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THE TEMPLE OF GOD
Copyright © 2006 Trumpet Ministries, Inc. All Rights Reserved
God’s dealings with Christian believers always are based on a specific purpose. God has a definite plan in Christ that He is carrying out. If we are to enter the life of victory in Christ it is important that we recognize we are part of God’s plan that is moving toward fulfillment according to His wisdom and unlimited power.
Central to God’s plan is His desire to dwell in a living temple. The living temple of God is Christ—Head and Body. Christ is the House of God. The members of the Body of Christ are many rooms in the one House of God.
The construction of an eternal dwelling place for Himself is one of the principal purposes of God in the Christian Church. It is difficult for the Lord to come into a satisfying relationship with His creatures. The Body of Christ, which is the Temple of God, removes that difficulty by becoming the hand and heart of God extended to people everywhere.
It is God’s will for us that we, by diligent and consistent faith in Christ, enter our individual role in the Divine plan and then rest with Christ as the Father brings all the enemies of Christ under His feet.
Table of Contents
I. GOD’S SOVEREIGN PURPOSE
The Sovereignty of God’s Working
The Divine ProgramII. GOD’S PLAN FOR HIS TEMPLE
The Need for Victorious Christian Living
The History of the Plan
Adam
The exodus from Egypt
The Tabernacle of the Congregation
The seven houses of God
The patriarchs and prophets
The Temple of Solomon
The Body of Christ
The testimony of Stephen
The chief CornerstoneIII. THE DESTINY OF THE TEMPLE OF GOD
The Kingdom-age Jubilee
The time of darkness and light
The Kingdom comes
The Day of Atonement
Atonement means reconciliation
Pentecost of Pentecosts
The River of Life
Worldwide evangelism
The Tree of Life
Release and restoration
The legal basis for the Jubilee
The Day of Redemption
Redemption past and future
A Sabbath of Sabbaths
In the Year of Jubilee
The rule of the Temple of God
The Day of Wrath
The baptism with fire
Installation by force
From Calvary until the thousand-year Kingdom Age
Entering the Day of the Lord
Christ, and the laws of nature
Kingdom power in the earth
The Presence of Christ
"A voice from the temple"
The relationship of the Church to the Kingdom of God
The beginning and ending of the thousand-year Kingdom Age
Judgment must begin at the house of God
A New Heaven and a New Earth
The thousand-year Kingdom Age is Davidic in character
The Ark is placed in Solomon’s Temple
Fulfillment of the Levitical feasts
The feast of Tabernacles
The dawning of a new age
The completion of God’s purpose
The dwelling of God in His elect among the nations
A time for rejoicing
Righteousness, holiness, and obedience
God’s Israel is the light
Rivers of living water
The separated, royal priesthood
Spiritual wickedness in the heavens
The holiness of the new Jerusalem
Rebuilding the walls and gates of Jerusalem
The design of the world to come
Spiritual maturity
The inheritance of the saints
THE TEMPLE OF GOD
CHAPTER I. GOD’S SOVEREIGN PURPOSE
The purpose of this book, The Temple of God, is to portray the destiny of the Christian Church. Because Christians have not understood what the Olive Tree, the Seed of Abraham is, they have not been able to relate the Hebrew prophecies to the role or future of the Church.
Once it has been determined who "Israel" is, that Israel is the elect of God from the time of Abraham regardless of Jewish or Gentile racial origin, then the believer can perceive the destiny of the Church, the Body of Christ, the eternal Temple of God.
The role and future of the Christian Church has been described in the Scriptures, both in the Old and New Testaments, all this time. But we have not had eyes to see.
Hopefully the devout reader will begin to understand that all prophecies related to the Kingdom of God, its past, its present, and its future, are referring to him. He (or she) is God’s Israel, a saint, a member of the Body of Christ.
The eleventh chapter of the Book of Hebrews defines "faith" in terms of the response of Old Testament personages to God’s commands and interventions. We are one with all of them. They and we shall be made perfect together.
There is only one Israel of God, one anointed of God. There is only one Christ, one Servant of the Lord. There is only one Church, one holy city, one new Jerusalem.
The Lord Jesus is Christ. God is adding to the Lord Jesus a Body. The Lord Jesus the Head, plus the Body, constitute the true Israel, the true Servant of the Lord.
The true Israel, the true Servant of the Lord, is one Olive Tree. There never has been and never shall be another olive tree, another place of anointing, another Christ that God will accept.
The true Olive Tree began with Abraham and Sarah. The Olive Tree continued with the promise to Isaac, to Jacob, and to the sons of Jacob. This is true Israel, the true Seed of Abraham.
The Olive Tree came in perfection in the Lord Jesus Christ, who, being the Word of God from eternity, actually was before Abraham. The Olive Tree continued with all who have become part of Christ, whether Jewish or Gentile by physical birth.
In the last days, the promise, the anointing, the Olive Tree, shall return to the physical land and people of Israel. Then the Redeemer shall come out of Zion and all Israel, all of the elect, all of the true Olive Tree, shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation.
