Temples of God

TEMPLES OF GOD

KNOW YE NOT THAT YE ARE THE TEMPLE OF GOD, AND THAT THE SPIRIT OF GOD DWELLETH IN YOU? IF ANY MAN DEFILE THE TEMPLE OF GOD, HIM SHALL GOD DESTROY; FOR THE TEMPLE OF GOD IS HOLY, WHICH TEMPLE YE ARE. 1 Cor 3:16-17

We are told to "Prove all things." Hold fast that which is good" (1 Thess. 5:21). We are commanded to evaluate what we hear, and hold fast to what is genuine and true. The standard by which we do this is to test all preaching and teaching by the word of God. Verses 19 and 20 of this same chapter says: "Quench not the spirit. Despise not prophesying." When linking verse 20 with verse 19, the thought is expressed that we quench the Holy Spirit when we despise prophesying. To prophesy, means to speak the word of God, the inspired utterances of the prophets that are preserved for us in the Bible.

Prophesy also means to declare the mind of God, as it has been revealed in His word. So we must evaluate what we hear and hold fast to what is good, and build a foundation from it.

Israel's history began about 4000 years ago with Abraham being asked to move to Canaan. Canaan today is called Israel. In 1500 BC, Israel's monarchy was divided into two kingdoms. One called the house of Israel, and the other the house of Judah.

History reveals in 700 BC Israel was taken captive and Judah fell in 600 BC. This was when the temple in Jerusalem was plundered the first time. "And in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, which is the nineteenth year of king Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, came Nebuzradan, captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, unto Jerusalem: and he burnt the house of the Lord, and the king's house, and all the houses of Jerusalem, and every great man's house burnt he with fire"(2 Kings 25: 8-9). This occurrence should have been no surprise to those living in Jerusalem because Jeremiah, God's prophet had warned them in advance. "For I have set my face against this city for evil, and not for good, saith the Lord: it shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire. And touching the house of the king of Judah, say, hear you the word of the Lord" (Jer. 21:10-11). This act brought an end to Solomon's temple and the city was left in ruin and desolation. This is a striking exhibit of the destruction that sin brings in its wake! Next, we read of Cyrus king of Persia in the 5th century B.C. was given a charge to rebuild the destroyed temple of God. "Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying, Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, the Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and He hath charged me to build Him an house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all his people? His God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build The house of the Lord God of Israel, (he is the God,) which is in Jerusalem. And whosoever remaineth in any place where he sojourneth, let the men of his place help him with silver, and with gold, and with goods, and with beasts, beside the freewill offering for the house of God that is in Jerusalem. Then rose up the chief of the fathers of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests, and the Levites, with all them whose spirit God had raised, to go up to build the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem. And all they that were about them strengthened their hands with vessels of silver, with gold, with goods, and with beasts, and with precious things, beside all that was willingly offered. Also Cyrus the king brought forth the vessels of the house of the Lord, which Nebuchadnezzar had brought forth out of Jerusalem, and had put them in the house of his gods" (Ezra 1:1-7).

This temple was built and destroyed by the Roman Emperor Titus in 70 or 71 A.D. Today there are plans by some Jewish scholars and religious groups to build the third temple so they can have sacrifices again. It has been reported there are red heifers being raised for this purpose today in Texas and in the country of Israel.

When studying God's word It is evident that the Bible prophecies draw our attention to the Middle East, and Jerusalem is the center of that attention. Jerusalem is where Christ spoke to the disciples and gave them the Olivet prophecy. It is where, as a young boy He sat at the Temple discussing His Fathers doctrines. Jerusalem is the place where Christ died for mans sins. And where He was resurrected, and where He is coming back to usher in His Fathers kingdom.

Rabbi Sholomo Riskin, who believes a third temple is to be built, wrote an article in the Jerusalem Post, January 15, 2001. It begins by quoting Gen 49:10. "The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be." The difficulty of this verse is found right in the middle of the blessing, where we come up against the origins mystery of the word Shiloh, which appears only this once in the Bible (except as a name of a city in Israel which housed the sanctuary). Shiloh is a proper noun the name of the Messiah! Ezra's commentary: explains Shiloh in terms of the word shilya which means womb [see Deut. 28:57]. In making the connection, Ezra is insisting that the ultimate Messiah- ruler will be the product of a fetus formed by a mother and father. Furthermore, just as the Messiah must be a natural child of a mother and father. The third temple restorers feel Christ has yet to be born from a physical mother and father." This is the general belief of Jewish teachings and a third physical temple must be erected with a sacrificing animal alter. I ask? "Is that true?" Does a third temple have to be built? Prior to Christ's return to earth? I will come back to that question later.

