The Third Temple

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It is in the function of the temple as the house of God that we are especially interested in this chapter.  The temple, first of all, represents the congregation of the righteous, the city of the living God, and the church of Jesus Christ built on Mount Zion (Heb. 12:22-24; 1 Tim.3:15).  The temple also represents severally each individual who is filled with the Holy Spirit; just as Jesus is the temple of God (John 2:21), so are his disciples individually temples (1 Cor. 3:16; 6:19). The spiritual house of God is therefore a "temple of temples."  A good il­lus­tration in the natural world is our own body, an organization of cells each of which is a microscopic "temple" of life.  Each cell feeds, reproduces, performs specialized tasks, and dies like any other living creature; taken together, they form a temple for our spirit to inhabit.  As we therefore inhabit a structure of living creatures, so God inhabits a congregation of living people.  God's temple, like our own body, is made of living cells—what Peter called "lively stones," saying, "Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house...." (1 Pet. 2:5), a house whose chief cornerstone is also a living stone (v. 4).  Of course that cornerstone is Jesus.

Paul was especially fond of the metaphor of the "body of Christ," using it in at least four of his epistles.  To the Ephes­ians, he wrote that Christ is "head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all" (1:22-23).  It is also in this epistle that he depicts the church as the temple of God.  In two strikingly similar passages, Paul compares the church to both a temple and a body.  First, the temple:

And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone; 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 (Eph. 2:20-22).

Then the body:

...may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which ever joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love (Eph. 4:15-16).

Note the similarities of phrasing and the parallels of thought:

 

Jesus is the head (corner) stone of the temple.

Jesus is the head of the body.

The temple is fitly framed together, the whole being joined to the head stone.

The body is fitly joined together and joined to the head.

The building grows unto an holy temple, a habitation of God's spirit.

The body increases to the edifying of itself in love.

 

Note in particular how the temple is filled with God's Spirit, and the body of Christ is filled with love.  God is love; and his love is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.

In other words, Zion is both a temple (or a city like a temple) and a loving woman—at once the house of the Lord and his bride.

Another text that says the same thing is  John 14:2: "In my Father's house are many mansions." Unfortunately, this text is misinterpreted in many  funeral sermons and  countless campground gospel songs.  In all too many cases, Jesus' words are taken at face value, leading to such absurdities as "Just give me a cabin in the corner of Gloryland," or "Meet me just outside my mansion door," or "There's a mansion now empty just waiting for me."  However, the merest glance at the rest of Jesus' discourse will reveal the true meaning.  Most modern translations substitute the word "abode" for "mansion"; indeed, in verse 23, Jesus said, "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."  The disciple in whom dwells the Spirit of Christ is therefore an abode for God's Spirit, an interpretation entirely in accord with the foregoing comments.  But the connotations evoked by the word "mansion" are not entirely inappropriate, for we have the promise of receiving "a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens" (2 Cor. 5:1).  It is not, however, a domicile similar to the dwellings we build for ourselves on earth, but it is that incorruptible spiritual body like unto Jesus' most glorious body which we shall receive in the resurrection.

The same spirit of cooperation that prevailed between Israelites and Gentiles in the building of Solomon's temple also characterizes the building of the church.  Paul, a Jew, told the Corinthian Greeks, "For we are labourers together with God: ye are...God's building" (1 Cor. 3:9).  Just as there was peace during Solomon's reign between the Israelites and the Phoe­nicians, so is there peace between Jew and Gentile in the kingdom of Christ—nay, a better peace, for he said, "Peace I leave unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you...." (1 John 14:27).

However,  though Solomon and Hiram were on friendly terms and craftsmen from both nations worked side by side, there was a lim­it to their fellowship.  When the temple was finished, the Gen­tiles were forbidden access into it on pain of death: a great wall kept them in the outer court, "far off" from the holiest place where God's presence and glory appeared to Israel's high priest alone.

But the fellowship between Jew and Gentile in the spiritual kingdom transcends all such limitations.  Hear Paul's fervent declaration of the new and better covenant:

Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh...that at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: but now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.  For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us (Eph. 2:11-14).

As Paul further explains, not only is the barrier broken down that kept the Gentiles "afar off"; not only are they "made nigh," having access with the Jews unto the Father; not only are they fellowcitizens with the Jews in the household of God; but they are actually a part of the temple itself!  Imagine, those unclean Gentiles, no better than dogs, now a part of the holiest thing in all Israel.  Peter went even further: we are now members of the royal priesthood with full access into the sanctuary to offer up spiritual sacrifices (1 Pet. 2:9).

Therefore, the wall that symbolized separation between Jew and Gentile has been dissolved.  Nevertheless, John described a wall, great and high, around the holy city.  That this does not constitute a contradiction will be shown in another chapter.  But a few preliminary remarks should be made concerning this, the third temple.  Solomon's temple, circa 960 B.C., and Zerubbabel's temple, circa 550 B.C., were the first two.  I cannot accept the dispensationalist belief that yet a third stones-and-mortar man-made edifice will be constructed in Jerusalem for Jesus to reign in for a thousand years.  The Jews may build another temple but it will not be honored by God, for "the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands" (Acts. 7:48).  The Holy City that John saw is the "third temple."

