Revelation 11:19, commentary and pictures

The temple opened is a real temple in heaven, with a holy place and a most holy place within the veil, whose inner apartment is thrown open to view. The ark seen inside rests in that most holy place and holds God's law, the Ten Commandments written by His own finger on tables of stone. Its opening is the opening of the second apartment at the end of the 2,300 days in 1844, when Christ entered there to do the closing work of atonement and minister before the ark pleading His blood for sinners. The law thus revealed shines in its original dignity as immutable and still binding, with the Sabbath commandment unchanged, calling the seventh day the Sabbath of the Lord and standing at the center encircled with light because it points to God as Creator. It is a warning and testing message for the last days, calling minds to the sanctuary and to obedience, while the lightnings, voices, thunderings, earthquake, and hail show coming judgments upon transgressors of that law.

Heavenly Temple Opened

The temple opened in heaven is a literal, real temple, pitched by the Lord and not by man for the worship of the new covenant, with Christ as its minister. It stands in the New Jerusalem, which is paradise, the third heaven, not heaven in any other sense. It has two apartments, a holy place and a most holy place beyond the veil, and what is opened to view is the inner apartment, the holy of holies. Within that inner veil John sees the ark of God's testament standing, corresponding to the sacred chest Moses made for the earthly sanctuary to hold God's law.

Beyond the door and first veil is the holy place, containing in glory the altar of incense, the candlestick with seven lamps, and the table of showbread. Beyond the second veil is the holy of holies, containing the ark covered with purest gold, with a lovely cherub at either end with wings spread over it and faces turned toward each other looking downward, and a golden censer standing between the angels. Above the ark where the angels stand is an exceeding bright glory like a throne where God dwells. The earthly sanctuary, temple, and furniture with their services were copies, types, and patterns of this heavenly original, the earthly ark representing the true heavenly ark, so that there are distinct heavenly antitypes for the earthly temple and its furniture.

That heavenly temple is temporary for Christ's ministry and will have no further use after He finishes His ministry and redeems His people, just as the earthly temple had no more use after the ceremonial law ended at the cross. When John sees the Holy City come down at the close of the thousand years he sees no temple in it because he had seen one there before. Then the Holy City alone on the new earth is the tabernacle and temple of God, where the raised saints serve God day and night.

Ark Of Testament Seen

The ark brought to view is in the most holy place within the inner veil, and it holds God's law, the Ten Commandments written by God's own finger on two tables of stone. Those tables lie in the ark in the temple, engraved by the finger of God, and they will be brought forth from their hiding place to be seen as convincing testimony to the truth and binding claims of the law. The ark seen in the heavenly temple is the two tables of stone upon which the ten commandments are written, and a knowledge of this law is of great consequence to all who have light and to all who minister in word and doctrine. John is shown the last-day remnant reverently looking toward the ark and its commandments, the people who keep God's commandments and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. The light of the law of God which is in the ark shines forth upon those on earth who are looking for His coming and searching for truth.

Besides the stone tables the ark also holds the manna and Aaron's budding rod. The Sabbath commandment remains written as given at Sinai, that the seventh day is the Sabbath set apart in honor of God's name, shining above the other commandments, witnessing that God has not changed the Sabbath and making it a dividing sign between His true people and unbelievers.

The ark's cover is the mercy seat, with the Ten Commandments written by God beneath it. Two angels or cherubim stand one at either end with wings spread over the mercy seat and faces turned toward it, one wing overshadowing it and another raised in humility, representing all the heavenly host looking with reverential awe toward the law of God written by the finger of God. The law occupies a prominent position beneath the mercy seat, where mercy and truth meet, and God's promise is above the ark as by a bow over the throne, with the assurance staked upon His almighty power that He has entered into covenant relation with His people and that His commandment-keeping people will not perish but have everlasting life. The heavenly ark is the true ark of which the earthly ark was a pattern.

The ark itself was only a receptacle, and its value and sacredness came from the two stone tablets bearing God's precepts enshrined within it. It is a symbol of the presence of God and a representation of the keeping power of God, in which the law is kept. That law is the holy law given at creation in Eden, spoken by God amid Sinai's thunder and written by God on two stone tablets.

