admit when I first read Ezekiel with its temple design and all that detail, I certainly could understand how someone would think it has to be built at some future point. But then think about when you first read Leviticus, with all its endless kinds of sacrifices — chapter after chapter. Are you really telling me that every one of those numerous sacrifices from every angle, every type, covering every detail of sin, are all pointing to Jesus? All that detail, just to point to Jesus? Absolutely! All the promises of God are ‘yes’ and ‘Amen’ in Jesus. All of the OT was pointing to him. Think about that in relation to Ezekiel’s temple. Could all that detail really just be pointing to Jesus? We need to look at it more closely.

A detailed look at the dimensions of Ezekiel’s temple from those who have tried to reconstruct its design show it’s neither logical nor complete if you tried to literally build it. Despite this, the view that this is the temple which Jesus will reign from in a 1000-year millennial reign before the final judgment is very popular. This also includes the idea that the sacrificial system will be reintroduced (albeit memorial sacrifices, rather than atoning). But I must admit if nothing else, I find it really hard to accept the idea of sacrifices being reintroduced, memorial or otherwise. Surely that is offensive to the finished work of the cross. Jesus already gave us a memorial meal — the Lord’s Supper. He said he would not eat it again until the new heaven and new earth. But to reintroduce sacrifices is also offensive to the writer to the Hebrews (10:1-12). Re-read the Hebrews letter! Hebrews is so big on not going back to the shadows of sacrifices. Why? The fullness of Christ’s sacrifice once for all has come. What does once for all mean? The whole argument of the Hebrews writer is you can’t go back to the OT ways. Jesus was sacrificed once for all!

In fairness, some Futurist scholars say the future sacrifices of the temple are not literal but symbolic. But that is exactly what I am saying! If we have opened the door to symbolic teaching in Ezekiel’s temple sacrifices because they point to Jesus, why not all of it pointing to Jesus!

I sympathize with those who have read Ezekiel 40-48 and wonder if it’s meant to be built. But is it possible we are just like the disciples when Jesus had to rebuke them for being slow to understand that the OT was all about him? We just haven’t gone deep enough on the question of ‘What is the Bible pointing to?’ The OT points to Christ. All those detailed sacrifices in Leviticus; fulfilled in Christ. And Ezekiel’s temple sacrifices? Fulfilled in Christ. Ezekiel’s detailed description of the perfection of ritual worship? Fulfilled in Christ. Perfect temple where we enjoy God’s presence. Fulfilled in Christ. What did Ezekiel’s temple mean to the readers in his day? It epitomized perfect worship, perfectly offered sacrifices and the perfect presence of God. That is how they understood all of that in shadows. But these are the very things now fulfilled in Christ, the once for all sacrifice, dwelling with his people in perfect worship. What then, is the measuring of the temple in 11:1 pointing us to? The consummation of all things in Rev. 21! Jesus and his people secured and together forever. But the message of 11:1 is that for those of us still going through the tribulation, though you are not in the final consummation yet, you are not forgotten. You are marked out. Though you are not at the end, you are measured as part of the temple of God already! So hold on. You will make it through the tribulation. Why? You have been measured and his presence is with you through it all and taking you on to the finality in Rev. 21 where Jesus (with his people) is the temple.

But some might say, ‘I prefer to take the word of God literally and not spiritualize Revelation.’ But we are not totally spiritualizing Ezekiel’s prophetic temple or this temple in Rev. 11. It does have a physical fulfillment. Don’t miss it. The physical fulfillment will be fully brought to light in Rev. 21-22 with the new heaven and the new earth, literally and physically, Jesus and the people of God! They are the New Jerusalem and the temple! Literal and physical!

In Hebrews 8:4 the heavenly sanctuary is the true tabernacle, the earthly is just a copy. It’s ironic because that’s just the opposite of the popular interpretation of Revelation today. Don’t miss this. Hebrews says the literal temple in Jerusalem is figurative or symbolic of the true temple and the true temple is not a physical building, but the heavenly one above.

As someone who didn’t grow up in the church, when I became a Christian I read the Bible through many times before I had even heard of the different millennial views, so without any preconceived ideas I never once saw any idea in the gospels or in the letters of Paul that the OT temple would be rebuilt in Jerusalem. Rather, I did see warnings of the destruction of the earthly temple, but not it’s rebuilding. I saw warnings for the NT believer not to go back to the old shadows to their great detriment. It warned them that the temple has served its purpose. Why? Jesus is here! Jesus said it!

