Heart of the Matter: Temples I

LIVE! From the “Mecca of Mormonism” SALT LAKE CITY, this is Heart of the MatterTGNN’s original show where Shawn McCraney deconstructed religion and developed fulfilled theology.! Show 36 Temples I – September 4th, 2007

And I’m yer host, Shawn McClanney. Live streaming video

In-the-house!

Shout-outs

Review of Mountain Meadows Movie, September Dawn.

BYU Magazine

One way for me to tell the heart of supposed holy men is to see what they allow to be done in their names. My mentor, Chuck Smith, who started the Calvary Chapel Jesus movement in the 60’s is now up in age. He says that if anyone ever tries to put up a building in his name he would roll over in his grave. To GOD all glory. I love this.

Our home received the BYU Magazine. This month on its cover is an actual revelation from President Gordon B Hinckey. On the cover is the newly opened Hinckley center! The cover story byline reads: “See the building Fit to carry the name!” What is man? says the scripture? Isaiah 22:2 reads: Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?

Side note: The cover also reads: “BYU Grads and the Highest degrees of (educational) Glory.” Fitting.

(SHOW COVER)

Introduction to Temples

PRAYER

Tonight we begin part one on Temples. The topic is expansive with a lot of aspects which need to be considered. I anticipate this study to last three weeks or shows. For clarity’s sake, let’s go back – way back, to the idea of temples with God and ancient Israel.

The Tabernacle and Its Significance

The tabernacle was portable and very small, and consisted of three compartments – an outer court, an inner court and a Holy of Holies – or the place where God would visit. The rites and rituals in the tabernacle are laid out explicitly in Leviticus. You can read them today. These included washing priests, offering animal and vegetable sacrifices to God in a place surrounded with very specific and symbolic furnishings and décor. There was one tabernacle and one only, no matter how many people were in the House of Israel.

The Permanent Temple

Hundreds of years later, King David wanted to build God a permanent temple, but being a man of blood (or violence) God forbade him to do this. Before his deathSeparation from God—now overcome. Physical death remains, but it no longer separates us from life with God., David had "with all his might" provided materials in great abundance for the building of the temple on the summit of Mount Moriah (1Ch 22:14; 29:4; 2Ch 3:1), which is on the east of the city. Genesis tells us that this is the spot where Abraham had offered up Isaac (Genesis 22:1-14).

When it came to this permanent temple, there was and is only ONE for all of Israel. And it was this one that Solomon, David’s son, erected in glorious splendor. Even today, there is one and only one temple site recognized by the Jews – no matter how many Jews are on earth or where they may live. For this reason even the orthodox Jews have gone without making the required sacrifices as detailed in Leviticus because they do not operate the temple mount.

The Construction of Solomon's Temple

So important is the location, that instead of relocating to another more spacious site, but in an effort to create more ground for the temple, Solomon had a huge wall of solid masonry, in some places rising more than 200 feet high, raised across the south of the hill, and a similar wall on the eastern side, just to give the area more land surface. 1st Kings tells us that Solomon’s temple was put together under the direction of skilled Phoenician builders and workmen, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign or about 480 years after the Exodus (1Ki 6:1-38; 2Ch 3:1-17). Many thousands of laborers and skilled artisans were employed in the work. The stones were of huge dimension and were gradually placed to make the massive walls. They were so closely fitted together that no mortar was used between them.

The sacredness of the building was vitally important. According to 1st Kings 6:7, no sound of hammer or axe or any tool of iron was heard as the structure rose. In the autumn of the eleventh year of his reign, seven and a half years after it had been begun, the temple was completed in all its architectural magnificence and beauty. So holy was the edifice that it stood for thirteen years, there on the summit of Moriah, silent and unused. This may – may – relate to the age the Jews began to see boys as men.

At the close of these thirteen years preparations for the dedication of the temple were made on a scale of the greatest magnificence. When the ark of the covenant (which, by the way, the LDS Church does not

Solomon's Temple

The ark (which Israelites were forbidden to own, have, or possess) was solemnly brought from the tent and deposited it to the place prepared for it in the temple, and the glory-cloud, the symbol of the divine presence, “filled” the house – a picture of the incarnation of Jesus. Solomon then ascended a platform which had been erected for him, in the sight of all the people, and lifting up his hands to heaven poured out his heart to God in prayer (1Ki 8:1-66; 2Ch 6:1-42,7). The feast of dedication, which lasted seven days, followed by the feast of tabernacles, marked a new era in the history of Israel. On the eighth day of the feast of tabernacles, Solomon dismissed the vast assemblage of the people, who returned to their homes filled with joy and gladness.