Prophetic Opening In 1844

The opening of the temple is the opening of the second apartment, the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary, at the end of the prophetic days, the 2,300 days, in 1844, when Christ entered there to perform the closing work of the atonement. This is because in the earthly tabernacle that inner apartment within the veil was opened only on the great Day of Atonement for the cleansing of the sanctuary, and the earthly sanctuary and its services were patterns of the heavenly. The ark of God's testament was then brought into view in the most holy place in heaven.

Those who by faith followed their great High Priest into the most holy place beheld the ark of His testament and understood His change of ministration. They saw Him ministering before the ark, officiating there and pleading His blood in behalf of sinners. Light from the most holy place was shed upon His waiting people on earth, showing God's majesty and power.

In 1844 Jesus finished His mediation in the outer apartment, shut the door of the holy place and opened the door of the most holy place, passing within the second veil to stand by the ark. The opened door in the most holy place no man can shut, and the shut door in the holy place no man can open. Enemies of present truth try to reverse this by opening the door of the holy place that Jesus shut and closing the door of the most holy place that He opened.

The temple of God opened in heaven shortly after the disappointment of 1844 gave great light on the sanctuary question to the few who searched earnestly for truth. That light gave them a firm platform of faith on which they took their stand steadfastly. Understanding the sanctuary question establishes faith in the prophecies and strengthens faith in Christ's coming, with love and harmony prevailing where it is seen. Where this sight is missed, unbelief enters and many give up faith or remain in confusion and perplexity not knowing what to believe as truth.

The opening comes when the seventh angel sounds and great voices in heaven say the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of the Lord and of His Christ who shall reign forever and ever. It is then that the four and twenty elders sitting before God fall on their faces and worship God and give thanks to the Lord God Almighty which art and wast and art to come because He has taken His great power and has reigned. It is then that the nations are angry and His wrath is come and the time of the dead that they should be judged, with reward given to His servants the prophets and to the saints and to them that fear His name small and great, and with them which destroy the earth destroyed. Not long hence faithful pioneers grown gray in service through trials and hardships and privations will receive that promised reward.

Christ Ministering Before Ark

Jesus stands by the ark in ministry in the most holy place, and as the prayers of the saints come up to Him the incense in the golden censer between the cherubim smokes and He offers up their prayers with the smoke of the incense to His Father. Faith sees Him there as Advocate and Intercessor, offering in their behalf not their own worth but the incense of His own merits. The ark beside which He ministers is covered with purest gold with a lovely cherub at either end with wings spread over it and faces turned toward each other looking downward, and above where the angels stand is an exceeding bright glory like a throne where God dwells. Within are the tables of stone bearing the Ten Commandments including the unchanged seventh-day Sabbath commandment, which was not abolished at the cross and marks the distinction between God's people and unbelievers.

Light shines forth in clear steady rays from the open door of the temple and from the ark to the world, drawing attention to the tables of stone with God's law engraved on them. In this age of light during the precious hours of probation the door of the most holy place stands ajar, and a special light is now shining upon the commandments, penetrating the moral darkness that has covered the people. That light shows the relation of the Mosaic and Christian dispensations, revealing the fourth commandment in the very bosom of the ten as the great truth uniting them, stating that the seventh day is the Sabbath ordained and set apart and sanctified by God Himself for man to keep holy with special honor, while the first day is a common working day. That heaven-sent light from the opened sanctuary may be resisted when spiritual things are not spiritually discerned, as Satan stirs men to crowd down those God uses to communicate it and to scorn His messages and messengers.

Jesus ministers before the ark and its Ten Commandments until the saints have been numbered and sealed. When His work is finished He casts down the censer and declares that His work is done and the time for decision is over. Then the cases of all are fixed and each person's character and fate are fixed for life or death.

The opened temple has its threshold filled and flushed with glory for every church that will love God and keep His commandments. By studying, meditating, and praying, believers gain spiritual eyesight to discern the inner courts of the celestial temple. Faith cuts through Satan's hellish shadow to see Christ interceding, and believers catch the themes of song and thanksgiving of the heavenly choir round about the throne and join in songs of praise and thanksgiving. Seeing Him as Advocate offering the incense of His own merits fills the heart with a sense of the immensity and diversity and vastness and variety of the love of God.

