God’s Desire to Dwell among His People
The main purpose of establishing a Kingdom under Christ is to create a spiritually convenient environment for God to dwell among His people. However, the expressed desire of the Divine to dwell among men should not be understood literally. The same is true for Jesus, who expressed the same intent to his apostles. Spirits dwell in or among humans with the agreement of the earthly party to yield to ideals dictated from the invisible realm.
The idea of a dwelling place for God among His worshippers dates back to the Exodus. It was God who instructed Moses to order Israel to provide materials for building a tabernacle through which messages from Him could be received: “Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring me an offering: of every man that giveth it willingly with his heart ye shall take my offering….And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them” (Exodus 25:2, 8). With the construction complete, instructions were passed, disputes were resolved, and the sanctification of the nation was effected through an office created around that center of worship. Moreover, sacrifices and oblations were accepted and sanctified only when presented in line with the prescriptions from the sanctuary. By an occasional cloud of smoke enveloping the building, God signified his presence and approval of whatever took place there. The intent remained the same when a permanent structure was erected at Jerusalem to replace the tent. And the cloud that descended on the temple during its dedication by King Solomon was a seal of approval from God signifying that He had taken up residence in the Holy Place: “And it came to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of the LORD….for the glory of the LORD had filled the house of the LORD” (1 Kings 8:10-11).
In ancient Israel all eyes looked to God’s resting place for guidance and direction. For instance, when a dispute arose over Moses’ marriage to a foreign woman, it was to the tabernacle that God summoned the aggrieved for adjudication (Numbers 12:4-5). Thus, right from the dedication of the sanctuary, nothing of spiritual significance could be addressed outside its bounds and gain God’s approval. The nation gradually got used to the idea of seeing God through the activities of the priests and Levites commissioned to officiate in and around the holy booth. Israel’s settlement in Canaan and the incorporation of the tabernacle into Solomon’s temple, rather than changing the status quo, only elaborated the services conducted there to the glory of God. At that time ministration, intercessions and supplications simply shifted from the old booth to the temple. We might remember that when King Hezekiah received a threat letter from Sennacherib of Assyria, it was to the temple that he went to plead for God’s help to fend off the enemy: “And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it: and Hezekiah went up unto the house of
the LORD, and spread it before the LORD” (Isaiah 37:14). Clearly all Israel envisioned God as dwelling in the temple at Jerusalem.
The understanding that God dwelt in a sanctified house within the nation became a cherished and most valued part of its culture and history. That was precisely what God intended, and He sold the message from the start, even though the enlightened among them had a better understanding of the nature of that presence. Dilating on the matter, King Solomon, the builder of the temple, said: “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, the heaven and heaven of
heavens cannot contain thee: how much less this house that I have builded?” (1 Kings 8:27; see also Isaiah 66:1-2; Acts 7:48-50 for reflections of other servants regarding the temple as God’s residence).
What we should bear in mind here is that viewing God through the temple prism became a predominant tradition in Israel, built into their psyche and ingrained in their very nature and constitution. Even when an Israelite was abroad, he said his prayer facing the direction of Jerusalem, the holy place where God could be entreated: “Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house; and his windows being opened in his chamber towards Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime” (Daniel 6:10). There is significant implication in all these for the construction and perception of the spiritual temple—a huge subject in itself, relating to a body of Christians opening up themselves to the Higher Powers, in a kind of habitation resembling the old temple. God intends to relocate to this new temple, so that what he purposed for the first one may find true and everlasting expression in the second. It will be a temple built not with stones but around people’s hearts. But before further exploring the spiritual, we need to review how Israel thrived in the temple that mediated the Divine in their days.
