Some Thoughts From Reading On Abelard

For those who may not know who Abelard is, here is a short from Wikipedia, if you wish to know more, look him up. Interesting fellow he was.
Wikipedia reference:
Peter Abelard (Latin: Petrus Abaelardus or Abailard; French: Pierre Abélard) (1079 – April 21, 1142) was a medieval French scholastic philosopher, theologian and preeminent logician. The story of his affair with and love for Héloïse has become legendary. The Chambers Biographical Dictionary describes him as "the keenest thinker and boldest theologian of the 12th Century".[1]
-------------------------------------------------------------------- My thoughts---
I was thinking why so many theologians still miss the overall picture of the effect of Christ upon us. They have for so long left out the real story, and that is things didn’t end at the crucifixion of Christ, though, it was the end to sin and death for mankind, by this one gracious and loving act of our Saviour, it didn’t end with the Resurrection, that was proof that he had defeated sin and death, It all ended when he gave the Holy Spirit to fill our lives with the very resurrected life of him in us.
Most theologians never get past even the Pentecost event to really comprehend the total work and consummating act of Christ, that was completed upon his sitting down at the right hand of the Father.
It is from his throne, whereby He poured out gifts upon men, and from there we can boldly go before the throne of God for He represents the new humanity, the new creation to which He has transposed us, by His very presence within us, and making us partakers of his Divine nature as Peter writes, it is in this that I want to write here to make Abelard's illustration of the Doctor and medicine, and bring that illustration into full conception for us as Believers.
Here it is:

A quote from Abelard,
"One needs divine grace even to accept divine Grace".
If God didn't offer sinners the grace they needed in order to accept his saving grace, it isn't their fault that they aren't saved.
God would be like a Doctor who brings in the medicine that would cure a desperately ill patient who is too weak to sit up and take the medicine, it is hardly the patient's fault that he isn't cured, and the doctor deserves no praise for bringing in medicine, if he doesn't take the necessary steps to ensure that it effects it's cure". END OF QUOTE.

Now I see this more everyday, in that the worst things that can happen to us individually is that we think that somehow we conjured up the faith, and therefore are responsible for our salvation and it's continuance into eternity. What a farce, and it is that which is totally against the work of Christ and makes it nothing more then self-salvation, and produces pride, selfishness and all that Christ came to set us free from. We cannot glory, in how we got to Christ, nor can we glory in how He carries us into eternity. It is all His work, His faith, His Grace, His compassion and His love alas that breaks down the doors of hadies and releases us to be in Him, carried all the way into glory!

Let us never forget, it is the faith of Christ to which we have been restored unto the Father, not our own faith.
So say I, "who then shall boast, let him boast in the Lord", for it is His grace delivered once and for all to us, that has delivered us from sin and death, and not something we can look down on others for not having, or hold over others for us having it and not them.
For it is by His divine grace we have been saved.
Thus we praise him, because in the example above, our Doctor not only created the medicine, but brought it to us here on earth, and delivered it to us, then lifted us up to take it, and because of that act of both willingness and the compassion of Christ our physician, we have been restored.
All of mankind has been cured by the cross and the resurrection.
It is the preaching of this word of reconciliation, that God has reconciled men unto himself, that will bring Christ's faith to others.
It is men that had the problem, not God with sin.
Do we think for a moment He could not see for which the future would go for men. Do we think for a minute that Adam's choice surprised God, alas it did not, it was all part of the plan that we might come to know what Grace and love really is, as He has delivered the full comprehension of it, by us looking at the life of Christ, He was the Father in human form showing forth to whom the Father is. LOVE, pure unadulterated love.
We lack often to only ask, for his Divine life to come inside, and cure us from the inside out, contrary to the way religion perceives the cure, they would have you pour the medicine all over the man's mouth on the outside, never parting his lips for him so that some may go within. Not one drop would go inside to cure the poor man from the sickness of sin and death.
Christ in you, is the hope of glory. It is His resurrected life in us, that gives us deliverance, and health from sin.
We tend to want to act like the Doctor, making the effort to give medicine, but then instead of giving men the medicine to take inside, we chide them and condemn them for being sick in the first place. Is that mercy? Is that God's kind of love?
That's exactly what religion does, it makes us self conceited, and self worshippers, while we deliver a toxin and no medicine at all to the hurt and the dying.
Let us remember, "but for the Grace of God, there goes I", and let us not use this in thinking we are better or luckier then those in pain, let us get down, on our knees, and bind up their wounds and take up the injured and load them onto our horse, and take them to town, and purchase them a room, and offer to do more if necessary. Thus the good Samaritan didn’t walk by on his way to his fueling station at the synagogue, or go to the other side of the street, less he be affected by the flies that must have been swarming by now in the heat of the desert around this poor men that was left for dead, injured and beat up by the robbers.
For in truth, if it not for the act of Christ who is the "Good Samaritan" in our lives, we would have wasted away by the roadside and died with our wounds as well for we were ravaged by sin, and left for death, but it was the act of Christ to take us and bound up our wounds, and carry us, to safety and shelter from the storms of life in His wonderful arms, and then to say, "I am not through yet in seeing you are completely restored, body soul and spirit. I will continue to give myself of which is of value until you are with me, in the heavenlies."
What a wonderful God we have, Oh! Mighty God, how can I ever express praise that would be worthy of you!

Doctor J.

Christian, Temples of the Living God

I have been reading about some of the great man that God sent out with the proclamation of the Gospel, here surely is one of them. A special thanks to two sites for the information I have put here.
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http://web.ukonline.co.uk/freegrace/library/Whitefield/whitefieldbiog.
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/whitefield/sermons.lii.html
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A short biography of George Whitefield (1714-1770)
George Whitefield is considered by many as the greatest evangelist of all time. He was certainly one of the most well travelled making 13 trips across the Atlantic was a extraordinary enough by itself, for it was during a time if we consider that at this time sea travel was solely by sailing vessel, so he spent over two years of his life travelling on board ship.
With Jonathan Edwards and John Wesley, George Whitefield completed the trio of men humanly responsible for the great spiritual awakening on both sides of the Atlantic. He spent roughly 24 years of ministry in the Great Britain and about a further nine years in the American colonies, preaching to more than ten million souls.
George Whitefield was born in the Bell Inn Gloucester where his father, Thomas, was the landlord. George was the youngest of seven children, and after his father died when George was only two his mother, Elizabeth struggled to keep the family together. When George was twelve he was sent to St. Mary de Crypt Grammar School in Gloucester. There he earned a reputation as an actor and orator, but also a a persistent truant.
By the time he had reached the age 15 George had persuaded his mother to let him leave school because he would never make much use of his education, He spent his time working in
the inn.
However, after a visit from an Oxford student who worked his way through college George to plan to attend college himself. He returned to grammar school to finish his preparation to enter Oxford, losing about one year of school.
In November 1732 when he was 17 he entered Pembroke College, Oxford while there he was slowly drawn away from his sinful associates, after a year there, he met the brothers John and Charles Wesley. Charles Wesley loaned him a book, The Life of God in the Soul of Man. It was this book combined with a severe illness which finally brought about his conversion in 1735.
He was to say many years afterwards:

I know the place...Whenever I go to Oxford, I cannot help running to the spot where Jesus Christ first revealed himself to me, and gave me the new birth.

In May, 1735 he was forced to leave school due to his poor health and he returned home for nine months of recuperation. However, he was very far from idle, and his activity attracted the attention of the bishop of Gloucester, a Dr Benson who announced he would be happy to ordain Whitefield as a deacon. Whitefield was able to return to Oxford in March of 1736 and on June 20, 1736, Bishop Benson ordained him.
Whitefield preached his first sermon the following Sunday. It was at the ancient Church of Saint Mary de Crypt, the church where he had grown up as a boy and was consequently well known.
He described this occasion later:

...Some few mocked, but most for the present, seemed struck, and I have since heard that a complaint was made to the bishop, that I drove fifteen people mad, the first sermon.