Law And Sabbath Upheld

The opened temple shows the holy law of God shining in heaven in holy dignity exactly as He wrote it with His own finger on tables of stone, proving the Ten Commandments including the fourth to be immutable, unchangeable, sacred and still binding, with not one command annulled and not a jot or tittle changed, against the claims that Christ nailed them to His cross or that Sunday has replaced the Sabbath. The law enshrined in the heavenly ark is the great original, the same law spoken by God amid the thunders of Sinai, a revelation of His will and a transcript of His character, of which the precepts on the tables of stone and recorded by Moses in the Pentateuch were an unerring transcript. That original is kept safely in the ark in the heavenly sanctuary to be presented to men exactly as God engraved it, and it forever endures as a faithful witness in heaven.

The Sabbath commandment on those tables still reads the same as when written by the finger of God and delivered to Moses at Sinai, calling the seventh day the Sabbath of the Lord. If God had changed the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day He would have changed that heavenly writing to call the first day the Sabbath, so its unchanged wording proves He has not changed it. Its shining above the other commandments witnesses that He has not changed or abolished the Sabbath at the cross, for the fourth commandment still requires the seventh-day Sabbath and has not been changed to the first day of the week. The law's giving amid lightning and thunder recalls its solemn divine origin.

The fourth commandment stands in the very center and bosom of the ten, encircled with a soft halo of light. It alone of the ten defines the living God who created the heavens and the earth and all things therein, and thus identifies Him as Creator. Its foundation was laid when the foundations of the earth were laid in Eden. If the true Sabbath had been kept it would have guarded the world from idolatry, and there would never have been an infidel or an atheist, for its observance would have preserved the world from idolatry.

A breach has been made in the law by changing the Sabbath from the seventh day to the first day. The first day is a common working day with no sanction in the Word of God, yet a spurious sabbath and false sabbath has been exalted above the sanctified and blessed Sabbath given to mankind, and everyone who does so is out of harmony with God's law. The fourth commandment states that the seventh day is the Sabbath ordained and set apart by God Himself for man to keep holy, a day He sanctified and blessed to be honored with special observance and special honor to God. This commandment is the great truth that unites the Mosaic and the Christian dispensations, and the light upon the sanctuary shows their relation to each other.

The law in the ark is the standard of character for the king on his throne and the humblest subject alike, by which every work will be tried and every thought examined, distinguishing commandment-keepers from commandment-breakers. The Sabbath placed in the bosom of the Decalogue in the ark is the sign of the loyalty of His people. Its sanctity reaches into eternity, for from one Sabbath to another His subjects shall come up to worship before Him in the earth made new. Human efforts to abolish the law, and Satan's blinding of men to that end, cannot make it void or of none effect.

Last Day Warning And Judgment

The opened temple with the ark of the testament seen within is a warning message concerning all who live in the last days of this earth's history, a testing message for this time that must be understood. The ark contains God's law, the ten precepts written by God's own finger that point out duty, and John's vision calls attention to those commandments and directs minds to heaven and to the sanctuary where they are kept. Christ sent His angel from heaven to teach it to John for this purpose, that the attention of people on earth is being called to those ten commandments as the path of true obedience. A remnant gathered from the world is brought into harmony with those precepts of Jehovah, standing under Christ's banner and bearing the sign of obedience described in Exodus 31:12-18 in the final conflict between obedience and rebellion.

The time has come for the temple of God to be opened in heaven in answer to the prayers of His people. The ark seen in His temple holds the two tables of stone upon which the ten commandments are written, it is a symbol of the presence of God, and in clear steady rays light shines from it to the world. The time has come when the law of God is to be proclaimed with strong decided utterance through the first, second, and third angels' messages, and influences are to be set in motion to proclaim them to the world. The world is to be warned to prepare to meet God, and by terrible things in righteousness He will reveal His power. Men have almost filled the cup of their iniquity, while God in wonderful forbearance and patience withholds the death penalty until transgressors have heard the warning and seen the fallacy of their doctrines.