Misjudging the Dwelling Place
However meticulous many in Israel were in maintaining God’s material dwelling among them, there was an unhealthy byproduct to the whole arrangement. This was definitely not intended, but still it was not lost on God. It appeared when He came to be thought of as a deity that could be appeased by sacrifice, irrespective of one’s attitude to his laws. When King Saul the son of Kish resorted to gratifying himself and his field officers rather than obeying God’s
directive, the subtle display of the unfaithful in hopes of placating Him was brought to the fore (1 Samuel 15:13-24). In the course of time Israel degenerated into a nation wishing to ‘have their cake and eat it too’, as the popular saying goes. As people focused on and emphasized the tangible modes of worship centered on oblations and purification rites, their hearts went astray and drifted steadily towards imitating the glories of neighboring cultures.
To come back to the way God built Israel and her culture in the wilderness, there was a conscious effort then to secure the nation and their posterity with a body of laws. While they guaranteed cohesion through righteousness, these laws excluded neighbors who walked contrary. Israel was meant to remain a unique property of God and enjoy unequaled protection so long as it continued to grow in line with His precepts. God’s precepts make her keepers unique and worthy of all the blessings that accrue to obedience. But Israel’s attempts to embrace the heathen around them signaled an intention to forsake God and marry another—a crime that Tow rightly judged to be their greatest infraction of the Law: “One of the greatest sources of sin and corruption in the history of Israel had been their connection and compromises with the strangers around them. They had been separated from the nations and placed in the midst of them in order to be a witness to Jehovah the One God, in contradistinction to prevailing Polytheism…”1 When they trotted along in iniquity despite the remonstrances of prophets to repent, God rescinded their very title to the land. The just reward for this unfaithfulness was eviction, and to be remarried and seek protection of alternative lovers. It is sad that, while reveling in their freedom to exercise herself independently of God, the Israelites failed to fathom that she would forfeit the other benefits secured by the loyalty of their ancestors. That was where the average man in Israel failed in his quest to secure his future in the hands of God.
Ironically, the dominant Christian culture has exhibited all same errors that marked Israel’s approach to worship and the same attendant failure to remain in the holy union founded on that bond between Christ and his apostles. Christians who seek to maintain contact with the world of taste and fashion often find themselves at cross-purposes with the forces of restraint and chastity. The difficulty of maintaining absolute loyalty to the body of laws that guarantee a bond with the Creator is what has lured Christendom into the path of apostasy. The desire to thwart this natural instinctive slide to decay and surrender to enemy’s control led the pioneers of the new covenant to emphasize the condition of the heart as the prerequisite to acceptance before God by Jesus Christ: “But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of
the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God” (Romans 2:29).
The real Jew is one that strives to attain a character reflecting God’s holiness. Too much focus on the outside, to the neglect of proper nourishment of the heart, ultimately breeds dual loyalty. And to help synchronize the two, the convert is sometimes put through an intricate web of human hardships and sufferings, by which his tendencies to acquiesce in face of pressures are purged. It is such pressure that ultimately weakens the resolve to remain firm in faith and not surrender the heart to sin. Success here puts the convert on the road to assurances of salvation. The personal desire to follow the footsteps of the messiah, whose example guarantees approval for all who walk uprightly, is the ultimate goal of spiritual education. The writer of a letter addressed to Hebrew-speaking Christians portrayed Jesus’ struggles and his tenacious anchor in the support of his Father: “Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared; though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered” (Hebrews 5:7-8). This is the faithfulness of Jesus when put to the test by his Father—a higher test than Adam could have passed. It was an ordeal that revealed his deep love for God and His purpose for the creation.
Anyone with a deep interest in serving God with approval must ask why ancient Israel came to ruin despite having a long association with Him. Saint Paul looked deep into this question, and came up with an answer that any honest seeker after God today will do well to ponder. In his letter to the Roman Christians, he pleaded with them not to make the mistakes of Israel, which he reasoned had been their Achilles’ heel: “Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God” (Romans 10:1-3). To establish one’s righteousness is to put one’s own spin on things. It is to view God’s requirement for man as impractical or worse still, conclude that half-measures will suffice. The more humans drift away from His seasoned judgments, the harder those judgments become to fulfill. When a person makes a conscious decision to strive for holiness, the abilities needed to arrive at that destination begin to grow steadily, but spiritual weakness is just as invariably fed by a belief that Satan’s machinations are insuperable. Saint James’ advice for overcoming Satan’s devices is to resist him and not allow oneself to be overcome by his plots: “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7).
