I posted yesterday a link to an article I wrote about the "inner rooms".Please find the full article below
What are the "inner rooms" in Isaiah 26:20?
One of the questions that seem to trouble the governing body of the Jehovah's Witnesses in recent year is this: What will Jehovah's Witnesses be doing during the destruction of Babylon the Great?" In previous years and even up to 2014 the idea was that the Kingdom Halls will provide shelter to all those faithful.The most recent following quote seems to be making this case:
In recent years though and due to the selling of many Kingdom Halls around the world that seems more and more to be the less likely outcome.In a recent assembly, the Witnesses were seen, during the drama of the day, to be hiding in a nondescript bunker praying and waiting for their imminent capture.Is there any way to know then what will we be doing during the destruction of Babylon the Great? Will the Kingdom Halls provide protection from the attack of "Gog of Magog" or will we have to hide in underground bunkers and wait for God's help?
The Watchtower seems to have placed a lot of import on just one verse from the book of Isaiah as a way to predict the future.This verse is found in Isaiah 26:20.There we read: "Go, my people, enter your rooms and shut the doors behind you; hide yourselves for a little while until his wrath has passed by."(NIV) As it is always the case the Watchtower completely ignores the immediate context of this verse and seeks to attach meaning by jumping to many other unrelated parts of the Bible in order to qualify its claims.For example, the article quoted above makes mention of Hebrews 10:24,25 where Paul was admonishing the congregation in Jerusalem to: "let us consider one another so as to incite to love and fine works, not forsaking our meeting together, as some have the custom, but encouraging one another, and all the more so as you see the day drawing near." Although the first century Christians did meet in private homes during the 1st century AD there is nothing in that verse or its surrounding context to suggest that the "Kingdom Halls" of that time played any role as hiding places during the destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD.
A careful consideration of the 26th chapter of the book of Isaiah gives us a surprising answer of what these "inner rooms" are and they are nothing that you've ever heard before! In order to arrive though at the right conclusion, we need to consider the immediate context of verse 20 very carefully.The first few verses provided us with the first identification marker of where these rooms are actually located.We read in Isaiah 26:1,2: "In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:“We have A STRONG CITY.He makes salvation its walls and its ramparts. OPEN UP THE GATES so that THE RIGHTEOUS NATION may enter, A nation that is keeping faithful conduct." In other words, the opening of the chapter makes mention of the "righteous nation" that is granted access to a "strong city" and it is in this city that these "inner rooms" are found.If we could identify which is this city then we should be able to get a clearer picture of what God's prophet had in mind when writing these verses.The Watchtower likes to apply these verses to itself.The Watchtower publication "Isaiah's Prophesy-Light for All Mankind", a verse by verse consideration of the book of Isaiah, had this to say about these verses: "While these words no doubt had a fulfilment in ancient times, they also have a clear fulfilment today. Jehovah’s “righteous nation,” spiritual Israel(1), is endowed with a strong, citylike organization(2). What a cause for rejoicing, for a song!"(ip-1,ch.21,p.276,par.13) Please forgive this idea for just a moment since this is an interpretation plucked out of thin air.An organization that protects paedophiles and abuses millions of people to submission cannot be in any way a citylike organization that God accepts or promotes.Nevertheless, by their own admittance, this "city" is a city that provides protection to spiritual Israelites during the time of the end.
There is only one city that does that during the Great Tribulation and that is the city found as it should be expected in the book of Revelation, a book written for the last times.We read in Rev.21:1,2: "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the former heaven and the former earth had passed away, and the sea is no more. I also saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God and prepared as a bride adorned for her husband." The "strong city" of Isaiah 26:2 is no other than the "holy city, New Jerusalem" coming down out of heaven at a time of distress and tribulation here on earth in order to receive the "righteous nation" the spiritual Israelites. This city has gates! We read further on: "So he carried me away in the power of the spirit to a great and lofty mountain, and he showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God 11 and having the glory of God. Its radiance was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone shining crystal clear.12 It had a great and lofty wall and had 12 gates with 12 angels at the gates, and on the gates were inscribed the names of the 12 tribes of the sons of Israel."(Rev.21:10-12) The order to "open the gates" given in Isaiah 26:2 refers to the 12 gates being opened in the New Jerusalem guarded by 12 angels.See also how the closing verses of the 21st chapter of Revelation confirm Isaiah's words.We read: "And they will bring the glory and the honour of the nations into it.27 But anything defiled and anyone who does what is disgusting and deceitful will in no way enter into it; only those written in the Lamb’s scroll of life will enter."(Rev. 21:26,27) It is fair to say that "the righteous nation" of Isaiah 26:2 includes only the ones who do not practise "what is disgusting and deceitful".
In light of these verses where then can these "inner rooms" be found? Here on earth or in heaven? These inner rooms have nothing to do with Kingdom Halls during the time of the end.These rooms are out of reach from "Gog of Magog" and his armies to a place in heaven where no human hand can reach the "righteous nation of God"!
This explanation, of course, creates more questions than it answers: What really is the New Jerusalem? How do we escape to this city if this city is in heavens? When exactly will our flight to this city take place? Questions which will be addressed here shortly