Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation. Tonight is study #2 of Revelation, chapter 11, and we are going to read Revelation 11:1-3:
And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein. But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months. And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.
I will stop reading there. In our last study, we were looking at verses 1 and 2 and we saw how God is laying out His program for the wheat and the tares; the true believers are likened to the “temple of God” and the tares are “without the temple” and are left out and not to be measured. This is pointing to God’s program of saving His elect; the world has been continuing and time has gone on for this purpose, as God sent forth His Word in order to save all those whose names were written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. They would hear and be saved by God’s Word and by His action in granting them grace and repentance and giving them a new heart and a new spirit; then they are added to the “holy city” and they are added to the kingdom of heaven as “living stones.”
But those that are not God’s elect (whether they were Israel of old or members of the New Testament churches) they are “without” the eternal temple or eternal church. They are not a part of it. They may be part of the temporal, earthly church, the corporate body, but God, in verse 2, says they are not to be measured. He is not concerned with the number of professed Christians that may number about two billion in this world; that number has nothing to do with anything. It is interesting to know, perhaps, but God did not mark the point to end His salvation program by how many people “joined up” or were baptized or became members of a church or congregation. None of that matters at all. The only thing that matters is that those people whose names were recorded in the infinite mind of God must be saved. God accomplished that and finished His program of evangelization and salvation.
All who were to become saved did become saved and it is this fact that allowed God to shut the door of heaven on May 21, 2011. It was open only for God’s elect and God kept the door open until the last one of His people entered in, just like Noah had the door to the ark open for all those that were to enter in (his family of eight souls) and then God “shut him in.” God shut the door of the ark and no one else could come in. Once the door of the ark shut, then God began to rain down the water and the water also came up from beneath and there was a deluge which overcame the unsaved people of the earth.
Why? It was because only those eight souls were determined by God to be saved and none of the rest. Were there nice people out there, as far as earthly standards go? Were there women and children? Yes. Were there infants? Yes. Were there women with children still in their wombs? Undoubtedly, since everyone else in the world died in the flood, there would have been life in all stages: some women may have had a child that was just conceived; some women had just given birth; some women had little toddlers. But all died in the flood. Does that make God unjust? No – because all men are guilty before God; we all have sinned and, therefore, we are all deserving of the wrath of God, from the very point of conception. Remember what David said in Psalm 51:5:
Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
The Bible also speaks of babies that are born “speaking lies.” If a child who is born in these days after the tribulation and in this time period after God has shut the door of heaven, how can God hold that baby accountable and responsible for anything? He was not alive at the time God was sending forth His Word to warn the world of Judgment Day. God is not going to bring judgment upon that child because the child was not there to hear the warning. God is bringing judgment because the baby was conceived in sin and is born “speaking lies.” It is the child’s own sin that has brought the wrath of God upon it, immediately, as soon as it is conceived in its mother’s womb. A “clean” cannot come forth from an “unclean” and both parents are unclean, so there is no unrighteousness with God and there is no injustice with Him. If God determines to bring judgment and then allows time to continue, as He has done…He determined May 21, 2011, would be Judgment Day, but time would continue and the world would continue to operate, which means that babies would continue to be born. All the elect were saved and now the judgment of God is upon the rest.
Let us think of it this way: if Christ came (as so many insist He must) unexpectedly, and if He came in one day and ended everything in one day and destroyed the world today, then that means that as He destroys the world, how many children in the world were conceived yesterday? It would be a good number. And how many children are in the second day of conception, or in the third week or the sixth week? How many children would be in the womb when Christ came and destroyed the world? Those children never heard the Gospel because their mother is a Muslim or a Buddhist or an atheist. Christ comes today – what about those children? Is that unjust? Is that not unfair? Well, it would be the same accusation (against God) that would be made.
The problem is that man does not want to accept the fact and the truth that the Bible presents wherein God is sovereign in whom He will save: “I will have mercy upon whom I will have mercy.” But God is also sovereign in when He applies that salvation. Now we have all kinds of people that raise up the same issue as those who do not like God’s sovereignty in whom He will save and they do not like God’s sovereignty in when He applies salvation. I am sorry if you do not like it. I really am. And, of course, it is sorrowful and tragic and there are things that I would like to change in order for individuals I know to have more opportunity and for the door to still be open, but it is not up to me, and it is not up to you and it is not up to any man.
God is the One that determines these things and we just have to trust Him. We have to trust that God works out His will perfectly in whom He saves and God works out His will perfectly in when He saves – when the day of salvation begins and when the day of salvation concludes. We trust that God’s will is also perfect in the Day of Judgment when He ceases to save and this is what has happened.
Again, just think of Christ coming and how many children and infants there are or how many children are in their mother’s womb. How many one-year-olds and two-year-olds have not heard the Gospel? And that is how it will always be, if He comes today or 10 years from now or 100 years from now. At any point in time, there will always be children in the womb, little babies and people that did not instruct their children and do not have the Word of God in their lips and, therefore, there are children that did not hear the Word, no matter how many (or how few) their days may be.