I tell you that something greater

than the temple is here (Matt. 12:6).

Everything is fulfilled in him! The theology of the temple is not about sacred architecture. It’s about our destination. But if you are going through the tribulation, how can you know you will make it? Well, if you are a believer, you have been measured as part of the temple itself. It’s God’s guarantee.

Remember Rev. 11 is an interlude before the final (seventh) trumpet to give believers the assurance that while they are God’s people on earth going through the tribulation, God measures them as part of his temple. Just as the interlude in Rev. 7 (between the sixth and seventh seal), assured God’s people going through the tribulation of their protection and being joined to Israel by the seal of the Holy Spirit; now believers in the tribulation are again assured they are one with God’s chosen in the most profound Israelite way of all. The temple! Pillars in God’s temple. They are the New Jerusalem and God will keep them through tribulation. How do they know? He is measuring them! The temple. His presence. Tabernacling with them. What is your hope for the future triumph of Jesus? An earthly victory and building of a temple? Or is it to be in the very presence of Jesus?

Depending on your view, when you look at 11:1 you are either seeing the surveying of building architecture or the great assurance that if you are a believer, the Lord has marked you out, measured you to keep you through the tribulation and be with him forever.

Study Questions

1. How could temple theology possibly have an influence on politics?

2. Explain what ‘measuring’ signifies in this text?

3. How does the Preterist understand this text and what difficulties might it have for that view?

4. What reasons are there for thinking this temple could be symbolic?

5. What reasons are there elsewhere in the NT for thinking this temple is symbolic?

6. What are three things the first readers of Ezekiel would have seen that temple as representing?

7. Give a reason from Leviticus as to why Ezekiel’s temple (with all its great detail) is not to be built in the future.

8. Why would a fully functioning temple in the OT tradition work against NT teaching?

9. What is the primary teaching of this temple (11:1) to its first readers?

2

The Outer Court Trampled

(Revelation 11:2)

I acknowledge Christians have different views on this temple, but I wonder if this is what we need more than ever today? Understanding our goal. What is your hope in the end? What is your hope for Jewish believers in Jesus? Is your goal a temple of bricks and mortar? Or is it Jesus himself, and being with him face to face and with his people? The gospel is about the return to the Garden of Eden, God walking with his people again, rather than temple buildings. The temple was a shadow pointing to the way into God’s presence. The substance was all about being with Jesus!

Today people get sidetracked on all sorts of issues, but the Bible can all be summed up like this, everything is all about Jesus! It’s all pointing to him including the temple. But now we are going to find out more about what the measuring of this temple means ...

But exclude the outer court

; do not measure it, because it has been given to the Gentiles. They will trample on the holy city

for 42 months (11:2).

Remember we are explicitly told what the Holy City is in 3:12 and 21:2, 9, 10. The Holy City is the bride of Christ. That is, the church is the Holy City. So this outer court is still a court of the temple, but it’s not measured. Not all who claim to be part of the temple are true believers. In fact, the outer court is trampling on the true church, the Holy City. The Gentiles are unbelievers, as Rev. 11 continues using old covenant language to describe new covenant things. But why are unbelievers included as the outer court? Why are they part of the temple at all? Where could we see something like this?

Have a look at history! History, which may have previously confused you until now, that is, until Revelation explains it to you. Unbelievers have always had a strong presence in the outward visible church, and even great control. The outer court is actually the wider area of the temple. From there, the larger portion of the visible part of the temple, the unbelievers trample on the true church. We saw earlier in Revelation in the letters to the churches how many references there were to Satan infiltrating the church! False teachers in the church! Letting false teaching itself in the church! Warning after warning. And these people are visible in the church, but they are in the outer court. They don’t really know the Lord, they are not measured, and they trample on the church. It’s one of Satan’s main ploys.

These people only get to the outer court. The history of the church is fascinating when you think of the powerbrokers. Unbelievers so often dominate it! Until about AD 300 there was great persecution against the church. But when the Roman Emperor Constantine stopped the persecution and granted legality to Christianity you would think Satan was thwarted in his attempt to eradicate the church, but instead he just came inside. The outer pagan society brought all kinds of pagan practices into the church, such as statues and superstition. How unchristian to have idols, images of Mary and Jesus in the church! But there they were. And on through the Middle Ages, centuries of darkness (about 1000 years), unbelievers in powerful positions calling the shots, even at the head of the church! The Crusades! Done in the name of Christ! The Bible forbidden! In the church! It remained prohibited for centuries. Praise God for the Reformation. But then ...