The Structure of the Temple

This new permanent temple consisted of the porch or entrance before the temple on the east (1Ki 6:3; 2Ch 3:4; 29:7). This great court surrounded the whole temple and here the people gathered and worshipped God. (2.) The holy place (q.v.), 1Ki 8:8-10, which contained an altar for burnt-offerings, a brazen sea, and ten lavers for ceremonial washings. (3) The oracle or most holy place (1Ki 6:19) which was the dwelling place of God. There was no “endowment” done in this temple on Mount Moriah. There were no baptisms for the dead. There were no sealings or marriages for time and all eternity of couples or families. There was an outer court for the masses. There was an inner court for the priest to wash and offer animal sacrifices. There was a Holy of Holies – furnished with a table, candles, showbread, and the ark of the covenant – where once a year the high priest would enter and offer sacrificial blood for the atonement of the people.

The only thing done in LDS temples today that has ANY similarity to the temple activities of ancient Israel is the washings and anointings – but the purpose and actual ritual of washing and anointing was completely different for ancient Israel then than the LDS’s application of it now.

Destruction and Rebuilding

This temple erected by Solomon was many times pillaged during the course of its history, and finally it was pillaged and destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, who burned the temple, and carried all its treasures with him to Babylon. According to Ezra 1:7-11, however, these sacred vessels, however, were restored to the Jews when they were released from Captivity. Once the Jewish exiles returned from Babylonian captivity the temple had suffered considerably from natural decay as well as from the assaults of hostile armies.

In an effort to gain the favor of the Jews, Herod the Great proposed to rebuild it. This offer was accepted, and the work was begun (B.C. 18) or about 12 or 13 years before the birth of Jesus Christ. Herod’s temple was carried out at a great exercise of labor and expense, and on a grand scale of splendor. The main part of the building was completed in ten years, but the erection of the outer courts and the embellishment of the whole continued over the entire period of our Lord's life on earth (John 2:16,19-21). I find that interesting. To me, this building project represented a building project of Man as the real living temple of God was now on earth with us. The temple was completed in A.D. 65. But it was not long permitted to exist.

The Final Destruction

Within forty years after our Lord's crucifixion, his prediction of its overthrow was accomplished (Lu 19:1; 24:53). The Roman legions took the city of Jerusalem by storm, and even though Titus tried desperately to preserve the temple, his soldiers set fire to it in several places, and it was utterly destroyed (A.D. 70), and was never rebuilt. Several remains of Herod's stately temple have by recent explorations been brought to light. It had two courts, one intended for the Israelites only, and the other, a large outer court, called "the court of the Gentiles," intended for the use of strangers of all nations. These two courts were separated by a low wall, as Josephus states, some 4 1/2 feet high, with thirteen openings. Along the top of this dividing wall, at regular intervals, were placed pillars bearing in Greek an inscription to the effect that no stranger was, on the pain of death, to pass from the court of the Gentiles into that of the Jews.

In 1871 a stone was discovered by M. Ganneau bearing the following inscription in Greek capitals: "No stranger is to enter within the partition wall and

Mount Moriah and Its Historical Significance

Enclosure around the sanctuary. Whoever is caught will be responsible to himself for his death, which will ensue.

There can be no doubt that the stone thus discovered was one of those originally placed on the boundary wall which separated the Jews from the Gentiles, of which Josephus speaks. The summit of Mount Moriah, on which the temple stood, is now occupied by the Haram esh-Sherif, i.e., "the sacred enclosure." You’ve probably seen it on the news or in a documentary on Islam. This enclosure covers in all a space of about 35 acres. About the centre of the enclosure is a raised platform, 16 feet above the surrounding space, and paved with large stone slabs, on which stands the Mohammedan mosque called Kubbet es-Sahkra i.e., the "Dome of the Rock," or the Mosque of Omar. This mosque covers the site of Solomon's temple. In the centre of the dome there is a bare, projecting rock, the highest part of Moriah, measuring 60 feet by 40 and standing 6 feet above the floor of the mosque. It is called the sahkra, i.e., "rock."

