Biblical Foundations for Night and Day p2

BIBLICAL FOUNDATIONS OF NIGHT & DAY WORSHIP AND PRAYER SESSION 02 – UNDERSTANDING HEAVEN – STEPHEN VENABLE

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I. THE HEAVENS – THREE GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS

A. Introduction

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth… Genesis 1:1

1. The opening words of the Bible hold within them much instruction if observed carefully. From the beginning there was one unified, integrated creation of God with two primary expressions – the earth and the heavens.1

2. Earth is a familiar place, the heavens not so. Having focused on what the heavens are not, we are prepared now to embark on the journey of discovering the truth of what they are. For reasons already established, many have the impression that scripture does not speak much on the subject of heaven, and thus there isn’t much that can be said with any confidence

3. As those unacquainted with themes that were very important to biblical authors we are often guilty of overlooking the care and precision with which they speak of heavenly matters, instead lumping terms and descriptions into one generic category. This proves to be an awkward semblance at best. Particularly as it relates to the subject of unceasing worship and prayer, the power is in the details.

B. Plurality

1. Perhaps the first question that arises relates to the way the first verse of Genesis refers to the heavens, indicating a plurality to the heavenly expression of creation.2 It must be clear that there is more than one place that can be referred to as ‘heaven’ in the Bible.

2. Jewish cosmology3 was based on the idea of height, with the earth being the reference point in the middle. Everything over or above the earth was thought to be part of the šāmayim, or heavens in Hebrew, including both what is seen and unseen.

3. It deserves notice that in biblical thought the visible expression of heaven is incorporated together with that which is invisible. Therefore we are departing from scripture and charting our own course if we choose to thrust a wedge between them solely on the basis of our sensory experience.

4. Beginning with what was observable, the heavens were understood to continue upward in ascending gradations. In Jewish tradition from Second Temple period the heavens were often thought to be seven in number.4

5. Yet the only figure that is validated biblically is three, allowing for the heavens to be divided conceptually into the first heavens, the mid-heavens, and the third-heavens.5

1 Although less emphasized, it could also be argued that “under the earth” would represent a third category. 2 As with the Greek ouranos the word in Hebrew can appear in plural form but be identical in meaning with the singular form. 3 The manner in which the universe was understood based on divine revelation 4 The Second Temple period refers to the years that correspond to the existence of the post-exilic temple built under the leadership of Zerubbabel and Joshua the high priest and continuing until its destruction in 70 A.D. by the legions of Rome. See 2 Enoch , the Ascension and Martyrdom of Isaiah, and the Testament of Levi for examples of the way in which the seven-tiered heavens became standardized in Jewish tradition.

BIBLICAL FOUNDATIONS OF NIGHT & DAY PRAYER WORSHIP AND PRAYER Session 02 – Understanding Heaven PAGE 2


C. Location

1. The Biblical Perspective

a. Are we really to conceive of the mid-heavens and the third heaven as above us, just as we think of the skies and the stars? Though there is no need to deny or ignore the knowledge of the world around us that has come about through the technological age, one should be very wary of dismissing the views of the ancients as primitive and naïve.

b. The conviction that the Bible is the inspired, infallible word of God means that it is far too simplistic to chalk up the cosmology of scripture as merely reflective of more general ancient near-eastern religious beliefs, discounting its relevance in the process.

c. Certainly the authors of scripture were real men in a real historical context and the orthodox view of scripture does not view the channels through whom God inspired His word to be obliterated in the process.

d. Yet there was a reason that those very authentic personalities in antiquity thought the way they did about the world and it wasn’t because they possessed crude mental capacities. It was the LORD Himself who gave them that impression by continually coming down from the sky and going back up in Old Testament theophanies.

2. The Witness of Jesus

a. This continues in the New Testament, including the ascension of Christ when He was taken up into the clouds and at His glorious return when He will split the sky and come down. Consider for a moment the following statements of Jesus as recorded in the Gospel of John:

For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world…For I have come down from heaven, not to do my will, but the will of Him who sent Me…I am the living bread which came down from heaven…Does this offend you? What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before?...Even if I bear witness of Myself, My witness is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going…You are from beneath; I am from above.6

b. In our intellectual arrogance are we truly prepared to supersede the wisdom of the One who formed the human brain and then took on flesh for our sake? Jesus’ view of the world was not a product of His socio-historical context.

c. By Him and through Him all things were made, in Him all things consist, and by His word He upholds all things.7 As He walked the earth He knew all things, as the fourth gospel repeatedly states, and He knew where He came from and He said it was up.

5 See Paul’s statement in I Corinthians 12:2 6 John 6:33, 38, 51, 61b-62; John 8:14, 23 7 John 1:1-4, Colossians 1:16, Hebrews 1:3, 10



D. Creation

1. Though already mentioned briefly, it is important to emphasize that both the mid-heavens and the third heavens were created in the beginning, just as the opening verse of the creation narrative indicates.

2. Everything from the skies to the throne of God itself was made and did not exist eternally. The passage just referenced, Colossians 1:16, makes this explicit. Extolling the glory of Christ, Paul says:

For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. Colossians 1:16

3. As obvious as this is in some ways, at times those aspects of heaven unseen by us can inadvertently be imagined as existing eternally and thus thought of as devoid of time. To the contrary, all of the heavens had a real beginning point just like the earth and exist within real succession.

4. In the heavens there are real events – things that happened in the past, things occurring this very moment, and things still yet to come. In the book of Revelation John describes how there was silence in heaven for about a half an hour.8

5. This is not to say that those in heaven experience time in the same manner as we do on earth,9 but simply to underscore the point made previously that the heavens and the earth are part of one unified creation that subsists together in Him and thus shares the sequential nature that all of God’s creation is bound within.

II. HEAVEN: THREE CLASSIFICATIONS

A. First Heavens

Biblically the first heavens are what we would understand to be the sky and the atmosphere – that which is visible to our eyes.

1. Basic Description

a. Abode of Birds (cf. Gen. 1:20; 2:19; Dan. 2:38; etc.)

b. Abode of Rain, Snow, Thunder, etc. (cf. Gen. 8:2; Job 38:29; Is. 55:10; etc.)

c. Abode of Sun, Moon and Stars (cf. cf. Gen. 1:14ff; Deut. 4:19; Ps. 8:3; etc.)

