George H. Warnock — Eschatology
b5 — From Tent to Temple
New Jerusalem Without a Temple (Rev. 21:22)
Warnock closes chapter 7 (“The Temple Which Is His Body”) with the climax of the temple typology: the absence of a temple in the New Jerusalem is for him the consummation of the entire “from tent to temple” movement:
“Christ will receive unto Himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or blemish… or any such thing. And God will have found that habitation for Himself for which His heart has longed through times eternal.” (From Tent to Temple, tent7.html)
He cites Rev. 21:2, 22 as fulfilment:
“And I John saw the holy City, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband… And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the Temple of it.” (tent7.html, quoting Rev. 21:2, 22)
Interpretation: The entire temple-progression through Scripture — tabernacle → Solomon’s Temple → Ezekiel’s Temple → Body of Christ — reaches its eschatological endpoint not in a building but in the Bride-Church as God’s dwelling. The phrase “no temple therein” is for Warnock not an absence but a surpassing fulfilment.
Harvest Metaphor: Separation, Threshing, and Sending
In the closing section of chapter 7 Warnock develops a compound harvest typology. He cites Luke 10:2 as the central harvest commission:
“The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest.” (tent7.html, quoting Luke 10:2)
Harvest time means separation:
“if it is harvest time it is the time of the gathering of the grain. True, But if it is harvest time it is a time of division and separation. First the tares must be separated from the wheat.” (tent7.html)
Threshing is the fire motif:
“If it is harvest time, then it is threshing time. All the chaff of religious activity, useful and necessary as some of it may have been in its time, will no longer be necessary or acceptable, and will be consumed in smoke in the Day when God’s people are baptized with the Holy Ghost and with Fire.” (tent7.html)
From chapter 4 Warnock adds the husbandman metaphor (Jas. 5:7):
“Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.” (tent4.html, quoting Jas. 5:7)
Interpretation: The harvest metaphor is a compound eschatological image: sending of labourers (Luke 10:2) → ripening of fruit (Jas. 5:7) → separation of wheat and tares → threshing as fire-baptism. The sequence implies a narrative end-time logic within church history rather than a sudden external intervention.
End-Time Preparation: Completion of the Spirit Dispensation
Warnock formulates in chapter 7 an eschatological condition: the coming phase of the Kingdom cannot arrive until the present Spirit dispensation has reached its goal:
“This dispensation of the Holy Spirit—where He abides and lives in His holy Temple in the earth—is not just a fill-in, a sort of parenthesis in God’s plan until the Kingdom comes. It is, in fact, the very outshining of the Kingdom of God; and the next glorious phase of the Kingdom (whatever might be involved), cannot come into being until this present phase has been accomplished, and the chosen ones of the Lord are joined unto Him with that same nature and kind of union that now exists between the Father and the Son!” (tent7.html)
The concrete goal is union in Christ (John 17:21):
“God is preparing a ministry and a people, through many fiery trials, to bring about this kind of union. When the ministration of truth goes forth from ministries who are one with God, this prepared people will also become one with God.” (tent7.html)
Interpretation: Warnock articulates a functional eschatology: the end cannot come until the Church has fully reached its destiny as the “Temple of the Spirit.” [TENSION with b1: in The Feast of Tabernacles this was framed as the fulfilment of the Feast of Tabernacles; here the expression is more ecclesiological than feast-typological.]
The Day of the LORD: Hidden People Revealed
Warnock describes an eschatological reversal: a people now hidden will be disclosed as God’s instrument in the Day of the LORD:
“There is a people hidden in the hollow of God’s hand, unseen and unrecognized by the world, and throughout the Church, But in the Day of the LORD their mouth shall be as a sharp two-edged sword. ‘And he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand hath he hid me’ (Isa. 49:2).” (tent7.html, quoting Isa. 49:2)
The “polished shaft” symbolises God’s careful preparation:
“God is preparing the arrow of Truth, that He might send it forth in a clear, certain Word… Therefore He polishes the shaft until there is a true and perfect balance in all things.” (tent7.html)
Interpretation: The Day of the LORD in Warnock is not a catastrophic terminus but a disclosure of what God has been preparing in secret. This coheres with his Kingdom Now eschatology (cf. b1): the overcomers already exist, hidden, awaiting the Day of Revelation.