The societies of today are built around ideas fitted to accommodate man’s weaknesses and excesses. The Higher Powers cannot inhabit such places; they are filthy and must be pulled down. The natural man has an innate aversion to institutions that encourage believers to overcome forces feeding debauchery; instead offices are put together to help cushion the effects of spiritual corrosion, and in the direst situation, to submit totally to its promptings. Social norms are recast to pressure the reluctant: “What these people want is discount salvation. Low, low prices, with all the ‘frills’ removed. They want personal healing but without any personal responsibility for extending the Kingdom of God into every area of life. They want a Creator God who is not a full-scale redeemer God. They want a God who tells them, ‘Look, this world is fallen, but not that fallen. It is corrupt, but not that corrupt.”2 Many continue to wish that God were a liberal, not a conservative—left, and not right. God used the story of Israel’s weaknesses to tune minds to His plan, which is geared towards organizing and influencing man’s way of life for good. This influence does not depend on our subjective valuation and endorsement of it but on His own conception of what is right.3
Jesus’ example gives insight into the nature of the race for salvation as enshrined in the new covenant. The focus in the new covenant is to build a nation around people resolved as was Christ to maintain holiness, even at the price of forfeiting the worldly advantages enjoyed by some who have betrayed the faith to gain the world. Christ understood that well when Satan approached him in his well known temptations (Matthew 4: 1-10). Jesus rejected Satan’s offer of world dominion and its attendant glories and maintained absolute loyalty to God—a sovereign who promised a greater compensation in a more abounding arrangement that knows no decay.
The lesson of Israel must be re-learned. Attention to outward display of piety to the neglect of the very essence of worship was the most degrading feature of her religious life. Putting God’s plan for man’s salvation in perspective, Karlberg surmised that, “the destruction of the temple in A.D. 70 signals the termination of the typical...form of the kingdom of God. The inauguration of the New Covenant with the coming of Christ results inevitably in the passing away of the old order of things. The eternal Priesthood of Christ necessitates a change in the law. True spiritual worship is not bound by outward ceremonies and regulations”.4
Ceremonial observances stand in sharp contrast to forging a close personal relationship with God. The hypocrisy of concentrating on ceremonial survived the captivity in Babylon, and prepared the ground for rebellion against the mission of Jesus in Judea. That stiff resistance led Jesus to expose the duplicity of his Jewish audience: “But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham. ….If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God: neither came I of myself, but he sent me...And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not….He that is of God heareth God’s words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God” (John 8:40-47). The support for holy causes that Jesus’ mission fully represented was expressed as a practical signal to love
of God than merely confess Him with one’s mouth.
By their depravity the Jewish leaders of Jesus’ time proved the hollowness of an oral declaration of faith without works, and their inadequacy provides the background for Jesus’ advice about the proper approach to supplication. He urged his own disciples against following the footsteps of the hypocritical Jews when making requests to God: “And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward” (Matthew 6:5). Playing to the human gallery exposes the true intent of the heart. Contrary to some misinformed opinions,5 God cannot and did not intend salvation for both conscientious worshippers and hypocrites who contend that it is secure for every confessed believer. Those who peddle this falsehood forget that not all who left Egypt inherited the promised land. Therefore being invited into Jesus’ fold does not guarantee salvation, a truth that refutes any arguments in support of blanket grace to all invited guests.
This is particularly important in the light of the spiritually baseless rhetoric and misinterpretation of the concept of predestination as Cheung expounds it when discussing the “elect”.6 His work suggests that he has read the letters of Paul extensively, but failed to digest the references to the recorded loss of many tied to the stock of Abraham: “....For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel: neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed” (Romans 9:6-8).