The light of the law of God which is in the ark shines forth upon His people on earth who are looking for His coming and searching for truth. Those who receive this light see that a breach has been made in the law of God and that the Sabbath of the fourth commandment has been supplanted by a spurious sabbath with no sanction in the Word of God. They abandon the spurious sabbath and become loyal to God amid great opposition, taking their position under the standard of the third angel as the people repairing the breach in the law of God. John sees this last-day remnant reverently looking toward the ark and its commandments, with eyes directed to the temple and attention fixed on the law in the ark, and they are brought to view in the proclamation of the third angel's message as they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. Their special work at this time is the presentation of the claims of the fourth commandment, which especially excites the enmity of the world, yet heaven watches this work with deepest interest while angels watch the development of character and weigh moral worth. Angels are commanded to place a mark upon those loyal to God's commandments, who will have special help from God to endure the test and proving of the time of trouble, and many respond by keeping the Lord's Sabbath.

The special test upon the fourth commandment does not come until after this opening, for God dispenses light and knowledge at the proper time as people need it. Since the 1844 opening when Jesus finished His mediation in the outer apartment and passed within the second veil to stand by the ark, the commandments have been shining out to His people, and God has been testing His people on the holy Sabbath, which could not come until after that change. Christians who died before the light was given upon the law of God and the claims of the fourth commandment, before the seventh month of 1844 and before that door opened, without keeping the true Sabbath, are not guilty of violating the seventh-day Sabbath but rest in hope. Before His coming to judge the world in righteousness He sends warning to arouse people over neglect of the fourth commandment so they may be enlightened, repent of transgression of His law, prove allegiance to the great Lawgiver, and be made holy and happy, and the shut door and the commandments cannot be separated.

The seen ark brings to view God's commandments as the dividing test, leaving only two parties on earth. On one side are those under the blood-stained banner of Jesus Christ bearing the sign of obedience spoken of in Exodus 31:12-18, and on the other are those under the black banner of rebellion with the great apostate. All take sides either for Christ and the commandments or for Satan, when Satan unites Protestants and papists and the civil power to persecute commandment-keepers. When the last decision is made God arises in power to stop blasphemy and punish every opposing power.

The lightnings and voices and thunderings and earthquake and great hail symbolize judgments on those who transgress God's law. They are terrific representations of the wrath of God upon the earth when justice speaks and wrath is no longer withheld, bringing universal desolation. The verse thus points to God's law, given at creation in Eden, proclaimed at Mount Sinai, and written by God on two stone tablets, as the standard distinguishing commandment-keepers from commandment-breakers.

The opening of the temple in heaven means the armory of heaven is open and all the universe of God and its equipments are ready. All heaven is watching the unfolding of events on earth, and every movement in the universe of heaven is preparing the world for a great and decisive crisis to come right early in the prolonged controversy over the government of God on earth. Without speedy action the character of God and His throne will be compromised. The time before that crisis is a time to do good and watch God's work, and those whose lives and characters follow the divine model are hidden with Christ in God.

The eleventh chapter must be read verse by verse to learn the things yet to take place in the cities. The verse is part of God's special indications of His wonderful display of power in the destruction of a sinful city recently destroyed, which must not be ignored or treated with indifference and lightness. It forbids defiantly rebuilding greater buildings and investing means as before under threat of God counteracting such efforts, and it calls men who abused privileges and wronged fellow men to make amends and hear His voice.

When the temple is opened there is seen the ark of His testament, and that will be a triumphant time for all who have been faithful and true. In the temple in the ark are the two tables of stone on which God's law, the ten commandments, are written, engraved by the finger of God. These tables of stone lying in the ark in their hiding place will be brought forth and seen, and will be a convincing testimony to the truth and binding claims of God's law.

As this light is seen, all who see it are held responsible if they reject it. The nations are angry, God's wrath is come, the dead are judged, reward is given to God's servants the prophets and to the saints and to them that fear God's name, small and great, and them which destroy the earth are destroyed. Not long hence faithful pioneers grown gray in service through trials and hardships and privations will receive that reward.