8 Revelation 8:1 9 Even children and adults experience time quite differently, thus it should not be difficult to accept that cherubim, for example, can exist within time but experience in very different respects than we do.



2. Continuity

a. In biblical cosmology there was a profound continuity between the visible heavens and that which lies beyond our sight.

b. Attempting to understand this provides occasion to briefly examine the bigger picture of how Scripture presents the relationship of the earth and heavens.

3. Arrangement

The subject of Jewish/biblical cosmology is a big one, but there are three basic concepts that allow one to have a working understanding of the way creation is ordered according to Scripture:

a. The heavens are to be understood as an expanse the divides that waters that lie outside of created reality (Genesis 1:1-8)

b. The LORD Dwells within Creation and not outside of His creation (Isaiah 40:22, Psalm 104:1-4)

c. Everything within creation is arranged vertically from that which is “under the earth” to the highest of heavens.

B. Second or Mid-Heavens

1. Introduction

a. Related to night and day worship the real significance is in understanding the third heavens. Thus the primary importance of the mid-heavens (in this context) comes in delineating between this reality and the third-heavens.

b. The lack of this distinction can lead to confusion because passages that speak of the mid-heavens are forced into the image of the third-heavens that Scripture presents.

2. Basic Delineation

a. On a number of occasions scripture refers to heaven not in exclusively positive terms but rather as a place of conflict where evil has some influence. For example, in Ephesians 6:12 Paul says:

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Ephesians 6:12 10

b. This is quite a departure from the portrait of the pristine dwelling of God where He is enthroned and adored. Consider two further examples:

10 The specific form of this Greek word, transliterated epouraniois, is used exclusively in Ephesians and can also refer to the third-heavens as in Eph 1:3, 1:20, and 2:6. Its root also has limited usage in the book of Hebrews and in Paul’s correspondence with the Church in Corinth.



12 Then he said to me, “Do not fear, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand, and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard; and I have come because of your words. 13 But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days; and behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left alone there with the kings of Persia. 14 Now I have come to make you understand what will happen to your people in the latter days, for the vision refers to many days yet to come.” Daniel 10:12-14 7 And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, 8 but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. 9 So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. Revelation 12:7-9

c. In short, the mid-heavens can be understood not as the dwelling place of God but as the domain of angels (the place of their delegated authority) where both good and evil purposes for the earth are contended for.

3. God’s Activity

a. As a result there are certain dramatic instances in which God is depicted as descending from His throne, calling all to account, and rendering judgments.

There is the eternal abode of God, a place of perfection, the place to which Jesus ascended after His resurrection (Heb 1:3, 4:14, 7:26). Then there are the angelic regions (the heavenly places of Ephesians 6:12), a place not without evil. This is the region where God on occasion takes His place in the midst of His angel rulers, hears their reports, and supervises their activities – a place where Satan at present has access (Ps 82:1, Job 1:6, 2:1; Rev 12:10).11

I Kings 22:19-23

Daniel 7:9-14

b. Thus the issue in this plane of heaven is not His ultimate sovereign authority but His will/purposes imposed, executed, and enforced as it relates to the earth and its inhabitants.

c. Revelation 12 and Daniel 7 both point directly to the ultimate eschatological hope of the expulsion of darkness from the mid-heavens and this glorious imposition of His gracious will upon the earth.

d. This was what Jesus “passed through” (Hebrews 4:14) and is now exalted far above as He sits upon His throne (Ephesians 1:20-23).

4. Conclusion

a. Although the mid-heavens are the least defined by the record of scripture it is still presented in profoundly concrete terms.

11 David J. MacLeod, The Adoration of God the Creator: An Exposition of Revelation 4 [BSAC 164:654 (April-June 2007)], p 202.



b. Gabriel is described as ‘flying swiftly’ in Daniel 9:21from one location to another then in 10:13 is physically detained by the prince of Persia.

c. Michael and his angels are embroiled in war with the demonic host, causing Satan to be physically removed and cast down to the earth. And finally if Daniel 7:9-14 is in fact an account of the mid-heavens then thrones, the garments of God, fire, thousands of angels, and books are all recorded in the context of an actual moment or event when God descends and the court of judgment is called to session.

d. Obviously the arena of the mid-heavens is not readily visible to us but it is a real place that is surely observable to those who are there and have access to it. There is no exegetical basis for viewing the mid-heavens as an ethereal realm where good and evil have some level of abstract influence.

e. Certainly many things remain that we do not know about this expression of the heavens, but once the presuppositions addressed in the previous chapter are removed the text is free to speak of a concrete, tangible reality clearly differentiated from the first-heavens and third-heavens.

C. Third Heavens (see next section)

III. INTRODUCTION TO THE THIRD HEAVEN

A. Third Heavens

1 It is doubtless not profitable for me to boast. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord: 2 I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago—whether in the body I do not know, or whether out of the body I do not know, God knows—such a one was caught up to the third heaven. 3 And I know such a man—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows— 4 how he was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter. II Corinthians 12:1-4

1. Introduction and Definition

a. There are two very simple, but critical, affirmations that serve as the foundation for defining this part of God’s creation. The third-heavens are first, the dwelling place of God, and secondly the everlasting home of the redeemed.

b. By far this is the way the word heaven is most frequently used in the Bible. From these two very general truths about heaven it is possible to take the scriptural testimony on the subject and forge very specific conclusions.

