The Temple and the Church's Mission

[Guest]

The following is an exceprt from G.K. Beale's book The Temple and the Church's Mission

Here's a snippet from the introduction...



"Revelation 21:1-22:5 contains the well-known and much discussed final vision of the entire Bible. There is, however, a major problem that has barely been noticed. Why does John see a 'new heaven and a new earth' Revelation 21:1 and yet in 21:2-3,10-22:3 he sees a city that is garden-like, in the shape of a temple? Why does John not see a full panorama of the new heavens and earth? Why does he not see many forests, rivers, mountains, streams, valleys and the many other features of the furtile worldwide new creation? Some might attribute the apparent discrepancy to the irrational nature that the ancient apocalyptic visions and dreams could have, though this would be hard to accept for a vision that John claims has its origin in God (cf. 21:9 with Rev. 1:1 and 22:6, for example). Also, how does this vision relate to Christians and their role in fulifilling the mission of the church, an issue with which John has been absorbed throughout Revelation?

Thus, after initially saying that he saw 'a new heaven and a new earth', John focuses only on an arboreal city-temple in the remainder of the vision. The dimensions and architectual features of the city in these verses are drawn to a significant extent from Ezekiel 40-48, a prophecy of the dimensions and architectual features of a future temple (so vv. 2, 10-12; 21:27-22:2). The precious stones forming the foundation in Revelation 21:18-21 reflect the description of Solomon's temple which was also overlaid with gold and whose foundation was composed of precious stones: see respectively 1 Kings 6:20-22 (and 5:17 and 7:9-10, and note that the dimensions of Revelation 21:16 ('its length and width and height are equal') are based on the dimensions of the 'holy of holies' in 1 Kings 6:20 (where the 'length...and the breadth...and the height' of the holy of holies were equal in measurement).

How can one explain the apparent discrepancy that John, in verse 1, saw a new creation, yet in the remainder of the vision observed only a city in the shape and structure of a temple? It is possible, of course, that he first sees the new world and then sees a city-temple in that new world. But this is not likely because it is apparent that he equates the 'new heavens and earth' with the following description of the 'city-temple'.

This equation of the new world with the city-temple becomes clearer when one begins to reflect on Revelation 21:27, which declares that 'nothing unclean...shall ever come into' the urban temple. In this respect, it is signifcant to remember that in the Old Testament any uncleanness was to be kept out of the temple precincts (e.g. 2 Chr. 23:19, 29:16; 30:1-20).That the perimeters of the new city-temple will encompass the whole of the new creation is suggested then by the fact that Revelation 21:27 says that no uncleanness will be allowed into the new world. The equation of the city-temple with the new world is further evident from the exclusion of the unclean from the new city in 22:15, which means they will also be excluded from dwelling in the new creation, since they will be in the lake of fire for ever.

Another observation points to the equation of the new cosmos with the city-temple. Revelation 21:1 commences, as we have seen, with John's vision of 'a new heaven and a new earth', followed by his vision of the 'new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven' (v.2), after which he hears a 'loud great voice' proclaiming that the 'tabernacle of God is among men, and He shall dwell among them'. It is likely that the second vision in verse 2 interprets the first vision of the new cosmos, and that what is heard about the tabernacle in verse 3 interprets both verses 1 and 2. If so, the new creation of verse 1 is identical to the 'new Jerusalem' of verse 1 and both represent the same reality as the 'tabernacle' of verse 3."

Here's part of the conclusion...

"Thus, the redemptive-historical development may be explained as proceeding from God's unique presence in the structural temple in the Old Testament to the God-man, Christ, the true temple. As a result of Christ's resurrection, the Spirit continued building the end-time temple, the building materials of which are God's people, thus extending the temple into the new creation in the new age. This building process will culminate in the eternal new heavens and earth as a paradisal city-temple. Or, more briefly, the temple of God has been transformed into God, His people and the rest of the new creation as the temple."

[Guest]

Old post....

I recently discovered G.K. Beale and posted some information about him on this thread: (click) http://www.wvss.com/forumc/viewtopic.php?p=26396#26396
(this thread has an article on Beale and four out of five Revelation lectures).

But here are all five lectures (the link on the above thread only had four):
G.K. Beale,
Seminar on Revelation

This book is on my wish list.
Thanks, JD, if yer out there some where,
Rick