Let's consider what the Temple of God is today after Messiah. Each and every time the Apostle Paul speaks about the “temple of God” and uses the Greek word “naos” (G3485) in Scripture he is always referring to believers both individually and collectively. He is referring to the Church:
1 Corinthians 3:16, “Do you not know that you are the
temple [naos] of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?”
1 Corinthians 3:17, “If anyone defiles the
temple [naos] of God, God will destroy him. For the temple [naos] of God is holy, which temple you are.“
1 Corinthians 6:19, “Or do you not know that your body is the
temple [naos] of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?”
2 Corinthians 6:16, “And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the
temple [naos] of the living God …”
Ephesians 2:19-22, “Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom
the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple [naos] in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.”
Even the Apostle Peter agrees in 1 Peter 2, the only time he ever refers to God’s temple:
1 Peter 2:4-5, “Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious,
you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”
When Paul refers to the temple as the Church he uses the word “naos” (G3485) and always calls the Church the temple of God or the temple of the Holy Spirit or an equivalent expression.
With that in mind, let's turn our attention to the Temple of God in Revelation 11. In the very first verse of Revelation 11 John writes:
Revelation 11:1, “Then I was given a reed like a measuring rod. And the angel stood, saying, ‘Rise and measure the
temple [naos] of God, the altar, and those who worship there.'”
Many believe that if John could measure this temple using a physical tool like a reed, then the temple must itself be physical. This, however, need not be the case at all. Four quick reasons why:
1. The Angel who speaks to John uses the exact same expression in Revelation 11:1, saying, “Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein.” Even the word “naos” is used when referring to the temple of God, the same word the Apostle Paul used when referring to the temple of God as the Church, not a temple made of stone.
2. The very first time we find the word “temple” in Revelation is in 3:12a regarding the Church in Philadelphia when Christ says, “He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more.” To be made a pillar in the temple of God must mean that the temple in view here is not a physical temple made of stone, but rather one that is made of people.
3. Lampstands/candlesticks were important items that were found in the physical temple in the Old Testament, yet John shows us that this time the lampstands/candlesticks in the temple of God are represented by two witnesses (11:4), which again would indicate that the temple in view is not a physical temple made of stone, but rather one of people.
4. In the Old Testament a priest was one who served within the physical temple. In Revelation 1:6 and 5:10 we are told that anyone who has been washed by the blood of Christ is a priest, and the Christian understanding of this according to 1 Peter 2:5 is that as priests we now “offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” We no longer offer animal sacrifices in a temple made of stone.
So I've said all that to say this. Today, the Temple of God is the Church. Today, the sacrifices we offer up are spiritual sacrifices of praise. But a time is coming when something takes place against God's Holy Temple:
2 Thessalonians 2:3-4, “Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day [the Day of the Lord and our gathering to Him] will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that
he sits as God in [eis G1519 – or against] the temple [naos] of God, showing himself that he is God.”
The New Testament will often harken back to something physical that was holy to the Lord and served a purpose in the Old Testament, a foreshadow of something better to come. For example, Old Testament sacrifices were a foreshadowing of the sacrificial Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world. The Old Testament physical temple where Yahweh then dwelled was a foreshadowing of the Ekklesia / Church where Yahweh dwells today. In the physical temple, lampstands/candlesticks were important items that functioned
to shed light and represent the life and light that God gives to His people. In Revelation 11:4, John shows us that in the time of the end the lampstands/candlesticks in the temple of God are represented by the “two witnesses” (11:4), but the holy temple today is a spiritual temple made of believers and not a physical temple made of stone. Again, notice that John doesn’t even call them “men” at all (the NIV in Rev 11:6 uses the word “men”, but it is not in the original Greek) and the word for “standing” in verse 4 is “histemi” and it means that the “two witnesses” are being steadfast and standing firm in the Lord.
When some passages are difficult we need to see if Scripture can interpret itself for us. Since John calls the “two witnesses” the “two olive trees and two lampstands” and not “men”, what does Scripture have to say about the significance of olive trees and lampstands? Let’s have a look at Zechariah, who writes an interesting passage concerning both the olive tree and the lamp stand in the same context:
Zechariah 4:2-3,11-14, “And he said to me, ‘What do you see?’ So I said, ‘I am looking, and there [is] a lampstand of solid gold with a bowl on top of it, and on the [stand] seven lamps with seven pipes to the seven lamps. ‘Two olive trees [are] by it, one at the right of the bowl and the other at its left.’ … Then I answered and said to him, ‘What [are] these two olive trees – at the right of the lampstand and at its left?’ And I further answered and said to him, ‘What [are these] two olive branches that [drip] into the receptacles of the two gold pipes from which the golden [oil] drains?’ Then he answered me and said, ‘Do you not know what these [are]?’ And I said, ‘No, my lord.’ So he said, ‘These [are] the two anointed ones, who stand beside the Lord of the whole earth.'”
Notice how
the olive trees drip oil into the lampstands. Without oil from the olive tree a lampstand will be, for all intents and purposes, little more than a useless lampstand because oil is its source of light. Without the oil, there is only darkness. Now here is something that I find
illuminating. In Psalm 119:105, David writes, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path” and “the entrance of Your words gives light” (Psalms 119:130a). Isaiah says, “Look to God’s instructions and teachings! People who contradict his word are completely in the dark” (Isa 8:20 NLT). This suggests to me that the oil from the olive trees — the source of light for the lampstands — represents the Word of God. (Consider Psalm 23 and think about David’s words when he writes, “thou anointest my head with oil” and how much more meaningful this is in light of what the head and oil represents). And as you know, the olive tree in Scripture often represents Israel. We received the Word of God through Israel.
In Revelation 1:20 John tells us that “the seven lampstands which you saw are the seven churches”. The lampstands represent the church or churches, and the olive trees — which represents believing Israel (Romans 11) — are feeding the lampstands with oil. In John 5:39 Jesus says, “Search the scriptures … they are they which testify of me.” The New Testament wasn’t written at that time, and He obviously meant the Old Testament texts. A whole entire study could be done on how and why Jesus (Yeshua, the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the Aleph and the Tav) is proclaimed all throughout the Old Testament, but suffice to say, He is fulfillment of the old Law and is the Messiah whom the prophets spoke of. Not only that, He is the Word of God manifested in the flesh, for “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us…” (John 1:1,14). “His name is called The Word of God” (Rev 19:13b).
The oil — the Word of God, the manifested Messiah — is “the light of the world” and the “light of life” (John 8:12), and therefore the source of light for the lampstands as well as believing Israel who looked forward to the Promises (cf Heb 11:13). And as Paul is clear to inform us, both believing Jew and believing Gentile together (the two olive trees and two lampstands) are now built up as the Ekklesia of God, His spiritual temple. (Also notice how the very beginning of Revelation 11 refers to this temple and describes the “holy city” trampled under foot for 42 months). We will stand firm for these 3.5 years right up until the end, and then we are raised up (Rev 11:11-12).
Jewish believers and grafted in Gentiles are the candlesticks and lampstands of the Temple of God today and when the "man of sin" stands against the Ekklesia he will seek to extinguish this light -- to put an end to our daily sacrifice of praise -- from his kingdom. And he will succeed (Rev 11:6, 13:7). And then Messiah will come and destroy him "with the brightness of His coming" (2 Thess 2:8).
"If any one destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and that temple you are." (1 Cor 3:17).