2. Dwelling Place of God

Heaven is referred to as God’s dwelling place so often in both the Old and New Testament that it is accurate to say that it is the most prominent descriptive feature as well as the most important.



a. Old Testament

And may You hear the supplication of Your servant and of Your people Israel, when they pray toward this place. Hear in heaven Your dwelling place; and when You hear, forgive. I Kings 8:30

…and said: “O LORD God of our fathers, are You not God in heaven, and do You not rule over all the kingdoms of the nations, and in Your hand is there not power and might, so that no one is able to withstand You? II Chronicles 20:6

Therefore You delivered them into the hand of their enemies, Who oppressed them; and in the time of their trouble, When they cried to You, You heard from heaven; and according to Your abundant mercies You gave them deliverers who saved them from the hand of their enemies. Nehemiah 9:27

The LORD looks from heaven; He sees all the sons of men. Psalm 33:13

God looks down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there are any who understand, who seek God. Psalm 53:2

b. New Testament

(1) Jesus refers to His Father being “in heaven” fourteen times in Matthew alone

(2) Jesus descends from heaven and is described as ascending to heaven and exalted at the right hand of the throne of God in heaven

(3) Jesus will come from heaven when He returns

3. Everlasting Home of the Redeemed (or the place of eternal reward)

a. Treasure is in heaven (Matthew 6:20)

b. Hope is in heaven (Colossians 1:5)

c. Reward is in heaven (I Peter 1:4)

d. Citizenship is in heaven (Philippians 3:20)

e. Immortal habitation is from heaven (II Corinthians 5:1-5)

f. Names are registered in heaven (Luke 10:20)

4. Moving Toward Definition

a. As familiar as many of these passages are, it is important not to gloss over them and instead allow the biblical witness to focus and sharpen our perception. There is a distinct place called “heaven” which Scripture points to again and again as the habitation of God and the destination of the righteous.



b. As clear as this is, it is also evident from the classifications already presented and the way in which the word occurs in context that neither the first-heavens nor second-heavens could be what is referred to.

c. Important as this is, so much hinges on taking one further step and not being content to allow this distinct facet of heaven to remain ambiguous conceptually. One would think that the Bible would speak with some detail to a subject as important as the center of God’s existence and the everlasting abode of the people of God.

d. Such an assumption would be true – in His mercy the LORD has not left us with generalities and consigned us to ignorance for the rest.

B. The End of the Story

1. The Revelation of Heaven

a. The Holy Spirit knows no rivals and as the ultimate source of the authorship of Scripture He closes with three chapters that bring the narrative of redemption to a triumphant, breathtaking conclusion and yet at the same time seize our hearts with yearning for a twenty-third chapter of Revelation.

b. These remarkable chapters contain within them a clearer epiphany of both the dwelling place of God and the eternal home of the redeemed than anywhere else in the Word of God.12 It as though the Holy Spirit wanted to leave this vision of the majesty of the Father and the Lamb in their splendid habitation and the glory of our dwelling playing over and over in our thoughts.

c. From this unique glimpse into sublime things it becomes abundantly and emphatically clear that the abode of God and the abode of the just are indeed the same place, and that the place is none other than a mountain-city of colossal proportions and unrivaled beauty. Heaven is not an ethereal, immaterial ‘realm’. Heaven is a city.

2. Reorientation

a. The Holy City seen at the close of the canon is not an innovation in or addition to heaven; it is and has always been heaven – the dwelling place of God and the home of the redeemed.

b. Once false views of spiritual and unseen things have been dislodged, this thought moves from being odd and inconceivable to wonderfully fitting. If Scripture presents and assumes very concrete, tangible, material contours of heaven then it is not surprising to find a physical description of what it is like.

c. Therefore it may be novel, and astonishing certainly, but there should not be any reason conceptually to reject heaven as being synonymous with the Holy City. Ultimately the important question is what the Bible discloses. Once our perspective is correct we are liberated to hear the testimony of Scripture without distortion.

12 To a lesser extent this could legitimately be said of the entire book of Revelation, particularly the fourth and fifth chapters.



IV. HEAVEN - THE HOLY CITY 1Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. 2And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. 3And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, 4and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away." 5And He who sits on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new " And He said, "Write, for these words are faithful and true." Revelation 21:1-5

A. Categories

1. The Dwelling Place of God

a. As John describes his initial vision of the Holy City descending to the earth he hears the proclamation that the tabernacle of God, or His dwelling place, is with men.

b. In other words, the place where He now dwells (His tabernacle) is going to descend and be relocated to earth.

c. This is because His throne and dwelling place are within the New Jerusalem, as described explicitly in Revelation 21:22-22:5.

d. This is very different than what took place in the Incarnation, in which God dwelt (tabernacled) among us. (see John 1:14)

2. The Home of the Redeemed

Understanding the Holy City as the everlasting home of those in Christ is a more familiar idea. This is stated in many and various ways throughout chapters twenty-one and twenty-two.

a. The City is referred to as the Bride, indicating that the inhabitants are those pictured earlier in Revelation 19:11-18 – those who are in covenantal relationship with Christ.

b. One of the most dominant themes in this description of the New Jerusalem are the conditions of those who are permitted to enter and dwell there and the stark contrast between those who reside in the City and those who do not (Revelation 21:27, 22:14-15).

c. Therefore the New Jerusalem is clearly presented as the destination of the righteous and the place of their inheritance.

3. Conclusion

Thus it is clear scripturally that the New Jerusalem is both the dwelling place of God and the home of the redeemed, which are the two primary descriptions of heaven (when understood to refer to the third-heavens).



B. Foundational Conclusions

1. Heaven is not an ethereal realm but rather a mountain-city of colossal proportions and unrivaled beauty.

2. The consequence is that when we read Heaven in the Bible and in context it is not referring to the first two classifications then in our hearts and minds we need to equate it with the Holy City.

3. Heaven and earth coming together is not the merging of two distinct realms but simply the descent of the Holy City to the earth as described at the close of Revelation.

4. The main question that remains to be clarified is whether the Holy City has always been Heaven or if John was only seeing a future reality (i.e. the New Jerusalem will be Heaven).13

V. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CITY 10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, 11 having the glory of God. Her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal. 12 Also she had a great and high wall with twelve gates, and twelve angels at the gates, and names written on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel: 13 three gates on the east, three gates on the north, three gates on the south, and three gates on the west. 14 Now the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. 15 And he who talked with me had a gold reed to measure the city, its gates, and its wall. 16 The city is laid out as a square; its length is as great as its breadth. And he measured the city with the reed: twelve thousand furlongs. Its length, breadth, and height are equal. 17 Then he measured its wall: one hundred and forty-four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of an angel. 18 The construction of its wall was of jasper; and the city was pure gold, like clear glass. 19 The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with all kinds of precious stones…21 The twelve gates were twelve pearls: each individual gate was of one pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass. 22 But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23 The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light…1 And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. 2 In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. Revelation 21:10-19, 21-23; Revelation 22:1-2

A. Importance

1. The purpose of considering the Holy City in this context is merely to define the setting of the worship that takes place there. Therefore we will not go into much depth in our treatment of the subject.

