TABLE OF CONTENTS |
Part
I
Dedicating the Temple
The Church Concept of God
|
Part
III
(3) The Man with the Writer's
Inkhorn
—The Second Assignment
(4) The Dedication of Ezekiel's
Temple
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Part
II
(1) The Dedication of the Tabernacle
—Bringing Home the Ark
(2) Solomon's Temple
—Dedicating the Temple
before It Was Finished |
Part
IV
(5) God's True Temple
—"Filled with Smoke from
the Glory of God"
—What Happens Next?
—What Does the Dedication
of the True Temple Portend?
—Why Is the Dedication of
God's Temple Important?
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Part I
"And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his
power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven
angels were fulfilled."
Revelation 15:8
Building a temple takes an enormous amount of effort and time and
resources. This is true of human temples, but the temple of God will come into being by
God’s mighty power.
Herod's Temple
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Herod’s temple was forty-six years in building.
God’s temple has been in process of being built for nearly 2,000
years and had been in the planning from almost eternity as best as we know.
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The
Temple God had in mind had enormous planning and
preparation even before the Temple was to be put together. Nothing even remotely can be
compared to it.
Temples are mostly a tribute of man’s skills and ingenuity even
when they are dedicated to God. God’s Temple is to be a monument to God’s glory
and honor and power and wisdom and riches forever. Never will anything be built like
it again or compare in glory to it. It is a once in eternity
Temple to God’s glory. Today
we will refer to five dedications in God’s Word.
When Peter the Great of Russia built himself a beautiful palace, he
asked his skillful architect if he could build a building more glorious than he had built
for himself. The architect pondered for awhile and answered that possibly he could.
The Czar then ordered him to be blinded so that he could not make
another building more glorious than the one he had built for the Czar. The motive was
jealousy. He didn’t want his architect to outdo himself in building another structure
more glorious than he had.
We don’t know if God could make another
Temple more glorious
than He is making now. We doubt it very much. This is God’s ultimate building. He has
been in process of building this Temple, from one standpoint from eternity. It was the
gleam in God’s eye when he created the Logos and the heavenly hosts and finally the
first human pair.
Man has seen only smidgens of God’s glory and it has been
overwhelming. Now with Hubble and Chandra out there in space, they are finding, like the
Queen of Sheba said, "The half was never told."
The University of California has been studying a newly found
"bursting pulsar," for lack of a better description. It is believed to be a
binary star with one neutron star that has consumed its energy and is believed to be about
the size of the Sears Tower, but weighs ten times the weight of our Sun. In its death
throes it is not going "gently into the night," but "raging, raging against
the dying of the light."
The star locked in with this dying star is being dragged by this dying
star, pulling great swatches from its hydrogen atmosphere down to its surface, concussing
nuclear explosions (Chicago Tribune, Feb. 28, 1996).
They have found nothing like this before and suddenly realize they are
like children throwing stones in the ocean shoreline with no idea of the magnitude of
waters that lie beyond where the stone fell. Every week they are seeing a little more of
God’s glory and it is breathtaking, awesome. Yes, "we are like the dust on the
balance."
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Yet, all these billions of galaxies with all their billions
of stars, and all the great gaseous clouds, and all the dark holes that spread endlessly
throughout space, we are not able to fathom even with all our marvelous resources.
The mystery of the universe becomes more amazing and complex.
All of this tells us something of God’s glory and power.
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If the stars and heavens were all we had to
know about God, how limited would be our knowledge of God. We could contemplate His power
and His wisdom in some small way, but what would we know of His love and justice, of His
compassion and tenderness? Very little, indeed. It is God’s
Temple, the Church Head
and body, that will be the habitation of God.
Paul tells us in
Ephesians 2:20-22,
We
"are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ
himself being the chief corner stone;
"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."
Can it be that we, you and I, are being "framed together,"
growing into an "Holy Temple in the Lord?" Can it be that God is designing us to
be His "habitation" through the Spirit forever? Can we comprehend this? What
shall we say? The Scripture has so stated this matter and, therefore, it is true. Our
ability to comprehend this deep truth has no bearing upon its truthfulness.
The Church's Concept of God
"Hell Fire"—
A Doctrine of Demons
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Now some of our good friends in the churches think that God has called them to heaven
mostly as an escape from "everlasting torture."