Ezekiel’s Temple as Eschatological Type
In chapter 4 Warnock treats Ezekiel’s temple vision (Ezek. 40-47) as an unfulfilled yet typological prophetic text. The historical temple was never built:
“The Temple that Ezekiel saw in his vision, and the description of which occupies much of his prophecy, was never built according to the pattern that Ezekiel was given.” (tent4.html)
God’s promise was conditional (Ezek. 43:10-11):
“Thou son of man, shew the house to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities: and let them measure the pattern. And if they be ashamed of all that they have done, shew them the form of the house.” (tent4.html, quoting Ezek. 43:10-11)
Even if it had been built, it would still be only a type:
“even if it had been built, it would still have been but a type and shadow of the real Temple ‘not made with hands’… He would return again in the fullness of time, take up His habitation in a new Temple not made with the hands of men, and send forth a River of Life that would bring healing to the nations.” (tent4.html)
Interpretation: Warnock takes a spiritual-typological position on Ezekiel’s Temple: the vision is not fulfilled literally in a building but spiritually in the Church as the Body of Christ. This rules out a futurist literal restoration of the Jerusalem temple.
River of Life: Eschatological Healing of the Nations
Warnock treats in chapter 4 the river of Ezek. 47 as an eschatological type of the Spirit flowing from the Temple-Church to the nations:
“And, behold, waters issued out from under the threshold of the house eastward.” (Ezek. 47:1) (tent4.html, quoting)
He parallels Ezek. 47:8 with Rev. 22:1:
“And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.” (Rev. 22:1) (tent4.html, quoting)
The healing extends universally:
“which being brought forth into the sea, the waters shall be healed.” (Ezek. 47:8) (tent4.html, quoting)
Joel 3:18 is also cited:
“a fountain shall come forth of the house of the LORD, and shall water the valley of Shittim.” (tent4.html, quoting Joel 3:18)
Interpretation: The River of Life for Warnock is not a literal geographical river but the Spirit of God flowing through his glorified Church to all peoples. The parallel with Rev. 22:1 (throne of God and the Lamb → New Jerusalem) connects this to the eschatological endpoint.
Return of the Glory of God
Warnock traces in chapter 4 the pattern of God’s Glory departing from the Temple step by step (Ezek. 10-11) and its promised return:
“And, behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east: and his voice was like a noise of many waters: and the earth shined with his glory.” (Ezek. 43:2) (tent4.html, quoting)
Pentecost is for Warnock a first fulfilment of this return:
“And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind… Where were they sitting? Not in an upper room, but in the ‘house’… The Glory had returned to His Temple.” (tent4.html)
The end-time manifestation surpasses Pentecost:
“And the LORD will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night.” (Isa. 4:5) (tent4.html, quoting)
Interpretation: Warnock employs a progressive-fulfilment schema: the Glory returned at Pentecost, but the end-time completeness of that return remains future. It is not a literal theophany but the Glory manifested in the Temple-Church.
New Covenant as Eschatological Foundation
In chapter 4 Warnock cites the New Covenant promises from Ezekiel as the foundation for the purification of God’s end-time people:
“I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh.” (Ezek. 11:19) (tent4.html, quoting)
The motivation is not the people’s merit but God’s Name:
“Thus saith the Lord GOD; I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for mine holy name’s sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen.” (Ezek. 36:22) (tent4.html, quoting)
Warnock connects this explicitly to the eschatological task of the Church:
“God is going to do something about it! He is going to have a holy and a cleansed people in the earth, for His own Name’s sake!” (tent4.html)
Interpretation: The New Covenant is for Warnock the eschatological engine: God himself works through his Spirit to vindicate his Name in his Temple-Church. This ties New Covenant theology directly to the end-time manifestation of the Church.