Revelation 11:1

REV:11

The first section of this chapter (Revelation 11:1-13) concludes the sixth trumpet with its vision of the fortunes of the church right up to the end and through the final judgment itself. The seventh trumpet (Revelation 11:14-19) describes the eternal state but gives no details concerning events in it. Several references to the actual judgment itself are retrospective, referring to an event which is past already. This seventh trumpet resembles the seventh seal in its silence regarding actual events after the judgment.

This chapter is a vision, and practically nothing in it is to be taken literally; the great realities discussed are presented under a number of symbols, some of which may not be crucial to the meaning, but are inert, like some of the details in the parables of Jesus. Morris called this chapter "extraordinarily difficult to interpret,"[1] and none could disagree with that. As Alford cautioned, "Much of this mysterious book is as yet unfathomed."[2] Despite this, however, we offer the following interpretation as a sincere understanding of what the text says. Here are some of the symbols and the meanings which we believe to be conveyed by them:

<MONO>

The reed like unto a rod = The Word of God

The measuring = The sealing of the saints

The temple, altar, etc. = The church of God

The forty and two months = This whole dispensation

The two witnesses = The Word of God and the Word-indwelt Church

The beast out of the abyss = Satan

The slaying of the witnesses = The world's rejection of their testimony

Resurrection of witnesses = Resurgence of truth

The unburied bodies = "Operations" of dead churches

The calling of the witnesses = The resurrection and final to heaven judgmentMONO>

Other symbols will be interpreted as they appear in the chapter. The comments of others will also be presented in connection with the meanings which we have ascribed to these symbols.

Regarding the various systems of interpretation, as applied to this chapter, a glance at some of these will show how diverse are the views of it that appear in current writings.

The literalists take if for just what it says; and, of course, all of us should try to do that. The trouble is that figurative language cannot be understood literally; and no one familiar with the Bible can deny that a great deal of it is written in figurative language, every known figure of speech being freely employed.

Dusterdieck and others think this chapter refers literally to the Jewish temple and the earthly Jerusalem; but, if so, the Apocalypse stands self-condemned as a prediction falsified (by the contradiction of events) within a year or so of its having been written.[3]

The futurists get rid of all such difficulties by referring the whole prophecy to the remote future, supposing that by then Jerusalem and the temple shall have been completely rebuild as of old, and then, at that far-off future time, the events of this chapter will literally occur. They identify the beast as Antichrist.

The historicists, among whom is the noted Albert Barnes, identify the witnesses as "persecuted sects of the Middle Ages, and the beast as the Papacy."[4] There is an element of truth in this, because the apostasy foretold in Revelation, and the persecutions that were to accompany it, did have a fulfillment in such events, but not the fulfillment.

The preterists think that practically everything in Revelation had its fulfillment in the first generation or so after it was written, and that nothing in it reaches any further than "the first two or three centuries after it was written."[5] Some of this group of interpreters find in the "two witnesses" who were slain the martyrdoms of Peter and Paul, supposing that they will yet rise from the dead and preach, as in the vision!

The preterists are correct in seeing a genuine relevance in this prophecy for the first generation that received it; but they are totally wrong in restricting its relevance to the apostolic and sub-apostolic ages.

The futurists in their interpretation lose all relevance whatever in this prophecy to any age except that of a brief period before the final coming of Christ. Thus, these lose all relevance of Revelation for any age except the very last; and the preterists lose all relevance to any age except the very first. Both views are wrong, because God's word is relevant to all times, periods and conditions. The many prophecies in Revelation are being fulfilled continually. For example, the evil enemies of the New Testament have been "killing it" all of this writer's lifetime; and they are still "killing it! .... But the word of the Lord endureth for ever." The apostasy was not one final act of the Medieval Church; it is also Jim Jones' bizarre sect in Guyana in 1978, and a thousand other things. None of this is intended to deny that some fulfillments are so much more extensive and prolonged that they indeed stand typically for all fulfillments.

There has never been a time when this prophecy was not relevant; nor will there ever be. No other understanding of it, it appears to us, could be harmonized with the significant beatitude of Revelation 1:3, "Blessed are they that read ... hear ... and keep the things that are written therein."

