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The Remedy for Those with Disappointed HopesParadise Restored to Mankind—By Theocracy!
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21. In Revelation 11:1-4, how does the apostle John describe a typical temple revealed to him?
21 Haggai was used in connection with the rebuilding of the typical temple of Jehovah at Jerusalem in the days of Governor Zerubbabel and High Priest Joshua (Jesus, Greek). The last surviving Christian apostle, John the son of Zebedee of Galilee, was exiled by the Roman Empire to the penal Isle of Patmos and had a series of inspired visions there. In one of these visions he saw a typical temple, concerning which he writes: “And a reed like a rod was given me as he said: ‘Get up and measure the temple sanctuary of God and the altar and those worshiping in it. But as for the courtyard that is outside the temple sanctuary, cast it clear out and do not measure it, because it has been given to the nations, and they will trample the holy city underfoot for forty-two months. And I will cause my two witnesses to prophesy a thousand two hundred and sixty days dressed in sackcloth.’”—Revelation 11:1-4.
22. (a) What kind of witnesses were those “two witnesses”? (b) Upon what was John relying now for relationship with Jehovah?
22 In this case these symbolic “two witnesses” of the God of the temple would be Christian witnesses of the Most High God, for the apostle John was being shown things that were yet to come to pass, not things of past Jewish history. (Revelation 1:1-6) The apostle John classed himself as one of the Christian witnesses. (Revelation 1:9; 19:9, 10) At the time of this Revelation to John, the rebuilt temple at Jerusalem in the Roman province of Judea had been destroyed along with the holy city back in the year 70 of our Common Era, just as the Messiah, Jesus Christ, had predicted. (Matthew 24:1-22; Mark 13:1-20; Luke 21:5-24) Because of becoming a disciple of the Messiah, whom the Jewish nation had rejected, John had parted company with the unbelieving natural Israelites. He no longer depended on his being an Israelite by birth as a basis for relationship with Jehovah of armies. He depended on his being a spiritual Israelite, one begotten by the spirit of God, for having relationship with Jehovah of armies. John was now a ‘Jew on the inside.’ His circumcision was “that of the heart by spirit.”—Romans 2:29.
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The Remedy for Those with Disappointed HopesParadise Restored to Mankind—By Theocracy!
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24. So, who were those symbolic “two witnesses,” when were they trampled upon by the nations, and how did they prophesy in sackcloth?
24 So, in the Revelation to John, those who are spoken of by God as “my two witnesses” are spiritual Israelites, dedicated, baptized followers of the Messiah whom John followed, namely, Jesus Christ. As worshipers of Jehovah of armies, as it were, in the courtyard of his spiritual temple, they were trampled underfoot by the Gentile nations “for forty-two months.” This was during World War I of the years 1914-1918. During that time these symbolic “two witnesses” prophesied in sackcloth, in the sense that the message they publicly proclaimed was a mournful one. It foretold the coming destruction, the violent death, of all the Gentile nations now that the “times of the Gentiles” had ended in early fall of the year 1914. (Luke 21:24) Like gloomy-looking prophets, dressed in the mournful garb of sackcloth, they prophesied for one thousand two hundred and sixty days during the first world war. (Revelation 11:1-3) What happened to them then, as foreseen by the apostle John?
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