What about the centuries of Protestant liberalism? Dominating. Theologians of the church who don’t believe the Bible! Why do they bother calling themselves Christian then? It’s almost as though someone is enticing them ... to trample on the true church.

I find it embarrassing trying to explain to a new believer they shouldn’t just go to any church. They should check them out first. But wait a minute the new believer says. Why can’t I just go to any church? They are all Christian, aren’t they? Well ... they may not all believe the Bible. What! A church that doesn’t believe the Bible? What is this Christianity? It’s confusing to people, the idea that even the wider outer court, even the visible church may be filled with unbelievers in power positions. It’s an embarrassment to the true church. But we should not be embarrassed. We should be reading Revelation. In fact, we should have been listening to Jesus warning us in the gospels about wolves in sheep’s clothing. They are in the church! Sheep’s clothing. But Rev. 11 is taking us a whole step further. It’s wider than just a minority. It’s the whole outer court!

The letters of Paul rebuke and warn what can happen inside the church with false teachers. And sure enough, much of what we see today is a Christ-less church. His word is not opened or is not believed. Liberalism. People are looking for a prosperity gospel, or for Jesus to fix-up their earthly woes, rather than finding their all in Christ himself.

So what are we going to do with this? Look at the mess! Why do you even bother with the church? Well, if you reject the church you are joining the hypocrites in the outer court who are not measured, who are trampling on the true church of Jesus. Jesus told his true followers not to give up on his church. He wouldn’t himself. He said the gates of hell wouldn’t prevail against his church. And if you are a true believer, you will not give up on his church either, lest you be one of those trampling on the church of Jesus by rejecting her. That is the message here. Don’t be thrown by the state of the church, it has been predicted and is what 11:2 is teaching. The outer court is not measured. Many in the visible church are not part of the true church.

What’s frustrating to us is when we hear the media exposing, for instance, Roman Catholic priests with all the pedophilia. The tragedy for the victims and their families is that it is all done in the name of the church. The headlines read ... ‘The church does evil.’ ‘The church covers up the evil!’ It’s denigrating the name of Jesus. But it’s not the true church. It’s the outer court trampling on the Holy City, the true bride. People ask, ‘Why would a priest in the name of Jesus do that?’ Answer: Because they are unbelievers! Not measured. Outer court! Trampling on the church!

Of course pedophiles are predators who will try to work their way into any organization with children. So whether you are a Boy Scout group, a school, or a church, we are all targets for these predators. That doesn’t mean the organization itself is inherently wrong. But there are anti-Christian doctrines in the RC church which have directly contributed to the abuses. Why is no one saying it plainly? Because it doesn’t make for good copy to read that the reason for the evils is because the church rejects Jesus and the Bible as its sole authority. Why does the RC leadership fail to report and publicly expose and excommunicate pedophile priests? Because they reject the Scriptures as the only authority when it says ... Publicly expose sinful elders (1 Tim. 5:20) and expel the wicked person from among you! (1 Cor. 5:13). A church following God’s word publicly deals with ministers caught in sexual immorality in what I call ‘instant turf’. Instantly stood down, never to return to ministry. Can they be forgiven? Of course. All who are truly repentant and trust in Christ are forgiven. But they no longer qualify for leadership in the church according to 1 Timothy 3:1-7. And why the unnatural restriction of celibacy for RC priests? Again, because of a rejection of the Bible as supreme authority, which tells them the apostles were married. As the apostle Paul said ...

Don't we have the right to take a believing wife

along with us, as do the other apostles and the Lord's brothers and Cephas? (1 Cor. 9:5).

Cephas is Peter’s name in Aramaic, so Peter, the so-called first Pope, was married! The celibacy of priests was only introduced as a man-made rule in AD 1079. A thousand years after the apostles. Where did it come from? Certainly not from the Bible ...

The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. They forbid people to marry

and order them to abstain from certain foods

, ... (1 Tim. 4:1-3).