2. Yet the details held within this description have a relevance to our lives that would be difficult to exaggerate.

13 Without question John was seeing a future reality in the sense of the city descending to the earth and God’s dwelling place being among the sons of men. The future tenses present various passages in Revelation 21-22 that speak of the Holy City must be understood within the context of this real chronological event.



3. Relative to the entire scope of our existence, the seven or eight decades spent in a frail body and a fallen age form but the tiniest fraction. For endless (literally) years we will be thinking, feeling, working, playing, and most importantly adoring Jesus and we will be doing it all largely within the Heavenly Jerusalem – our everlasting home.

4. Contemplation of the City, therefore, should therefore be an absorbing pleasure of great personal significance to us rather than an afterthought.

B. Ancient

The first characteristic to clarify is the Holy City’s ancient existence. In the previous session it was asserted that Heaven is a created place, as opposed to an eternal realm. This place is and always has been the mountain-city called the Heavenly Jerusalem.

1. Perspective

a. What in the description of the Holy City indicates that it has always been the habitation of God? It would seem that the question should actually be reversed - placing the burden of proof on the view that Heaven is not presently the Holy City.14

b. If the close of Revelation indicates that at its descent the throne of the Father and of the Lamb are within the New Jerusalem, what reason can we find biblically to postulate this dramatic relocation from His hypothetical location presently?

c. The biblical evidence outside of Revelation 21-22 actually points decidedly in the opposite direction. Some of this will be considered now and some (perhaps the most compelling) will be in future sessions.

2. Galatians

But the Jerusalem above is free; she is our mother. Galatians 4:26

a. In its immediate context the historical city of Jerusalem present at the time of the apostle’s words is compared to the covenant established at Mount Sinai, whereas the Jerusalem above corresponds to the New Covenant.

b. Without question we are presently included in the New Covenant, and therefore it would be a very odd point for Paul to make if the Heavenly Jerusalem was merely an idea on the horizon.

c. The fact that Paul’s refers to the city above as our mother (representing the relationship to the covenant) in the present-tense strengthens the impression that as Paul wrote about two decades after the ascension of Jesus he understood the Holy City to be a reality.

14 Randy Alcorn in his excellent book, Heaven, takes this perspective but offers no compelling reason as to why – it seems to be more of an assumption



3. Hebrews

a. The book of Hebrews contains four distinct references to the Eternal City (11:10, 11:16, 12:22, 13:14). Taken together they indicate, just as the passages from Revelation already examined, that the Great City is our future hope but also a present reality.

b. Just as Abraham looked for “the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God”, we “have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come.”

c. The most significant reference to the City is found in Hebrews 12. There, in a way very similar to Galatians 4, the author of Hebrews states that unlike Sinai we have come (present-tense) to:

22 …to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, 23 to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, 24 to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. Hebrews 12:22-24

d. In addition to the same covenantal reality already stressed in the treatment of Paul’s words, this passage describes our “coming” to the heavenly Jerusalem in precisely the same way as we now come to God the Judge and Jesus the Mediator without any chronological distinction.

e. Also striking is the way in which the presence of God and Jesus are described in tandem with “the general assembly, the church of the firstborn registered in heaven” and “the spirits of just men made perfect”. In other words, right now when we come to the city of the living God by faith we find the LORD Himself and His people - precisely what the previous descriptions of heaven indicated.

4. Significance

a. Another point that can be easily missed is that Paul and the author of Hebrews are talking about the Holy City before the book of Revelation had been written. Galatians is Paul’s earliest letter aside from the Thessalonian correspondence.

b. How is it that in both books where the Heavenly Jerusalem is mentioned the authors do so without any explanation? Paul and the author of Hebrews (who some would view as synonymous) are not introducing a new concept but elaborating upon a familiar one.

c. The fact that they could do this when writing to an audience from which they were separated by geographical and chronological distance indicates an astonishing confidence in an understanding of the Heavenly Jerusalem which they assumed would be present in the early Church as a whole.

d. Furthermore, how is it that the author of Hebrews could simply state that Abraham was looking for the City whose builder and maker is God when he walked the earth approximately two-thousand years before the advent of Christ?



e. Apparently the Holy City was not an apocalyptic epiphany finally unveiled to John the Beloved late in the first-century. It was present in the expectation of the faithful just generations after the flood. How can this be?

C. Mountain

1. Introduction to Understanding the Description in the Book of Revelation

10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, 11 having the glory of God… Revelation 21:10

a. In the opening verse of John’s description of the Holy City he tells how he was carried to a great and high mountain. Typically this verse is rendered in English as though the mountain was a distinct vantage point from which John observed the descent.

b. While this is a possible meaning, there is nothing in the syntax of the Greek that prevents the passage from also being understood as John including the mountain within the description of being shown the Holy City descending.

c. Understanding verse ten in this way also resolves the oddity of why John would have needed to be on a great and high mountain in order to see something as enormous as the Heavenly Jerusalem.

d. Irrespective of the passage itself, there several major lines of reasoning that weigh heavily in favor of understanding the New Jerusalem in this manner, one of which will be developed in a different context. Together they hold the potential to inform the interpretation of the opening words of John’s description.

2. Hebrews

a. The passage from Hebrews just referenced begins, “But you have come to Mt. Zion and to the city of the living God…”15 From the following verses it is clear that two distinct places are not in view.

b. This corresponds with the way Mt. Zion is used as an interchangeable term with Jerusalem and the city of David in the Old Testament. Commenting on this verse, William Lane notes:

The biblical declaration that God laid the foundations of the city of Jerusalem on Mount Zion (e.g., Ps 47:9 [MT 48:8]; Ps 86[MT 87]:1-7; Isa 14:32 LXX) was extended to the foundations of the glorified heavenly city as well (e.g., Isa 28:16; 54:11-14 LXX), and this theological motif is echoed in later Jewish and Christian apocalyptic literature.16

15 Hebrews 12:22 16 William L. Lane, Hebrews 9-13, Word Biblical Commentary 47B, p 466.



3. Two Cities

a. Thus the second, and very interrelated, way Scripture points toward a conception of the New Jerusalem as a mountain-city is through the eschatological vision of Jerusalem presented in the Old Testament.