God has had, and shall continue to have, a special role for the physical land and people of Israel. Physical Israel is the only nation that has been set apart as holy to the Lord.
The true Olive Tree is the Kingdom of God. In order to enter the Kingdom of God both Jew and Gentile must be born again. The Jew and the Gentile then become new creations in Christ. In this manner, that which began with Abraham becomes eternal.
The Olive Tree, Christ, the Servant of the Lord, is the eternal dwelling place of the most high God. The Olive Tree is the House of the Father. The first, and principal room in the Father’s House is the Lord Jesus. But there are to be many rooms in the Father’s House, the eternal Temple of God. This book is about our becoming a room in that eternal House, the everlasting Tabernacle of God.
Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in, in the Sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established. (Exodus 15:17)
"In the place, O Lord, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in."
The above passage is the beginning of the revelation of the eternal purpose of God.
And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them. (Exodus 25:8)
He shall build me an house, and I will stablish his throne for ever. (I Chronicles 17:12)
Why leap ye, ye high hills? this is the hill which God desireth to dwell in; yea, the Lord will dwell in it for ever. (Psalms 68:16)
When the Lord shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory. (Psalms 102:16)
For the Lord hath chosen Zion; he hath desired it for his habitation. This is my rest for ever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it. (Psalms 132:13,14)
He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. (John 6:56,57)
Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. (John 14:23)
That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe thou hast sent me. (John 17:21)
Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool: what house will ye build me? saith the Lord: or what is the place of my rest? (Acts 7:49)
For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. (I Corinthians 12:12)
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)
My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you, (Galatians 4:19)
In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:21,22)
And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: (Ephesians 4:11,12)
To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: (Colossians 1:27)
Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name. (Revelation 3:12)
Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. (Revelation 3:20)
And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. (Revelation 21:3)
God’s work in Christian believers, individually and collectively, always is based on a specific purpose. God has a definite plan in Christ that He is carrying out. Paul states: "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." (Romans 8:28)
If we are to enter the overcoming life of victory in Christ it is important that we recognize we are part of God’s plan that is moving toward fulfillment according to His wisdom and unlimited power.
It is God’s will for us that we, by diligent and consistent faith in Christ, enter our individual role in the Divine plan, and then rest with Christ as the Father brings all the enemies of Christ under His feet.
The Sovereignty of God’s Working
God is the Creator and we are "his workmanship, created in Christ unto good works" (Ephesians 2:10). What God begins He also finishes (Hebrews 12:2). He is following a blueprint and a time schedule. He knows exactly what He is doing with every creature in Heaven and on the earth (Acts 15:18). God is God.
We recognize, certainly, that man is commanded to seek and to serve God faithfully. We recognize also God is God and that all people, things, and events are in His power.
The sovereign workings and initiative of God are illustrated in the manner in which he apprehended Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus. Saul was not on his way to church. He was not proceeding down an aisle in response to an altar call. He was on his way to arrest and torment Christian believers.
In complete command of the situation, as always, Jesus ordered Saul to "Arise and go into the city." Jesus then made known to him that God has a purpose concerning the Gentiles as well as the Jews, and that he, Saul, had an important part to play in this purpose.
God had laid out a design for Saul’s life in which he would become the Apostle to the Gentiles. Saul was to have an understanding of the plan of salvation and of the way in which grace operates to redeem people. Christ gave all this to Saul at the moment of his becoming a Christian—in fact, while Saul was in the midst of putting Christians to death (Acts 26:11-18).
God’s purpose, which He is pursuing in line with His sovereign will according to His own Divine counsel and foreknowledge, with people whom He has chosen (we are not in any way minimizing the role of our will in choosing to serve Christ), is to bring to full stature the Body of Christ.
Christ is God’s anointed King and Deliverer. The Church of Christ is His Body, "the fulness of him that filleth all in all" (Ephesians 1:23). Christ is the Lampstand of God. The Body of Christ is the second "lampstand," of Revelation 11:4. The Lord Jesus Christ is the eternal dwelling place of God Almighty and the chief Cornerstone of the habitation that God is building for Himself. We Christians, being members of His Body, are part of the same dwelling place. We are being "builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit" (Ephesians 2:22). We are "lively [living] stones" in God’s Temple (I Peter 2:5).
The eternal purpose of God is to dwell among the peoples of the earth, whom He has created. God did not create mankind with the idea that God would remain in Heaven and punish people continually because they are of the earth and behave in an earthly fashion; neither is it His will that human beings leave the earth and abide forever in Heaven, as though the creating of the earth were an unfortunate mistake. This would be to suggest that God is not quite sure what He is doing, that He gets caught by surprise, that He does not work in a reliable manner.
God created the physical heaven and the earth. God formed angels, cherubim, seraphim, and other types of spiritual personalities in the spiritual Heaven. He formed man—male and female—in the image of God and placed him on the earth.
