[soc.religion.christian] Old and New Temple

jhaynes@ohstpy.mps.ohio-state.edu (04/14/91)

The old and new testament temple is an interesting study.  Some people claim
that God will reestablish the old testament temple and sacrifice system.  I
would like to show what I came up with following that line of thought.

First the Old testament temple was the place where the Spirit of God dwelled in
the Holy of Holies.  Also, the place where the year scrifice for sin was done
year after year.

Jesus claims that He came not to abolish the Law or the Prophets but to fulfill
them. 

Matt 5:17-18 "Do not think that I come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I
have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.  I tell you the truth, until
heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a
pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is
accomplished." (NIV)

Jesus claims to have accomplished this while speak to his disciples.

Luke 24:44 "He [Jesus] said to them, 'This is what I told you while I was still
with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of
Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.'"

As recorded in John 19:30 while Jesus was hanging on the cross he said "It is
finished" I believe that he was right he fulfilled all of the old testament
requirements and fulfilled what the prophets wrote about him. 

Now Jesus speaks of the New Temple in being his body.

John 2:19-21 "Jesus answered them, 'destroy this temple and I will raise it up
in three days.'  The Jews replied, 'It has taken forty-sixty years to build
this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?'  But the temple he
had spoken of was his body."

The early christians understood this and also that Jesus was the end of the
Law.  Instead of taking my word on it read what the New testament writers say.

Eph 2:19-21 "Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow
citizens with God's people and members of God's household, built on the
foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief
cornerstone.  In Him the whole building is joined together and rises to become
a HOLY TEMPLE in the Lord." Also 2 Cor 6:16-18

Romans 10:4 "Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness
for everyone who believes."

Heb 8:13 "By calling this covenant 'new,' he [Jesus] has made the first one
obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear."

The church is the Temple of God and Jesus is the end of the law and for those
who continue to teach that the old scrifice system will then they better reread
the verses that they just read.  The bible says that even when Jesus returns
that there will be no temple because God and the Lamb are its temple Rev 21:22.

I have followed pre-dispensationalism for four years and the last five years of
my walk with the Lord he has revealed to me how wrong this line of thinking is.

One verse that really made me start thinking about what I believed about the
End Times is Acts 3:21

Acts 3:21 "He [Jesus] MUST REMAIN IN HEAVEN UNTIL THE TIME COMES FOR GOD TO
RESTORE EVERYTHING, AS HE PROMISED LONG AGO THROUGH HIS HOLY PROPHETS."

I could get the verse out of my head it just through a wrench in to what I
thought about the rapture and the seven year tribulation. 

I hope I don't upset anyone by writing this but I am only out to find the truth
in what the scriptures say.

IN HIS [JESUS] LOVE,

Joel

Proverbs 27:17 "As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another."