The word promise should be understood in terms of principles subscribed to by the willing and obedient, as opposed to the persons themselves. This is important because of the prophetic utterances about a future world peopled only by the faithful. Such faithful souls can be said to be foreordained to inherit that state of blessedness by virtue of having subscribed to God’s holiness, not by their mere persons or the denomination they belong to. A deep understanding of this doctrine is needed to wean some from apparently well-entrenched positions about election dating back at least to Aquinas, who wrote strongly in support of predestination: “Since it has been shown that by the action of God some are guided to their last end with the aid of grace, while others, bereft of that same aid of grace, fall away from their last end; and at the same time all things that are done by God are from eternity foreseen and ordained by His wisdom....”7 Unquestionably Aquinas reflected the dominant view of his time, but those blessed with the accurate knowledge of God’s truth have since moved on. No one is predestined to inherit the rich promises of God save the church proven worthy by sacrifice, much like the ancient worthies and prophets. This must be contrasted with individuals and sects groomed in falsehood and iniquity, parading themselves as elect of God. They are in fact like the erring Jews who boasted of their entitlements before Jesus, only to be proven wrong by history.
The Christian world, then, is like the natural descendants of Abraham, from whom the obedient were singled out to fulfill the promise. This understanding maintains an unbroken sequence running through both old and new testaments, much like the transition between the regular animal sacrifice of the Aaronic Priesthood and the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ. Unfortunately the steady age-long propagation of grace has helped to swell the ranks of carnal Christians who draw comfort in assurances of salvation by maintaining regular church attendance and paying lipservice to their moral standing before God. And as Yoder put it “Jewry became Judaism, and Christianity changed into Christendom.”8
The temptation to give the heart to another while reserving lip service for God was not lost on the Creator either, who sent out warnings against it from the very inception of the sanctuary arrangement in the desert of Sinai. After forty years of wondering, Moses reminded the nation of the very essence of worship in these words: “Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked” (Deuteronomy 10:16). And this reminder could be found in many other passages relating to Israel’s history. Speaking through Joel, God sought to redirect a spiritually weak nation to the very essence of His call: “Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: and rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil” (Joel 2:12-13).
God is more interested in soundness of the heart and conduct and so rejected mere oblation as a substitute, which was typical of apostate Israel. Those who yearn for the truth of God’s word and fulfillment of His divine promises should rest assured that He remains faithful to His promise of redemption from bondage to corruption. His assiduous work on their behalf is yielding fruits, evident in a greater spiritual awareness about the doubtful future of mainstream faith and modern political arrangements. This will refresh many who seek the mind of God on how man should manage faith in his day to day living. It is the first program dominating the agenda of the reigning king, Jesus. But the obstinate and the hypocritical who reject the Divine effort and yield to conventional wisdom instead will find that their prospects now and in the future are not bright.
The Ideal Place for God’s Dwelling
Jeremiah’s prophecy summarizes God’s intentions for the relationship He intends to build with the faithful, with particular reference to an age when the fallen tabernacle of David is again raised and pitched in its proper place:
Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake….but this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more
(Jeremiah 31:31-34).
To ingrain His will into human minds God foretold a class of heavenly and earthly servants that He would commission to bear the vessels of ministration. At the time in question, the temple offices will be reconstituted under a new priesthood headed by God’s son, Jesus Christ the high priest.
By his ministry and sacrificial death Jesus established a framework for identifying true followers of righteousness and good works. He summarized this in his dialogue with a certain Samaritan woman in a city called Sychar, laying emphasis on the true mode of worship acceptable to God. In that conversation, he rebutted claims to location as the authenticator of true worship: “But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23-24). This speaks of a different approach that minimizes outward claims to faith in favor of aligning the heart with God’s holiness.
Though many have claimed a monopoly on the truth, in spite of the absurdity of its appearing in different colors in as many houses of faith, the discrepancy has been whitewashed in what Cheung summarized as the desire of some to claim legitimacy for all faiths instead of discriminating against any.9 However, as he noted there, nothing is as exclusive as truth. To this end, God raises human
instruments to guide sincere lovers of truth to Him. The emphasis here is on raising the first responders, called apostles, to constitute His new temple by which all others are cleansed. These help converts to develop relationships with God based on surrendering their whole selves to influence from the unseen; building trust in His ability to provide a better future beyond what they could ever conceive or imagine; and believing in the fulfillment of all the promises attributed to the Divine.