More than 18,000 sermons were to follow in his lifetime, an average of 500 a year, or ten a week, of course these were not all original, but as a travelling evangelist Whitefield was able to use many of them again and again in vary forms. It is to be regretted that less than 90 of these sermons have survived in any form.
The Wednesday following his first sermon, he returned to Oxford where the B.A. degree was conferred upon him. Then he had to go to London to act as a supply minister at the Tower of London. He was there for several months, following which he assisted a friend in a rural parish for a few weeks. He also spent time ministering among the prisoners in Oxford at this time.
While all this had been going on the Wesley brothers had gone out to America as missionaries , and now they wrote and asked Whitefield to join them there. He felt called to go, but first he spent a year preaching with power to great crowds of people throughout England. He preached in some of the biggest churches in London and soon no church was large enough to hold those who wanted to hear him preach.
He was finally able to leave for America on January 10 1738, However the ship was delayed on its journey and he did not reach Georgia until May 7, 1738.
Whitefield loved Georgia and was not nearly so discouraged there as were the Wesleys. He was burdened about orphans, and started to collect funds to help them. He also opened several schools for boys and girls while continuing with his heavy preaching schedule.
In September 1738, he left Charleston, South Carolina, for the trip back to London.
On Sunday, January 14, 1739, Bishop Benson ordained Whitefield a priest in the Church of England.
It was now that George began to experience hostility from the established Church in Britain many churches were closed to him. His connection with Methodist societies and in particular his association with the Wesleys brothers was strongly objected to by the Anglican leadership. However, he continued preach wherever he was able to do so, working mainly with the many non-conformist religious groupings in London. However, their buildings were often far too small to accommodate the crowds who wanted to hear him.
It was at this point in 1739 that Whitefield decided to try preaching to the people in the open air. His first open air sermon was on Kingswood Hill, a district of the town of Bristol in southern England. On the first occasion only about 200 people were present but in soon he was preaching to 10,000 persons, other outdoor locations followed one of his favourite preaching places was Moorfields just outside London.
On August 1, 1739, the Bishop of London denounced Whitefield but this did not deter him and later that month he made his second trip to America to deliver the money he had been able to raise for the American orphans. This time he landed near Philadelphia on October 30, preaching there before going south.
From Philadelphia Whitefield travelled to New York where again the people flocked to hear him in their thousands. He preached to 8,000 in a field, on Sunday morning to 15,000, and Sunday afternoon to 20,000.
He did not stay there long as he was anxious to reach Georgia. Once there the first thing to do was to get his orphanage started. He rented a large house for a temporary measure and on March 25, 1740, he laid the first brick of the permanent building of Bethesda orphanage.
When this was accomplished he moved on to New England in September, 1740, While there he was to witness the first great awakening in that area. Jonathan Edwards had been patiently sowing the seed throughout the area. He preached in Boston to the greatest crowds ever assembled there to hear the gospel. Some 8,000 assembled in the morning and some 15,000 returned in the evening.
He then preached four times for Jonathan Edwards in Northampton, Massachusetts. The New England revival that he started lasted for a year and a half. Whitefield returned to England in March 1741 when he got back he found it necessary to disassociate from John Wesley as Wesley was diverging from Calvinist doctrine. There was a later re-establishment of their friendship but they both worked separately from then on.
From this point Whitefield was considered the unofficial leader of Calvinistic Methodism in England.
Now in 1741 began the first of Whitefields fourteen trips to Scotland. He was received everywhere with great enthusiasm. In Glasgow many were brought under deep conviction of sin, and their need for repentance.
The largest audience he ever addressed was at Cambuslang, not far from Glasgow, where he spoke to around 100,000 people! He preached for an hour and a half to the tearful crowd.
Converts from that one meeting numbered up to 10,000. Once he preached to 30,000; another day he had five services with 20,000 people at each. Afterwards he went on to the Scottish capital city of Edinburgh where he preached to another 20,000. In travelling from Glasgow to Edinburgh he preached to 10,000 souls every day. He loved it so much he cried out, "May I die preaching," .
After Scotland he went on to Wales, where he was to make frequent trips in the future, and was received with great respect and honour. It was here that he met his wife to be, Elizabeth James, a widow. They were married there on November 14, 1741.
In 1742 he made a second trip to Scotland. During the first two visits here Scotland was spiritually awakened and set "on fire" as it had been in the days of John Knox.
A tour of England and Wales was made from 1742 to 1744, and it was in 1743 that he began as moderator for the Calvinistic Methodists in Wales, a position which he held for a number of years.
From 1744 to 1748 he was back in America. On his way home because of his poor health, he stopped off in the Bermudas where he preached regularly and saw many souls won to the Lord. It was in 1748 that he said, "Let the name of Whitefield die so that the cause of Christ may live." He made a fourth trip to America between October 1751, to May, 1752.
When he returned to England he was appointed one of the chaplains to Selina, Countess of Huntingdon an active supporter of the gospel and a personal friend since 1748.
Whitefield has not in England for very long before he was again taking ship for America, this time with 22 orphans in tow. On the way he spent four weeks in Lisbon, Portugal.
In 1756 he was in Ireland. where he made only two, or possibly three, trips.
Later in 1756 he opened the Congregational Chapel bearing his name on Tottenham Court Road, London. He ministered here and also at Moorfields Tabernacle frequently.
A sixth voyage to America took place from 1763 to 1765.
In 1768 he made his final trip to Scotland, He visited Holland, and also Spain although when this trip took place is uncertain.
His wife Elisabeth died on August 9, 1768, and Whitefield preached the funeral sermon, from the text Romans 8:28. He dedicated the famous Tottenham Court Road Chapel on July 23, 1769.
On September 4, 1769, he started on his way to America for the last time, arriving on November 30. He made arrangements for his orphanage to be converted into Bethesda College. He spent the winter months of 1769-70 in Georgia, then in the spring he started north. He reached Philadelphia in May, and then travelled on to New England.
Never was he so warmly received as on this trip. The crowds flocked in huge numbers to see him. July was spent preaching in New York and Albany. In August he reached Boston. For three days in September he was too ill to preach, but as soon as he could stand up he was back preaching. In his last written letter dated September 23, 1770. He told how he could not preach, although thousands were waiting to hear.
On September 29, he journeyed from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to Newburyport, Massachusetts. On the way he preached in the open at Exeter, New Hampshire. Looking up he
prayed,

Lord Jesus, I am weary in thy work, but not of thy work. If I have not yet finished my course, let me go and speak for thee once more in the fields, seal thy truth, and come home
and die.

He was given strength for this, his last sermon. The subject he took was Faith and Works. Although scarcely able to stand when he first came before the group, he was enabled to preach for two hours to a crowd that no building then could have held.
When he arrived at the parsonage of the First Presbyterian Church in Newburyport a church he had helped to found, he had supper with his friend, Rev. Jonathan Parsons and then intended to go straight to bed. However, having heard of his arrival, a great number of friends gathered at the parsonage and begged him for just a short message. He paused a few moments on the stairs, holding a candle and spoke to the people until the candle went out.
At 2 a.m. that night struggling to breathe, he told his travelling companion Richard Smith, "My asthma is returning; I must have two or three days' rest." His last words were, "I am dying," and at 6 a.m. on the morning of 30 September 1770 he died.
The funeral was held on October 2 at the Old South First Presbyterian Church. Thousands of people were unable to even get near the door of the church. Whitefield was buried beneath the pulpit of that church as he had previously requested. The were numerous memorial services were held for him in many places.
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The following is one of the great sermons preached by George Whitefield.

Christians, Temples of the Living God

Isaiah, speaking of the glory of gospel days, said, “Men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, besides thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him.” Chap. 64:4. Could a world lying in the wicked one, be really convinced of this, they would need no other motive to induce them to renounce themselves, take up their cross, and follow Jesus Christ. And had believers this truth always deeply impressed upon their souls, they could not but abstain from every evil, be continually aspiring after every good; and in a word, use all diligence to walk worthy of Him who hath called them to his kingdom and glory. If I mistake not, that is the end purposed by the apostle Paul, in the words of the text, “Ye are the temple of the living God.” Words originally directed to the church of Corinth, but which equally belong to us, and to our children, and to as many as the Lord our God shall call. To give you the true meaning of, and then practically to improve them, shall be my endeavor in the following discourse.

It is thus that Christians are “the temple of the living God,” of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; they who once held a consultation to create, are all equally concerned in making preparations for, and effectually bringing about the redemption of man. The Father creates, the Son redeems, and the Holy Ghost sanctifies all the elect people of God. Being loved from eternity, they are effectually called in time, they are chosen out of the world, and not only by an external formal dedication at baptism, or at the Lord's supper, but by a free, voluntary, unconstrained oblation, they devote themselves, spirit, soul, and body, to the entire service of Him, who hath loved and given himself for them.

This is true and undefiled religion before God our heavenly Father: This is the real Christian's reasonable service, or, as some think the word imports, this is the service required of us in the word of God. It implies no less than a total renunciation of the world; in short, turns the Christian's whole life into one continued sacrifice of love to God; so that, “whether he eats or drinks, he does all to his glory.” Not that I would hereby insinuate, that to be Christians, or to keep to the words of our text, in order to be temples of the living God, we must become hermits, or shut ourselves up in nunneries or cloysters; this be far from me! No. The religion, which this bible in my hand prescribes, is a social religion, a religion equally practicable by high and low, rich and poor, and which absolutely requires a due discharge of all relative duties, in whatsoever state of life God shall be pleased to place and continue us.

That some, in all ages of the church, have literally separated themselves from the world, and from a sincere desire to save their souls, and attain higher degrees of Christian perfection, have wholly devoted themselves to solitude and retirement, is what I make no doubt of. But then such a zeal is in no wise according to knowledge; for private Christians, as well as ministers, are said to be “the salt of the earth, and the lights of the world, and are commanded to “let their light shine before men.” But how can this be done, if we shut ourselves up, and thereby entirely exclude ourselves from all manner of conversation with the world? Or supposing we could take the wings of the morning, and fly into the most distant and desolate parts of the earth, what would this avail us, unless we could agree with a wicked heart and wicked tempter not to pursue and molest us there?

So far should we be from thus getting ease and comfort, that I believe we should on the contrary soon find by our experience the truth of what a hermit himself once told me, that a tree which stands by itself, is most exposed and liable to the strongest blasts. When our Savior was to be tempted by the devil, he was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. How contrary this to their practice, who go into a wilderness to avoid temptation! Surely such are unmindful of the petition put up for us by our blessed Lord, “Father, I pray not that thou wouldst take them out of the world, but that thou wouldst keep them from the evil.” This then is to be a Christian indeed; to be in the world, and yet not of it; to have our hands, according to our respective stations in life, employed on earth, and our hearts at the same time fixed on things above. Then, indeed, are we “temples of the living God,” when with a humble boldness, we can say with a great and good soldier of Jesus Christ, we are the same in the parlor, as we are in the closet; and can at night throw off our cares, as we throw off our clothes; and being at peace with the world, ourselves, and God, are indifferent whether we sleep or die.

Farther, the Jewish temple was a house of prayer. “My house (says the Great God) shall be called a house of prayer:” and implies that the hearts of true believers are the seats of prayer. For this end was it built, and adorned with such furniture. Solomon, in that admirable prayer which he put up to God at the dedication of the temple, saith, “Hearken therefore unto the supplication of thy servant, and of they people Israel, which they shall make towards this place.” And hence I suppose it was that Daniel, that man greatly beloved, in the time of captivity, “prayed as aforetime three times a day with his face towards the temple.” And what was said of the first, our Lord applies to the second temple, “My house shall be called a house of prayer.” On this account also, true believers may be stiled, “the temple of the living God.” For being wholly devoted and dedicated to God, even a God in Christ, their heart becomes the seats of prayer, from whence, as to many living altars, a perpetual sacrifice of prayer and praise (like unto, tho' infinitely superior to the perpetual oblation under the Mosaic dispensation) is continually ascending, and offered up, to the Father of Mercies, the God of all Consolations. Such, and such only, who thus worship God in the temple of their hearts, can truly be said to be made priests unto God, or be stiled a royal priesthood; such, and such only, can truly be stiled, “the temple of the living God,” because such only pray to him, as one expresses it, in the temple of their hearts, and consequently worship him in spirit and in truth.

Let no one say that such a devotion is impracticable, or at least only practicable by a few, and those such who have nothing to do with the common affairs of life; for this is the common duty and privilege of all true Christians. “To pray without ceasing,” and “to rejoice in the Lord always,” are precepts equally obligatory on all that name the name of Christ. And though it must be owned, that it is hard for persons that are immersed in the world, to serve the Lord without distraction; and though we must confess, that the lamp of devotion, even in the best of saints, sometimes burns too dimly, yet those who are the temple of the living God, find prayer to be their very element: And when those who make this objection, once come to love prayer, as some unhappy men love swearing, they will find no more difficulty in praying to, and praising God always, than these unhappy creatures do in cursing and swearing always. What hath been advanced, is far from being a state peculiar to persons wholly retired from the world.