b. Jerusalem as it will exist in the millennial kingdom of Jesus (Revelation 20:4-5) will be an earthly reflection of the Jerusalem above, just as the historic Jerusalem was in some respects.

c. Though this notion may be unfamiliar in our day, such was not the case in the Biblical era. F.F. Bruce clarifies:

If the moving tabernacle in the wilderness was constructed according to the pattern of the sanctuary on high, so the temple and city of Jerusalem were material copies of eternal archetypes. Both in Jewish and in Christian thought the heavenly counterpart of the earthly Jerusalem is familiar--the rabbis inferred the existence of the heavenly archetype from the words of Ps. 122:3..., which they rendered: 'Jerusalem, which is built like the city that is its fellow'...In the Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch, which is to be dated soon after A.D. 70, Baruch is told on the eve of the destruction of the First Temple that this is not the true city of God; the true city was revealed by God to Adam before his fall, to Abraham when God made a covenant with him, and to Moses at the same time as he was shown the pattern in the mount.17

d. In antiquity Jerusalem was consistently presented as a mountain-city, and the future city as it will be restored following the return of Jesus is described in precisely the same terms only on a far grander scale.18

e. Thus, when the Heavenly Jerusalem is rightly seen to be the archetype rather than the projection then the extensive references to the eschatological Jerusalem as a mountain-city are a compelling reason to view the Heavenly Jerusalem in the same way. Cognizant of this, Grant Osborne in his commentary on Revelation concludes regarding verse 10:

Mountains have always been important to Jewish religion...As several have shown (Caird, Wall, Beale), Jewish tradition placed final eschatological city on a mountain (Isa. 2:2; 4:1-5; Mic. 4:1-2; 1 Enoch 18.8; 24.1-3; 25.3; Jub. 4.26), and some (Michaels, Giesen) think that with 14:1...this is Mount Zion here and the Holy City will rest on it....19

4. Physical Implications

a. Conceiving of the Holy City in this way runs counter to notions that it is cubical in its structure.

b. Yet nothing in the text indicates that it is in fact a cube, only that its height is as great as it length and breadth (21:16). Nor in the account of the size of the wall (v17) is it clear whether the height or the thickness is being described.

17 FF. Bruce, The Epistle to the Hebrews, p 356. 18 See Psalm 48:1-2, Psalm 87:1-3, Isaiah 2:1-2, Isaiah 27:13, Isaiah 60:13-14, Isaiah 66:20, Ezekiel 40:2, Joel 3:17, Zechariah 8:3 19 Grant.. R. Osborne, Revelation, Baker Exegetical Commentary, p 748. It is not necessary to concur with Osborne’s understanding of Revelation 14:1 in order to acknowledge the validity of his larger point.



c. While in the light of the towering height of the city it does seem that the ‘one-hundred and forty-four cubits’ (approximately 216 feet) likely refers to the width, a wall of this height would still be quite formidable (imagine a twenty-one story building).

D. Size

1. Perhaps the most awe-inspiring feature of the external view of the City is its sheer size. Depending on the exact distance of the Greek stadion, the city measures between 1400 and 1500 miles in its length, width, and height.20

2. Its enormity is difficult for the mind to grapple with and thus many comparisons have been drawn. Relative to the United States the city would cover a land mass comparable to the combined area of forty-one of the fifty states in America.21

3. Randy Alcorn offers another example:

A metropolis of this size in the middle of the United States would stretch from Canada to Mexico and from the Appalachian Mountains to the California Border. The New Jerusalem is all the square footage anyone could ask for.22

4. Lifting our eyes beyond the borders of The United States, it has been noted that if placed upon the earth with its present topography the city would cover a land mass half the size of the continent of Europe.23 Furthermore, the length of one of its sides would stretch from London to Athens or from Delhi to Rangoon.24

5. This is simply staggering - such is the grandeur of the dwelling place of God, and your everlasting home as one who is Christ.

6. As we seek to develop a functional picture of heaven, all of what has now been set forth should cause our minds to cling to a truly marvelous image of a colossal mountain that is home to a vast city of shining splendor and glory.

VI. GOD’S DWELLING PLACE – A CLOSER LOOK

A. David & the Temple

1. A Window to Glory

a. King David is one of the most important figures in the biblical story in general and has much relevance to the subject of this course. We will return to the Davidic era and linger there later in the course

20 Robert L. Thomas, Revelation 8-22: An Exegetical Commentary, p 466-477 21 Thomas, Revelation, p 467 – the nine excluded are Montana, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, Washington, Oregon, California, Alaska, and Hawaii. 22 Randy Alcorn, Heaven, p 250. 23 T. D. Alexander, From Eden to the New Jerusalem, (Nottingham, England, Inter-Varsity Press: 2008), p 11. 24 Thomas, p 467



b. For now we just briefly stop to look through a very specific window his Psalms provide into the consummate revelation of the dwelling place of God.

c. In the Psalter the word temple occurs a scarce ten times.25 Seven of those instances are in Davidic psalms. Two of these will be referenced in a different context, and thus five remain:

6 In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried out to my God; He heard my voice from His temple, and my cry came before Him, even to His ears. Psalm 18:6

2 I will worship toward Your holy temple, and praise Your name for Your lovingkindness and Your truth; for You have magnified Your word above all Your name. Psalm 138:2 7 But as for me, I will come into Your house in the multitude of Your mercy; In fear of You I will worship toward Your holy temple. Psalm 5:7

One thing I have desired of the LORD, That will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in His temple. Psalm 27:4

Blessed is the man You choose, and cause to approach You, that he may dwell in Your courts. We shall be satisfied with the goodness of Your house, of Your holy temple. Psalm 65:4

2. The Problem

a. At first glance these passages appear relatively straightforward. As all ancient Jews would have, David was orienting his worship around the most sacred place in the land of Israel – the Jerusalem Temple.

b. The problem, of course, is that the Temple wasn’t built until after David had died. 26 Psalm 18 was written before David was even made king and dwelt in Jerusalem, yet could the other references perhaps be speaking of the centers of worship that did exist during his lifetime?