Revelation 21 contains John's description of the Holy City.  It was Emily Dickinson's favorite Biblical text, which she called the "Gem Chapter."  Ironically, though a master of the metaphor and simile in her own poetry, she apparently took John's description of the New Jerusalem quite literally.  In this chapter one reads of the holy city enclosed in a great crystalline wall of jasper erected upon a foundation of twelve courses adorned with gemstones.  Twelve gates, each a sin­gle pearl, provide access within, while the city itself is of transparent gold.

There are very good reasons, however, for the view that, like the other elements of the holy city, this great gem-encrusted wall is only a symbol for something altogether spiritual and invisible to human eyes.  It is strange, for example, that John alone of all New Testament writers offers an eyewitness description of heaven, if that be what it is.  Nowhere does the Lord himself describe heaven, unless in John 14:2 ("In my Father's house are many mansions"), a text that we have seen is quite easily explained in spiritual terms.  As a matter of fact, Paul would have been the one most likely to have provided us with a description since he was caught up to the third heaven and to paradise.  Yet he only says of the experience that he "heard unspeakable words which it is not lawful for a man to utter" (2 Cor. 12:4).  Citing Isaiah 64:4, Paul declares in no uncertain terms, "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him" (1 Cor. 2:9).  Finally, we take note of a phrase often overlooked in John's vision: he saw the holy city coming down out of heaven—the description is not of heaven itself but of something detached from it.  Therefore we seek a more spiritual interpretation, one in line with the rest of Scripture.

One of the most distinctive features of the New Jerusalem is its cubical shape.  It is foursquare, with the length, breadth, and height equal.  John's description, coupled with his observation that he saw no temple within, invites comparison with the temple of Solomon, especially with the "holy of holies."  His temple contained a secret room, called either the "holy of holies" or the "oracle," that was a cube 20 cubits (30 feet) on a side.  The walls of the temple were built on a foundation of costly hewn stones, 12 to 15 feet long, and were gar­nished with precious stones for beauty (1 Kings 7:10; 2 Chron. 3:6).  Everything was overlaid with pure gold, 600 talents worth—presently valued at least $300 million.  All the articles of furniture and all the vessels and utensils were of gold, silver, or bronze, in such extravagant amounts as to be incalculable.  If Jewish tradition can be believed, Solomon's temple was quite the most spectacular edifice ever erected, be­fore or since.  The materials alone would be worth billions on today's market.

The temple was but one of a number of magnificent structures erected in Jerusalem, including Solomon's palace (thirteen years in the building) another palatial mansion for his Egyptian queen, a throne, a "house of cedar," and a grand colonnaded porch.

But God's kingdom is not a natural kingdom (please note, I did not say "literal") but a spiritual; for every natural element in the ancient kingdom of Israel, there is a corresponding spiritual antitype.  The guiding principle is that of Paul's: "that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual" (1 Cor. 15:46); and the natural things which can be seen are temporal, while those which are spiritual, though invisible at the moment, are eternal (2 Cor. 4:18).  I corresponded with a Bible student who insisted that every prophecy must have a natural, literal meaning as well as the spiritual, to which I agreed.  However, he had the order reversed; he thought the spiritual interpretation was not only a nebulous abstraction but was merely a temporary phenomenon, true only for the present age, to give way to the literal and natural sense of the prophecy in the coming "millennial kingdom."  This is a common fallacy of the literalist school—they look for a yet future but quite literal fulfillment of those prophecies that originated when ancient Israel was still a kingdom.

The truth is that the natural meaning has already been fulfilled, mostly in ancient times.  A new order and a new king­dom were inaugurated on the morning of the resurrection.  The gos­pel of the kingdom is now the good news that all men may become citizens in Christ's kingdom—but that kingdom is not meat and drink (natural things) but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom. 14:17).  Christ's kingdom is not of this world.  Let me emphasize once more what Paul said: eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has anyone imagined what the kingdom shall be.  Why can't one just accept this and stop trying to make the kingdom of God out of earthy, natural, and literal materials?  Once we realize the futility of it, our minds will be free to accept the spiritual truths God has infused into the writings of the prophets, from the Pentateuch of Moses to the Apocalypse of John.

Lest the reader object, thinking I have stripped the kingdom of all meaning by replacing tangible realities with intangible abstractions, I say that I, with Paul, look for the glorious appearing of Christ's kingdom (2 Tim. 4:1).  Nor did Paul mean to say that eye will never see nor ear ever hear—someday, as he also said, we shall see indeed, not through a glass darkly as at present, but clearly, face to face.  And when that transcendent reality has come, the present life will seem but a dream of the night. All I'm saying is: those things that await the faithful cannot now be described in physical terms; it is only the spiritual relationships that exist between the citizens of the kingdom (and between them and God) that are understood, and that only vaguely at best. ¹

 

It is now time to turn our attention to the meaning of the bejewelled splendor of the Holy City and the significance of its great and high wall.

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