Temple

Where God Dwells

/ David R Maas / Leave a comment

The New Testament applies Temple language and imagery from the Hebrew Bible to the Body of Christ, the true Sanctuary of God.

Apart from the contacts between Jesus and the early church with the priestly authorities, the New Testament shows minimal interest in the Temple complex in Jerusalem. More frequent are the applications of temple language to the community of believers inaugurated by Jesus and built by his Apostles. What the Temple and the Tabernacle foreshowed is coming to fruition in the “Body of Christ.”

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Living Waters – True Worship

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To the woman in Samaria, Jesus of Nazareth revealed the proper form and location for worshipping the Father. With the arrival of the Messiah of Israel, concepts and traditions about holy space and holy time have become irrelevant, and his presence in Judea and Samaria rendered the historical debate over the location of the Temple irrelevant. From now on, the worship of the one true God must be performed in truth and spirit.

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BUDDING FIG TREE

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The parable of the budding fig tree pointed to the imminent destruction of the Temple that Jesus had predicted – Mark 13:28-29.

The parable of the “budding fig tree” provides a graphic illustration of Christ’s answer to the question – “When will these things come to pass?” The image of a fig tree sprouting foliage is the clue for the “when” of the events predicted by him. Its foliage signals the arrival of “summer,” the time when “all these things” will be fulfilled.

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Seventy Weeks – The Final Week

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SYNOPSIS:  An analysis of the final week of the “Seventy Weeks” prophecy – Daniel 9:26-27.

silhouette of mountains during dawn

We now reach the end of the “Seventy Weeks” prophecy, its final or so-called seventieth “week” (Daniel 9:26-27). This passage describes a set of events for which the preceding sixty-nine “weeks” have prepared. The text says nothing about the destruction of the city or the Temple. Instead, in this final “week,” the people of the city are “corrupted,” and the Sanctuary is defiled by the “abomination that desolates. Continue reading →

THIS GENERATION

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The generation contemporary with Jesus witnessed the events that he predicted that culminated in the destruction of the Temple – Mark 13:28-31.

Next, Jesus provided the chronological key – the disciples would know the time of the Temple’s demise when they saw all “these things” coming to pass, and before “this generation” reached its inevitable end. That was his definitive answer to the question, “when will these things come to pass?” – within one generation.

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