My brethren, the love of God is all in all. When once possessed of this, as we certainly must be, if e are “the temple of the loving God,” meditation, prayer, praise, and other spiritual exercises, become habitual and delightful. When once touched with this divine magnet, for ever after the soul feels a divine attraction, and continually turns to its center, God; and if diverted therefrom, by any sudden or violent temptation, yet when that obstruction is removed, like as a needle touched by a lodestone when your finger is taken away, turns to its rest, ins center, its God, its All, again.

The Jewish temple was also a place where the Great Jehovah was pleased in a more immediate manner to reside. Hence, he is said to put and record his name there, and to sit or dwell between the cherubims; and when Solomon first dedicated it, we are told, “the house was filled with a cloud, so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord had filled the house.” And wherefore all this amazing manifestation of the Divine Glory? Even for this, O man, to show thee how the High and Lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, would make believers hearts his living temple, and dwell and make his abode in all those that tremble at his word.

To this, the apostle more particularly alludes in the words immediately following our text; for having called the Corinthians “the temple of the living God,” he adds, “as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and I will walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” Strange and string expressions these! But strange and strong as they are, must be experienced by all who are indeed “the temple of the loving God.” For they are said, to be “chosen to be a holy habitation through the Spirit; to dwell in God and God in them; to have the witness in themselves, and to have God's Spirit witnessing with their spirits that they are the children of God.” Which expressions import no more or less, than that prayer of our Lord which he put up for his church and people a little before his bitter passion, “That they may be one, even as we are one, I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one:” This glorious passage our church adopts in her excellent communion office, and is so far from thinking that this was only the privilege of apostles, that she asserts in the strongest terms, that it is the privilege of every worthy communicant. For then (says she) if we receive the sacrament worthily, we are one with Christ, and Christ is one with us; we dwell in Christ, and Christ in us. And what is it, but that inspiration of the Holy Spirit, which we pray for in the beginning of that office, and that fellowship of the Holy Ghost, which the minister, in the conclusion of every day's public prayer, entreats the Lord to be with us all evermore?

Brethren, the time would fail me to mention all the scriptures, and the various branches of our liturgy, articles, and homilies, that speak of this inestimable blessing, the indwelling of the blessed Spirit, whereby we do indeed become, “the temples of the living God.” If you have eyes that see, or ears that hear, you may view it almost in every page of the lively oracles, and every part of those offices, which some of you daily use, and hear read to you, in the public worship of Almighty God. In asserting therefore this doctrine, we do not vent the whimsies of a disordered brain, and heated imagination; neither do we broach any new doctrines, or set up the peculiar opinions of any particular sect or denomination of Christians whatsoever; but we speak the words of truth and soberness, we show you the right and good old way, even that, in which the articles of all the reformed churches, and all sincere Christians of all parties, however differing in other respects, do universally agree. We are now insisting upon a point, which may properly be termed the Christian shibboleth, something which is the grand criterion of our most holy religion; and on account of which, the holy Ignatius, one of the first fathers of the church, was used to stile himself a bearer of God, and the people to whom he wrote, bearers of God: For this, as it is recorded of him, he was arraigned before Trajan, who imperiously said, Where is this man, that says, he carries God about with him. With an humble boldness he answered, I am he, and then quoted the passage in the text, “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.” Upon this, to cure him of his enthusiast, he was condemned to be devoured by lions.

Blessed be God! We are not in danger of being called before such persecuting Trajans now: under our present mild and happy administration, the scourge of the tongue is all that they can legally lash us with. But if permitted to go farther, we need not be ashamed of witnessing this good confession. Suffering grace will be given for suffering times; and if, like Ignatius, we are bearers of God, we also shall be enabled to say with him, when led to the devouring lions, Now I begin to be a disciple of Christ.

But it is time for me,

Secondly, To make some practical improvement of what has been delivered. You have heard in what sense it is that real Christians are “the temple of the living God.” Shall I ask, Believe ye these things? I know and am persuaded that some of you do indeed believe them, not because I have told you, but because you yourselves have experienced the same.

I congratulate you from my inmost soul. O that your hearts may be in tune this day to “magnify the Lord,” and your spirits prepared to “rejoice in God your Savior.” Like the Virgin Mary, you are highly favored, and from henceforth all the generations of God's people shall call you blessed. You can call Christ, Lord, by the Holy Ghost, and thereby have an internal, as well as external evidence of the divinity, both of his person, and of his holy word. You can now prove that despised book, emphatically called The Scriptures, doth contain the perfect and acceptable will of God. You have found the second Adam to be a quickening spirit; He hath raised you from death to life. And being thus taught, and born of God, however unlearned in other respects, you can say, “Is not this the Christ?” O ineffable blessing! Inconceivable privilege! God's spirit witnesseth with your spirits, that you are the children of God. When you think of this, are you not ready to cry out with the beloved disciple, “What manner of love is this, that we should be called the children of God!” I believe that holy man was in an ecstasy when he wrote these words; and tho' he has been in heaven so long, yet his ecstatic surprise is but now beginning, and will be but as beginning through the ages of eternity. Thus shall it be with all you likewise, whom the high and lofty One, that inhabiteth eternity, hath made his living temples. For He hath sealed you to the day of redemption, and hath given you the earnest of your future inheritance. His eyes and heart shall therefore be upon you continually: and in spite of all opposition from men or devils, the top-stone of this spiritual building shall be brought forth, and you shall shout Grace, grace unto it: your bodies shall be fashioned like unto the Redeemer's glorious body, and your souls, in which (O infinite condescension!) He now delights to dwell, shall be filled with all the fullness of God. You shall then go no more out; you shall then no more need the light of the sun or the light of the moon, for the Lord himself will be your temple, and the Lamb in the midst thereof shall be your glory. Dearly beloved in the Lord, what say you to these things? Do not your hearts burn within you whilst thinking of these deep, but glorious truths of God. Whilst I am musing, and speaking of them, methinks a fire kindles even in this cold, icy heart of mine: O what shall we render unto the Lord for all these mercies? Surely He hath done great things for us: How great is his goodness, and his bounty! O the height, the depth, the length, and the breadth of the love of God! Surely it passeth knowledge. O for humility! And a soul-abasing, God-exalting sense of these things! When the blessed virgin went into the hill country, to pay a visit to her cousin Elizabeth, amazed at such a favor, she cried out, “Whence is it that the mother of my Lord vouchsafes to come to me?” And when the great Jehovah filled the temple with his glory, out of the abundance of his heart, king Solomon burst forth into this pathetic exclamation, “But will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth?” With how much greater astonishment ought we to say, And will the Lord himself in very deed come to us? Will the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, dwell in, and make our earthly hearts his living temples? My brethren, whence is this? From any fitness in us foreseen? No, I know you disclaim such an unbecoming thought. Was it then from the improvement of our own free-will? No, I am persuaded you will not thus debase the riches of God's free grace. Are you not all ready to say, Not unto us, not unto us, but unto thy free, thy unmerited, thy sovereign, distinguishing love and mercy, O Lord, be all the glory. It is this, and this alone, hath made the difference between us and others. We have nothing but what is freely given us from above: if we love God, it is because God first loved us. Let us look then unto the rock from whence we have been hewn, and the hole of the pit from whence we have been digged. And if there be any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the spirit, if any bowels and mercies, let us study and strive to walk as becometh those who are made the temples of the loving God, or, as the apostle elsewhere expresseth himself, “a holy temple unto the Lord.” What manner of persons ought such to be in all holy conversation and godliness? How holily and how purely should we live! As our apostle argues in another place, “For what fellowship hath righteousness and unrighteousness? What communion hath light with darkness? Or what concord hath Christ with Belial?” Shall those who are temples of the living God, suffer themselves to be dens of thieves and cages of unclean birds? Shall vain unchaste thoughts be suffered to dwell within them? Much less shall any thing that is impure be conceived or acted by them? Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? God forbid! We all know with what distinguished ardor our blessed Redeemer purged an earthly temple; a zeal for his father's house even eat him up: with what a holy vehemence did he overturn the tables of the money-changers, and scourge the buyers and sellers out before him! Why? They made his father's house a house of merchandise: they had turned the house of prayer into a den of thieves.

O my brethren, how often have you and I been guilty of this great evil? How often have the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, insensibly stolen away our hearts from God? Once they were indeed houses of prayer; faith, hope, love, peace, joy, and all the other fruits of the blessed Spirit lodged within them; but now, O now, it may be, thieves and robbers. Hinc illa lachryma. Hence those hidings of God's face, that dryness, and deadness, and barrenness of soul, those wearisome nights and days, which many of us have felt from time to time, and have been made to groan under. Hence those dolorous and heart-breaking complaints, “O that I knew where I might find him! O that it was with me as in days of old, when the candle of the Lord shone bright upon my soul!” Hence those domestic trials, those personal losses and disappointments: and to this perhaps some of us may add, hence all those public rebukes with which we have been visited: they are all only as so many scourges of small cords in the loving Redeemer's hands, to scourge the buyers and sellers out of the temple of our hearts. O that we may know the rod and who hath appointed it! He hath chastised us with whips: may we be wise, and by a more close and circumspect walk prevent his chastising us in time to come with scorpions! But who is sufficient for this thing? None but thou, O Lord, to whom alone all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hidden! Cleanse thou therefore the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of thy blessed Spirit, that henceforward we may more perfectly love thee and more worthily magnify thy holy name!

But are not some of you ready to object, and to fear, that the Lord hath forgotten to be gracious, that he hath shut up his loving kindness in displeasure, and that he will be no more entreated? Thus the psalmist once thought, when visited for his backslidings with God's heave hand. But he acknowledged this to be his infirmity; and whether you think of it or no, I tell you, this is your infirmity. O ye dejected, desponding, distrustful souls, hear ye the word of the Lord, and call to mind his wonderful declarations of old to his people. “I, even I am He that blotteth out thy transgressions: for a small moment have I forsaken thee, but with everlasting mercies will I gather thee. Can a woman forget her sucking child? Yes she may, but the Lord will not forget you, O ye of little faith. For as a father pitieth his own children, so doth the Lord pity them that fear him. How shall I give thee up, O Ephraim? How shall I make thee as Admah? How shall I set thee as Zeboim?” And what is the result of all these interrogations? “My repentings are kindled together: I will not return to execute the fierceness of my anger against Ephraim: For I am God, and not man.” And is not the language of all these endearing passages, like that of Joseph to his self-convicted, troubled brethren? “Come near to me.” O that it may be said of you, as it is said of them, “And they came near unto him.” Then should you find by happy experience, that the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, is indeed slow to anger and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil. Who knows but he may come down this day, this hour, nay this moment, and suddenly revisit the temple of your hearts? Who knows but he may revive his work in your precious souls, cause you to return to your first love, help you to do your first works, and even exceed your hopes, and cause the glory of this second visitation even to surpass that glory which filled your hearts, in that happy, never to be forgotten day, in which he first vouchsafed to make you his living temples? Even so, Father, let it seem good in thy sight!