3. Terminology

a. Neither the tabernacle that David had erected for the ark in Jerusalem nor the tabernacle of Moses in Gibeon could be the referent of these passages because the Hebrew word used (hêkāl) means a physical structure or complex. Of the eighty occasions when this specific word occurs in the Old Testament, twenty-three are actually translated “nave” or “palace”. 27

25 This varies slightly depending on the translation used 26 Some biblical scholars with more liberal persuasions have looked at this intriguing question and suggested that these Psalms aren’t actually Davidic in authorship. Not only is this very difficult to argue (particularly in light of the parallel in II Samuel 22:7 with Psalm 18:6), but it not a compelling historically. Whoever assembled the Psalter was not doing so for ignorant Gentiles two-thousand years later who would not be aware of the fact that the Jerusalem Temple was not build in David’s lifetime. For any Jewish reader up through the time of Christ it would have been a glaring discrepancy. 27 As rendered in the English Standard Version



b. Thus it simply cannot function as a synonym for the resting place (“house”) of God as other Hebrew words sometimes translated “temple” can be at times.28 As a Sumerian/Akkadian loan-word it does not even necessarily have connotations of a sacred place, and thus in three of the five occasions David couples it with a word indicating hallowedness (qādaš).29

c. For David to be using hêkāl to refer to the tabernacle that housed the Ark on Mt. Zion would have been the equivalent in modern English of looking at a camping-tent and remarking at what fine building it was. You might call a tent a shelter, or a canopy, but you would not call it a building.

4. The Palace of God

a. In the highest of heavens, at the very crown of the Celestial City, there is a place like no other – the Heavenly Temple. It is the culmination of the revelation of heaven that has been progressively developed and the most important place in the universe.

b. For it is there specifically (and not Heaven generically) that God Himself dwells, and it is there that David was directing his worship. Though it would be his son Solomon that was chosen to carry it out, the reason it was in David’s heart to build the temple for the Lord was because he had seen the true temple in heaven and wanted a place on earth that emulated it.30

VII. SCRIPTURAL REFERENCES TO THE HEAVENLY TEMPLE

Before discussing how the Heavenly Temple relates to the revelation of the heavens already discussed and ultimately what goes on inside its walls, its basic existence must be strengthened in our minds. As we will see, Scripture has much to say about this most glorious of places. The first three references come from the minor prophets.

A. Jonah

4 Then I said, ‘I have been cast out of Your sight; yet I will look again toward Your holy temple.’ 5 The waters surrounded me, even to my soul; the deep closed around me; Weeds were wrapped around my head. 6 I went down to the moorings of the mountains; The earth with its bars closed behind me forever; Yet You have brought up my life from the pit, O LORD, my God. 7“ When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the LORD; and my prayer went up to You, into Your holy temple. Jon 2:2-7

There are a number of reasons why this must be referring to the Heavenly Temple and not to the Temple in Jerusalem.

28 There are only two possible exceptions to this that could be argued, occurring in 1 Samuel 1:9 and 3:3. However, this was after the Tabernacle of Moses had been settled in Shiloh and was thought by all to have come to a permanent place of rest (no one anticipated the rebellion of the priesthood, the capture of the Ark, and the election of the tribe of Judah). As a result the narrative seems to indicate that a semi-permanent structure was built to house the ark, therefore warranting the use of the word on both physical and theological/historical grounds. 29 Though clearly the context of the passage and most importantly the presence of God clearly define it as a holy place, regardless of whether it is joined with this word or not. 30 The story of David, His tabernacle, and his desire to build a permanent house for the LORD will be developed and substantiated later in the course



1. First, II Kings 14:25 reveals that Jonah’s ministry took place in general time period of 800 B.C. This was during the era of the divided kingdom and as a prophet to Israel rather than Judah, Jerusalem would not have been the focal point of Jonah’s religious life.

2. Second, the preposition before the second reference (“up”) together with the striking to ‘Sheol’ and ‘the deep’ in verses two and three, the deep closing around him n verse four, and the moorings of the mountains in verse six all present contrast on the cosmological spectrum between Jonah’s place in the lowest depths of the earth and God’s presence in the highest of heavens in His holy temple.

3. Finally there is the parallel of verse one and verse seven in Jonah’s prayer with Psalm 18:6, which clearly refers to the Heavenly Temple. Though generations after David, Jonah also understood that the ultimate temple was not in what was to him the rival city of Jerusalem but rather in the temple of God in heaven.

B. Habakkuk

20 “ But the LORD is in His holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before Him.” Habakkuk 2:20

1. The pairing of words in Hebrew that are translated as ‘holy temple’ corresponds to those seen in the Davidic Psalms and Jonah. Although the historical circumstances of Habakkuk make it plausible that this could have referred to Solomon’s temple, when compared to the ways in which the term is used elsewhere in Scripture it would stand as a significant aberration if this was in fact the prophet’s intent.31

2. The preceding context of Habakkuk’s statement also points to the conclusion that the Heavenly Temple is in view. In verse 14 it is promised that the knowledge of the glory of the LORD will fill the earth, followed by a denunciation of wickedness and idolatry, and then the charge for all the earth to be silent before Him.

3. Therefore Habakkuk is looking to heaven where God sits enthroned in His sovereign power over all the nations and not merely to the expression of His dwelling in Jerusalem and its uncertain fate in light of impending Babylonian aggression (1:6-11).

4. Kenneth Barker comments on the passage:

…the “temple” probably meant not only the temple in Jerusalem but also the heavenly sanctuary (Mic 1:2). From the heavenly temple, the Lord ruled over heaven and earth and received the honor due him alone. The proper response to such a God who is enthroned above the Cherubim is awed silence.32

31There is no instance when the coupling of Hebrew words that produces the rendering of “holy temple” clearly refers to the temple in Jerusalem or any other edifice on earth. Furthermore, the occurrences of hêkāl which do have a religious connotation in speaking of the temple on earth are all (without exception) used in the context of an actual activity that is taking place in its precincts or in describing the construction of the physical anatomy of the structure. Thus if Habakkuk uses hêkāl for Solomon’s temple when the purpose is clearly to draw attention to the glorious presence of God, it would be the only such case in the entire Old Testament. 32Kenneth L. Barker, vol. 20, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, electronic ed., Logos Library System; The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2001, c1999), 349.



