I have two questions pertaining to the Temple in Revelation 11:1&2: In verse one, who are the worshipers in the Temple of God? Could they be Jews who have come to faith in Yeshua and are worshiping Him in spirit and truth or are they Jews who still deny His deity and work of Salvation? Also, if the temple in Revelation 11:2 is located in Shiloh, why does the “court which is without the temple” have to be given to the Gentiles? The second part of the verse still seems to infer that the very same court is inside the “holy city” which is given to the Gentiles which “they tread under foot forty and two months”.
Thank you for any insights on these questions.
The worshipers at the Temple in Rev. 11:1-2 are primarily Jews who are still part of the Old Covenant. While there will no doubt be those who have come to the Lord because of the rapture, Zechariah 12:10, where the Messiah is revealed to Israel, happens near the end of the Great Tribulation.
The outer court has always been called the Court of the Gentiles, and that may be the reason it’s not being measured. The 42 months is the period of the Great Tribulation when because of the anti-Christ’s claim of deity, the Temple will be made desolate.
Notice how in Rev. 11:2 John identified the place being trampled on by the Gentiles as the Holy City. But in verse 8 he says the bodies of the two witnesses will lie in the street of a place he called the great city, which he further clarified as being the location of the crucifixion, Jerusalem. By saying it was figuratively called Sodom and Egypt, which are anything but holy, I think the holy city and the great city are two different places. To me this means the Temple he was referring to won’t be located in Jerusalem.