But the improvement of our subject must not end here. Hitherto I have been giving bread to the children; and it is my meat and drink so to do: but must nothing be said to those of you who are without? I mean to such who cannot yet say, that they are “the temple of the living God.” And O how great, put you all together, may the number of you be: by far, in all probability, the greatest part of this auditory. Say not I am uncharitable; the God of truth, hath said it, “Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” Suffer me to speak plainly to you, my brethren; you have heard what has been said upon the words of our text, and what must be wrought in us, ere we can truly say that we are “the temple of the loving God.” Is it so with you? Are ye separated from the world and worldly tempers? Are your hearts become houses of prayer? Doth the Spirit of God dwell in your souls? And whether you eat or drink, or whatsoever you do, as to the habitual bent of your minds, do you do all to the glory of God? These are short, but plain, and let me tell you very important questions. What answer can you make to them? Say not, “Go thy way, and at a more convenient season I will call for thee.” I will not, I must not suffer you to put me off so; I demand an answer in the name of the Lord of Hosts. What say ye? Methinks, I hear you say, We have been dedicated to God in baptism, we go to church or meeting, we say our prayers, repeat our creeds, or have subscribed the articles, and the confession of faith; we are quite orthodox, and great friends to the doctrines of grace; we do no body any harm, we are honest moral people, we are church-members, we keep up family-prayer, and constantly go to the table of the Lord.” All these things are good in their places. But thus far, nay much farther may you go, and yet be far from the kingdom of God. The unprofitable servant did no one any harm; and the foolish virgins had a lamp of an outward profession, and went up even to heaven's gate, calling Christ, “Lord, Lord.” These things may make you whited sepulchers, but not “the temples of the loving God.” Alas! Alas! one thing you yet lack, the one chief thing, and without which all is nothing; I mean the indwelling of God's blessed Spirit, without which you can never become “the temples of the loving God.”

Awake therefore, ye deceived formalists, awake; who, vainly puffed up with your model of performances, boastingly cry out, “The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord we are.” Awake, ye outward-court worshippers: ye are building on a sandy foundation: take heed lest you also go to hell by the very door of heaven. Behold, and remember, I have told you before.

And as for you who have done none of these things, who instead of making an outward profession of religion, have as it were renounced your baptism, proclaim your sin like Sodom, and willfully and daringly live a without God in the world; I ask you, how can you think to escape, if you persist in neglecting such a great salvation. Verily, I should utterly despair of your ever attaining the blessed privilege of being temples of the living God, did I not hear of thousands, who through the grace of God have been translated from a like state of darkness into his marvelous light. Such, says the apostle Paul, writing to these very Corinthians who were now God's living temples, (drunkards, whoremongers, adulterers, and such like) “such were some of you. But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.” O that the same blessed Spirit may this day vouchsafe to come and pluck you also as brands out of the burning! Behold, I warn you to flee from the wrath to come. Go home, and meditate on these things; and think whether it is not infinitely better, even here, to be temples of the living God, than to be bondslaves to every brutish lust, and to be led captive by the devil at his will. The Lord Jesus can, and if you fly to him for refuge, he will set your souls at liberty. He hath led captivity captive, he hath ascended up on high, on purpose to receive this gift of the blessed Spirit of God for men, “even for the rebellious,” that he might dwell in your hearts by faith here, and thereby prepare you to dwell with Him and all the heavenly host in his kingdom hereafter.

That this may be the happy lot of you all, may God of his infinite mercy grant, for the sake of his dear Son Christ Jesus our Lord; to whom with the father, and the blessed Spirit, three persons, but one God, be ascribed all power, might, majesty, and dominion, now and for evermore. Amen! And Amen!
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Ah! If only those who wish to preach would realize that there is the Gospel to preach to the unsaved, and then there is the necessity of reproof for the body of Christ.
Such was George's preaching He reached those who were the Pharisees as well as the lost.

Dr. J.

Living Beyond the Cross in the Resurrection

The very first thing I want to note, is that the Cross is a very important part of the Gospel, but if we stop there at only the forgiveness of sin, we miss the entirety of what Christ did for us. Christians need to understand that the entire Gospel consists of the Cross, the Resurrection and the Gift of the Spirit. We will always find deeper Spiritual truths as we study the Old defined by the New. Jesus as the revelation of the very essence of the Father, and who He is, re-defines the Old to the New. The Old is full of shadows of the reality, which is found in Christ.
I want to share some “revelational knowledge” with you. This is that knowledge God puts into our spirit so that we can understand “spiritual things”. The carnal man cannot understand the things of God, only the spiritual man.
Let us look at Exodus 12, the story of the Passover. In this story we find that Israel was instructed to set apart a Lamb from the flock, kill it, and smear the blood on the doorpost of “their dwelling”. When God saw the blood on the doorpost of their dwellings, He would pass over their house and spare the first born inside the home. The people only had to apply the blood to the doorpost.
This story foretells the blood side of the Cross, the necessity of the shed blood of the Lamb to give us “forgiveness of sin”.
Many read over the other parts of this story and most of historic Christianity, has missed “the rest of the story”, not because God wasn’t waiting to reveal it to His people- the Ekklesia, but because of the traditions of men they have been blinded by teaching that keeps them in the consciousness of sin, rather than the other side of the cross and the rest of the Gospel truth that would bring them into “Christ consciousness”.
The parallel to the blood side of the cross is obvious. Christ died for us. He shed His blood as payment for our sins, thus the wages of sin, death passed us over in Him.
When by faith we apply Christ blood to our dwelling (our living selves) , we are spared the wrath of God.
As long as our revelational knowledge is limited to the blood side of the Cross- Christ dying for us, we may still have our firstborn, that is our sins are forgiven, but experientially we will still live in captivity. We will live as if still subject to the capriciousness of Pharaoh, (here a typology of Satan- adversary) and sin. You remain a “carnal Christian”, trying to overcome sin by your own power, trying to be spiritual. Having a form of godliness but denying the Power thereof. It’s wonderful to have our sins forgiven but after awhile living as if we are still captives takes much of the joy of “just” having our sins forgiven. Our hearts know there is something more, and for many it may take years of failure and frustration before they finally see the “rest of the story:.
I know for me this was my story, saved by His blood at age six with the simple faith of a child, but it took me years to grow from there to a young person and finally a Father, as described in the 3 stages of maturity in the writing of I John. This subject to be written on at a latter time.
Now for the rest of the story – let’s us look at the entirety of the Gospel.
Back to ancient Israel and their captivity. God had a solution for their captivity as He does for you and I, and that is to see to the other side of the cross, RESURRECTION and the GIFT OF THE SPIRIT.
Here is the rest of the story as written in the Old Testament
The solution God had for the Hebrews captivity. The solution was to provide them sustenance, or life, to get them out of Egypt. So he instructed each household, after they smeared the blood of the Lamb on the doorpost, to roast the Lamb and eat is as nourishment for the upcoming journey. That’s the body side of the cross. You take the Lamb (Christ) in you as LIFE!
God is showing us here that the Lamb they used for the blood on the doorpost was the same lamb they ate for the journey. In other words, everything that is necessary for living the life comes from the Lamb. It isn’t that the Lamb dies for you and then your sent out to the rest on your own or with His help (as popular and “incomplete Gospel”- traditional Christianity practices and teaches). The Lamb is the total answer. The Lamb that gave the blood for them also gave its life to them. They took the meat into them, and that became their nourishment, strength, and vitality for the journey. They lived their life out of the Lamb’s life. They walked in its energy. They killed one Lamb for two purposes!

Paul calls the New Testament life a walk. What is the sustenance, the life, of that walk?
It isn’t trying. It isn’t us trying to walk for God. It may look like that on the outside, but we have taken the Lamb of God into us. He is not only the forgiveness of our sins. He is also the life within us, from whom we make the journey. He is resurrected and in so doing He gave of Himself to us, by the gift of the Spirit, he came to dwell within us, and our only hope and life is in Him. You can’t live the Christian life, but He can, but you must partake of the meat of the Lamb as well as the Blood. He said you must drink my blood and eat my body. Today as then most Christians have no comprehension of this and what it means for them spiritually. They only see it as a sacrament they do now and then in the church under the traditions of men originating with the Catholic Church.

We just like ancient Israel must not only have the blood of the lamb upon the doorpost of our lives, but we must also eat of the Lamb, for it is His life within us that is our spiritual nourishment, it His life, lived in us, through us and as us, that enables the Christian to not only have forgiveness of sin but to overcome sin. It is the other side of the cross.

Another parallel in this story of Exodus is how they were commanded to eat unleavened bread. Grace upon grace and not mixed with law is the spiritual meaning here. The leaven of the Pharisees that Jesus warned the Disciples about was their traditions, their laws that had no meaning without the life of the Spirit. One can’t put the blood of the Lamb upon their lives by His work, then turn around and think living the Christian life is lived by law- or leavened bread. He is the unleavened bread from heaven. We are told to eat to eat Him for He is true bread. Take the meat and put it into your body. Put the life in you by faith. This is where we agree with Him and the Word of God, that says, Christ in you, the hope of glory. We are complete in Him, He is not just the author of our faith but the finisher as well by the life of Him inside of us, by the gift of His indwelling Spirit.
Just as He said he could do nothing without the Father- meaning living His holy life on this earth, no Christian can do anything holy without His life within them. The whole story is that Christ died that we died with Him at calvary, and as He was raised from the grave, we with Him have been raised up in newness of life, and just as He promised He would come again He came by the gift of His life indwelling us, that we might be more than conquerors in Christ Jesus, because it is He that lives His life in us, as us and through us. The reason that the traditions of men and the religious keep Christ always dangling on the cross, is their inability to believe the Word of God, by faith, that we are NEW CREATIONS in Him and they insist on believing in their own carnality that by their own efforts of externals they will be able to obtain the life. The life is Christ, and it is the other side of the Cross!
May you not only know the blood for forgiveness may you come to know the meat for power over sin in your life. He is that real meat, eat of Him, partake of Him, and quit eating the stale leavened bread of religion, and you will LIVE! I promise by experience.

A special thanks to Dan Stone and David Gregory from which I borrowed some of this from their wonderful book entitled " The Rest of the Gospel" When the partial Gospel has worn you out", A wonderful affirmation of things God had taught me in my life in Him. I highly recommend this book to all Christian readers, it is published by " One Press" I found the book at a local Christian book store.

until next time....may you enjoy the meal!

Dr. J.

