NOTES for Rev 11:15-17
The trumpet of the seventh angel marks, in fact, the moment when history is completed, a moment connected with the transformation of the world into the Kingdom of God. Even before Christianity, the reign of God was connected precisely with the transformation of the world into the Kingdom, and therefore with its transfiguration.
A special hymnographic canon connected with the feast of the day of Yahweh, the day of the Lord, included in the hymn the phrase 'Yahweh has become king' or 'The Lord reigns,' usually either at the beginning or at the end. Now that same phrase is heard from the elders, who in the vision symbolize the fullness of what we usually call the heavenly Church. The world has finally become part of the Kingdom and has itself become the Kingdom. Above all, this transformation was marked by the opening to the world of the heavenly Temple, whose prototype was the earthly Temple in Jerusalem. Behind the symbols, the spiritual reality they signify is revealed.
Every earthly altar exists and has meaning only insofar as the heavenly altar exists, that Throne of glory located at the point where God meets the world. In creation there is a 'place' where the will of God, the intention of God, directly touches the creation of God. Of course such a place does not exist as a physical reality, but a projection of the Throne into physical space is possible wherever God indicates. That is how sacred places, altars, and places of Presence appeared in the world even before the coming of Christ, places where heaven touched earth.
The Temple in Jerusalem was such a place. Even before the coming of the Messiah, the prophets perceived this place symbolically as a vision of the Throne of glory. Now what had formerly been invisible, the spiritual center of creation hidden from the eyes of fallen humanity, becomes visible, and the world is transfigured as it becomes able to receive directly the spiritual influences that come from God. Thus the world becomes the Kingdom, beginning to exist openly before the throne of God. And the King of this Kingdom is the Messiah risen from the dead, also openly and manifestly for all.