Temple Architecture vs Christians August 8, 2020
One of my favorite subject to talk about and to study the Temple Architecture and how it is related to someone who claims to be a Christian with the Holy Spirit in them and are the Temple of the Holy Spirit. To understand this, we need to understand how we are constructed by Jesus when we were created.
I enjoy looking at the Temple Architecture because it reminds me how a computer system is laid out. If we remember, we are the Temple of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit does live in us and all that applies, example, Fruit of the Holy Spirit.
King Herod reconstructed Solomon Temple in Jerusalem (c. 19 BC) and if we look at the architecture of the Temple, it can be a key to understanding ourselves. Let’s look at some basic Scriptures that apply.
What did Jesus tell us is the Great Commandment?
Mark 12:29-30 Jesus answered, "The most important is, 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, (30) and you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.'
There we have it, Heart, Soul, Strength and
Mind.
Heart kardia, kar-dee'-ah: the heart, that is, the thoughts
or feelings (mind); mean the sincerity of both the thoughts and the
feelings, intellects
nature.
Jeremiah 17:9-10 "The heart is deceitful above all
things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it? (10)
I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give every man according to his
ways, According to the fruit of his doings.
Soul psuchē psoo-khay': breath, that is, (by implication) spirit, (Spirit in man) (spirit in dogs, cats, etc.) This is designed to command our emotional nature.
Strength ischus, is-khoos': force; forcefulness, ability, might , power,
The
whole strength and capacity of your understanding, will, and affections. This commands our energies:
Thou shalt put intensity into thine affection - “Do it with thy
might”
Ecclesiastes
9:10 Whatever the activity in which
you engage, do it with all your ability,
because there is no work, no planning, no learning, and no wisdom in the next world where you're going.
Mind dianoia, dee-an'-oy-ah:deep thought, imagination, mind, understanding. This commands our intellects
nature:
Some thoughts about the spirit in man:
God made the man from dust in the beginning and received by breath, the “spirit in man”.
Genesis 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. (when does a baby receive the breath - spirit)
Soul, nephesh, neh'-fesh: properly a breathing creature, that is, animal
We know what happens when a person dies?
Ecclesiastes 12:7 Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, And the spirit will return to God who gave it. (spirit in man) (Holy Spirit)
What is the "spirit" that returns to God at death?
James 2:26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
Job 27:3 As long as my breath is in me, And the breath of God in my nostrils,
Job 32:8 But there is a spirit in man, And the breath of the Almighty gives him understanding.
We know the spirit that returns to God at death is the breath of life. Nowhere in the Scriptures does the "spirit" have any life, wisdom, or feeling after a person dies. It is the "breath of life" and nothing more.
Apostle Paul tells us when a person receives the Holy Spirit in them, it combines with the Spirit in man and become a new creation or creature.
2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in the Messiah, he is a new creation {or creature}. Old things have disappeared, and--look!--all things have become new!
The soul is a living being and always a combination of two things: body plus breath and a soul cannot be alive unless body and breath are combined.(Gen 2:7)
We know that souls can die.
**Ezekiel 18:20a The soul who sins shall die. …..
According to God's Word, souls do die! We are souls, and souls die.
Man is mortal
Job 4:17 'Can a mortal {man} be more righteous than God? Can a man be more pure than his Maker?
Two Hebrew words for “man” are used; the first implying his feebleness; the second his strength. Whether feeble or strong, man is not righteous or pure before God.
Only God is immortal
1
Timothy 6:15-16 which God will bring
about in his own time—God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord
of lords, (16) who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one
has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen.
God can never die and has endless life,
Good people do not go either to heaven or
hell at death. They go to their graves to wait the resurrection day.
John 5:28-29 "Don't be amazed at this, because the time is approaching when everyone in their graves will hear the Son of Man's voice (29) and will come out--those
who have done what is good to the resurrection that leads to life, and those
who have practiced what is evil to the resurrection that ends in condemnation.
Acts 2:29 "Men and brethren, let me
speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.
When Jesus returns to the earth
Job 17:13 If I wait for the grave as my house, If I make my bed in the darkness,
Ecclesiastes 9:5-6 At least the living know they will die, but the dead know nothing; they no longer have a reward, since memory about them has been forgotten. (6) Furthermore, their love, their hate, and their envy have been long lost. Never again will they have a part in what happens on earth.
Ecclesiastes 9:10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you are going.
God says that the dead know absolutely nothing
Psalms 146:4 His spirit departs, he returns to his earth; In that very day his plans perish.
Job 14:12-15 So man lies down and does not rise. Till the
heavens are no more, They will not awake
Nor be roused from their sleep. (13)
"Oh, that You would hide me in the grave, That You would conceal me
until Your wrath is past, That You would appoint me a set time, and remember me! (14) If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my hard service I will
wait, Till my
change comes. (15) You
shall call, and I will answer You; You shall desire the work of Your hands.
John 11:11-15 These things He said, and after that He said to them, "Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may wake him up." (12) Then His disciples said, "Lord, if he sleeps he will get well." (13) However, Jesus spoke of his death, but they thought that He was speaking about taking rest in sleep. (14) Then Jesus said to them plainly, "Lazarus is dead. (15) And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, that you may believe. Nevertheless let us go to him."
Soul goes nowhere. Instead, it simply ceases to exist. Two things must be combined to make a soul: body and breath. When the breath departs, the soul ceases to exist because it is a combination of two things.
When you turn off a light, where does the light go? It doesn't go anywhere. It just ceases to exist. Two things must combine to make a light: a bulb and electricity. Without the combination, a light is impossible. So with the soul; unless body and breath are combined, there can be no soul. ..