The Da Vinci Code Debunked! The true "mystery" revealed

Recently I watched the movie the "The Da Vinci Code" as a Christian we are not to fear views that are the anti-thesis of "true faith" in Christ. If our foundation is built on a spiritual relationship with Christ where we have tasted of heavenly things, then no perversion of the truth will draw us away from Christ.

John 10:3 - "to this one the doorkeeper doth open, and the sheep hear his voice, and his own sheep he doth call by name, and doth lead them forth; 4 and when his own sheep he may put forth, before them he goeth on, and the sheep follow him, because they have known his voice; 5 and a stranger they will not follow, but will flee from him, because they have not known the voice of strangers."

One of the reasons this movie and the book became so popular is the general populace including many pre-religious people are much more educated then many of our parents or their parents. Many have studied history which is full of the grandiose schemes of the organized church to suppress the REAL TRUTH of Jesus Christ and the GOSPEL. Most if not a few understand the ancient persecutions of those that the Catholic church declared heretics that the true heresy was found in this “whore of Babylon”, the organized church, that was building Augustine’s “ City of God”. That it reigned by powering over all others, with a leader standing in the “temple of God, declaring themselves to be God”- ie; the Pope and his appointed leaders. They have seen the corruption of what is supposed to be “God’s called out one’s” the Ekklesia, or otherwise pervertedly re-named by these pagan whores – “ the Church”.
They have seen the immorality and greed of so many so called "Ministers of god", Pastor's, Evangelist, and especially those who have built grand kingdoms to themselves and their own love of their flesh. They are much more educated but with education of history, the believer would see right through the impossibility of the fiction presented in the “The Da Vinci Code”. The true historian as well, would see the inconsistencies and the fiction of history as presented as fact is nothing but mere fabrication and a twisting of the facts. However, those not educated in history or the truth of the origin of the “church” versus the Ekklesia, will not be able to distinguish between true Christianity and the lies presented as “the church”. I will throughout the rest of this article use the word church for the sake of the readers, but let me give you a Biblical definition before you read on.
The church was never a place to meet, a building, or a certain denomination, or certain hierarchial creations of men. Jesus built the “ true church” and there are few today who are members of it. It is unseen, as it has no organization built on the traditions of men, no hierarchy except that as Christ as the Head Shepard and we the Bride, the Church as His Sheep. We are the expression of Him, called out and separated from all the kingdoms, organizations, hierarchies, institutions of men. We are as the original word for church means, the “called out one’s”. Called out from this world, as strangers, aliens, and sojourners who are not separated by creed of doctrine but because the very life of Christ is our life, and we seek nothing from this world, as home is in heaven from which we dwell with Him, and He fills up all that we are or hope to be.

It is built on the words of Christ that said:
Matthew 20:25 25
But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. 26 Not so shall it be among you:but whosoever would become great among you shall be your minister; 27 and whosoever would be first among you shall be your servant: 28 even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.
And these words from John 4:24

It was Jesus who told the woman at the well, when questioning where was the place that God could be found in Samaria or Jerusalem.

24 God is a Spirit:and they that worship him must worship in spirit and truth.


Alas these words that is we who are members of “the true church of God”

16 And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. 17 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar–jonah:for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father who is in heaven. 18 And I also say unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.

Of course, contrary to Catholic false teachings we know that Christ here is referring to the rock not as Peter but the statement or confession of faith that Peter declares: Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

The “ Anointed One” the living breathing Son of the Living God!

Pay close attention to that concept the “living God” for I am going to show you how the organizational church has made Him the GOD but a DEAD GOD!

Many of the historical facts presented in this movie contain "some truth" with a large mixture of fiction. What I wish to reveal here, is that, yes, the organized church has suppressed a truth of Christianity but it isn't that Jesus was married or had a bloodline generation that is being secretly guarded by some esoteric group of men.

There is a truth that has existed since the Apostles died, that the church has been guilty of, that the Catholic church has kept from the masses and the Protestants carried on the tradition. There is a " mystery of the ages" that was hidden from all those before Christ came, that Paul and all the early Christians believed in wholeheartedly and because of it they turned their world upside down for a time, but then even as they were expressing the truth of this "secret" (mystery) men were already busy trying to Judaize - the Christians of Paul's time with the formulation of the hierarchy- clergy-laity system. A restoration of the old Levitical Priesthood and the Temple.
Paul, Peter and John warned of it's coming but none to only a few have seen it to this day, for the organized church has done everything in it's power to keep it buried, so that the masses might remain ignorant and under it’s power.

I have provided just a few verses from scripture to which the “true Church of God” is built upon and even one just viewing these words at a glance can see how contrary the ecclesiastical system of today is far from being built on the words of Jesus “church”

What is this secret that they keep hiding from the people, they rarely mention and then if they do, it is to try to produce false wonders and miracles, to call it this. Why is it even today the “Cross” is the representation of Christianity rather than the Resurrection?
Why is to this day it is the Cross is the symbol of Christ more often than the Dove, why it it almost every sermon you hear is on the cross rather than the resurrection or the purpose for Christ coming, to give us all something that God desired to do through the ages to do even with Ancient Israel but even they refused this gift, rather they sinfully chose Kings.
What is the truth of the Christian faith and the “whole Gospel”? What is this mystery that Paul understood to the depths of his heart, and the early Christian’s did as well.. What is it that inspired these believers to die at the hands of ruling Kings, and others, without a whimper or a refusal to do so? Why is that the early church was passive to the violence done to it? Why is the history of the organizational church so full of violence, intolerance and hatred, all to which is not a testimony to God’s love for all of His creation. Why is that they teach a crucifed Christ over the Risen Christ, why is it they wish to make his earthly life as a man as if he was functioning as a God while on this earth. Why is it they deny his humanity and over emphasize His Divinity, yet, they never show that His intention was to truly create a nation of people like Himself, a whole new race of men, a race of people “set apart by God Himself, for the sake of Himself.? Why is it they have replaced the organic with the stale bread of doctrines, creeds, and religion? The reason is to keep the lie, to keep Christ on the cross, a DEAD GOD, rather than the SON OF THE LIVING GOD! They wish to hide the secret, the “ mystery” Paul refers to it as. What is this mystery that has made many to leave and abandon the organized “churches” of men, for the one TRUE CHURCH OF GOD” ? What is it that they so hold onto that it has brought persecution, even death for their belief. Why is it that very “churches” that claim they are this Church that Jesus referred to as the “rock” is not the “ROCK”.
A rock is immovable, it is solid, it is not ever evolving into something different with the whim of men, it only becomes transformed by the wind, or water. Both symbols of the Holy Spirit and Life!
It is the Holy Spirit that brings life to the “true Church of God” and this SPIRIT is the very SPIRIT OF THE FATHER AND THE SON! It is the expression of their Holiness, not some weird speech, false miracles and other such foolishness. It is the EXPRESSION OF HIS CHARACTER, HIS TRAITS, HIS ACTIONS, HIS PERSONALITY, HIS LIFE!
The Holy Spirit and the Resurrected Christ are one in the same…

Thus most denominations either don’t teach of the work of the Spirit or they pervert it into some loud flashy, fleshly, extraordinary un- documented miracles or superstitious teachings. Some call it a second blessing, or second coming. It is the first blessing of those that are His, it is not some gibberish uttered out of the flesh of men, that can be found among the most pagan of tribes and religions of men. It is not some special gift to go around slapping people in the head, blowing on them or other such foolishness and showmanship to draw attention to yourself and obtain followers and let’s not forget, lots of money! It’s also not the sorrow of the world, where people cry or feel sad for the sins they have committed. It isn’t because 15 people came down the aisle of some false temple and joined your membership or asked for salvation because some preacher gave an emotionally moving speech, some sermon, some supposed “Oracles from the God’s”.
It is not in the creeds or doctrines of men, nor can it be found in because someone quit drinking or smoking and joined the church. It is LIFE CHANGING, IT IS EMOTIONALLY, INTELLECTUALLY AND SPIRITUALLY STIRRING all at once, and will forever change the life’s of those who receive the Gift. A gift for which our Master and Saviour purchased for us with not only His blood at the cross but His overcoming sin and death through the Resurrection.
It is to have the very life of the Son within us, as part of everything that we are, will be or shall ever become. It is the secret of the ages, hidden, now revealed Paul says.
Let us read what this secret is, that the church tries desperately to keep hidden from the masses, first it was by having the Word of God bound in a book, under a language that very few understood, and then to print it in their language, and yet tell the masses you can’t understand this book unless we interpret it’s meanings, it’s words, it testimony to you, by way of our educated and specially called of God, powers as your Head men- the Clergy tell you what it means, rather than Christ. The church” the organizations of all the denominations that call itself Christians have and still work desperately at keeping YOU from discovering the secret…it is not the Opus Dei, of Dan Brown’s book who seeks to keep the secret from being revealed it is all those who power over you, seeking to be your interpreter of God’s Word and His Blessing. It is all of organized Christianity that has proven itself time after time willing to kill and maim others to keep this secret from you the masses. If you only understood it, they would lose all power over you, their money wells would dry up, their expensive houses, cars, allowances, vacations, and organizational real estate holdings would end, and thus who would they manipulate then?
It is kept so secret that even the mention of it, this “mystery”, makes these grandiose, fat Shepards, “ministers of light” shutter at night at the thought of you knowing this secret.
It is the very same reason they wound and even kill the sheep of Christ even to this day, to keep them from speaking truth among their followers, they will be cast out, and persecuted, called cult followers, and other words to hurt and to maim them. They "the keepers of the secret must do all they can do to keep the secret. They must at whatever cost, not allow you to know this mystery. To do so, would mean the very end of not only “their church” but all the power they have held over the world, who has stood in looked in amazement at them!
It would not bring the end of Christianity, it would be the restoration of Christianity. It would mean the power to be specially called of God, was no longer under the oversight, their hierarchy, their will but that any and all may be “ called out one’s of God!

This secret is bound up and hidden disguised and mutilated by their doctrines and traditions of men. They make the Commandments of God, of none effect for the sake of keeping the secret, of not allowing you the masses to know the “ mystery”. God forbid you ever find it out…what may become of “THEM”.

