by Brian Godawa
The Holy of Holies ritual:
Leviticus 16:15–19
15 “Then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering that is for the people and bring its blood inside the veil and do with its blood as he did with the blood of the bull, sprinkling it over the mercy seat and in front of the mercy seat. 16 Thus he shall make atonement for the Holy Place, because of the uncleannesses of the people of Israel and because of their transgressions, all their sins. And so he shall do for the tent of meeting, which dwells with them in the midst of their uncleannesses. 17 No one may be in the tent of meeting from the time he enters to make atonement in the Holy Place until he comes out and has made atonement for himself and for his house and for all the assembly of Israel. 18 Then he shall go out to the altar that is before the LORD and make atonement for it, and shall take some of the blood of the bull and some of the blood of the goat, and put it on the horns of the altar all around. 19 And he shall sprinkle some of the blood on it with his finger seven times, and cleanse it and consecrate it from the uncleannesses of the people of Israel.
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Christ as high priest entered the heavenly Holy Place:
Hebrews 8:1–2
1 Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, 2 a minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man.
Hebrews 9:11–12
11 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) 12 he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.
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The earthly temple must be destroyed for the new covenant access to be complete:
Hebrews 9:8–9 (NASB95)
8 The Holy Spirit is signifying this, that the way into the holy place has not yet been disclosed while the outer tabernacle is still standing, 9 which is a symbol for the present time.
Hebrews 8:13
13 In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.
The book of Hebrews was written before the temple was destroyed in AD 70. The writer and his Christian audience knew the desolation was coming because Jesus had foretold it (Matt 23:37-24:1). They were in a transition period between covenants. The New Covenant had been spiritually inaugurated at Christ’s death, resurrection and ascension. But the earthly elements of the Old Covenant were still standing. The Old Covenant was becoming obsolete as the New Covenant was taking its place. The Old Covenant was about to finally and fully vanish away – when the earthly incarnation of that Old Covenant was destroyed: the holy city and temple.
Hebrews 8:13
13 In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.
Hebrews was written in a transition period. In an earthly sense, the New Covenant had been inaugurated, but not consummated until the Old Covenant had been completely done away by the destruction of the earthly incarnation of that Old Covenant. When the Roman armies destroyed the earthly city of Jerusalem and its temple, that marked God historically consummating the New Covenant that he had previously spiritually inaugurated.
Hebrews 9:26 says that Jesus suffered on the cross, “once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” The end of the ages is not the end of history or the end of the world as we understand it. The end of the ages had already occurred at the time of the crucifixion of Christ. The end of the ages was the end of the old covenant era and the beginning of the new covenant in Christ’s blood!
But get this: that same writer of Hebrews talked about the new covenant in Christ being superior to the old covenant in Hebrews 8. He quoted Jeremiah confirming that the prophets predicted the arrival of the new covenant age. And then he said, “In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away” (8:13).
What was growing old and ready to vanish at that time?
It blew my theology when I realized that he was talking about the destruction of the temple as the final culmination of the new covenant replacement of the old covenant! He was writing in the time period after Christ’s death and resurrection and right before the temple had been destroyed. So the new covenant had been established in Christ’s blood, but it was not consummated with historical finality. Like Paul, the writer believed they were at the end of the ages. The new covenant would make the old covenant obsolete. But take a closer look at the language he used. He said that the old is “becoming obsolete and is ready to vanish away,” as if the old covenant had not vanished yet. It was only in the process of becoming obsolete. “Becoming,” not “had become,” and not “would become” thousands of years in the future. What could that mean?
Well, the writer was writing within the generation that Jesus said would see the destruction of the temple. The temple had not yet been destroyed. Hebrews 8 says that they were in a time period of change between covenants and that change had not yet been fully or historically consummated. That first century generation was in the transition period between ages or covenants. So, what would be the event that would embody the theological claim that the old covenant was obsolete and the new covenant had replaced it? The destruction of the symbol of the old covenant, the temple! The old covenant would not be obsolete until its symbolic incarnation, the temple, was made desolate.