Matthew 10:28 And do not fear
those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy
both soul and body in hell.
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Computer Hardware Organization – very general
The good news is that unless you are designing or building them, we don’t need to know any of this stuff! In fact, I cannot understand the behavior of a computer or by having complete knowledge of circuits and hardware!
Can you understand its behavior by x-rays of hardware? Or by studying the complete wiring diagrams? Or understand how the software works. Really, I cannot. To understand the architecture of a computer system requires knowing the design of the software.
Computer Software Development
Machine Language: language of the computer.
Assemblers: Manages memory; streamlines tasks;
Compilers: “Automatic Programming” through problem oriented languages;
We as user do not
really care about the above things. The
only thing we care about is using our computers, iPad, cell phone, just turn
them on. The Application Interface is what we to do with email, search the web,
Facebook, games, etc. The apps that we
use and like. The programs inside. Like word, facebook, games, etc.
Now this is important.
Software (the programs or apps we add to our computers) has no mass. I do an email, how much does it weight after you receive it.
Hardware: The computer does have mass. A blank diskette weighs about 0.7 ounces.
We can load it with over a million bytes of software, costing hundreds of dollars, and it will still weigh only 0.7 ounces. I can add an attachment, these notes to this message, saying 8 pages long, and it will still have weight of zero. It can even travel weightless over the internet, by email, Facebook, etc.
This is how the Holy Spirit and spirit in man are, software, they have no weight, and require some hardware to work, that is a physical body. It takes both spirit and body to work, be alive, remove one, the other cannot exist.
Meaning, our body is like the disk and the spirit is the software. It takes both to work.
We have learned from science; time is neither linear nor absolute; it is a physical property. We now recognize, thanks to the Theory of Relativity, that we exist in a four-dimensional life (actually now 10 plus – scientist tells me) known as space-time. Time varies with mass, acceleration, and gravity. Funny, God already told us this about 4 dimensions in His Word.
Ephesians 3:17-18 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, (18) may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height
The fact that time, itself, is a physical
property of our material world.
There is part of us that is not physical. Since that part of us has no mass, it has no time dimension. It is the spirit in man or a new creation with the Holy Spirit, we covered earlier.
One of the things that we learn from these software insights is that it is futile to attempt to understand our architecture from a world view, having just the spirit in man. It requires the Holy Spirit to understand.
Our soul or our “heart,” simply does not show up on an x-ray or an MRI scan.
Our Lord God has given us a way to understand our “system design”
Hebrews 4:12 For the Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
We know we, who has God Holy Spirit living in us, are the Temple of God” and this statement appears seven times in the New Testament:
1 Cor 3:9-16, 1 Cor 6:19, 2 Cor 6:16, Eph 2:20, 21, Heb 3:6, 1 Pet 2:5, 1 Pet 4:17
The Uniqueness of Solomon’s Temple
It was the only Temple where all the detailed plans, not only of the construction of the Temple, but also of all the furniture, were given by the Spirit of God
1 Chronicles 28:12 and the plans for everything else that he had in mind for the courtyards of the Temple of the LORD. Included were plans for all of the surrounding vaults and treasuries of the Temple of God intended for storage of dedicated gifts,
1 Chronicles 28:19 "All of these things the LORD made clear to me in writing at his direction—the construction plans for all of the building."
It was also the only Temple in which God’s Spirit dwelt in until the Temple was destroyed.
And it was also the only Temple where the Ark of the Covenant dwelt.
1 Kings 8:10-11 When the priests left the Holy Place after setting the ark in place, the cloud filled the LORD's Temple (11) so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, since the glory of the LORD filled the LORD's Temple.
The Glory of the Lord finally leaves the Temple
Ezekiel 11:23 The glory of the LORD went up from the middle of the city and stood on the mountain, east of the city.
God’s Spirit now dwells in “temples made without hands”
Acts 17:24 God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwells not in temples made with hands; (Remember, we are now the Temple of God)
We know that our Lord Jesus dwells in us.
1 Corinthians 3:16-17 Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? (17) If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.
Now, let’s look at the Temple, Solomon’s Temple vs we are the Temple.
This Applies to Christians only, not those who have only the spirit in man even though they live a somewhat good life.
Inside the Temple, the Holy of Holies (which corresponds to our Spirit), where God dwells.
The Holy Place (which is our new Heart),
Ezekiel 36:26-27 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. (27) I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.
The pillars of the Temple and all of the items in the Inner and Outer Courts—the lavers, the altar of sacrifice, the “molten sea,” etc.—were bronze. Bronze spoke of fire and that which still must be judged, something that is not redeemed yet.
The Hidden Chambers were of wood. (The Hebrew word actually means something “to be burned up.”) Here the priests hid their personal idols, thinking they were secret.
Ezekiel 8:12 Then He said to me, "Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the room of his idols? For they say, 'The LORD does not see us, the LORD has forsaken the land.' "
These secret hidden chambers are suggestive of what we sometimes call the “subconscious.”
We must be careful not to stuff our junk (unresolved hurts, emotions, etc.) here. We need to continually cleanse ourselves by giving them over to Him. This is a continual process.
Go over chart.
There are so many other things we covered to consider and look at, think, pray and mediate about.
This whole message does not apply anyone, unless your spirit in man combined with the Holy Spirit and you become a new creation and are now, children of God and with the Spirit of God living in you, which you and I have by promise, we are now, become, the Temple of God.
1 Corinthians 6:17 But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.
There are somethings we need to review each year to keep in our memory that is very important. Remembering we are the Temple of the Holy Spirit, Jesus lives in us, giving us instruction what we are to do with our lives today. {Galatians 2:20; 2 Corinthians 13:5; Romans 8:10, Colossians 1:27}
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