A few weeks ago there was a rumor in the news media that PLO Yasser Arafat might try and blow up the Dome of the Rock [ Mosque, which is considered the third holiest site in Islam], blaming the Jews for doing it, so Yasser Arafat can gain world strength and sympathy from all the Islamic people.

Now Saddam Hussein is trying to throw his hat into Yasser Arafat sympathy ring. He is quoted as saying in the Jerusalem Post, [before the last bombing by the U.S.] "I will shell Israel daily for six months from land and sea in order to bring about Palestinian independence. Saddam Hussein also said that Israel could not withstand an artillery bombardment, adding the Iraq would do it if the Arab world supported the decision. He added , despite possible U.S. Intervention, nothing could stand in the way of the Iraqi attack." These threats are even more real today !

We see prophecy being fulfilled right before our eyes. "And when you shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh" (Luke 21:20). Matthew 24:15, has more to add to this subject. "When you therefore shall see the abomination of Desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (who so reads, let him understand:). Mark says, "But when ye shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not, (Let him that reads understand,) then let them that be in Judea flee to the mountains" (Mark 13:14).

There are only two verses that speaks of the abomination that makes desolate in Daniel. The first one is found in Daniel 11: 31. "And arms shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that makes desolate." This has already taken place in history--twice. The last time was in 70 A.D. What is the abomination that causes desolation these verses and the prophet Daniel was speaking about?

Before going to the second place in Daniel where this term `abomination that makes desolate' is found, let's read in Numbers 14, where we will see how the Lord exchanges a day of righteousness for a year of sin. "After the number of the days in which you searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall you bear your iniquities, [sins, lawlessness] even forty years, and you shall know My breach of promise" (Num. 14:34). See Ezekiel 4:6. It has the same exchange rate, a day of righteousness is exchanged for a year of sin.

In Daniel 12, we read of the second place the term `abomination that makes desolate' is found. "And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that makes desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days" (Dan 12:11).

Using a day for a year exchange rate there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety years, not days. This puts us into the frame work of the Moslem religious take over of Jerusalem. In the Jerusalem Post dated January 26, 2001, was a small news item about a book written in 1930, published by the Supreme Moslem council. The authors states clearly, "For the purposes of this guide, which confines itself to the Moslem period, the starting point is the year 637 A.D." That is an interesting date. We are told historically sacrificing stopped in 70 A.D. The Moslems took control of Jerusalem in 637 A.D. Now add to that 1290 years, when sacrificing was taken away, we come up with the year 1997. Now add 3 years of scattering that Dan. 12:7 speaks of we come up with the year 2000, and the 1/2 year ==2001. Which brings us into the ball park of others who have speculating and prophesying theories. Many have stated that the year 2001 is the beginning of the new millennium!

Lets look now at a verse that uses the word overspreading of Abominations in Dan. 9:27. "And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate." This is the only place overspreading is used.

Overspreading is Strong's number 3671. Meaning: 1. Edge or extremity; 2. A winged bird; 3. part of a army; 4. Attached; 5. invading king; 6. invader as overflowing; 7. loose flowing end.

In 1997 the Moslems dedicated an area of Solomon's underground stables into a new mosque. When they did this the Independent News wrote, "Passions inflamed by secret mosque, in the struggle for the holy sites of Jerusalem, Muslims have won a victory by constructing an underground mosque, capable of holding 7000 worshippers beneath the great masonry platform built by Herod on which stands Islam's third holiest Shrines, the new mosque built in semi-secret, is in an underground area known as Solomon's stables, where the Crusaders once kept their war horses." Islam is now the second largest religion in the world. The Catholic Church still dominates in first place. But as we watch the news, we see their leader Pope John Paul II looking weak and sick. He does not look now like the Roman prince who will introduce the Abomination that renders the sanctuary desolate. But there is one who could fit that role, one who is in the line up for being a Pope. He is a Jewish Cardinal named Jean Marie Lustiger. He was born the same year Mr. Armstrong was being converted [1927]. He was born of Jewish parents that died in the holocaust and he was raised by Catholic adopted parents and is recognized as a prince of the Roman Catholic Church, just as all ordained cardinals are called. Daniel 9:26 captures our mind with the thought of a prince. "And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for Himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, [an army] and unto the end of the war desolations are determined."