A close scrutiny of some denominations’ approach to Christian worship in this twenty-first century suggests that they defeat the work of Christ, which was meant to direct man to the essence of the Law of Moses rather than perpetrating its letter. Christ’s greatest achievements in his day focused on redirecting the willing to the essence of the Law: washing the hand to the elbow meant to be totally clean; observing the Sabbath relates to remembering the Creator and one’s general duty to Him, in connection with the eternal rest awaiting the righteous. The continuing fixation with ancient monuments and relics, investments in physical structures and vessels of worship with minimal consideration for its financial toll on poor folks within the flock, have presented a prospect of a difficult road ahead to rescue many from entanglement in the familiar web of dual loyalty—the sanctimonious part of man devoted to God, the heart to another that gratifies the lusts and pride in his being.
Through the new temple, converts have their best hope of regeneration, which is required for standing before God. The writings of some who were first chosen to be part of this temple bear true testimony of the qualities credited to this new arrangement. Their hearts were in right place, because when God invited them, they gave their all. Jesus, their high priest and master, set the tone in showing his complete submission to his Father: “I can of my own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me” (John 5:30; see also 4:34, 6:38, 12:49-50). He successfully overcame where Adam had failed, securing Eternal Life for all living by his self-sacrifice. Karlberg explains that: “ Jesus Christ in submission to the will of his father and as representative head of all elect humanity, fulfilled the legal demand of the everlasting covenant.... The first Adam having defaulted on his representative task, the second Adam merited the eternal reward on behalf of God’s elect.10 Saint Paul describes how we must allow God to refurbish our hearts to reflect Christ’s example in this statement: “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God” (2 Corinthians 3:5).
If the willing help to prepare the temple, and set its pillars in their proper places, then God’s children everywhere can rest assured of seasoned meat from the sanctuary. The ministers of the sanctuary can be trusted to groom them on how to submit all as befits sincere converts. A worshipper who is not sufficient of himself is easily led, and more likely to feel remorse when he errs. A submissive worshipper is in good standing to receive the best of messages from the temple—instructions indispensable to achieving the holiness without which no one can attain Life. By adhering to the standard Jesus expected of them, the apostles have become building blocks for the temple where the Father and the Son will dwell. It is this excellence that qualifies them to raise holy children to convey the personality of God—a kind of visible image of the invisible in an earthly realm.
Jesus, the chief stone of all, spoke directly of the requisites that guarantee a place in God’s building: “…..if a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him” (John 14:23). The Higher Powers are pleased to rest with the pure in heart, because they trust in their proven ability to communicate their acquired knowledge of heaven to any who are fleeing for refuge. But we should not see all worshippers of God as forming structural parts of His temple; it is more appropriate to see Christ’s apostles as the component parts of that holy building through which other worshippers approach for nourishment. The nourished become associate parts of that temple setting, but to a lesser degree. In this respect, the new temple is much like the old—the eleven tribes subsisting on the noble ministration assigned to the tribe of Levi.
What, then, qualifies as true meat from members of the sanctuary through which proper cleansing is achieved? It has to do with wholesome ideas sent through the sanctuary, some of which have been set down in the Holy Scriptures. This book helps encourage the child of God to see the futility of self-righteousness and presumptuousness. The spirit at work in the apostles express qualification for good standing before God in this way: “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil” (Proverbs 3:5-7). God had foreordained that the willing among men should be nourished by his saving word through teachers chosen to meet that very need.
