The Revelation of Jesus Christ - The Herald

witnessing and suffering for the truths of the Gospel. The fact that the holy city is
associated with and related to the Jewish typical temple and worship, necessitates that we
discover the divinely appointed relationship that Jerusalem of old sustained to the typical
temple and services as performed in the typical dispensation, the Jewish Age. In
considering it from this standpoint, we discover that Jerusalem, the holy city, was the
divinely appointed seat of authority, the center from which the Divine instruction, the
word of God, went forth, which word of command was to control in the affairs of Israel in
olden times. Thus the Prophet referring to the operation of God's Kingdom in the future
dispensation declares, "the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from
Jerusalem."
In the light of these facts, therefore, we believe the holy city, used as a symbol by the
Revelator in relation to the Church's experiences during this Gospel Age, would signify
the place of the Truth, the Message, the Word of God--in other words, the Sanctuary or
citadel of holy Truth. As further elucidating this point and in confirmation of the same, we
quote the language of two expositors of modern times who give much evidence of not
only a very comprehensive knowledge of history, but of a deep insight into the visions of
St. John:
"The holy city was the city in which the ancient temple stood, and the priests and daily
worshipers resided, and to which those dwelling elsewhere went to offer homage. The
prediction, therefore, that the court without should be given to the Gentiles, and that they
should tread the holy city forty-two months, denoted that they should constitute the
congregation of visible worshipers during that period, and exercise the civil polity under
which the church should subsist; and as during the continuance of the [typical] temple the
Gentiles were aliens from God and idolaters in contradistinction from the Jews who were
His covenant people, it denotes that the visible should be an apostate and idolatrous
church during that period, and give occasion thereby for the testimony of the witnesses
against false teachers and usurping rulers. This is seen also from the fact that the Gentiles
have belonged to the visible Church and constituted it for a much longer period than the
forty-two months. There has been no purely Jewish Church since the first ages. The
relation, therefore, in which the Gentiles were to constitute the Church during that period,
was not literally as Gentiles in opposition to Jews, but as apostates from God in
contradistinction from true worshipers."
The words of Mr. Barnes are in full confirmation of the foregoing:
"The statement that the holy city was to be trodden under foot, Verse 2, . . . must mean that
the true Church would thus be trodden down by those who are described as 'Gentiles.' So
far as pure religion was concerned; so far as appertained to the real condition of the
Church and the pure worship of God, it would be as if the whole holy city where God was
worshipped were given into the hands of the Gentiles, and they should tread it down, and
desecrate all that was sacred for the time here referred to. Everything in Rome at the time
of the Reformation, would sustain this description."