An Introduction What about the Temple? Rob Dalrymple PhD

 Issue is really one of how to interpret the Bible  What does the Bible say about the Temple?  What does the Bible says about the people of God?  What does the Bible say about the promised land?

 What does the Bible say about the temple?  What is the temple and what was the purpose for the Temple?  Ans: a ‘temple’ is the place where God dwells

 Lev 26:11-12 : ‘Moreover, I will make My dwelling among you, and My soul will not reject you. I will also walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people.’

 What does the Bible say about the temple?  What is the temple and what was the purpose for the Temple?  Ans: a ‘temple’ is the place where God dwells  The purpose/goal is for God to dwell among all mankind  Goal of Scripture is for God to restore His presence among all mankind throughout the Earth: = Temple  Garden of Eden finds its fulfillment in the New Jerusalem

 That is: God intended in Eden (what is ultimately accomplished in the New Jerusalem):  To dwell among all His people  To dwell throughout His creation

 2 reasons why any physical building cannot fulfill the purpose of the Temple  It restricts God’s presence to one place  It restricts God’s presence from being among all persons (one person/once per year)

 Eden was a temple: In that it was the place of God’s presence: God walked in the midst of Adam and Eve (Gen 3:8)  God promises Moses that He will again dwell among His people  Lev 26:11-12 : ‘Moreover, I will make My dwelling among you, and My soul will not reject you. I will also walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people.’

 Ezekiel 37:24-28 ‘And My servant David will be king over them, and they will all have one shepherd; and they will walk in My ordinances, and keep My statutes, and observe them. And they shall live on the land that I gave to Jacob My servant, in which your fathers lived; and they will live on it, they, and their sons, and their sons' sons, forever; and David My servant shall be their prince forever. And I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will place them and multiply them, and will set My sanctuary in their midst forever. My dwelling place also will be with them; and I will be their God, and they will be My people. And the nations will know that I am the LORD who sanctifies Israel, when My sanctuary is in their midst forever.’

 Jesus as the presence of God among us (Immanuel) is the Temple  The people of God, through the Spirit, fulfill the promise of God to dwell among His people

 2 Cor 6:14-18: Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, ‘ I will dwell in them and walk among them; And I will be their God, and they shall be My people.’ ‘Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate,’ says the Lord. ‘And do not touch what is unclean; And I will welcome you. And I will be a father to you, And you shall be sons and daughters to Me,’ Says the Lord Almighty.

 Jesus as the presence of God among us (Immanuel) is the Temple  The people of God, through the Spirit, fulfill the promise of God to dwell among His people (2 Cor 6:16:  The New Jerusalem is the consummation of the presence of God among His people (Rev 21-22)

 Rev 21:1-3, 7: And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He shall dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be among them.... He who overcomes shall inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son.’

 Therefore, though one is prone to assume that the Temple is limited to a physical building, we see that the Temple existed for a mission that extended beyond the physical building—God’s presence among all mankind—and we see that the Temple finds its fulfillment in Jesus, then through the Spirit the Church, and it finds its consummation in the New Jerusalem

 Garden of Eden: Temple  Tabernacle/Temple  Destruction of Temple 586 BC  Restoration of temple in Prophets  Fulfillment in Jesus  NT people of God through the Spirit  Consummation: New Jerusalem

 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 Do you not know that you are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? 17 If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are.’  1 Corinthians 6:19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?’  Ultimate promise of God in the OT is God’s dwelling with mankind which was lost in the garden: Leviticus 26: 'Moreover, I will make My dwelling among you, and My soul will not reject you. 12 'I will also walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people.