Brian Godawa, End Times Bible Prophecy: It’s Not What They Told You (Los Angeles, CA: Embedded Pictures Publishing, 2017), 79-80.
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High Priest, holy place, atonement in the OT:
“Under the Mosaic law, until the High Priest came out of the Most Holy Place in the temple and announced that the sacrifice had been accepted by God, the atonement wasn’t complete. After the cross, Jesus took his sacrifice to heaven, the real Most Holy Place. The sacrifice was accepted, and Jesus as our High Priest came out of the Most Holy Place and announced that salvation was complete. This is what Jesus was about to do in Heb. 9.27-28: 27
And inasmuch as it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this cometh judgment; 28 so Christ also, having been once offered to bear the sins of many, shall appear a second time, apart from sin, to them that wait for him, unto salvation.
The word “time” is not in the original. The passage literally says that Jesus would appear “out of second.” Second what? Notice verses 2, 6, 8, where “the first” is in reference to the Holy Place, which tells us that the “second” was the real Most Holy Place, heaven. This is a picture of Christ coming out of heaven to announce that salvation was complete.”
Dawson, Samuel G., The Resurrection: Israel's Old Testament Hope in Chronological Order (Kindle Locations 1288-1297). SGD Press. K-Edition.
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These fulfillments are taken from: Daniel 9:24-27
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The missing ark of the covenant: Michael Heiser examines 9 theories of where the ark is and concludes that the most likely biblical evidence is that the ark of the covenant was destroyed when Babylon destroyed the temple and took its vessels. The Naked Bible podcast #158 The Fate of the Ark of the Covenant. https://www.nakedbiblepodcast.com/naked-bible-158-the-fate-of-the-ark-of-the-covenant/
Though not explicit, this is implied in several Scriptures. First…
Ezekiel prophesies the jealousy of God (and therefore, the ark of God’s presence) departing when Babylon destroys the ark:
Ezekiel 16:41–42 And they shall burn your houses and execute judgments upon you in the sight of many women. I will make you stop playing the whore, and you shall also give payment no more. 42 So will I satisfy my wrath on you, and my jealousy shall depart from you. I will be calm and will no more be angry.
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Jeremiah implies that the ark is gone (Yahweh’s footstool and glory), but will not be missed with the coming of Messiah and the new covenant:
Jeremiah 3:16 And when you have multiplied and been fruitful in the land, in those days, declares the LORD, they shall no more say, “The ark of the covenant of the LORD.” It shall not come to mind or be remembered or missed; it shall not be made again.
The ark is Yahweh’s footstool Jeremiah implies again that it is gone and will not be remembered:
Lamentations 2:1 How the Lord in his anger has set the daughter of Zion under a cloud! He has cast down from heaven to earth the splendor of Israel; he has not remembered his footstool in the day of his anger.
When Babylon came and destroyed the temple: 2 Esdras 10:22 Our psaltery is laid on the ground, our song is put to silence, our rejoicing is at an end, the light of our candlestick is put out, the ark of our covenant is spoiled, our holy things are defiled. The Apocrypha: King James Version (Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1995), 2 Esd 10:22.
Revelation says that the ark of the covenant was in heaven in the first century: Revelation 11:19 Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple. There were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail.
“According to some Jewish traditions, the Babylonians removed the vessels of gold, silver, and bronze, but Jeremiah removed the ark and the sacred tablets and hid them from the Babylonians. This tradition may be traced at least to the historian Eupolemus (see Eusebius, Praep. Evang. 9.39). A similar account is related by Alexander Polyhistor of Miletus in the 1st century B.C.E., but he was probably dependent on Eupolemus for this story. In a variant of this account, Jeremiah hid the tent, the ark, and the altar of incense in a cave on the mountain from which Moses saw the Promised Land (2 Macc 2:4–8). Another source has it that Josiah hid the ark under a rock “in its place” (b. Yoma 53b–54a; m. Šeqal. 6:1–2). According to a legend, an angel descended from heaven during the destruction of Jerusalem and removed the sacred vessels from the temple (2 Bar. 6:7). These accounts are obviously ways of coping with the unthinkable destruction of the ark of divine presence at the hands of Gentile invaders. More credible is the lament over the desecration of the temple and plundering of the ark during the destruction of the First Temple (2 Esdr 10:20–23). In any case, all traditions point to the exilic period for the disappearance of the ark. It appears that the ark was not rebuilt for the Second Temple. Jeremiah declared that it was not to be made again (Jer 3:16).”