Oh yes, it is hidden in their art, their form, their religious symbols and signs. It is so well hidden the greatest of artist nor theologians can find it. There is no famous one painting that reveals the truth it is rather these paintings and artwork are that which keeps you from the truth. All idolatry keeps men from truth. Worship of buildings, paintings, the glory of architecture, kingdoms, power and more whether it be a golden bull or ancient representation of a pagan god, they all lead you away from this “mystery” this secret so it won’t be revealed. It’s structure, it’s programs, it’s doing it always in the way of men, keeps you in darkness from the secret…Oh how they wish these verses of scripture would have been erased out of scripture, forever destroyed but though many did there best to change some words and preach a theology not consistent with it, none dared to erase these words, or destroy them from scripture for see the Holy Spirit was guarding these so well, because, they knew them not either and when they discovered them it was too late, to change them or to write them out of history they knew it would never change the Work of God, the Life of God, in those believers who had discovered the “mystery”. They were living it to it’s fullest extent, waiting for the day of fulfillment when all the world shall know, this secret as it will be revealed in them! No, rather all they had to do was cry, “heretic” , “cult” and other such derogatories and accomplish their objective, silence their voices to the masses, let them be considered, as those who oppose Christ, rather than the truth, that they were Satan’s minister’s of the synagogue of Satan.

Oh what a masterful job the Enemy has done down through the ages trying to bury the secret in all of men’s religious propensity. Men is driven by religion, and loves his religion for it is a dedication to the creature rather than the Creator. Thus to have their high priestly class still speaking the Oracles of god, and to have their private temples of worship and praise to their pagan ideals, they force out the voice of all those who would cry out “ FOUL” and “ EVIL”.

I know this evil of theirs, and how they operate in their secret ways, to destroy the true children of God. I know how they cast out the true children of God, and point fingers at them, accuse them of evil, just as they did Christ for standing against these same evil doers of wickedness in His time. I too have joined the Apostles, and the Early Christians in their being shamed, and being called an accursed people by the very same name calling themselves “ Christians”, I too have seen the hand of those and heard the mouth of these False Prophets who have gone the way of Balaam and seek only you to be drawn after themselves “ to make profit of you”..

Oh how, they like to accuse you of the very thing for which they are guilty of. They will say "you are only trying to steal “my sheep” you are trying to draw “my church” after you". When in fact, I seek not those who are righteous but the lost. I don’t seek to draw anyone after me, but Christ. Since when was it "their church"?
If I wanted followers, I have the gift to teach, to orate, to preach, to utilize argument and use persuasive speech and used it in the past, when I too was blinded by their god, and was ordained and preached in their institutions of whoredom. All I would have to do, is join them, start a church tomorrow, and I know if I sold my self over to Satan, I could have a HUGE following, I could build a great organization, and money would flow my way, by the millions. I could make Joel Osteen ashamed of "his ministry", if I would only bow down to Satan as they have, and say give me your kingdoms, Satan, so I may enjoy the lifestyle of the opulent, the elite, the highly acclaimed, the masters of religion and the world. I have not chosen this way of life, because the Spirit of the LIVING GOD compels me to bring people to Christ, not to me, not to a new denomination,fro I have none, not to “my church” , for I have none, or to my doctrine ( I hold only to the Apostolic doctrine of Christ crucified, raised on the third day and giving the Holy Spirit to all who would ask and to the glory we shall know in immoratality at the Day of Resurrection), or to enrich myself with the blessings of their material goods, for I have all that need and I shall be content with it- food and clothing, or that I might supersede them and be even more powerful, more recognized and wealthy then “my own church”, .

“NO” a thousand times no, I have chosen the road of Paul who was my example, I took nothing from any man, I preached the Gospel – free of charge, freely I have received and freely I shall give. I do not and would not have anyone follow me, I want not anyone to follow me. I want all men to know Christ the King, the First Begotten, the First Raised from the Dead, the giver of this Spiritual Life in Him. I seek to only glorify Christ.

Many of you, will delete my writings, or refuse to read them, that is fine, you don’t offend me, you only reject those of us, who are trying to bring you the truth of scripture, the truth of Christ, and who the TRUE CHURCH OF GOD really is.. it won’t be found in a building we don't have, it wont be found in meetings we don't hold, it won’t be found in a doctrinal creeds we haven't written, it won’t be found by demanding your tithes to our ministry to which we have none, we are only Ambassadors for Christ, ministers of reconciliation, it is only found in the mystery.

Do you know the mystery, do you care to know” Do you desire with all of your heart to really live the Christian life? Do you really want to experience Holy Spirit power in your life?
If you hold back any one thing, that would keep you from making this grand commitment, over your present life, present position, present earnings present respect and honor, then you will never come to know the truth, you will remain living in the shadows of darkness, never experiencing the joy of His life, but the constant struggle of your own, to be good enough, to someday hope you will go to heaven by all your wonderful goodness and works of righteousness. I come as Jesus did, I came not to seek the righteous but the lost sheep of Israel. Christ being Israel, I seek those who want to be released from the bondages of self condemnation, constant guilt and trepidation, constant feeling inadequate to be called “Christian”. Those burned out from the "partial gospel".
I come to seek those who want to know not me- but Christ above all things. To know and understand what it means to be a citizen of the Kingdom of God and not men.
This is my calling and the calling of all of us, who have found “the secret” that others seek to hide. It is the calling of all of us, who have realized the mystery revealed
Are you curious yet, as to what this secret may be…..It is found in two important scriptures that defines the Whole Gospel that Paul preached, the entirety of the truth, the meaning behind so many of those words that many try to twist to their own destruction. The Mystery hidden throughout the ages….now revealed..
I shall now reveal the mystery the whole of Paul’s Gospel…..are you ready, will you understand it when you read it….pray now, that the Father gives you spiritual discernment to grasp the power of these words, and what it means for you, and your family should they discover it as well. Pray that the Father will so reveal it’s truth IN YOU!
Here it is:

Colossians 1:26-29
26 even the mystery which hath been hid for ages and generations:but now hath it been manifested to his saints, 27 to whom God was pleased to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: 28 whom we proclaim, admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ; 29 whereunto I labor also, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.

How many times have you read over these words, and never got a glimpse of the power in those words from Paul?
Does this say anything about special men over others?
Does this say anything about trying to be perfect?
Does this say anything about you trying to be Christ-like?
Does this say anything about a dead Christ? Is Christ still on a cross and offering no hope for the sins that so bind you up?

Does this say anything about others being “more spiritually” knowledgable then you?

Does this say you have a need to go to church to meet God?
Does this anything about that you have to work to go to heaven?
Does this say anything about you needing the clergy to interpret “ the things of God” for you”

IT DOES NOT…and it along with many other verses I can provide you and show just the opposite of all that the traditions of men have taught you.
It says a lot here in that one passage of scripture, but you have to grasp it. Let me add two more scriptures to strengthen this one.

The Bible should always interpret itself, let us add these that speak to the witness of this one.

2 Corinthians 13:3-6
3 seeing that ye seek a proof of Christ that speaketh in me; who to you–ward is not weak, but is powerful in you: 4 for he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth through the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him through the power of God toward you. 5 Try your own selves, whether ye are in the faith; prove your own selves. Or know ye not as to your own selves, that Jesus Christ is in you?
unless indeed ye be reprobate.
6 But I hope that ye shall know that we are not reprobate.

The thrust of all of Paul’s message was of course, Christ died on the cross that we might be forgiven of our sins, but it didn’t end there! He was raised from the grave, declared the first born of many to come, and that we too now have been given the very same Spirit whereby He conquered this world, sin and death. Yes, God did not leave us, with just forgiveness of sin, he gave us the power within to overcome sin and DEATH…. This is the Gospel, that let any man ask and He shall be given the Holy Spirit- the living God, the Resurrected Life of Christ to come in and become His life. He will be joined with Him as one Spirit and they shall sup together…. This is the Gospel, that they try to hide, they try their best to keep you in the idea that you must sin until you die, but no the Gospel is if you continue in sin, you are not His, for if He is our life, we cannot continue in Sin, to what one sows to one shall also reap, to the Spirit life everlasting or to the Flesh….DEATH. For the wages of Sin, is not Hell, everyone goes there, for it is the “grave of death” Sheoul in the Old Testament, but only those who are His shall be awakened from their sleep in hell ( the grave) and shall be RESURRECTED INTO IMMORTALITY. And BE JUST LIKE HE IS….one of the many Sons of God…..
This they do not want you to know, for the minute you find the power of Christ life in you, the hope of glory, you no longer need them to get you there. You only need Christ…
One or two final verses.

I John 2:5
but whoso keepeth his word, in him verily hath the love of God been perfected. Hereby we know that we are in him: 6 he that saith he abideth in him ought himself also to walk even as he walked.

I pose a question how did he walk while on this earth? In sin or righteousness?

Why did He walk that way? He said , I can do nothing of myself. Just as you can do nothing of yourself. How did He walk this life then that overcame sin and death?
He walked because He abided in the Father! How can you walk? Because you can NOW abide in the Son! Glory to God, for the very same Spirit that was in Jesus as a man, is the very same Spiritual life He has given to you as a man!
Do you believe it? If you don’t then the Bible says whatever is not of FAITH is sin!
Jesus understood these words for He penned them through the SPIRIT of Himself in the men who wrote them down..

He walked in FAITH. He had only the declaration of the witness of the Spirit to tell Him this was true. He had no Pharisee come along and tell him this was true, no he experienced just the opposite as will you when you grasp “ the mystery”, they will say you are of Beezebul…one of their pagan gods they brought with them in their teachings.
They will say you are of Satan. Pay them no attention…Pharisees will always be Pharisees!

They accused Him of saying He was God, because they didn’t understand His walk, as they will accuse you and say …"so you are saying you are Christ?"
He never said what they accused Him of saying just as I have never said what they have accused me of saying. He drew all that He was from the Father while living the human life, just as we can draw all that we are from the Son, while living the human life. I promise you, I have and do experience this in my life.

Some final Words from the Testimony of Jesus Christ
I John 2:25-27
25 And this is the promise which he promised us, even the life eternal. 26 These things have I written unto you concerning them that would lead you astray. 27 And as for you, the anointing which ye received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any one teach you; but as his anointing teacheth you; concerning all things, and is true, and is no lie, and even as it taught you, ye abide in him.

Some final words for all you Building worshippers: That believe you must go to "the house of God" on Sundays or Saturdays, whichever..
Acts 7:47-50
47 But Solomon built him a house. 48 Howbeit the Most High dwelleth not in houses made with hands; as saith the prophet, 49 The heaven is my throne, And the earth the footstool of my feet:What manner of house will ye build me? saith the Lord:Or what is the place of my rest? 50 Did not my hand make all these things?
51 Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Spirit:as your fathers did, so do ye. 52

I Corinthians 3:16
16 Know ye not that ye are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? 1

Which will you give heed to the “teachings of men” and the “ temples of men” or will you give heed to Christ who dwells in you, and has made you a LIVING TEMPLE OF THE LIVING GOD? It is your choice today, now that the mystery has been revealed!


Dr. J.