C. Micah

Hear, all you peoples! Listen, O earth, and all that is in it! Let the Lord GOD be a witness against you, the Lord from His holy temple. 3 For behold, the LORD is coming out of His place; He will come down and tread on the high places of the earth. 4 The mountains will melt under Him, and the valleys will split like wax before the fire, like waters poured down a steep place. Micah 1:2-4

Of the three surveyed so far, this amazing utterance requires the least analysis. Aside from the now familiar mention of His ‘holy temple’ in the second verse, all question marks are dispelled when Micah prophesies of the Day of the LORD when God will arise and come down from His place to tread upon the high places of the earth.

VIII. HIS HABITATION

This sobering, awe-inspiring image of God emerging from His Heavenly Temple and descending upon the nations to render His judgment is further elaborated in a parallel passage from Micah’s contemporary, Isaiah: 15 Look down from heaven, and see from Your habitation, holy and glorious…1 Oh, that You would rend the heavens! That You would come down! That the mountains might shake at Your presence—2 As fire burns brushwood, as fire causes water to boil—To make Your name known to Your adversaries, that the nations may tremble at Your presence! 3 When You did awesome things for which we did not look, You came down, the mountains shook at Your presence. Isaiah 63:15, 64:1-3

A. Focusing Our Vision

1. Alternative Descriptions

a. The remarkable symmetry from this passage at the close of the book of Isaiah provides an important doorway into a series of verses that describe the Heavenly Temple.

b. It is clear upon comparison that the heavenly habitation of Isaiah 63:15 and the Heavenly Temple of Micah 1:2 are synonymous. The Hebrew noun used in Isaiah 63 is found a mere five times in the entire Old Testament but the point of relevance is that this very specific place in view called the Heavenly Temple can be referred to in other ways.

c. For example, Habakkuk 2:20 also has an almost exact parallel in Zechariah 2:13:

“Be silent, all flesh, before the LORD, for He is aroused from His holy habitation!”

2. Specific References

a. This important link scripturally and conceptually allows for far greater clarity when the ‘sanctuary’ or ‘habitation’ of God in heaven is mentioned by the biblical authors. They were not throwing out generic, catch-all terms for heaven but rather using very purposeful language in order to direct attention to a specific place in the heavens synonymous with the Heavenly Temple (but in most cases not synonymous with ‘Heaven’ - i.e. the third heavens).

b. Yet how can heaven be referred to as the dwelling place of God (as demonstrated in the previous session) and the heavenly sanctuary be described in the same way and the two not be interchangeable?



c. Imagine beholding a scene where a certain man sits reading a book in a chair next to his bed. Aware of this, you state that the man is in his house. Then someone else comes along and says that the very same man is in his bedroom. Both statements are correct, and the man can accurately to be dwelling in his house and his bedroom, but that doesn’t in any way make ‘house’ and ‘bedroom’ synonyms.

d. Having our understanding sharpened on this point is so highly important because it allows us to fix the descriptions offered of His sanctuary on high to a real locale, savor those details through prayerful reflection, and apply their meaning related to worship.

B. The Heavenly Sanctuary

There are several Hebrew words that constitute the majority of occurrences of “sanctuary” or “habitation” in English translations and do not evidence much difference in meaning when applied to the dwelling place of God.33 Though in some select cases it is true that difficulty exists in determining precisely whether the earthly or heavenly sanctuary is in view, context typically makes it quite clear.34 When the ambiguous cases are removed, in addition to those cited above a total of ten distinct references to the Heavenly Temple emerge in the Old Testament through the language of sanctuary. 15 Look down from Your holy habitation, from heaven, and bless Your people Israel and the land which You have given us, just as You swore to our fathers, “a land flowing with milk and honey.” Deuteronomy 26:15 26 So there was great joy in Jerusalem, for since the time of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel, there had been nothing like this in Jerusalem. 27 Then the priests, the Levites, arose and blessed the people, and their voice was heard; and their prayer came up to His holy dwelling place, to heaven. II Chronicles 30:26-27

2 Hear the voice of my supplications when I cry to You, when I lift up my hands toward Your holy sanctuary. Psalm 28:2 5 A father of the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in His holy habitation. 6 God sets the solitary in families; He brings out those who are bound into prosperity; but the rebellious dwell in a dry land. .. 17 The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of thousands; the Lord is among them as in Sinai, in the Holy Place… 24 They have seen Your procession, O God, the procession of my God, my King, into the sanctuary. Psalm 68:5-6, 17, 24 6 Honor and majesty are before Him; strength and beauty are in His sanctuary. Psalm 96:6 19 For He looked down from the height of His sanctuary; from heaven the LORD viewed the earth… Psalm 102:19 1 Praise the LORD! Praise God in His sanctuary; praise Him in His mighty firmament! Psalm 150:1

30 “Therefore prophesy against them all these words, and say to them: ‘ The LORD will roar from on high, and utter His voice from His holy habitation; He will roar mightily against His fold. He will give a shout, as those who tread the grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth. Jeremiah 25:30

33 Primarily qodesh, miqdash, ma`own 34 A theological explanation will be provided in future sessions as to why they could be ambiguous in their language at times and employ the same term to describe both places.



IX. A KING & HIS TEMPLE

A. The Heavenly Throne

1. A theme far more familiar than the Heavenly Temple is the heavenly throne. Psalm 103:19, characteristic of many verses like it, declares: “

The LORD has established His throne in heaven, His kingdom rules over all.”

2. Nearly every time heaven was opened and men were given entrance into the majesty above the experience included glimpses of God’s throne.

3. Echoing Isaiah 66:1, Jesus affirmed that heaven was the place of God’s throne (Matthew 5:34) and the author of Hebrews states that Jesus ascended to “the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens (Hebrews 8:1). Thus the direct association between the throne of God and its placement in heaven is clear biblically.

B. The Throne & the Temple

There is also a direct relationship biblically between the Heavenly Throne and the Heavenly Temple. At least three times in the Psalter this relationship is established.