They praise God that "being saved" they will not have to
endure the torture and torment of hell, not for a day, or a week, or for a month or for a
year, nor for ever.
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We look at the horror of the death camps of Germany
and the mass graves in Bosnia and we shudder. How could people be so mean and ruthless?
Yet, our dear friends conjure up thoughts of God presiding over billions of people, not
dead and without feeling, but somehow alive and feeling all the torture and pain that God
can inflict upon them. It makes Hitler look pretty good compared to God who seems to glory
in torturing people forever.
How thankful we are to know the hellfire doctrine is a Devil-inspired
teaching which the churches have stolen from Greek philosophy and by theology have read
into the Bible. Not a shred of truth in it. Lies, all of it. God would be more like the
Devil than the God of love.
When Moses wanted to see God’s glory, he really didn’t
realize God’s glory by his sight, but by hearing as the Lord passed by,
"The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and
abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and
transgression and sin." Exodus 34:6, 7
That has become the refrain of the Bible. It appears in partial
quotations some sixty-six times in Scripture. Yes, God is merciful and gracious. He is not
like Hitler or some of the Bosnians or the Hutus or the Tutus or the Cambodian Khmer Rouge
who seemed to have a total disregard for human suffering and human life.
Noah after the Flood
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Man was made in God’s image and his life was precious and
sacred.
No one has a right to commit murder.
God told Noah and all living after the flood, which includes us today,
"Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of
God made he man" (Genesis 9:6).
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God requires a "life for a life." No less,
no more, while we are still living in the Second
World, the "present evil world."
The churches of today do not have a clear concept of God’s
purpose in calling and selecting his elect. We hear them talk of walking on golden streets
and playing harps in heaven, of floating on clouds aimlessly with no purpose but to exist
in heaven taking up space. You would think they would be engaged in trying to save souls
from their traditional hell.
However, if we could imagine them engaged in soul-saving, they must be
frustrated and disingenuous in their efforts, because very few of earth’s billions
are being reached. Why, oh, why, would God want a Temple of such glory and honor while at
the same time He would be tormenting unsaved billions? We are used to seeing opulence on
one side of town and the slums on the other. We don’t expect this in heaven.
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Solomon said,
"But will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth? behold, heaven and the heaven
of heavens cannot contain thee:
How much less this house which I have built."
2 Chronicles 6:18
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Solomon knew the house he had
built with the most extravagant resources available to him and with the finest
workmanship was as nothing in God’s eyes. It was most unworthy to receive the God of
heaven, or to be the place where God would meet with them.
The Berlin Dome
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The Milan Cathedral
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Notwithstanding this, countless edifices have
been built for God’s glory. How much pleasure does God have in such edifices? We
think God had more pleasure in seeing the widow throw her two mites into the
Temple
treasury, seeing she gave all that she had, than He did in that
Temple that Herod had
built.
The Widow's Mite
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At least, we know Jesus was absolutely thrilled with that widow, for he said:
"Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath
cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury:
"For all they did cast in of
their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her
living."
Mark 12:43, 44 |
When David besought the Lord, wishing to built God an
house, God sent Nathan the Prophet saying:
"Thou shalt not build me an house to dwell in:
"For I have not dwelt in an house since the day that I brought up Israel unto
this day; but have gone from tent to tent, and from one tabernacle to another.
"Wheresoever I have walked with all Israel, spake I a word to any of the judges
of Israel, whom I commanded to feed my people, saying, Why have ye not built me an house
of cedars?" 1 Chronicles 17:4-6
While God did allow
Solomon to ultimately build Him a house, yet
He chose to dwell from "tent to tent."
Why? While God dwelt from "tent to tent," it pictured how
God would live with His saints as they tabernacled in the flesh, going from place to
place, homeless pilgrims journeying toward the Heavenly City. This beautifully pictures
the Gospel Age where God has no house of cedar.
All the buildings they have built have never been God’s dwelling
place. God has dwelt only with consecrated saints, journeying with them from place to
place, from tent to tent, until such time as all the 144,000 are completed. Then God
will have the most magnificent Temple ever to be found in heaven or earth, the
Church of
the Living God.