" Speaking the truth in love"

We are to always contend for the Faith!

Where Is The Temple of God?

I don't know about others that are believers, but nothing upsets me more than to hear 'so called' Christian ministers refer to "their" building as "God's House" or "the Lord's House". The pagan nature of such a statement is apparent to anyone that has a clear understanding of God's Word and is clearly in antithesis to the promise made by Our Father in Heaven for all believers that God would dwell among men through Jesus Christ Our Lord.
This ancient concept of God living in a building made by human hands has persisted for Christianity since the days of Constantine when the first Basilica's were built for the new State-Religion which married Pagans to Christianity. The Catholic church was born. I say the Protestants are as Catholic as their neighboring Catholic churches which they so disdain in their worship of the building and regard and homage paid to their high priest (Pastors, Priest, Leadership) is no different then that which Catholicism offers. They are just too blind to see it.
They are fascinated with the glory of their own hands in what they can build or purchase. They relish limiting God to living and dwelling within their own real estate.
In my town alone there are well over 40 such buildings each on Sunday morning laying claim that" God lives and dwells in "their" building. Just walk in any Sunday morning to any of them, and hear the "Big Dog" say, "aren't you glad you are in the Lord's House today?" to which all the people reply "Amen".
No wonder so many people are becoming agnostic, because it creates spiritual confusion, and we all know that Satan is the author of confusion. For if God dwells in a BUILDING, which one holds the truth and which building does He really dwell in?
How ignorant are we as Christians that we lack an understanding of God's Word and His purpose for men through Jesus Christ.
It is anti-Christ to make such proclamations that God lives in any building made by human hands. The bad fruit is there in their statement and therefore the tree is bad, Jesus said to judge by their fruits, and the mouth speaks what is in the heart.
So, it is very apparent that by such statements made by men who proclaim to be Christian there are few if any organizational churches out their whose foundation is really rooted in Christ as opposed to the tradtions of men and let me add the "paganism of men".
I want to now expound on all of this scripturally, the Word is for correction as well, so hear me, Christian, pastors, priest, or whatever title it is you prefer to be lifted up to - Hear the Word of the Lord about your houses built by human hands.
Your sensational cathedrals, your buildings of architectural wonder, your large open and lavish gathering places, they are nothing, and God does not dwell within them.
Let us follow the Word of God, through the progression of our Father revealing Himself to us and His long awaited promise made to us. The promises are yes and amen in Him!

Does God Need A Temple?

The word which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it, and many peoples shall come, and say: "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths." For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. (Isaiah 2:1-4)
Why a Temple?
Primitive religions are replete with examples of buildings and shrines as a house or shrine to an idol or a god. Animistic religionists believe that spirits live in trees, rocks, caves, or sacred groves. The Egyptians deified crocodiles, cats, cows, birds and beetles. The Greeks and Romans assigned to their gods splendid mansions and palaces as their dwelling places.
But the God revealed in the Bible is fundamentally different than the gods of the nations. He does not need houses or temples to dwell in---the entire universe is God's house, "the heaven of heavens cannot contain Him" and His infinite Spirit can not apparently be confined in any way to man-made dwelling places:

Thus says the LORD: "Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool; what is the house which you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest? All these things my hand has made, and so all these things are mine, says the LORD. But this is the man to whom I will look, he that is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word." (Isaiah 66:1)

"Am I a God at hand, says the LORD, and not a God afar off? Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? says the LORD. Do I not fill heaven and earth? says the LORD. (Jeremiah 23:23, 24)

Disturbed in his spirit by the profusion of false gods, images and shrines when he visited Athens, the Apostle Paul boldly reasserted that God assuredly did not dwell in buildings made by men:
...while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. So he argued in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the market place every day with those who chanced to be there. Some also of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers met him. And some said, "What would this babbler say?" Others said, "He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities "--because he preached Jesus and the resurrection. And they took hold of him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, "May we know what this new teaching is which you present? For you bring some strange things to our ears; we wish to know therefore what these things mean." Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new. So Paul, standing in the middle of the Areopagus, said:

"Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along, and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, `To an unknown god.' What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all men life and breath and everything.

And he made from one (man, i.e., Adam) every nation of men to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their habitation, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel after him and find him. Yet he is not far from each one of us, for `In him we live and move and have our being'; as even some of your poets have said, `For we are indeed his offspring.' Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the Deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, a representation by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all men everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man (Jesus) whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all men by raising him from the dead." (Acts 17:16-31)

The Tabernacle of Moses

Yet in spite of these clear teachings throughout the Bible that God does not live in man-made buildings there is an apparent paradox the moment we join the Jews in the wilderness at Mount Sinai: God Himself, at Mount Sinai gave Moses specific instructions concerning the building of a remarkable tent, or tabernacle, in which, He, the Most High God would dwell:

And let them make me a sanctuary [Hebrew, miqdosh, sanctuary, i.e., a holy place], that I may dwell in their midst. According to all that I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle [mishkan, dwelling-place. This word gives rise to the Hebrew Shekinah which denotes the personal presence of the Divine God], and of all its furniture, so you shall make it...And see that you make them after the pattern for them, which is being shown you on the mountain. (Exodus 25:8,9; 40)

The tabernacle, mishkan, is referred to 139 times in the Old Testament, primarily in Exodus and Numbers. 100 times it is referred to as the "dwelling place" of God! Incidentally, in the New Testament (1 Cor. 10, Hebrews 3,4) may be found specific references concerning the personal presence of Yeshua, the Son of God with His people in the wilderness. The Tabernacle gave tangible evidence that God was with His people as did the Pillar or Cloud by Day and the Pillar of Fire by Night (the Shekinah).

And I will make my abode among you, and my soul shall not abhor you. And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you shall be my people. I am the LORD your God, who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their slaves; and I have broken the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect. (Leviticus 26:11-13)

The First Jewish Temple

Whereas the tabernacle was mobile, and served Israel for forty years in the wilderness, during the conquest of the land, and for nearly 400 years at Shiloh during the time of the Judges, the temple was anchored to bedrock at a fixed, specific spot on Mount Moriah, the Temple Mount, in Jerusalem,

Now when the king (David) dwelt in his house, and the LORD had given him rest from all his enemies round about, the king said to Nathan the prophet, "See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a tent." And Nathan said to the king, "Go, do all that is in your heart; for the LORD is with you." But that same night the word of the LORD came to Nathan, "Go and tell my servant David, `Thus says the LORD: Would you build me a house to dwell in? I have not dwelt in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent for my dwelling. In all places where I have moved with all the people of Israel, did I speak a word with any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, "Why have you not built me a house of cedar?"'

Now therefore thus you shall say to my servant David, `Thus says the LORD of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be prince over my people Israel; and I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies from before you; and I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. And I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in their own place, and be disturbed no more; and violent men shall afflict them no more, as formerly, from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel; and I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover the LORD declares to you that the LORD will make you a house. When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He (Messiah) shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever. (2 Samuel 7:1-13)

David desired to build a temple in Jerusalem after the unsettled years of the Exodus, the conquest, and the period of the Judges. His son Solomon was given the actual task. Yet even Solomon recognized that God could scarcely be contained in a stone building:

"But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain thee; how much less this house which I have built!" (1 Kings 8:27, cp. 2 Chron. 2:6, 6:18)

The First Temple, usually called Solomon's Temple, was finished after a construction period of seven years, employing some 30,000 workmen in the task. That God approved of this building and accepted it as his house is more than evident from the record of the temple dedication service recorded in 2 Chronicles:

When Solomon had ended his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple. And the priests could not enter the house of the LORD, because the glory of the LORD filled the LORD's house. When all the children of Israel saw the fire come down and the glory of the LORD upon the temple, they bowed down with their faces to the earth on the pavement, and worshipped and gave thanks to the LORD, saying, "For he is good, for his steadfast love endures for ever." Then the king and all the people offered sacrifice before the LORD. King Solomon offered as a sacrifice twenty-two thousand oxen and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the people dedicated the house of God. The priests stood at their posts; the Levites also, with the instruments for music to the LORD which King David had made for giving thanks to the LORD ---for his steadfast love endures for ever---whenever David offered praises by their ministry; opposite them the priests sounded trumpets; and all Israel stood.

And Solomon consecrated the middle of the court that was before the house of the LORD; for there he offered the burnt offering and the fat of the peace offerings, because the bronze altar Solomon had made could not hold the burnt offering and the cereal offering and the fat. At that time Solomon held the feast for seven days, and all Israel with him, a very great congregation, from the entrance of Hamath to the Brook of Egypt. And on the eighth day they held a solemn assembly; for they had kept the dedication of the altar seven days and the feast seven days. On the twenty-third day of the seventh month he sent the people away to their homes, joyful and glad of heart for the goodness that the LORD had shown to David and to Solomon and to Israel his people. Thus Solomon finished the house of the LORD and the king's house; all that Solomon had planned to do in the house of the LORD and in his own house he successfully accomplished.

Then the LORD appeared to Solomon in the night and said to him: "I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice. When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place. For now I have chosen and consecrated this house that my name may be there for ever; my eyes and my heart will be there for all time. (2 Chronicles 7:1-16)

The downward course of spiritual and national life in ancient Israel from the time of Solomon to the Babylonian captivity is thoroughly described in the books of Samuel, Kings and Chronicles, as well as by the prophets, both major and minor.

A vivid summary of the Lord's displeasure with both the whole house of Israel was recorded about the time of the captivity of the ten northern tribes:

...Then the king of Assyria invaded all the land and came to Samaria, and for three years he besieged it. In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria captured Samaria, and he carried the Israelites away to Assyria, and placed them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes. And this was so, because the people of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods and walked in the customs of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the people of Israel, and in the customs which the kings of Israel had introduced.

And the people of Israel did secretly against the LORD their God things that were not right. They built for themselves high places at all their towns, from watchtower to fortified city; they set up for themselves pillars and Asherim on every high hill and under every green tree; and there they burned incense on all the high places, as the nations did whom the LORD carried away before them. And they did wicked things, provoking the LORD to anger, and they served idols, of which the LORD had said to them, "You shall not do this." Yet the LORD warned Israel and Judah by every prophet and every seer, saying, "Turn from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my statutes, in accordance with all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets."

But they would not listen, but were stubborn, as their fathers had been, who did not believe in the LORD their God. They despised his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and the warnings which he gave them. They went after false idols, and became false, and they followed the nations that were round about them, concerning whom the LORD had commanded them that they should not do like them. And they forsook all the commandments of the LORD their God, and made for themselves molten images of two calves; and they made an Asherah, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal. And they burned their sons and their daughters as offerings, and used divination and sorcery, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking him to anger. Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight; none was left but the tribe of Judah only.