The Future of Mount Moriah

Who has rights to Mount Moriah – Islam or the Jews? It is believed that this struggle for the land will someday be settled – by a very influential man who will come in and present a plan which will truly satisfy all – a plan where they will actually get to rebuild their temple on the only spot in the world worthy of it – there on Mount Moriah. And the man who presents and gets this plan and truce accepted? The Bible calls him the anti-Christ.

The Temple as a Spiritual Construct

Now, in the New Testament the word “temple” is used figuratively of Christ's human body (John 2:19,21).

John 2:19 Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.

20 Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days?

21 But he spake of the temple of his body.

That is an interesting comment, isn’t it? But it makes sense in that everything in the Old Testament is a type or picture of Jesus in the new, right? So where men and women would come to a physical place to worship God and offer sacrifice in pre-Jesus years, once He came, it only makes sense that we now come and worship and meet Him in spiritual places.

1st Corinthians 3:16,17 call “believers” the temple of God.

How is this? It’s a spiritual place, NOT a physical one any longer. You see, the reason 1st Kings 6:7 says that “no sound of hammer or axe or any tool of iron was heard as the structure arose” was because this pre-Jesus temple was symbolic of the final temple of God – or the spiritual place within each of us. When we are created as new creatures in Christ, is there hammering or chopping heard? No. It’s not a work of men and religion and materials. It’s spiritual – without the constructs or constructions of men. Ancient Israel’s temple was a picture with the end in mind – God will ultimately dwell in us, a house made without hands.

2nd Corinthians 6:16: “For ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”

2nd Corinthian 5:1: For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

The Indwelling of God’s Spirit

Just as God once dwelled in the Holy of Holy in the temple of Ancient Israel, and just as God once dwelled on earth in an undefiled temple of flesh, GOD now – by His Holy Spirit – dwells in us! Not visiting us temporarily as He did in the Holy of Holies. Not becoming us, as He was in the Man Jesus. But IN us through faith and with us ALL THE TIME.

Ephesians tells us that the Church (meaning the body of believers, not a church building) is also designated "an holy temple in the Lord" (Ephesians 2:21).

Eph 2:19: Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; And 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

God's Dwelling Places

Ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit. God’s temple today is also the corporate body of believers “fitly framed together” and “growing into an holy temple in the Lord,” “builded together for what???? “an habitation of God through the spirit!”

SO we have a double whammy as believers today. We are His temple, and He resides in us, and then collectively we form a temple when united with other believers! Holy comolie! Finally, the Book of RevelationA symbolic prophecy fulfilled in 70 A.D.—not a prediction of future global events. says that “heaven” is also called a temple.

So there we have a biblical perspective of temples wherein God dwells –

1. in ancient Israel’s tabernacle
2. in King Solomon’s glorious edifice
3. in Herod The Great’s splendorific construction for a short time
4. in the Lord’s body
5. in the body of individual believers
6. in the corporate body of the Church today
7. and ultimately in heaven.

Sacrifices in Temples

All temples past and present were and are a place of sacrifice – Animals were sacrificed in ancient Israel’s tabernacles and in the temples built up through Herod the Great’s time. Shedding blood and offering sacrifice in similitude of Jesus.

Jesus body. Shed blood through an offered sacrifice of Himself. In the Body of individual believers! Paul wrote that brethren should “by the mercies of God, present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.”

In the collective body of the Church. What is a reason we congregate? To partake of the communion, representing the body and shed blood of God! We also offer sacrifices when gathered communally.

Types of Sacrifices

Really? What are they? Time. Worship. Offerings. Worship.

Heb 13:15 By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. As a body of believers, the “Church” sacrifices its time, its praise, its funds to the purposes of God. Even heaven, which is called an ultimate temple, is open only because of the sacrifice – the shed blood – of God’s Son.

With this understanding of temples and their biblical place and purpose, how do “LDS temples fit into this holy thread from the beginning to the end?” Or do they?

We’ll examine this next week.

Let’s go to the phones:

(801) 973-8820
(801) 973-TV20

Temples: A Historical Overview

“TEMPLE” was first used in relation to a thing that was actually a tabernacle, which was called “the temple of the Lord” in 1st Samuel 1:9.

Conclusion

Pastor in the Pub at Denny’s on 5th South and 250 West downtown!

www.bornagainmormon.com