Is this prince `The man of sin' that we read of in 2 Thess. 2:3-4? NO!! The Worldwide Church Of God has always taught it was. This scripture is always used in conjunction with Dan. 9:26. "Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sits in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God"(2 Thess. 2:3-4).

The word perdition is found in two places in the New Testament. In 2 Thess. 2:3 and in John 17:12, where we find Christ's real Lord's prayer. "While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name: Those that You gave Me I have kept, and none of them is lost, But the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled."

Perdition is Strong's number 684. Its root is #622, meaning: 1. Ruin; 2. Loss; 3. Destroy; 4. Physical and spiritual; 5.Or eternally. The Worldwide Church of God taught that those who attempt to make Paul's words in 2 Thess. 2:3-4 into a metaphor for the church are in error. The apostle Paul wrote 2nd Thess. in 51 A.D., roughly 20 years after Christ's death and Resurrection. So, was Paul speaking in 2nd Thess. 2:4 of a prince that is involved in destroying a third end time physical temple? Or was he speaking of a spiritual end time temple? Lets search the scriptures to find out. "And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves, And said unto them, it is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but you have made it a den of thieves" (Matt. 21:12-13). This is the physical temple that was destroyed in 70 or 71 A.D. depending on which history book you believe. This word temple is Strong's number 2411, meaning: 1. A sacred place; 2. The entire precinct; 3. Temple at Jerusalem.

Is Christ waiting for a physical third temple to be built before He returns to earth? In the book of Acts, Chapter 17, we will see what Luke was inspired to say. "God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that He is Lord of heaven and earth, dwells not in temples made with hands" (Acts 17:24). This verse shows us God is not confined within temples or buildings made with hands. Then where does the temple of God dwell?

The Apostle John gives us the answer!! "Jesus answered and said unto them, [those standing around Him] destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then said the Jews, forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt You rear it up in three days? But He spake of the temple of His body" (John 2:19-21). This temple is a spiritual temple. Strong's definition is # 3485, meaning: 1. To dwell; 2. An ecclesia; 3. Holy of holies; 4. Temple of new Jerusalem; 5. A Christian church as dwelt in by the holy spirit.

Are we admonished by Paul of this fact? "Know you not that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are" (1 Cor. 3:16-17). Paul had this firmly in his thinking! In chapter 6, verses 19-20. "What? Know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which you have of God, and you are not your own? For you are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's" (1 Cor. 6:19-20).

Is this speaking of the temple that the man of sin, the son of perdition is involved with?? I believe it is! This man of sin, causes God's people to fall away from God's truth by committing spiritual iniquity--spiritual lawlessness, destroying God's sound truths and doctrines by saying: 1. The Sabbath not important; 2. You don't have to follow the dietary laws of clean and unclean food, its alright to eat shrimp, lobster and pork. This man of sin also says: you don't have to keep God's annual Holy Days, they are not important to the New Covenant people. He has changed the law of tithing, saying its not commanded. He also says that you must become a part of the main stream "Christianity" by keeping Christmas--Easter-- Halloween. This man of sin is teaching God is a trinity! And the church era's of Revelation 2 and 3 have no importance in the New Covenant relationship. Prophecy is not important! This man of sin has been present and taken part in the spiritual body of God, just a Judas was an apostle of Christ!

The man of sin of Daniel 9 [that is a abomination that makes desolate] has never been in the spiritual body of God and his abominable destruction is now standing in the Holy place, where the millennial temple of God is to dwell. Right now its the Dome of the Rock and the Mosque's that are overspreading the temple mount. The personality of the true man of sin and prince of Daniel 9:26-27, that will destroy the city and mosque is found in Daniel 11:36-39. "And the king [kings represents power, strength and authority] shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvelous things against the God of Gods, [these are boastful words of a revolutionists who abolishes all religions and sets up the worship of his own] and he shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that is determined shall be done. Neither shall he regard the god of his fathers, nor the desire of women, [the papacy is being described here by his vanity of virginity] nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all. But in his estate shall he honour the god of forces: and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things. Thus shall he do in the most strong holds with a strange god, whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory: and he shall cause them to rule over many, and shall divide the land for gain" (Dan 11:36-39).

THE BEAST RECOGNIZES THESE QUALIFICATION AND KNOWS WHO HE IS LOOKING FOR!

James Russell