Studies in Revelation: The Temple

Every mention of the temple in Revelation, except one, is of the temple in heaven, the abode of God. We’re told in Exodus 25,

⁸ “Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them. ⁹ Make this tabernacle and all its furnishings exactly like the pattern I will show you. (Exodus 25:8,9, NIV)

The pattern God showed Moses was apparently the heavenly temple.

⁴ If he were on earth, he would not be a priest, for there are already priests who offer the gifts prescribed by the law. ⁵ They serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: “See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.” (Hebrews 8:4-5)

This temple is referred to often in the Old Testament:

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)

But Yahweh is in His holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before Him. (Habakkuk 2:20)

This is the temple that the apostle John sees when he is given the Revelation:

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 shelter them with his presence. (Revelation 7:15)

Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and within his temple was seen the ark of his covenant. And there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake and a severe hailstorm. (Revelation 11:19)

Then another angel came out of the temple and called in a loud voice to him who was sitting on the cloud, “Take your sickle and reap, because the time to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.” (Revelation 14:15)

Another angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle. (Revelation 14:17)

After this I looked, and I saw in heaven the temple—that is, the tabernacle of the covenant law—and it was opened. (Revelation 15:5)

Out of the temple came the seven angels with the seven plagues. They were dressed in clean, shining linen and wore golden sashes around their chests. (Revelation 15:6)

And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power, and no one could enter the temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels were completed. (Revelation 15:8)

Then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, “Go, pour out the seven bowls of God’s wrath on the earth.” (Revelation 16:1)

The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and out of the temple came a loud voice from the throne, saying, “It is done!” (Revelation 16:17)

This is the temple that is coming to earth after the millennial kingdom when the earth and heaven are remade:

The one who is victorious I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will they leave it. I will write on them the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on them my new name. (Revelation 3:12)

But Revelation 21:22 tells us, “I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.” There is no temple in the heavenly Jerusalem that comes down to earth, yet the victorious in the church will be made pillars in the temple of God. It is likely, therefore, that the heavenly Jerusalem is itself the temple in heaven. The whole city comprises the temple.

There is one reference to the temple in Revelation, however, that is not the heavenly temple.

^11:1 I was given a reed like a measuring rod and was told, “Go and measure the temple of God and the altar, with its worshipers. ² But exclude the outer court; do not measure it, because it has been given to the Gentiles. They will trample on the holy city for 42 months. ³ And I will appoint my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.” (Revelation 11:1-3, NIV)

The heavenly temple does not need measuring and cannot be trampled on by the Gentiles. This temple is the temple in earthly Jerusalem at the end of the ages that will be under the control of the antichrist, the beast of Revelation 13, the man of sin of 2 Thessalonians 2.

There is, of course, no temple in Jerusalem now. It will have to be rebuilt, something we have theorized that will be made possible by the covenant the antichrist makes with Israel for seven years, which he violates halfway through, beginning the time of great tribulation.

There is another temple that I believe will exist during the millennial reign of Christ, after the temple John measures and before the heavenly Jerusalem comes to earth, but it is not made mention of in Revelation. I think the temple described in Ezekiel 40-47 is the millennial temple.