“The LORD is in His holy temple, The LORD’s throne is in heaven; His eyes behold, His eyelids test the sons of men.” Psalm 11:4 1 Give unto the LORD, O you mighty ones, Give unto the LORD glory and strength. 2 Give unto the LORD the glory due to His name; Worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness. 3 The voice of the LORD is over the waters; The God of glory thunders; The LORD is over many waters…9 The voice of the LORD makes the deer give birth, and strips the forests bare; and in His temple everyone says, “Glory!” 10 The LORD sat enthroned at the Flood, And the LORD sits as King forever. 11 The LORD will give strength to His people; the LORD will bless His people with peace. Psalm 29:1-3, 9-1135 1 The LORD reigns, He is clothed with majesty; the LORD is clothed, He has girded Himself with strength. Surely the world is established, so that it cannot be moved. 2 Your throne is established from of old; You are from everlasting. 3 The floods have lifted up, O LORD, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their waves. 4 The LORD on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, than the mighty waves of the sea. 5 Your testimonies are very sure; Holiness adorns Your house, O LORD, forever. Psalm 93:1-5

1. With the possible exception of the reference in the eighteenth Psalm, Psalm 11:4 is the most overt and indisputable acknowledgement of the Heavenly Temple in Davidic writings. And remarkably, the way David expresses the location of the temple (hêkāl) is by identifying it with God’s throne in heaven.

2. Both of the other two passages look with awe upon God’s ancient, everlasting throne in heaven and describe His dominion over all things as typified through His sovereignty over the flood.

35 Together with Psalm 11:4 this completes the seven total references to the Heavenly Temple in the Psalms of David previously mentioned



3. And both set forth His temple, or house, as the place where He sits enthroned in His majesty. Bearing resemblance to verses like Psalm 103:20-21 and Psalm 148:1-4, the first passage even begins with an invocation for the angelic host to offer the praise to God which He is due.36

C. The One Who Dwells Between the Cherubim

1. Beyond these instances of direct relationship the unity of the throne and the temple on high is established by implication through one of the primary ways Scripture describes God’s royal seat.

2. On numerous occasions in the Old Testament the LORD is described as being enthroned between or upon the cherubim (see I Samuel 4:4; II Samuel 6:2, II Kings 19:15; Psalm 80:1; Psalm 99:1).

3. Once it is remembered that cherubim are consistently embedded deep within the imagery of the dwelling place of God, the import of this way of referring to God’s throne becomes clear:

The cherubim are considered to be associated with the throne of a king, in this case with God the king, but in the OT they also figure prominently and almost exclusively in both sanctuary and temple (Ex 25:19; 26:31; I Ki 7:36; 8:6). Consequently, the heavenly throne of God, complete with living cherubim, may be placed in a heavenly sanctuary, according to the OT.37

D. Beholding the Throne

As powerful as these descriptive portions of Scripture are, the force of the unity of temple and throne may be more readily felt when considering passages that narrate the experience of someone actually beholding it with their eyes. Up until this point the New Testament witness to the Heavenly Temple has not been introduced, yet this is not due to a lack of relevant material. Nowhere is the Heavenly Temple revealed in greater detail than the Book of Revelation.

1. Introducing the Temple in Revelation

a. In Revelation 11:19 John says that before his eyes “the temple of God was opened in heaven.” Throughout the unfolding of the Apocalypse John continues to describe things that transpire within the Heavenly Temple (15:5-8, 16:1, 17-18).

19 Then the temple of God was opened in heaven, and the ark of His covenant was seen in His temple. And there were lightnings, noises, thunderings, an earthquake, and great hail. Revelation 11:19 4 Who shall not fear You, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy. For all nations shall come and worship before You, For Your judgments have been manifested.” 5 After these things I looked, and behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened. 6 And out of the temple came the seven angels having the seven plagues, clothed in pure bright linen, and having their chests girded with golden bands. 7 Then one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls

36 It could be argued that when developed exegetically Psalm 103:19 has the context of the Heavenly Temple implied in its reference to the throne because of the invocation that immediately follows it. 37 Niels-Erik Andreasen, The Heavenly Sanctuary in the Old Testament, in The Sanctuary and the Atonement, The Review and Herald Publishing Association, Washington D.C. (need to put in Turabian format) See also David Noel Freedman, The Anchor Bible Dictionary (New York: Doubleday, 1996, c1992), 3:90.



full of the wrath of God who lives forever and ever. 8 The temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from His power, and no one was able to enter the temple till the seven plagues of the seven angels were completed. Revelation 15:4-8 17 Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, “It is done!” 18 And there were noises and thunderings and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such a mighty and great earthquake as had not occurred since men were on the earth. Revelation 16:17-18

b. While his view of the glorious sanctuary of God may have been unparalleled in it scope, what should be apparent by now must be stressed: John was not seeing something novel. Although clearly overwhelmed by the sight, John did not have to acclimate himself to the idea of God dwelling in an actual temple in heaven.

2. Ancient Reality

a. Like all Jews of his time he believed in what Moses, David, Jonah, Isaiah, Micah, Habakkuk, Jeremiah, and Zephaniah all testified to in very straightforward (but reverent) terms.38

b. Likewise, any ancient Jewish reader would have discerned the focus on the Heavenly Temple even before an explicit reference to it because of the details John records after being summoned through the door in heaven.

c. The breathtaking scene found in the fourth and fifth chapters of Revelation is riddled with descriptions that would cause one well-versed in the Old Testament to recognize that John was beholding the interior of the heavenly sanctuary. And thus the centrality of the exalted throne of God throughout these two chapters underscores the placement of the throne within the Heavenly Temple.

E. Conclusion 13 Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, “Who are these arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from?” 14And I said to him, “Sir, you know.” So he said to me, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 15 Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple. And He who sits on the throne will dwell among them. 16 They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any heat…” Revelation 7:13-16

1. It would be difficult to imagine a clearer statement of the existence of the Heavenly Temple and the location of the throne within it. And joined to these affirmations is the promise that those who reside there will be occupied with the worship of Him day and night!39

2. We may unabashedly conclude: the Heavenly Temple is the Heavenly Throne-Room. There is no distinction whatsoever between the two, and both refer to an vividly real, tangible locale.

3. The implications of this are simply staggering and if truly reckoned with would send shockwaves through our theology of worship and our understanding of God’s government.

38 Evidence for the extensive, if not ubiquitous, belief in the Heavenly Temple during Second Temple Judaism will be furnished in a different context. 39 The word translated “serve” in verse 15 (latreuo) is a thoroughly priestly term that can be translated “minister” or “worship”.

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