No meat on Fridays? Where is that in the Bible? We don’t have to pass judgment on individual members of the RC church. They may or may not be clinging to the hope of the cross in spite of the teachings of their church. But what Christianity is left in the teachings of the church itself? We haven’t even begun on Protestant deviations from the authority of the Bible, but the reason I am focusing on the RC church at this point is because it relates to our text. People are often very confused (and even use this as an excuse to reject Christianity), the fact that the largest part of the visible ‘church’ has all these issues. And it is not just today but throughout history. What about the Middle Ages? The RCs were ‘the church’, despite all the attempts of pre-Reformation Protestants. How could the RCs have such size and influence and yet all these problems? How can you say Christianity remains credible? Well, Revelation is revealing to us again, and 11:2 is telling us we should not be surprised! The outer court is the larger part. Not all in the visible church are measured! So we don’t have to be surprised that RCs reject Christ’s way to heaven through believing exclusively in what he has done on the cross to save us from our sins. The official RC doctrine of salvation is that you also have to do enough good works. What does Jesus say are the works we require when asked that very question?

Then they asked him, ‘What must we do to do the works God requires?’ Jesus answered, ‘The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent’ (John 6:28-29).

Believe in Jesus and what he was ‘sent’ for—the cross. Of course, good works will always follow true belief. The RC theologians respond quoting James 2:24, that we are justified by works. But James is speaking against hypocrisy, that is, people who claim to have faith but don’t live it. They are in the outer court as well! Of course faith should produce good works, but that is a whole different ballpark from saying we are saved by doing enough of those good works. That is as far apart as heaven and hell! Our good works can never save us. They can never wash away our sin or erase our past record. Jesus alone must save us! The true measuring is what the Lord is doing here in 11:1. The Lord measures his people with that altar, the cross! He preserves them. He saves them! How? By grace through faith!

It is by grace you have been saved, through faith‒and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God‒not by works so that no one can boast (Eph. 2:8-9).

If you are a believer, you are measured out because of faith in what the Lord has done, not based on what you have done. And the outer court is not measured. But exclude the outer court; do not measure it, because it has been given to the Gentiles

. They will trample on the holy city for 42 months (11:2). Gentiles (again, old covenant language for unbelievers) are not a part of true Israel. This old covenant language will continue to be used for the new covenant people all the way to Rev. 21, describing the church in Revelation as the New Jerusalem. So Gentiles here representing unbelievers is natural to John’s first readers.

Now, what about the 42 months? It’s actually a commonly used length of time in Revelation and elsewhere. Sometimes it’s called 42 months, sometimes 3½ years, and other times 1,260 days (30 days in a month x 42 = 1,260). Other times it’s called a time (1), times (2) and a half a time (3½ years). All of these add up to the same 42 months. The OT book of Daniel speaks about this length of time in 7:25 and 9:27 when speaking of a future tribulation. That period was 42 months (time, times and half a time).

One possibility is this 3½ years is one half of the great seven-year tribulation, where Christians are raptured out before or in the middle of that tribulation. This is the popular Futurist view (with rapture). This means all of Rev. 4-19 has no instruction or comfort or exhortation for the church of the last 2000 years, because these 42 months will happen in some future period after the church is no longer on earth. I’ve argued that this is against the stated purpose of Revelation, which is to build up Christians during the tribulation.

So what else could the 42 months represent? There seems to be a real connection between the 42 months and Elijah’s prophesy of Judgment, especially in 11:6. There 42 months would remind the apostle John of the prophesy of Elijah and the rain, or lack of. In Elijah’s time, there were 3½ years of drought and tribulation between Elijah’s first appearance and the showdown with Baal on Mount Carmel (1 Kin. 17-18, cf. Jas. 5:17). This was how long? 42 months! But then there were 42 encampments during the Exodus wilderness wanderings. We have seen many Exodus references as types in Rev. 1-6, as here again in 11:6-8. Rev. 12 will also equate this period with the time of the wilderness wandering. Same length of time, that is, 1,260 days, which is 42 months. But the real wilderness wanderings were a lot longer than 42 months. So what is going on here? In fact, these 42 months come up more than once as a period of trial and tribulation in the life of Israel. The most famous is during the Inter-Testamental period, in the second century BC (between OT and NT times). Remember Daniel’s prophesy about the Seleucid King, Antiochus Epiphanes, who desecrated the Jewish temple. But the Jewish rebels fought back with under-manned guerrilla warfare headed up by Judas Maccabee. This warfare lasted from 167 BC to 164 BC. The Israelites won and rededicated the temple 3½ years after it was desecrated. That is the Jewish celebration of Hanukah, or Feast of Dedication (John 10:22). And the period of that tribulation? 3½ years or 42 months.