Talking specifically about this provision in the conclusion of the system of things, God used Jeremiah to express his desire to meet the need of His children for an awareness of His divine purpose: “And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding” (Jeremiah 3:15). These pastors are direct ministers of the sanctuary. The importance of making men the sanctuary, instead of mere wood and stone as in the first, is found in the elimination of lip service. All components of the temple are duly certified as true loyal parts of God’s presence among men. This is why many outside that temple and its nourishing sphere are declared dogs, liars and sorcerers (Revelation 22:15; 7:2) –much like the territories of the Gentiles flanking Israel of old.
It is through accurate knowledge of God that one can be trained to walk in lockstep with the Creator, not compromising the law regarding holiness. Once God takes control of the worshipper through the saints, the ensuing relationship opens a fitting dwelling place for His spirit. Instead of an outward tabernacle built by human hands, the purified become the temple fit for the Father and the Son to inhabit: “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16).
St Paul went on to remind his converts of the implications of subjecting a body where God is supposed to dwell to misuse, as did King Manasseh of Judah the temple in ancient times: “Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? ....Know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh. But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit….Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which you have of God, and ye are not your own?” (1 Corinthians 6:15-19). Paul knew that a clean house is an enticement to a noble guest and a fitting place where a true spirit is likely to rest. A defiled body on the other hand, is a filthy habitation unsuitable for the Highest.
The well-schooled believer knows that the body of the righteous conveys God’s temple where He dwells in the spirit and for that reason must be kept holy. It is the constituted body of believers beginning from the head, Jesus Christ, and his co-rulers, the apostles, which God has ordained to be exalted above the mountains in the Last Days: “And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD’S house shall be established in the top of the mountains….” (Isaiah 2:2). That household is where God’s children everywhere are invited to take refuge and taste of His goodness: “But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house we are, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end” (Hebrews 3: 6). All others, who are faithful to the word of truth can look to that house as theirs also, having been raised there. To use a simple illustration: a man and wife can jointly raise a roof over their heads, calling that achievement the product of their labor. Sometimes the children raised their point to the same house as theirs, though they never expended any resources to make it happen. It is helpful to conceive of the construction of God’s temple similarly.
With this in mind, anyone looking at a church house and imagining that God lives there does not understand His arrangement in the new covenant. The Mosaic conception of a temple in literal sense does not apply to the new covenant. The new covenant points to the heart of the bearer as the true evidence of the temple, and not merely the carrier, who can be sanctimonious if overreached by the evil one, as was Judas. Those who are so misguided fail to understand the importance of purging the filth of the flesh. For them, the holy remains on the outside as the ancients conceived it and should be ceded to the pastor or bishop to tend on behalf of all. This school concentrates its energy on raising money to build beautiful structures for worship, always in competition to outdo one another. It is an unhealthy sport with minimal spiritual profit. Effort of this kind amounts to playing to the gallery and will not necessarily improve the spiritual stance of the believer. It can sap physical and emotional energy in a cause that engages only those given to pride of life. To a well refined Christian, places of assembly for worship are just that and will invite no offense when put to nonreligious uses. Otherwise, popular social venues often used for spiritual assemblies should be out of bounds for worship purposes, since many movements alien to the faith also congregate there.
Therefore, sprinkling holy water, burning of incense, walking with bare feet, and invoking the spirits of angels as rites to perform before bringing a cathedral into use serve no significant purification purpose and are indeed useless. It is a pity that some professed Christians only feel God around them when they visit places of worship or the excavated ruins of previous religious sites. All they do is “garnish the sepulchres of the righteous” without any dedication to the essence of the faith (Matthew 23:29-31).
Moreover, denominational arrangements have tended to focus worship around sectarian questions rather than on the general signs that mark Christ’s presence and the judgment of the living. Such are those evangelicals who try to bring Christ to bear on world politics, not shying away from their dirt even when they are fully aware of the corrupting influences that normally surround them. They enjoy wallowing in the mire under the guise of reforming the process and making the difference. As Lederleitner observes: “In many instances, the church is able to absorb ways of doing ministry that are neither godly nor congruent with Scripture.”11 Meddling in politics is one such way.
