TABERNACLE OF THE TESTIMONY IN HEAVEN: Rev 15:5. In Rev 15:5 we are told that John sees the temple in heaven and it is referred to as the tabernacle of the Testimony. In Ex 40:1-3 we see that the tabernacle was the portable temple and that the Ark of the Covenant or the Ark of the Testimony was kept within the tabernacle. Thus it seems that the tabernacle of the Testimony is the temple which is home to the Ark of the Covenant. Remember, the Ark of the Covenant had a lid or cover on which were statues of two cherubim on either side of the mercy seat, said to be the dwelling place of God. Thus is Rev 15:5 we may be seeing the temple in heaven which is the dwelling place of God. Remember, the earthly tabernacle had two rooms, an outer room called the Holy Place and an inner room called the Most Holy Place. The Ark of the Covenant and the dwelling place of God were said to be the inner room or Most Holy Place (see Heb 9:1-15). The high priest entered the Most Holy Place (Holy of Holies) once a year to offer sacrifices for forgiveness of sins for himself and the people. This had to be repeated time after time, year after year. Heb 9:12 says that when Christ died he entered the Most Holy Place in heaven for us to forgive our sins once for all, a sacrifice that would not have to ever be repeated. Heb 9:24 leads us to believe that the earthly tabernacle was a model of heaven. If that is the case then heaven can be seen as having two compartments, the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place. The Most Holy Place would be the place containing the throne of God. In that case the tabernacle of the Testimony in Rev 15:5 would be the Most Holy Place in Heaven, the place containing the throne of God. It is from this place that John sees the seven angels emerging with the seven plagues. It seems that the temple in heaven or heaven itself is closed at some point, Rev 15:8, and not reopened until the plagues are completed in the seventh judgment, Rev 11:19, 15:8. It may be closed just after the two witnesses are raptured at the end of the fifth judgment since we are told that no further unbelievers are saved after that point, Rev 9:20-21, 14:3, 16:9-11. Thus heaven would be closed at the end of the fifth judgment and not reopened until the seventy judgment.

TEMPLE IN HEAVEN: See Tabernacle of the testimony above.

THUNDERS: See Seven Thunders.

TREE: Rev 7:1. A tree represents the redeemed from Ps 1:1-2. We can see in Ps 1:1-2 that the redeemed try to be like Jesus, who is the tree of life in Gen 2 & 3 and Rev 22:1-2. They are planted by a river, which represents the Holy Spirit, John 7:37-39. Thus we see in Rev 7:1 that the trees represented the redeemed who were protected from the judgments to be inflicted by the four empires representing the antichrist. This is amplified in verses 2-3. As we will see below, Jesus is the Tree of Life. Those who become like him also become trees, so to speak. In Judges 9 we also see trees representing people. In Ezek 31 we see nations and their leaders referred to as trees.

TREE OF LIFE: Rev 22:2. The tree in the Garden of Eden which provided for eternal life to all who partook of it. The Garden of Eden is also spoken of as being in heaven; as the Garden of God in Ezek 28:13. The Tree of Life is also seen in heaven in Rev 22:2 while the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is not there. The tree of life represents Jesus, the only one who can provide eternal life, while the tree of the knowledge of good and evil represents Satan, who has been thrown out of heaven, down to earth and finally into the lake of fire, hell. Again, the tree of life is and always has been Jesus. We also see in the symbology of the lampstands and olive trees that Jesus can be viewed symbolically as an olive tree. His fruit, the olive, was crushed to provide the oil to power the lamps in the golden lampstand. This represents his death and resurrection through which we receive the Holy Spirit (oil) and are saved for eternity.

TRIBULATION PERIOD, GREAT TRIBULATION: Rev 7:14, Matt 24:21, 29. The seven year period in which God pours out his wrath upon the earth and its people in judgment for their rejection of him. Other purposes include (1) to bring God’s chosen people, Israel, to understand that Jesus is their savior, (2) to usher in the kingdom of heaven upon earth and (3) to bring judgment to Satan and those who follow him. It is spoken of throughout the Bible as occurring “in that day.” It is the period of time between the rapture of the church and the Second Coming of Jesus and is the last seven in Daniel’s seventy seven’s, spoken of in Dan 9:25-27. God tries to make it very clear to us that the period lasts for seven years in that he describes it in various ways, as one seven in Dan 9:27, and as two implied periods of three and one half years expressed in various ways, as a time, times and half a time in Dan 12:7, Rev 12:14 as forty-two months in Rev 13:5, 11:2, and as 1260 days in Rev 11:3.

