there was no Court of the Gentiles in the divinely provided architectural plans of Solomon's temple or Ezekiel's visionary temple; nor was there one in the temple rebuilt by Zerubbabel. Hence, there is no reason to suggest that a Court of the Gentiles needs to play a part in Jehovah's great spiritual temple arrangement for worship, especially when the following point is considered.
This is typical mumbo-jumbo crap that is designed to impress the rank and file Witness who generally are neither educated, or inclined to question anything that comes off the 6th floor. First of all, I guess this is ‘new light' coming from the Throne because the February 1, 1998 WT on page 28 states: "The great crowd worships with anointed Christians in the earthly courtyard of Jehovah's great spiritual temple. (Revelation 7: 14,15; 11:2) There is no reason to conclude that they are in a separate Court of The Gentiles."
"It is reasonable to say that the great crowd worships Jehovah in one of the earthly courtyards of his great spiritual temple, specifically the one that corresponds with the outer courtyard of Solomon's temple."
Actually, it is not "reasonable" at all upon examination. The courtyard mentioned in Revelation is not referenced with any favour. In chapter 11: 2 it states: "But as for the courtyard that is outside the temple [sanctuary], cast it clear out and do not measure it, because it has been given to the nations, and they will trample the holy city underfoot for forty-two months. "
So if the courtyard that is outside the temple is where the Great Crowd is, it looks like the Great Crowd is going to get royally screwed over for "forty-two months" after they've been "given to the nations" and "trampled" on. How does the WTS explain this? Does anyone in the Writing Department have any brain cells that are actually working?
in the literal, word-for-word rendering found under the Greek text in The Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures:
hieron is translated "temple" naos is translated "divine habitation"
And members of the great crowd are not in the inner courtyard of Jehovah's great spiritual temple, which courtyard represents the condition of perfect, righteous human sonship of the members of Jehovah's "holy priesthood" while they are on earth. (1 Peter 2:5) But as the heavenly elder said to John, the great crowd really is in the temple, not outside the temple area in a kind of spiritual Court of the Gentiles. What a privilege that is!
This is just plain bizarre. On one hand, they're claiming (with no scriptural support whatsoever) that the Great Crowd are not in the inner courtyard and they use 1 Peter 2: 5 to back up this claim. Assuming for a moment that they're right, on the WT CD-ROM, it references the "spiritual house" mentioned in verse 5 with Ephesians 2: 21-22 that says: "... In union with him the whole building, being harmoniously joined together, is growing into a holy temple for Jehovah. 22 In union with him YOU, too, are being built up."
So even if the Great Crowd were in the "outer courtyard" and weren't going to be trampled on and cast out, Ephesians 2 makes it clear that the "spiritual house" is referring to "the whole building being harmoniously joined together." In other words, just as Jesus said regarding the Jews and Gentiles "and they will become one flock", there is no two-tiered class of Christians as taught by the Craptower.
Another point is the fact that in Revelation 7:9, 5, the "great crowd" is "before the throne" of God. Even Crooklyn admits that the Greek word used as "before" is translated as enopion which means literally "in sight." Of course, their feeble excuse that it doesn't mean you have to literally be "standing before the throne" has absolutely no backing either historically, grammatically or scripturally, but since when did that ever make any difference to these goons?