Blending of popular culture with faith has tainted the doctrines and observances handed down from centuries past. This diluted version of spirituality is nothing but product of historic squabbles among people holding different opinions about the teachings of the faith. The victors in such contests retained little thought for the essence of faith, which is forging sincere relations with the heavens. Their teachings contain little meat to motivate the believer to pass beyond observances of prayers, fasting, attending church services, and paying tithes. No wonder, some have nothing to show by way of cleansing the filth of the flesh for many decades of church attendance. Tolerance of abortion, divorce, and immorality continue to grow unabated among believers, despite many hours devoted to assembly and prayers weekly. The proportion of persons professing the Christian faith who get or consent to abortions is consistently found to be same as among those of other faiths.12 Regular church attendance has yet to make a dent in shifting the statistic in favor of faith. Something is seriously wrong here that calls for a critical review of this approach to devotion. In another development, politicians with roots in and strong ties to the Christian faith nevertheless sponsor unwholesome legislation and even endorse abhorrent practices rejected by peoples of other faiths. A fitting example is Paul Martin, former Prime Minister of Canada,13 who campaigned actively in favor of recognizing same sex unions in defiance of the Roman Catholic Church of which he is a member. What sincere believers are enjoined to do in order to become attractive to the Higher Powers is clean the inside of the cup. To attend to the praise of men and the lust of the eyes will never endear us to God, but amounts to cleaning the outside of the cup (Matthew 23:25-26), which then becomes a magnet to those who long for the goods of this world. And before long, the whole house is taken over by such people. Once this has happened, no exercise of sanctimoniousness in that house will serve to purify the body for God to dwell in spirit.
All who find themselves in this dilemma need to understand that they are the focus of attention, sought by the purifier to bequeath the promised blessings to the repentant. They are to present their bodies chaste for inclusion in the great architectural enterprise in progress. Since Jesus is back in spirit to gather the willing into a fold that can become a global house for God and himself, any who yield their all have a stake in that grand house and part of the blessing accruing to that noble endeavor. There is no need, then, to expect a physical manifestation of Christ: “Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not….Wherefore if they shall say unto you, behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not” (Matthew 24:23-26). He will be everywhere present; believers will feel him working in their lives. In verse 27, however, Jesus cushioned that the awareness of his appearing or presence will be gradual like the steady rise of the sun from dawn. Believers expect this revelation (Luke 17:30) of Jesus’ presence to gain full currency at the height of the king’s glory in the future.
And in this summation of things, God is delighted to inhabit His house, a reward for the very work of His hands: “And ye are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit” (Ephesians 2:20-22). Just as Israel was socialized to see the temple at Jerusalem as a special dwelling place of God among His children, so the new dispensation sensitizes the purified believers to see their selves a dwelling of God in the spirit.
Taking a cue from the apostles who actually constitute that temple by virtue of their anointing, the typical sincere worshipper imagines carrying part of the Divine within him when actively engaged in his daily business. At this level, God is no longer conceived as residing at a location where all are called to assemble for purpose of worship; rather the converted carries a part of God’s essence, having himself been delivered to God as an offering through the ministration of the antetypical Levitical priests (Hebrews 7:15-28; Revelation 1:5). The bodies of under-priests ministering with Jesus Christ pass through a purification process similar to what the sanctuary underwent to sanctify it, either when it was first established (Exodus 40: 9-35) or after a wayward king or regime defiled it. A case in point is what King Hezekiah did to restore clean worship after the desecration of the temple and the priesthood in the reign of his father Ahaz. Hezekiah first cleaned out his father’s mess from the temple and then encouraged the sanctification of the priests and restored them to their service (2 Chronicles 29). Only then could intercession for the people be resumed in the institution. Similarly, the converted follow the heels of the apostles to undergo a cleansing process in the Christian dispensation through taking in the word of truth (John 15:3) and so gain access to relate to God as His worthy children.