Judah also did not keep the commandments of the LORD their God, but walked in the customs which Israel had introduced. And the LORD rejected all the descendants of Israel, and afflicted them, and gave them into the hand of spoilers, until he had cast them out of his sight. (2 Kings 17:5-20)

Some of the events leading to the destruction of the Second Temple and the fall of Jerusalem on the 9th of Av in the year 586 BC are known from secular sources. The Assyrians who plundered and pillaged the ten Northern tribes, finally capturing the capital of Samaria in 722, had disappeared from power by 586 BC, (136 years later) exactly as foretold by prophets such as Isaiah who warned that the threat to Jerusalem would come from the rise of the new power known as Babylon.

Solomon's temple was not only magnificently beautiful but adorned within with many billions of dollars in gold and silver, to say nothing of the monies and temple treasures stored in underground rooms beneath. The Babylonians had waited covetously more than a hundred years, for the opportunity to plunder the temple:

At that time Merodach-baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent envoys with letters and a present to Hezekiah; for he heard that Hezekiah had been sick. And Hezekiah welcomed them, and he showed them all his treasure house, the silver, the gold, the spices, the precious oil, his armory, all that was found in his storehouses; there was nothing in his house or in all his realm that Hezekiah did not show them.

Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah, and said to him, "What did these men say? And whence did they come to you?" And Hezekiah said, "They have come from a far country, from Babylon." He said, "What have they seen in your house?" And Hezekiah answered, "They have seen all that is in my house; there is nothing in my storehouses that I did not show them." Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, "Hear the word of the LORD: Behold, the days are coming, when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left, says the LORD. And some of your own sons, who are born to you, shall be taken away; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon." (2 Kings 20:12-18)

The Second Temple

So modest was the Second Temple compared to the First that some of the old-timers who had left Jerusalem at the time of the captivity were deeply disappointed at the unimpressive, small, and unimportant temple the returning exiles were building. Encouraging them that their efforts would be blessed beyond all their expectations the prophet Haggai urged the people to finish the building and put it into service. In an amazing and far reaching prosperity the Lord declared that this Second Temple would not only come to be filled with gold and silver, but receive a higher honor than mere riches. It was into this Second Temple, enlarged and expanded by King Herod, that the Messiah himself, Jesus, Son of David would appear.

In the seventh month, on the twenty-first day of the month, the word of the LORD came by Haggai the prophet, "Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to all the remnant of the people, and say, `Who is left among you that saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Is it not in your sight as nothing? Yet now take courage, O Zerubbabel, says the LORD; take courage, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest; take courage, all you people of the land, says the LORD; work, for I am with you, says the LORD of hosts, according to the promise that I made you when you came out of Egypt. My Spirit abides among you; fear not.

For thus says the LORD of hosts: Once again, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land; and I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with splendor, says the LORD of hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, says the LORD of hosts. The latter splendor of this house shall be greater than the former, says the LORD of hosts; and in this place I will give prosperity, says the LORD of hosts.'" (Haggai 2:1-9)

Closing the canon of the Old Testament, the prophet Malachi spoke of Messiah's forerunner, John the Baptist and also announced that the Lord Himself, Israel's true Messiah would himself visit the Second Temple:

"Behold, I send my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? "For he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap; he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, till they present right offerings to the LORD. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the LORD as in the days of old and as in former years. "Then I will draw near to you for judgment; I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow and the orphan, against those who thrust aside the sojourner, and do not fear me, says the LORD of hosts. "For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed. From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the LORD of hosts. (Malachi 3:1-7)

God "Tabernacling" Among Men

The New Testament opens with a four-fold announcement that the long-awaited Messiah has come.

It was in the Second Jewish Temple that the month-old infant Jesus was dedicated by his parents (Luke 2:22-38). At the age of 12 at Passover, Jesus remained alone in the Temple apart from his parents in what was probably the equivalent of a Bar Mitzvah dedication to the Lord. It may have been at this age of accountability that Jesus first realized He was the promised messiah with a specific mission and calling to fulfill (Luke 2:39-52).

At the beginning of his three-year ministry (John 2:13-17), and again at the end, following his entry on Palm Sunday (Matthew 21:12-13), Jesus drove out the money-changers. On the second occasion Mark's gospel (11:15,16) records that He would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. It is likely, therefore, that he stopped the temple sacrifices (at least temporarily) on this second occasion, giving notice to all that they were no longer valid and had been set aside by God. Jesus, the Paschal Lamb of God was about to offer himself as the once-for-all-time perfect sacrifice for all sin. In weeping over the fate of Jerusalem he declared "See your house (the temple) is left to you desolate; for I say to you, you shall not see Me again until you say, 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.'" (Matthew 23:37-38)
That same week Jesus presented his disciples with a sweeping prophecy of the next two thousand years of history. He began by speaking of the approaching total destruction of the Second Temple, "Do you not see all these things? Assuredly I say to you, not one stone will be left here upon one another, that not be thrown down."

Fulfilled literally and in detail by the total destruction of the temple during the siege of Titus in A.D. 70, this prophecy of Jesus has long since come to pass.
No Jewish Temple has stood on the Temple Mount to this day.
There is no sacrifice taking place either anymore.
Nor will God re-establish sacrifice by the Jews at sometime in the future-for Jesus was the "FINAL SACRIFICE" nor will their be a Temple re-built by the Jews, much to the chagrin of all those pre-millenial dispensationalist Zionist out there.

The emphasis in the New Testament after brief accounts of the early history of the church in Jerusalem in the Book of Acts shifts abruptly away from Jerusalem and Jewish community life. The temple in Jerusalem is no longer the central focus point for God's presence in the world.

In comparing Jesus and Moses and the Exodus, the writer of the Epistle of Hebrews in the New Testament comments:

Therefore, holy brethren, who share in a heavenly call, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession. He was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in God's house. Yet Jesus has been counted worthy of as much more glory than Moses as the builder of a house has more honor than the house. (For every house is built by some one, but the builder of all things is God.) Now Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, but Christ was faithful over God's house as a son. And we are his house if we hold fast our confidence and pride in our hope. (Hebrews 3)

A New Meaning for God's Temple in the New Testament

The house of God in this, and similar passages now refers both to the tabernacle (or the temple) and the people of God. Stephen the first martyr of the Christian church comments as follows:

"Our fathers had the tent of witness in the wilderness, even as he who spoke to Moses directed him to make it, according to the pattern that he had seen. Our fathers in turn brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations which God thrust out before our fathers. So it was until the days of David, who found favor in the sight of God and asked leave to find a habitation for the God of Jacob. But it was Solomon who built a house for him. Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made with hands; as the prophet says, `Heaven is my throne, and earth my footstool. What house will you build for me, says the Lord, or what is the place of my rest? Did not my hand make all these things?'" (Acts 7:44-50)

These discussions pave the way for the New Testament teaching that church buildings are never to be called "the house of God." The New Testament does refer to a "temple of God," but following the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem the only temple of God is those in which Jesus Christ our resurrected Lord indwells through the Holy Spirit.
During the entire present era of the outcalling of the Ekklesia, God lives in individuals who live in a personal, covenantal relationship with Him through Yeshua the Messiah. This era of Biblical, redemptive history extends from Pentecost to the Return of Christ when we will join him where God shall always be our Light, we His Temple, in the New Jerusalem on the New Earth where righteousness reigns in Christ and His brethern.
This time period when Israel would have neither temple nor sacrifice nor national homeland was predicted by the prophet Hosea:

For the children of Israel shall dwell many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or teraphim. Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the LORD their God, and David their king; and they shall come in fear to the LORD and to his goodness in the latter days. (Hosea 3:4-5)
Since, Christ there has been a remnant of Jewish believers, Paul, Peter, and the many Jewish Christians over the centuries have seen the fulfillment in Christ of the these days since Pentecost.

The New Testament's bold assertion that man is the dwelling place---the temple---of God begins with the announcement of the Apostle John that the Second Person of the godhead had now become a man and come down to earth as Immanuel---"God with us."
And the Word became flesh and dwelt (Greek: eskenosen = tabernacled) among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father. (John 1:14)

Shortly after at Passover in Jerusalem Jesus confirmed that He was in some special sense the actual temple of God, greater and more important that the Second Temple he was visiting:

The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers at their business. And making a whip of cords, he drove them all, with the sheep and oxen, out of the temple; and he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. And he told those who sold the pigeons, "Take these things away; you shall not make my Father's house a house of trade." His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for thy house will consume me."
The Jews then said to him, "What sign have you to show us for doing this?" Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." The Jews then said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?" But he spoke of the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken. (John 2:13-22)

Paul the Apostle is clear in his teacheings that the Shekinah---the Holy Spirit---of the living God now makes His sanctuary in the body of all those who believe in Jesus and who subject themselves to his Lordship:

Our normal, reasonable, daily service, he says, is to present our bodies, as temples to God's service:
I appeal to you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:1, 2)

and,

Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? If any one destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and that temple you are. (1 Corinthians 3:16-17)
Paul continues,

Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I therefore take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Do you not know that he who joins himself to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, "The two shall become one flesh." But he who is united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Flee immorality. Every other sin which a man commits is outside the body; but the immoral man sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. (1 Corinthians 6:15-20)
In his Second Letter to the Corinthians the Apostle again speaks of God's people as a collective temple,

Do not be mismatched with unbelievers. For what partnership have righteousness and iniquity? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, "I will live in them and move among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore come out from them, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch nothing unclean; then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty." (2 Corinthians 6:14-18)

The New Testament also teaches that God corporately in the midst of the gathered community of his people. Each believer, a living stone, has been fitted into an invisible building which constitutes a dwelling place for God in the Spirit:

Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands---remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near in the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who has made us both one, and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law of commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby bringing the hostility to an end. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; for through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built into it for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit." (Ephesians 2:11-22)

Now after all the Word of God I have quoted here to show where the Temple of God is, should we correct those that oppose the Word, the answer is a clear resounding, YES! I sternly warn those that try to diminish God's power and His Word with their traditions just to hold onto power over others, and to serve themselves. Be warned.

God will not tolerate forever the lust of men, their desires for power, and their unholy traditions and lies.
The next time you, as the priesthood of believers, that are the very living Temple of God, hear someone refer to a building made by human hands as the "Lord's House", be as Paul and be bold, be as Stephen and be bold for Jesus. Stand for truth and correct those who would lead the people of God astray. The pagan concept of God living in any building is propesterous in light of scripture and truth.
Rightly divide the Word of God! Study and show yourself approved.

Dr. J.