And there was given me a reed like unto a rod; and one said, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein. (Revelation 11:1)

A reed like unto a rod ... Is this a literal cane some ten or fifteen feet long? How could the worshippers of God be measured by any such stick as this? What does it symbolize? Lenski can hardly be wrong in his comment that:

The reed must then symbolize the word or Gospel in its function of determining who is in the church and who is outside of its bounds.[6]

When one speaks of the Canon of the New Testament, he is speaking of this "reed like unto a rod." The very word "Canon means rule, or standard,"[7] in the sense of our ordinary word ruler as the name of a small measuring device. Once the meaning of this "rod" is seen, other meanings in the passage fall into place.

Measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship ... "Temple of God" in this passage is impossible to accept as a reference to the literal Jewish temple in Jerusalem, called by the Son of God himself a "den of thieves and robbers." That an angel of God should have been concerned with having John measure that desolation (Matthew 23:38) is inconceivable. "It scarcely seems possible to doubt that temple here is used figuratively for the faithful portion of the Church of Christ."[8] In fact, the word here rendered temple is actually sanctuary (ASV margin), "The Greek word [@nous] means the." holy house, where God dwells ... The use of [@nous] here for the thing to be measured makes a literal interpretation of temple impossible."[9] "For John, the temple is the Christian Church, the people of God."[10] "This sanctuary symbolizes the true church."[11]

If any distinction is to be made between the temple and the altar, which is doubtful, it would appear to be that the altar refers to the worship itself, the doctrine and practice of the faithful portion of the church; and the temple refers to the whole body of the church.

The measuring of the "worshippers" would naturally mean the evaluation of their lifestyle, character, and behaviour by the principles taught in the word of God. Thus the corporate body of the church, its doctrine, worship, and teaching, as well as the individual character and conduct of its members would all be included in the measuring. Significantly, there have been pronounced departures from the word of God in all of these categories by the historical church.

What is the purpose of the measuring? In the Old Testament, things were "measured" either for destruction or for preservation; but the identity of what is measured here suggests that "the measuring is a symbolical way of declaring its preservation, not from physical sufferings, but from spiritual danger."[12] Hendriksen likewise concurred in the judgment that the measuring here means "the setting apart from that which is profane."[13]

This measuring by the word of God has the same purpose and effect as the sealing of the 144,000 in Revelation 7. The sealing there is done by the Holy Spirit; and the measuring here is by the word, those who are indwelt by the word (Colossians 3:16). The indwelling, whether by the Spirit, or by the word, being exactly the same either way. There is no difference. See my Commentary on Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians, pp. 97-99. It is good to note that many scholars have seen this correspondence with the sealing. "This corresponds to the sealing in Revelation 7:1-8."[14] An important deduction from this is that:

The vision therefore declares that whatever corruptions invade the church, the kernel of the church will never be destroyed; but out of it there will arise those who will be true to the Master's commission.[15]

This promise of protection for God's church, indicated in this vision by the "measuring," was made by the Lord himself in Matthew 28:18-20.

[1] Leon Morris, Tyndale Commentaries, Vol. 20, The Revelation of St. John (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1969), p. 144.

[2] Henry Alford as quoted by Albertus Pieters, Studies in the Revelation of St. John (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1954), p. 137.

[3] A. Plummer, The Pulpit Commentary, Vol. 22, Revelation (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1950), p. 288.

[4] Ralph Earle, Beacon Bible Commentary, Vol. 10 (Kansas City: Beacon Hill Press, 1967), p. 565.

[5] Albertus Pieters, op. cit., p. 38.

[6] R. C. H. Lenski, The Interpretation of St. John's Revelation (Minneapolis. Minnesota: Augsburg Publishing House, 1943), p. 327.

[7] Vergilius Ferm, An Encyclopedia of Religion (New York: Philosophical Library, 1943), p. 116.

[8] A. Plummer, op. cit., p. 288.

[9] Charles H. Roberson, Studies in Revelation (Tyler, Texas: P. D. Wilmeth, P.O. Box 3305,1957), p. 69.

[10] William Barclay, The Revelation of John (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1976), p. 68.

[11] William Hendriksen, More than Conquerors (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1956), p. 153.

[12] Robert H. Mounce, Commentary on the New Testament Revelation (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1977), p. 219.

[13] William Hendriksen, op. cit., p. 152.

[14] Robert H. Mounce, op. cit., p. 219.

[15] W. Boyd Carpenter, Ellicott's Bible Commentary, Vol. VIII (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1959), p. 584.