It is exactly the same situation that people bring up when they say, “Well, it is not fair…it is not fair that God ended salvation and what about these children?” Again, we leave this to God and we can just be thankful that God has granted a mother or a father the ability and allowance to come to him and pour out their hearts. I know if I had a child that was born now or a grandchild, up until the time of the end, I would pour out my heart for that baby and I would pray for that baby, probably more than for anyone else, praying, “Oh, God, this poor child is born at this time. Is it possible that thy cup might pass from this child? Oh, Father, you are a merciful God, but I know that was during the time of mercy.” I would just keep praying and praying and then conclude, “Not my will, but thine be done.” You see, what is the allowance that God gives us as a mother or a father? It is to cast our care upon Him that this child be spared and then just trust that God’s perfect will be done. I would find peace in my heart concerning the fate of that child. That is all that any parent has ever been able to do. We have never been guaranteed that our children are God’s elect. We have never had any guarantee that our children must be saved, but only that we could pray for them and beseech the Lord for them and then leave it in His perfect will. This has always been the case.
Well, let us go back to Revelation 11:2:
But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles:
The Greek word translated as “Gentile” can be translated as “nation.” This is the case in the Old Testament as well, although “Gentile” is not found as commonly in the Old Testament, but it is the same Hebrew word that is also translated as “nation” in many instances.
So, here, God is saying, “But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not,” and that is the corporate church, which is outside of the eternal temple comprised of the body of believers, the elect.
… and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.
The language here reminds us of Luke 21, which is a parallel chapter to Matthew 24, dealing with the disciples’ question, “What shall be the sign of they coming, and of the end of the world?” It says in Luke 21:22-24:
For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.
Here, it says “Jerusalem” and in Revelation it says, “holy city,” and they are one and the same. Jerusalem can refer to “Jerusalem above,” or all the elect, or it can refer to “Jerusalem below,” which is the corporate church. Here, it is referring to the corporate church. (Of course, it can also be a reference to the historical city of Jerusalem, but this is not what is in view here.) Christ is answering the disciples’ question concerning the end of the world. God would forsake Jerusalem and Judah in the 1st century A.D. when the veil of the temple was rent in twain and then God had no further dealing with Jerusalem. It was no longer the “holy city,” and this is the key to understanding verses like Revelation 11:2, when God says, “The holy city shall they tread under foot.” Now the natural-minded man quickly thinks, “Oh, that is Jerusalem, the holy city,” and their eyes immediately go to the Middle East and the physical land of Israel. This is why so many churches think that Israel plays such a major role in the end times. It is all based upon a complete misunderstanding of how God has written the Bible. God uses “types and figures” and “Jerusalem” and the “holy city” represent the New Testament churches and congregations, in this instance. So it says, “Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled,” and the “times of the Gentiles,” we are told, is “forty and two months.” This is what it says in Revelation 11:2:
…and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.
Forty two months is “three and one half years,” and it is a figure of the entire Great Tribulation period in which the “holy city shall be trodden down.” If we go to Revelation 13, it speaks of “the beast” coming up out of the sea, and the name of the beast is a name assigned by God to Satan during his 23-year rule during the Great Tribulation period, from May 21, 1988 to May 21, 2011. It says in Revelation 13:5:
And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.
It is the same length of time in which the “holy city is trodden down.” Satan is the “man of sin.” He is the “abomination of desolation” and He was loosed by God at the beginning of the Great Tribulation. Satan overcame the churches and congregations because that was the will of God. It was God’s purpose and God was using him as an instrument of wrath to bring judgment on the congregations; judgment began at the house of God. God uses the figure of “forty two months” to represent the complete time period that judgment would continue.
Notice (and this is important) that the beast, Satan, continues his rule and it says in Revelation 13:6-7:
And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.
It was given to Satan to be victorious and to continue for “forty and two months,” the complete length of the judgment on the churches and the complete length of the Great Tribulation, but it was not given to him to continue for even one day longer than that. It was not given him to have rule over the churches, the kindreds, and tongues and nations (the unsaved people of the world) any longer than the “forty two month” period. This is important because May 21, 2011, was the conclusion of the Great Tribulation, the last day of that 23 years and, we could say, the conclusion of the “forty and two months.” This is why (along with many other Scriptures) we say that Satan is no longer ruling in the churches or ruling in the world, but Christ is the ruler. Christ has won the victory in the Day of Judgment and now the Lord Jesus is ruling with “a rod of iron” over everything that Satan previously ruled over.
It is interesting the way God has written these things and how He has given us this introduction into Revelation, chapter 11, a chapter that has been greatly misunderstood in recent days since we entered into these days after the Tribulation. People are misapplying the verses and their understanding of the timeline is out of “whack” or out of order. They think that when the “two witnesses” are killed, it somehow has to do with what happened to the believers on May 21, 2011. That is completely wrong. It is not the believers that were the objects of wrath and that were “killed” at that point. Everything in the Bible points to God giving up the churches during the period of the Great Tribulation, but only for that period. Following that, God turned around and brought judgment on Satan and his emissaries – upon Babylon and upon the unsaved people of the earth, not upon the true believers. True believers were not “killed” in any way on May 21, 2011. We were not the objects of God’s wrath and Satan could not have “killed” us then because he overcame the saints at the beginning of the Great Tribulation and throughout the period in which it was given to him to continue.