'O GOD SEND OUT YOUR LIGHT'

Revealed-But in God's Due Time

Just as the apostle understood m any prophecies concerning the Messiah only after Jesus' death and resurrection, Christians today understand Bible prophecy in it finest detail only after it has been fulfilled.  (Luke 24:15, 27; Acts 1:15-21; 4:26, 27)  Revelation is a prophetic book, so we should expect to understand it most clearly as the events it describes unfold.  For example, C.T. Russell could not have correctly understood the meaning of  the symbolic scarlet-colored wild beast mentioned at Revelation 17:9-11, since the organization that  the beast represents, namely, the League of Nations, did not even exist until after his death.

When the early Christians learned that believers, that changed led to a new question regarding the need for people of the nations to be circumcised.  This moved the apostles and older men to reexamine the entire issue of circumcision.  The same pattern holds true today.  A brilliant flash of light on one Bible subject sometimes leads God's anointed servants,  "the faithful and discreet slave,"  to reexamine related topics, as the following recent example illustrates. -Matthew 24:45.

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.

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 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 a vision must also be functioning today.  How so?

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.

Next time: Be Willing to Adjust Your Viewpoint

Watchtower, 2000