Re: Rev. 11:19. This verse has puzzled me for some time, and with having heard/read that “the ark of His testament” resides under the Dome of The Rock in Jerusalem presently, I was wondering what are your thoughts on this verse?
Rev. 11:19 says, “Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and within his temple was seen the ark of his covenant. And there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake and a severe hailstorm.”
When all is said and done, what we have are several opinions on the current location of the ark of the covenant. But which ever opinion we accept, the ark on earth is only a copy of the original which is in Heaven. When giving him the instructions for building the tabernacle furnishings, God told Moses, “See that you make them according to the pattern shown you on the mountain” (Exodus 25:40). In other words they would be replicas, not originals.
And the writer of Hebrews said when the Lord entered the tabernacle with His blood as our high priest, He entered the greater and more perfect one that was not man made, that is to say not part of this creation (Hebrews 9:11-12).
Therefore, the ark of the covenant in view in Rev. 11:19 is not the man made copy from Earth, but the heavenly original.