"And after these things 1 saw, and behold the Nave of the Tabernacle of the Testimony had been opened in the heaven"

Verse 5.

"These things" is a phrase directing attention to the subject most recently treated of; "those things" to something more remote. Had the phrase those things been used, it would have referred us to the "Seven Angels having the Seven Last Plagues" mentioned in the first verse. After those things would have led to the conclusion, that the Nave of the Tabernacle was not opened until after all the wrath of the Deity contained in the Seven Vials was exhausted. This would have been equivalent to saying, that the Christ will not come, and the saints will not be raised, until the end of the outpouring of the Seventh Vial; and if neither of these events transpire until then, it is manifest that judgment will not be given to the saints at all; and that the destruction of the Beast and his Image must be looked for, if at all, by some other means! But opposed to this is the revelation that Christ comes in the Sixth Vial period; and that when he comes the 144,000 are seen with him on Mount Zion; so that they must have lived again (ch. 20:4), and been judged, and "clothed upon" in the interval between his coming and his appearance there. After they are manifested as "the approved," then judgment is given to them, that they may execute it upon the Beast and his Image; in the last portion of the Sixth, and in the whole of the period of the Seventh Vial

"After these things," then, does not signify after the end of the Seventh and last Vial. He does not tell us in these words, the exact time of the opening of the Nave of the Tabernacle of the Testimony in the heaven. He simply affirms that, after the music of the harps and voices of the glorious choir upon the glassy sea, had ceased its ravishing harmony, his attention was diverted from sound to sight; and that he perceived that the Nave, or MOST HOLY "had been opened," or manifested. The tense of the word enoige leaves the precise time of the opening indefinite. This fifth verse is an Apocalyptic annunciation, that the long-ex-pected and much-desired ANCIENT OF DAYS had made his appearance in the heaven. The event of this verse is parallel with the Lamb and the 144,000 standing on Mount Zion, and with the epoch of Ch. 16:15. It announces that the manifestation of the Most Holy of the Tabernacle is during the period of the "great and marvellous sign in the heaven;" but at what precise moment of the Sign-Period he appears in the midst of his holy brethren, no data are given in this chapter to determine.

The "Tabernacle" is one thing; the "Nave of the Tabernacle" is another: they are both, however, significative of a society of people, and a state of things to them pertaining. The Tabernacle, styled "His Tabernacle" in ch. 13:6 is the Holy, consisting of the saints in their present mixed and imperfect condition, blasphemed, and trodden under foot of the Gentiles. They are in their generations, "the Tabernacle of the Testimony," because they bear witness by the Word for Jesus and the faith. The Nave of the Tabernacle is the MOST HOLY. It consists of the One Body freed from every thing that defiles. The head of it is in the MOST HOLY AND ETERNAL FATHER, manifested in flesh, justified by Spirit, and styled JESUS CHRIST; and the members of it are his brethren "glorified together" with him. The Most Holy Nave consists only of "the approved," styled in ch. 17:14, "the called, chosen, and faithful," whose angel-measure is 144 cubits (ch. 21:17). No man that defileth can in any wise enter into it; but they only whose names have been written in the book of the life of the Lamb (ch. 21:27).

This important moral difference between the Tabernacle and the Nave is based upon the scrutiny of character which obtains, when "the dead are judged out of the things written in the books, according to their works" (ch. 20:12). This judicial scrutiny and award is in "the time of the dead" (ch. 11:18) which intervenes between the advent of the Ancient of Days and the appearance of the Lamb on Mount Zion with the 144,000. Those members of the Tabernacle, "who walk after the flesh," and who work lies, are purged out, as unworthy of being "clothed in pure and white linen, and girded with golden girdles"; for the Nave, or Most Holy Heavenly, is composed only of those "in whose mouth is found no guile; and who are faultless before the throne of the Deity". The judicial scrutiny finds them guileless; and they are accounted worthy to obtain the Resurrection-Aion, and equality with the Angel-Elohim, who have preceded them (Luke 20:33-36). Thus, their moral excellence as Christians is made the basis of their promotion to honor and glory; and to material or substantial identity with the Holiest of All.

When we arrive at the next chapter we shall be particularly in-formed what the things are, that must successively transpire in the development of this great and marvellous sign in the heaven, before the Nave is opened, or manifested therein.