C. L. Seow, “Ark of the Covenant,” ed. David Noel Freedman, The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary (New York: Doubleday, 1992), 390–391.
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The ark in heaven:
Revelation 11:15–19
Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.” And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying,
“We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty,
who is and who was,
for you have taken your great power
and begun to reign.
18 The nations raged,
but your wrath came,
and the time for the dead to be judged,
and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints,
and those who fear your name,
both small and great,
and for destroying the destroyers of the Land.”
19 Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple. There were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail.
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Daniel’s night visions: Daniel 7.
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The throne room vision:
This scene is an integration of: Daniel 7:9-27 and Revelation 4.
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Martyrs on thrones:
Revelation 20:4–6
4 Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. 5 The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. 6 Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.
Jesus said that the first generation of apostate Jews would be guilty of all the blood of the prophets spilled in the holy land. That was why the temple was destroyed.
Matthew 23:32–24:2
[Jesus:] 32 “Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. 33 You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell? 34 Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, 35 so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. 36 Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. 37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! 38 See, your house is left to you desolate. 39 For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’ ” 1 Jesus left the temple and was going away, when his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple. 2 But he answered them, “You see all these, do you not? Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.”
Revelation proclaims the judgment of Jerusalem as Babylon is for the blood of the martyrs:
Revelation 6:9–10
9 When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. 10 They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”
Revelation 17:5–6
5 And on her forehead was written a name of mystery: “Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth’s abominations.” 6 And I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. When I saw her, I marveled greatly.
Revelation 18:20
Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you saints and apostles and prophets, for God has given judgment for you against her!”
Revelation 18:21
Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, “So will Babylon the great city be thrown down with violence, and will be found no more;
Revelation 18:24
And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all who have been slain on earth.”
The Martyrs on thrones judging:
““The millennium is the millennium of the martyrs” which “is in direct line with the many other references to the martyrs (6:9–11; 7:13–17; 11:4–13; 12:11–12; 14:1–5; 15:2–4)” (McKelvey 2001: 97). John’s statement alludes to formal judicial sanctions that were levied on earth against these who are now enthroned in heaven: (1) As in 1:9 and 6:9, “because (dia) of the word of God” gives the reason for the negative sanction in view. (2) The idea of “beheading” shows he is not concerned with saints who die in their sleep. (3) The term pepelekismenōn literally means “killed with an ax” (pelekus = ax), and was a Roman means of judicial execution, not (for instance) of death
in battle (Mt 14:10; Polyb. 1:7:12; 11:20:2; Diod. S. 19:101, 3; Strabo 16:2:18; Jos., Ant. 14:7:4 §125; 14:8:4 §140; 15:1:2 §8–9; 20:5:4 §).6677 BAGD (794) states that the word means: “normally an act of capital punishment.”…
“John, in fact, states that they “had been beheaded,” which requires their physical death by judicial sanction. In this extremely Old Testament-oriented work employing much temple imagery, he frequently emphasizes the saints’ bloodshed (6:10; 16:6; 17:6; 18:24;19:2) and the blood of the Lamb (1:5; 5:9; 7:14; 12:11), while reflecting on the Lamb’s vengeance upon the temple and its high-priestly aristocracy…
“This text seems clearly to reflect 6:9–11 (Mounce 365; Beale 997; Smalley 507) – even more directly than Daniel 7. And that text speaks of “the souls of those who had been slain.” These did not just fall over and die in exile; they were slaughtered (esphagmenōn, Rev 6:9). They are crying out for God to avenge [ekdikeis] their blood on those who “dwell in the Land [tēs gēs]” (6:10). Aune (1087–88) argues that 20:4 and 6:9 are doublets, based on replicated wording and strong parallels:
