Biblical Theology, Doctrine, Ecclesiology, History, Worship

The Church as Temple

Posted by Brandon Munson on

This is the second installment of the Church Identity series. The preceding article is The Church as House. This article returns to the idea of Creation as a house and talks about the Church as the Temple of God.

Section I: God has a house

God’s House

In Ancient Near-Eastern cultures the temple of a deity was referred to as the “house” of that deity. It is where the deity resides, at least in a sense, to be worshiped and accessed. Notice how the Pslamist says, “I rejoice in those who said to me, ‘Let us go to the House of the Lord.’ ”1

The Israelites were not an exception to the rule, but they did have a unique perspective on it. Let’s start again at the beginning, when God constructs a cosmic house.2

As noted in the previous article, the creation narrative is reminiscent of house building. God creates the foundations of heaven and earth, and He separates light from darkness. He constructs a dome to separate the waters, acting as a ceiling and walls. God creates “rooms” in the house by separating water from the dry land. He then fills it with furnishings, such as vegetation and animals. Then he places residents to make the house a home. This is God’s house, however, so it is a cosmic temple, complete with “images” of God. Adam & Eve are God’s representation on earth. The earth was a perfect mirror of heaven.

God dwells with Adam and Eve in perfect harmony with His creation. That is, until His representations rebel and desecrate their likeness to Him. They profane the cosmic temple and the perfect harmony is broken. Humanity is cut off from the “Tree of Life,” and at the tower of Babel God said His Spirit “will not dwell with man forever.”3 God would not abide in an unclean house. “Cleanliness is next to godliness,” as they say.

Still, God does not give up on humanity and makes a promise to bring salvation through the seed of Eve.4  God clothes them and, somewhere along the way, shows them how to make sacrifice. Cain and Abel seem to know what they are doing later in the narrative, though details of how they learn such a ritual is never given.5 The theme of sacrifice cannot be covered here, but notice that it is taken for granted that it would happen upon an altar—a sacred space. “High places” become the normative location for constructing altars, presumably due to their elevation and nearness to heaven.

Mountain, Tent, House

Let’s fast forward to the burning bush. Remember that Moses is supposed to take his shoes off because the ground was holy, returning to the notion of “sacred space.” The fire should be consuming this bush, but it remains unscathed. This image symbolizes the fire of God’s holiness that would dwell in the midst of the Israelites without consuming them.6

After the Israelites are released from Egypt and cross the Red Sea, they travel through the wilderness. They come to the holy mountain of Sinai, which is basically a vertical temple–or perhaps the temple is a horizontal Mt. Sinai. In any case, notice that the people are to remain ritually pure over three days’ time before God descends upon the mountain. Neither people nor their livestock were allowed to touch the mountain, for penalty of death, but the people were to remain in the boundaries set around the foot of the mountain. This corresponds to the court of the people.The priests and elders had to be consecrated and were allowed on the mountain, but not to the top. They are like the Levitical priests who would go into the sanctuary, but not into the Holy of holies. Only Moses and Aron, who is the archetype of the high priest, were allowed to the very top. At Mt. Sinai, God descended as a pillar of cloud and fire, Heaven touched earth, and Moses and Aron were greatly afraid at the presence and voice of the Lord.7

God gave Moses the Law, which instructs the Israelites how to conduct themselves as a holy people with whom God shall dwell. They were holy because, through them, God dwells on earth (in a limited way) as He did in Eden. The Law included instructions for a sacred space, beginning with the tabernacle. The tabernacle was a mobile temple made of tents so that it could travel with the wandering Israelites. The Law includes regulations for moral and legal conduct. It also establishes precepts for ritual purity, in order to cleanse the Israelites from the contamination of the world before entering the sanitized space of the tabernacle.

Later, God commands the construction of an ark of His covenant in which the tablets of the Law would be placed. This Ark of the Covenant would be the physical sign, a “sacrament,” of His very presence. Anyone who touched it directly would be consumed by the holy fire of God and die. This is the vessel that would be placed in the innermost chamber of the tabernacle.8

As time unfolds, the Israelites inherit the Promised Land, become stationary, develop a Theocratic monarchy, and construct a stable temple upon the holy mountain in Jerusalem–called Zion. Solomon professes that he is about to build a great temple for God, who is the greatest of all gods, yet he admits that it cannot contain Him. In fact, Solomon acknowledges that heaven and earth cannot contain God. The temple, practically speaking, is a place set apart for worship and to offer sacrifices.9

God can not be contained, so it is more accurate to say “in Him all things consist.”10 Still, the temple acts as a focal point for God to make His presence known in a unique and special way. In fact, it is a place where heaven touches earth again. The temple is a microcosm that reflects the heavenly realm the way Eden once did in ages passed. The problem is that it is one small space in the midst of the entire cosmos; but God’s plan is to restore all of His creation to a state of “shalom.”11

Section II: Renovating God’s house

Enter Jesus

Christians believe that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets, that is, the entirety of the Old Testament. Jesus, therefore, is the fulfillment of the Temple. For one, the “fullness of deity” dwells in Christ who has a complete human nature and a complete divine nature.12 God could not be any more present then He was in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus even says that he is the temple.

Jesus tells the Pharisees that not one stone of the physical temple will remain. He also says that he will destroy the temple, referring to his body, and raise it in three days.13  So how is the Church the temple?

One day, Jesus meets a Samaritan woman at a well. Jesus tells the woman that a day is coming when people will not need to go to a physical location to worship, but that God is Spirit and will be worshiped in spirit and in truth.14 Jesus also tells his disciples, “Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am in the midst of them.”15 God is in the midst of His people when they assemble as a community in the name of Jesus. Since The word “church” literally means “assembly,” any gathering in Jesus’ name is synonymous with the Church.16

A Living Temple

We learn more about the nature of the Church from the Epistles. For example, we learn that we are the “Body of Christ.”17 If the temple Jesus refers to in the Gospels is his body, and we are the mystical body of Christ, we are a temple. We learn that Jesus is the stone that was rejected, but that he became the cornerstone.18 The Church is a “house” made of “living stones,” founded on the living cornerstone of Jesus Christ.19 When we assemble, the Church becomes the living bricks of God’s spiritual temple. This means that, when we come together in worship, heaven and earth touch again and we mirror the heavenly realm.

This is why coming together is so important. For even though we are told that our individual bodies are “temples of the Holy Spirit,” we know that Jesus is present with us in a special way when we gather together in his name. We cannot forsake the gathering of believers.20 Moreover, not only must we stop thinking of Church as a social club, but even the mere notion that the Church is a place where we gather for community, encouragement, accountability, etc. is inadequate. These are certainly vital to the Church and for our spiritual development, but the nature of the Church goes deeper. The Church is the place where God abides on earth. God is present in His Church in a way that He is not anywhere else in the world. The Church should be seen as a time and space of mystery and awe, and not just a good fellowship.

The “secret” to Church growth, then, is not more programs. Though we should be welcoming, niceness is not going to make the Church grow. Yes, good music and larger than life lighting and effects seem to draw large crowds, but this doesn’t make the Church grow. It usually only makes a congregation grow by taking youth away from smaller congregations because they prefer the culture and music. The only way the Church can grow, and particular congregations grow without embracing the consumerist megachurch model, is by being a community in which people can have a supernatural encounter with Jesus Christ. All of the other stuff they can find elsewhere without having to wake up early on a weekend. If the Church is truly a temple, and Jesus dwells with us supernaturally, then a visitor who graces our doors should be able to have a life-transforming encounter with Jesus. If that is not happening something is terribly, terribly wrong.

Since the Church has spread, and is spreading throughout the world, God abides throughout His creation again. He is no longer “relegated” to Jerusalem, but wherever the Church is. This, of course, still falls short of the endgame. The Church shares in the mission of Christ; to reconcile the whole world to God and to unite it to heaven as a place where God abides fully. Indeed, this is the hope of the Age to Come, when Christ returns, evil and death are vanquished, and heaven and earth are renewed as one. Then there will be a New Eden, not as a garden, but a fully developed, spiritual city–the New Jerusalem. There will be total shalom, and all of creation will abide with God in harmony forever and ever. Amen.

Next: The Mystery of Worship

 

 

 

 

 

 

*Photo credit: hoyasmeg via Visual Hunt / CC BY*

Brandon Munson
Latest posts by Brandon Munson (see all)

Footnotes

  1. Psalm 122:1  
  2. See Raymond C. Van Leeuwen’s “Cosmos, Temple, House: Building and Wisdom in Ancient Mesopotamia and Israel”
  3. Genesis 6:3
  4. Genesis 3:15
  5. Genesis 4
  6. Exodus 3
  7. See Exodus 19
  8. Numbers 4:15 & II Samuel 6
  9. I Kings 8:22-27 & II Chronicles 6:18
  10. Colossians 1:17
  11. Many people limit “shalom” as meaning “peace.” A better equivalent is “wholeness” or “perfection.” See Strong’s Concordance 7965.
  12. Colossians 2:9 & Hebrews 2:14-18
  13. Mark 13:1 & 2 and John 2:9
  14. John 4:22-26
  15. Matthew 18:20
  16. Strong’s Concordance 1577
  17. I Corinthians 12:27
  18. Acts 4:11 & Ephesians 2:19-22
  19. I Peter 2:4-6
  20. Hebrews 10:25