Ezekiel's Temple Vision

by leaving_quietly 6 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  leaving_quietly

  JWs understand the temple vision in Ezekiel to represent the anointed today and the "spiritual temple" both earthly and heavenly.

  w00 3/15 pp. 10-15
  14 In 1971 an explanation of Ezekiel’s prophecy was published in the book “The Nations Shall Know That I Am Jehovah”—How? A chapter of that book briefly discussed Ezekiel’s vision of a temple. (Ezekiel, chapters 40-48) At the time, the focus was on how Ezekiel’s temple vision would be fulfilled in the new world.—2 Peter 3:13.
  
  15 However, two articles published in The Watchtower of December 1, 1972, affected our understanding of Ezekiel’s vision. They discussed the great spiritual temple described by the apostle Paul in Hebrews chapter 10. The Watchtower explained that the Holy compartment and the inner courtyard of the spiritual temple relate to the condition of the anointed while they are on the earth. When Ezekiel chapters 40 to 48 were reviewed years later, it was discerned that just as the spiritual temple is operating today, so the temple that Ezekiel saw in vision must also be functioning today. How so?
  
  16 In Ezekiel’s vision, priests are seen moving about in the courtyards of the temple as they serve the nonpriestly tribes. These priests clearly represent the “royal priesthood,” Jehovah’s anointed servants. (1 Peter 2:9) However, they will not be serving in the temple’s earthly courtyard throughout the Thousand Year Reign of Christ. (Revelation 20:4) During most of that period, if not all of it, the anointed will be serving God in the spiritual temple’s Most Holy, “heaven itself.” (Hebrews 9:24) Since priests are seen going to and fro in the courtyards of Ezekiel’s temple, that vision must be undergoing fulfillment today, while some of the anointed are still on the earth. Accordingly, the March 1, 1999, issue of this magazine reflected an adjusted view on this subject. Thus, clear down to the end of the 20th century, spiritual light was shed upon Ezekiel’s prophecy.

  However, this cannot be. Ezekiel chapters 44 and 45 describe priestly duties, such that were understood to be done while under the Mosaic Law, such as keeping the Sabbath and sacrificing various offerings. It also describes how the priests could not touch someone dead. No one would be dying during the Thousand Years, or so JWs believe.

  Ez. 44:25 "And to a dead person of mankind he should not come in so as to become unclean, but for father or for mother or for son or for daughter [or] for brother or for a sister that has not become a husband’s they may make themselves unclean."

  Thoughts?
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  itsibitsybrainbutbigenoughtosmellarat

  Never mind, this is what is really important.

  
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  Bobcat

  Several points I noticed:

  "However, two articles published in The Watchtower of December 1, 1972, affected our understanding of Ezekiel's vision."

  Notice how the Society speaks of the articles as if they were produced by some third party, which then 'affect our understanding.'

  This is done to create an air of divine inspiration of the material.'

  "The Watchtower explained that the Holy compartment and the inner courtyard of the spiritual temple relate to the condition of the anointed while they are on the earth."

  Their whole view and interpretation are skewed because they imagine that only the 144,000 are anointed Christians. They also imagine that the "great crowd" of Rev 7 is serving in the courtyards, whereas, in Rev 7 they are in the naos, which chapter 11 differentiates from the courtyards.

  All this completely wrecks any sort of logical explanation they might otherwise have gotten from the vision. Much of the foundation of their presentation is false. Their viewpoint is much like that of the Pharisees. (Luke 18:9)
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  Leolaia

  If we are going to talk about what Ezekiel meant, then what he was describing was the Temple that the Jews were going to rebuild following their return from Exile. It was a grand vision of a Temple that would truly be befitting for the God of Heaven. What then happened was that the government of the Yehud dragged their heels and then ended up building a pitiful structure as the Second Temple which came nowhere near what Ezekiel had envisioned. It wasn't until the time of Herod the Great when a grander Temple was built to replace it, but it still wasn't what Ezekiel had expected. The usual way to salvage unfulfilled prophey was to simply defer it into the future. The bulk of unfulfilled restoration promises in the Prophets were utilized in messianic Judaism as eschatological expectations of a coming future reality to follow the true restoration of Israel for eternity. So there was a revision of Ezekiel's expectations in the Temple Scroll (11QTemple) that envisioned an even grander Temple, with its borders encompassing the entire city of Jerusalem itself. This meant that everyone who lived in Jerusalem would follow priestly legislation. And then John of Patmos revised Ezekiel's eschatological Temple on even grander terms, with its extent equivalent to that of an entire country (New Jerusalem being roughly the size of Brasil). The Society is heir to this process of reinterpretation, even though as you point out the details of Ezekiel's expectation do not square with the current eschatological interpretation of it.
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  Pterist

  Leaving _quietly **** No one would be dying during the Thousand Years, or so JWs believe.*****

  I always found it hard to believe that since Christ's resurrection and his return to sit on his Father's throne where all enemies become a footstool, that NOTHING in the heavens has been happening for the past 2000 years.

  I have been very impressed with amillenism and PARTIAL preterism escathology which seems to answer most of my question compared to all other types of escathology.

  Revelation 21:8 shows that "unclean" people (DEAD to God, unclean), will NOT enter the ALREADY ESTABLISHED New Heavens and New earth as mortality await it's final completion in immortality. Does this fit with your thoughts on Ezekiel's vision. ?
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  Nambo

  Now bareing in mind that at the end of the 1000 years Satan gathers the Nations together to wage war on the Holy city.

  Also bare in mind Isaiah 65 talks about people still dying though 100 years old.

  Also supposedly dead people will be weeping and Gnashing thier teeth because they didnt get in.

  I wonder if this is what happens, after Jesus returns, his people are gathered to Literal Jerusalem, just as the Hebrews were gathered there previosuly.

  They will not die because they will be able to drink from the River of Life that emits from Eziekiels Temple.

  People that did not qualify as Christians and that survived the tribulations, will be living in the world just as they do now, but without the Devil stirring things up, so it will be a lot better for them they will however see how they have missed out by not being in the Promised land, hence they will be living people who weep and gnash their teeth outside the city walls.

  After the 1000 years, Satan gathers these people, these Nations together, not a load of JWs who failed some mysterious second test.

  Gods destruction of disobedient mankind comes at the end of the 1000 years, the destruction of Mankind at the beginning reads to me only those men who actually take up arms against Jesus and his Kingdom, in much the same way the Egyptian army was destroyed, but ordinary Egyptians carried on living.

  So to sum up, I think what happened to the Hebrews living in Palestine, is a pattern for what will happen to Christians living as subjects of Jesus here on Earth during his 1000 year reign, both amidst the unGodly Nations of the outside world, and Eziekiels Temple will be in the role of the original Temple but in its full capacity of bringing literal life to its people.

  That way, just as the original Nations got to see how much better off mankind was with Jehovah as thier God, the rest of Mankind will even more see the Justification of God by the example of the Christians living forever right in front of thier eyes.

  If everone else was dead, how would they get to see they made the wrong decision in rejecting the Christ? All the Nations will know in the end.
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  leaving_quietly

  @Leolaia: yes, my thoughts as well . . . why would Jehovah describe a yet thousands year off structure when he still had plans to return the Jews from exile?

  @Nambo: " Also bare in mind Isaiah 65 talks about people still dying though 100 years old." Yes, I caught that last week in my personal Bible reading. Same thought.