Reviving the Two Witnesses -The Trampling of the Courtyard

 Why was John forbidden to measure the courtyard?  He tell su in these words:  "But as for the courtyard that is outside the temple sanctuary, cast it clear out and do not measure it, because it has been given to then nations and they will trample the holy city underfoot for forty-two months." (Revelation 11:2) We have noted that the inner courtyard pictures the righteous standing on earth of spirit-begotten Christians.  As we shall see, the reference here is to be literal 42 month extending from December 1914  to June 1918, when all professing Christians were put to a severe test.  Would they uphold Jehovah's righteous standards during those war years?  Most did not. En bloc , the clergy of Christendom put nationalism ahead of obedience to divine law.  On both sides of the warm which was fought mainly  in Christendom,  the clergy preached the young men into trenches.  Millions were slaughtered. By the time that judgment started  with the house of God in 1918m the United States had already entered the bloodspilling, and the clergy of all Christendom has incurred bloodguilt that still cries out for  divine vengeance.  (1 Peter 4:17)  Their being cast  out has become permanent irreversible. - ISAIAH 59:1, 3, 7, 8; JEREMIAH 19:3, 4. 

What, though, of the small group of Bible Students?  Were they to be measured immediately in 1914 by their adherence  of divine standards? No.  Like the professed Christians of Christendom, they too must be tested.  They were 'cast out, given to the nations' to be severely tried and persecuted. Many of them realized that they should not go out and kill their fellowman, but as yet they did not fully appreciate Christian neutrality.  (Micah 4:3; John 17:14, 16; 1 John 3:15)  Under pressure from the nations, some compromised.

How was it, though, that the holy city was trampled underfoot by those nations?  Clearly, this does not refer  to the Jerusalem that was destroyed over 25 years  before Revelation was written.  Rather, the holy city is New Jerusalem, described later in Revelation, that is represented  now on earth by the remaining anointed Christians in the temple's inner courtyard. In time, these also become a part of the holy city. So trampling on them is tantamount to trampling on the city itself.  - REVELATION 21:2, 9:21. 

Next time: Reviving the Two Witnesses - The Two Witnesses

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