I read a comentary about how the JW's changed the greek word so they could claim that the great crowd are not standing before the throne in Rev 7:9 but out side the inner temple and in the court yard so to speak on earth. My question is does the bible say somewhere that the inner temple means heaven and out side the inner sanctuary is the Earth?
The temple and heaven and earth
by Crazyguy 7 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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St George of England
As I recall Rev 7:9 says the GC are BEFORE the lamb and the throne. In the KIV they translate the Greek word to IN SIGHT of. I have yet to find a Greek dictionary to support this translation but others may know of one.
The reason is the Bible says the GC are in heaven, the WTS says they are on earth so they have to do something I guess.
George
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cofty
The word naos refers to the inner part of the temple where only priests could venture.
heiron includes the larger temple complex.
The great crowd are in the naos in Rev 7.
There was a study article on the subject in which they tried to prove that word naos included the outer courtyard. It referred an incident when Jesus was talking in the temple and they said the word used in that account was naos. If you look it up you will see that this was a blatant cynical lie.
It was when I discovered this that I knew the Watchtower was not just wrong but dishonest.
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jhine
Cofty , absolutely bang on . I was looking up some previous research that I had done on this "fudging " of naos , inner sanctuary where the presence of God was supposed to dwell and the word hieron which refers to outer courtyards .Rev 11where the two witnesses are told to measure the Temple but not the outer court sheds light on this .
Crazyguy go to jwfacts they have an excellent article on this subject . Interestingly the great multitude only moved house in the 1930's , up till then the Watchtower had them in heaven !
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notsurewheretogo
Indeed...the naos and heiron examples is one of the biggest lies the WT has made that is really apparent...and it too helped me to "wake up".
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leaving_quietly
Interesting point... Rev 7:9-14 and Rev 22:14. Note the robes. Who does that apply to? WTS says the 144,000 in Rev 22. What do you think?
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Bobcat
Concerning "before" in Rev 7, I posted a thought about this here.
And in connection with naos ("temple," NWT) in Rev 7, Jhine made a good point that in Rev 11 the same word is used and the context specifically excludes the courtyards.
See my post on this page for further links to the Great Crowd and the New Covenant. The nation of Israel, based on Exodus 19:6, was to serve as a "kingdom of priests and a holy nation." This was not referring to Israel's internal priesthood or its later kings in the line of Judah. Rather, this was its role, as a nation, towards the rest of the world. (See my post # 652 here for additional about this.)
Christianity was to replace the nation of Israel in this role. Thus, the great crowd - who are Christian by the description given in Rev 7, are shown serving in the temple.
On the other hand, Israel's internal priesthood was originally to be taken from among the firstborn of all Israel. For convenience, they were instead taken from the tribe of Levi. The 144,000 of Rev 7, taken "out of" every tribe of Israel, represents a return to the original idea of them coming from out of all the tribes. They don't represent a seperate class as the WT would have it. But instead, represent a selection from among all Christians. (If Rev 6:9-11; 7:1-4; 14:1-5; and 20:4 are all related, they represent ones executed or killed. If so, there would be none of the 144,000 on hand when the GT breaks out, contra the Society.)
All Christianity serves a priestly function toward the rest of the world during this age, whereas, the 144,000 serve as an internal priesthood during the age to come.