TRUMPET: Rev 4:1, 8:2. The seven horns in Rev 5:6 may be referring to the seven spirits of God. In Rev 4:1 John says that the voice speaking to him from heaven sounded like a trumpet. A trumpet was a ram’s horn. The ram caught in the thicket in the story of the sacrifice of Isaac in Gen 22:1-14 resulted in a substitute sacrifice for Isaac. Thus the trumpet speaks to us of Jesus’ sacrifice for us. The seven horns of Jesus may thus represent the Holy Spirit speaking to us of the great sacrificial love of Jesus for us. Trumpets were also blown at the beginning of each of the seven judgments in Revelation, signaling the beginning of a new wrath, each intended to bring man into consonance with God’s desires and plans for him, resulting finally in Jesus becoming King of kings in his kingdom on earth. The trumpet was used in the Old Testament by the priests during services of sacrifice, foreshadowing the great sacrifice of Jesus. It was also used to gather troops for battle (Josh 2:4) and to sound an alarm or as a warning (Jer 6:1). It was blown on the tenth day of the seventh month to signal the Day of Atonement (Lev 25:9). It was also blown to signal the beginning of the Sabbath. We find a trumpet blown at the rapture as described in 1 Cor 15:51-53. This trumpet is likely the trumpet signifying the start of the first trumpet judgment. Luke 17:26-36 teaches that the wrath of the tribulation period will begin on the very same day that the rapture takes place. In verses 26-27 Jesus says that the wrath will begin just as the flood began. Everything seemed normal until the very day that Noah entered the ark and then the flood began. He says in verses 28-29 that it was just the same when Sodom was destroyed. The very day Lot left Sodom fire and sulfur rained down on Sodom and destroyed it. In verses 30-36 Jesus says it will be just like this on the day of the rapture. Thus it seems that the trumpet that is blown at the rapture is the trumpet that signifies the beginning of the tribulation period. Likewise, in Matt 24:30-31 there is a trumpet call at the Second Coming signaling the resurrection of all who have become believers and been killed since the mid-tribulation rapture. This trumpet call at the Second Coming is also likely the trumpet call signaling the start of the seventh judgment.

TWENTY FOUR ELDERS: Rev 4:4, 10. I tend to believe that the twenty four elders are a combination of the twelve disciples and the twelve sons of Israel. Rev 21:10-14 says that the New Jerusalem will have twelve gates named for the twelve sons of Israel and it will have twelve foundations named for the twelve apostles. The twelve sons of Israel and the twelve apostles played very key roles in making it possible for believers to one day go to the New Jerusalem for eternity. I suspect that the twenty four elders are the combination of these two groups of twelve. The twenty four elders are seen sitting on twenty four thrones in heaven in Rev 4:4. Matt 19:28 says that the twelve disciples will sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel at the renewal of all things. I suspect that the other twelve thrones will be occupied by the twelve sons of Israel. The elders are dressed in white, signifying that they had been washed pure by the blood of the Lamb. They are also seen wearing gold crowns on their heads. These elders are often interpreted by prophecy scholars to be the totality of the church which is raptured to heaven. I tend to doubt that for several reasons including; (1) in Rev 5:8 the elders had a golden bowl full of the prayers of the saints which implies that the 24 elders were not the saints; it is not likely that they would have been bringing their own prayers to God in this way, and (2) they were speaking of the saints, including the church, in third person in Rev 5:9-10, also indicating that they were not the saints or church. It also seems that the sea of glass in heaven is a symbol of the redeemed bride in heaven. The 24 elders may be the 12 disciples and the 12 sons of Israel. In 1 Tim 1:17 we see that elders are those who direct the affairs of the flock. We know from scripture that God uses a well organized government in heaven. In fact we see the titles given to angels but are not generally told what their duties are. Likewise I suspect that when the church is in heaven there will be an organized government and the 24 elders will be the directors.

TWO OLIVE TREES: Rev 11:4, Zech 4:2-3, 11-14, Jer 11:14-17. Olive trees in the Bible often represent either Israel or Israel and Judah. They also seem to sometimes represent Elijah and Elisha, who of course can be seen as representative of Israel. We also know from Jer 11:14-17 that God called Israel and Judah olive trees, the same symbol that he used for the two witnesses. In the model of the two olive trees and the one lampstand in Zech they are the two witnesses. In Rev 11:4 they are part of the two witnesses with the two lampstands being the other part. We understand the two witnesses to be believers during the first half of the tribulation period. The two olive trees there seem to be two very powerful individual leaders of the movement to convince the world of the purpose for the judgment that is taking place and to win as many as possible for the kingdom that is soon coming. These two tribulation prophets in some way operate in the spirit of the two great Old Testament prophets Elijah and Elisha (or Moses). See Lampstand, two witnesses, and the symbology discussion of Zech 3:8-4:14 at the end of this dictionary for a much more complete discussion of the symbolic meaning of olive trees.

TWO WITNESSES: Rev 11:3-14. The two witnesses are called the “two olive trees and two lampstands” that stand before the Lord in Rev 11:4. This tells us that there are more than two entities in the two witnesses since there are two each of olive trees and lampstands, meaning at least four entities. We must ask again, what are lampstands and what are olive trees, or what do they represent since Revelation is so symbolic. We have already answered that in the discussion above under the heading “lampstand.” We understand the two witnesses to be believers during the first half of the tribulation period. The two olive trees are two very powerful individual leaders of the movement to convince the world of the purpose for the judgment that is taking place and to win as many as possible for the kingdom that is soon coming. These two tribulation prophets in some way operate in the spirit of the two great Old Testament prophets Elijah and Elisha (or Moses). The two lampstands are priests in the order of Levi who stand before the Lord. Remember, each believer is his own priest and may come into the presence of the Lord. One lampstand is composed of those Jews who have become believers in the first half of the tribulation period, who have been sealed as belonging to Christ, are servants of Christ and either are or include the 144,000. The other lampstand is composed of those gentiles who have become believers in the first half of the tribulation period. Thus one lampstand is a church composed of Jewish believers and the other is a church composed of gentile believers. The two leaders may be called the two witnesses just as the totality are also the two witnesses. We see that pattern repeated in Rev 13-19 as the Beast refers to both an empire in the end times and also the leader of the empire. The work of the two witnesses is completed at the midpoint of the tribulation period and God then allows them to be killed, before resurrecting them and rapturing them to heaven. This rapture is visible to people all over the world. For much more detail on the two witnesses see the detailed study in chapter 11.