Of course, our sinful nature would prefer to have a spot designated outside us for God to dwell in as Israel was allowed by law to do. At least that idea salves the guilt in consciences when some fall into sin. It is the desire to arrest this unholy recourse that influenced the major effort at instruction in righteousness by the apostles, which is mainly attested in the surviving letters of Paul, Peter, James, and John. They reported extensively on the construction of the new covenant and its temple within the believer. This does not mean that God dwells in individual believers personally, but that the Christian allows God to express Himself through him. The believer becomes a true image of God by living according to God’s purpose as He envisioned it when He made Adam and Eve.14 Jesus, who did so, was described as, “…being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person….” (Hebrews 1:3). By anointing and dedication to God’s wholesome truth, the apostles of Christ also assumed that image, reflecting it in turn as example to their children.
A sincere worshipper is first brought to the realization that belonging to the new covenant implies accurate knowledge of the true God and taking steps to walk in newness of life. It is this determination that first attracts the Higher Powers to the believer. Once he is in a right standing, this relationship with the Higher Powers yields fruits beyond measure. When conferring with John about prospects of this holy relationship, Jesus said: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me” (Revelation 3:20). Again he asserted that access to the truth leading to Everlasting Life is secured by a commitment to live by God’s precepts: “Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city” (Revelation 22:14). This gate is the truth through which one enters into holy union with the Higher Powers.
The flip side involves a refusal to undertake real commitment but instead seeking personal glory by refashioning the gospel to accommodate the unrepentant and dubious. Workers in this web set up shop to create stumbling blocks to the process of sanctification of God’s children. St. Paul warned believers against these houses in his letter to the Christians at Philippi: “Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample. (For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things)” (Philippians 3:17-19). The hypocrites that Paul identified as belonging to this group betray a sanctimoniousness that is not holiness. When Jesus encountered such cliques in his day, he denounced them: “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves” (Matthew 23:15). They work very hard but for sinister motives.
If, then, believers’ bodies are meant to constitute the new temple, they must be fashioned after the type in the ancient history of Israel, though of course in a spiritual sense. That tabernacle had first to be erected and sanctified by rites dictated by God before it could be considered holy and ready for use in His service. Jesus in his wisdom drew minds to this in his prayer to God on behalf of his apostles: “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth” (John 17:17-19). Having been sanctified by the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, the apostles commenced their mission to bring the LORD’S offerings to him (Isaiah 66:19-21). This sanctification must be distinguished from the modern gibberish called speaking in tongues that Anderson touts as a mark of true Christian identity.15 The tongues that the apostles spoke were intelligible and understood by their audiences.16
Moreover, the truth that sanctifies has force to convince the sinner of his errors by the Holy Spirit and encourage him to draw near to God for forgiveness: “Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?” (Acts 2:37). With the truth the sinner is convicted of sins, given a way of escape by repentance, and guided on the path of righteousness: “We turn because we are deeply convinced of our guilt, danger and helplessness, and of the way of salvation by Christ. And how does that turning which is composed of repentance and faith happen? It is wrought in our soul by the regenerating spirit of God.”17 This is a necessary step to acquiring salvation, which is the promised reward for obedience. Therefore, continuing in sin and making compensation through penance cannot qualify as true sanctification. Only sincere commitment towards renouncing sin in the flesh opens access to the throne of grace (Acts 3:19).
Those restored through the word have only to wait for the fulfillment of the blessing of Life at a time when there will be no more death. Those who die before this time are assured of a resurrection to their inheritance (John 8:51; 5:28-29). While continuing to live in a not-so-convenient world, they maintain
their standing with God by keeping the faith and helping to restore others who still suffer from the bonds of Egypt. The opportunity to proselytize is in itself a mark of the continuation of the ‘acceptable year of the Lord’. No one will be in doubt at the point of fulfillment of the close of the gospel age. The growing general indifference to the message is already telling. It will climax in complete loss of interest in, and opportunity to witness for, the truth. There and then will the courageous and obedient be revealed. What is popular has many friends, as one can tell from the many who have peddled the gospel for gain, securing millions in the bank in the process. When this opportunity disappears, only then will true love for Christ and God his Father be revealed.
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