Revelation 11:2 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Revelation 11:2

Comments

But he is not to measure all of it. But the rest of the temple, the outer courts – the court of the Gentiles, the treasury, the court of women (only the court of the Gentiles is mentioned here) – are not to be measured. It is only the holy place that is to be measured, which includes the holy of holies in which was the ark of the covenant. There is at this point a significant difference. John is told to measure also ‘them that worship therein’; he is to measure people also – not as physical bodies, but as worshipping souls. We know that in the holy of holies of old, there were no worshippers; only the high priest could enter, and that only once a year. But now worshippers have access to the presence of God.‘The holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.’ The holy city is undoubtedly Jerusalem. It’s not holy in this vision, but it was once, so it bears that name. That is where so many of the prophets taught; that is where Christ ministered and suffered and died. The city is to be trodden under foot by the Gentiles 42 months. The professing church will be corrupted and trodden underfoot, and this is increasingly true towards the end.

Application

What does it mean? During the gospel age, when the visible church comes into existence, and grows throughout the nations, there will be your particular situation develop. There will be two aspects to this visible professing church: a true section, and a false section. The holy place and the holy of holies, delineated and protected by God, represents true believers wherever they are, who are faithful to him and strive for holiness. They will be under special protection; the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints applies to them. None shall ever pluck them out of God’s hands. They will not ever be tempted or tried, even in times of great hostility, above that which they are able to bear by grace. They may have to suffer, but they will not suffer spiritual and eternal loss. God will keep them. But there is also a nominal church which claims to worship God but does not know him. This part of the professing visible church is seen here as corrupted and polluted: it is not under the protection of God.

At the time of the Roman Empire, the state hijacked the church, adopted it, and ruined it. The world took over the professing church, and we see the development of the Church of Rome. At the time of the Reformation, the crown didn’t want the church to be reformed to any great extent. In recent times we see it in the enormous encroachment by theological liberalism. Scholarship tries to take over the church and seminaries and has wrecked denominations. Christians want to be respectable in the eyes of unbelieving academics. In our day we see it even among professing evangelical churches with sheer worldliness. There may still be some truth, and God may still do some work, but some of those churches have become so grotesquely worldly. The court without: it belongs to the world and its nominal church – the nominal church does not belong to Christ; it is the world’s own church. So we see the loyal core, true believers, and then also those who are merely nominal.

Questions

The Book of Revelation represents this same period in various ways: a time and times and half a time, or three and a half years (Revelation 12:14), 42 months (Revelation 11:2; 13:5), 1260 days (Revelation 11:3; 12:6) – a 360-day year is assumed. It’s the gospel age, the church age between the two comings of Christ. We see that from looking at chapter 12 where immediately after the Christ child is snatched up to heaven, the dragon persecutes the church for this period of time until the final judgment. Is it significant that three and a half is half of seven? Hendriksen reminds us that the period of their prophetic work is the same as the period of the absence of rain that occurred in the ministry of Elijah.

Outline

Purpose

Introduction

Revelation 11:2 Commentary and Bible Study