God created men as sons of God, in His image, intending to give them dominion, fruitfulness, and glory. More than that, God has designed each individual as male or female so each person is incomplete and can realize his or her eternal destiny only in union with Christ and other people. Man’s highest motivation is love. This is true also of man’s Creator, the Lord God.
If we were neither male nor female, would we find much meaning in the Song of Solomon? Isn’t the Song of Solomon the key to our understanding of the relationship between Christ and His Bride, between the eternal Lord and His Temple, His Body?
Angels, cherubim, and seraphim are neither male nor female. Also, it is true that none of these ever can become a living stone in the Temple of God.
The Divine intention is not that man go to Heaven to live there forever; but, as we read in the last two chapters of the Book of Revelation, that the Lord God of Heaven dwell forever among men on the earth.
And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. (Revelation 21:3)
Why, then, did the sovereign God permit the rebellion of Eden? What is the significance of the terror of Sinai? How could the great and terrible "Lord" of Moses permit Roman soldiers to spit on Him and place a mock crown of thorns on His head?
If we view the historical appearances of God among His creatures, and His dealings with mankind, as tragedies in which God unsuccessfully attempted to have fellowship with us, we fall short in our concept of the sovereignty of God. We do not grasp His Divine foreknowledge and absolute authority and power. How can God make mistakes when He is all-powerful?
If we perceive the fall of Adam and Eve, the flood of Noah, the awful grandeur of Sinai, the carrying away of the Jews into Babylon, and the crucifixion of Christ as necessary aspects of a marvelous plan and purpose, we rest in the fact that God knows all His works from the creation of the world; that the Divine purpose has been accomplished from the beginning of time. We enter this rest of God—the rest based on the finished work (Hebrews 4:3).
What could God achieve by placing a forbidden tree in the middle of the garden, and then allowing Satan, a master deceiver of ancient experience, to persuade the first, innocent babes to sin against God?
Given God’s high ambitions for His sons, it does not require extraordinary wisdom in order to understand the necessity for the rebellion of Eden.
At some point in prior eternity the governing lords of the spirit realm decided to usurp God’s absolute rulership. Sin was conceived in Heaven, not on the earth. Sin is a spiritual reality. The flesh and blood of human beings provide a vehicle for the expression of spiritual personalities.
Sin is the defilement of God’s holiness. Self-will, which is worse than sin, is the desire of a creature of God to seek its own purposes apart from submission to the Majesty of the everlasting Throne.
Sin proceeds from Satan. Sin is practiced by human beings who have been enslaved by Satan.
He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifest, that he might destroy the works of the devil. (I John 3:8)
Self-will is demonstrated in Satan’s behavior.
For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. (Isaiah 14:13,14)
"I will. I will. I will. I will."
Self-will is the main problem of the human beings whom God has created in His image. Self-will is prominent among God’s chosen people and resulted in the murder of Christ.
For two thousand years the Church of Christ has been characterized by self-will, by the desire to minister and build apart from the supervision of Christ through the Holy Spirit.
Self-will and self-centeredness are found in the human baby and remain through adulthood.
Self-will is the basis of the Antichrist spirit. The true saint of God learns that he must be pressed ever more deeply into union with God through Christ, forsaking his self-will. It is the believer’s cross that does the pressing.
No person can become a living stone in the eternal Temple of God until his will has been brought into oneness with the will of God in Christ.
When God decided to make man in His image, and then to assign to him authority and power over all the works of God’s hands, He had to provide for the eventuality that man would turn against God.
For God to have created man in His image, to have given him authority over all the works of God’s hands, and then not to have provided for the problems of sin and self-will would have been foolish indeed. God is not foolish.
A human being who is in slavery to Satan and who is unwilling to forsake his independence and enter union with God through Christ (submission to and union with Christ are the main issues), cannot be assigned authority and power over all the works of God’s hands. He or she would be a monster. Do we not behold monstrous behavior on every hand today, within and outside the churches?
Therefore God allowed Adam and Eve to sin. God did not tempt them to sin or cause them to sin. God made it possible for them to sin and then permitted them to do so.
Why?
In order to make God’s royal heirs immune to sin.
There is only one immunity to sin and self-will. The immunity is the Lord Jesus Christ.
Dying physically does not provide immunity to sin and self-will. Dying physically brings us into the spirit realm, where we are judged and placed with spirits like ourselves.
Going to Heaven does not provide immunity to sin and self-will. Sin and self-will were born in Heaven around the Throne of God.
Where, then, can we find immunity to sin and self-will? We can find such immunity in the Personality of the Lord Jesus Christ. Complete union with Christ makes us eligible to be a living stone in the Temple of God. There is no immunity to sin and self-will other than by receiving the Person of Christ into ourselves.
We may think of God’s dealing with mankind, from the time of Eden to the present hour, as a school. Eden was the kindergarten. The first lesson was, "The soul that sins shall die." God has given us six thousand years in which to reflect on the truth and wisdom of the first lesson.
Then the flood of Noah provided the heirs of the Kingdom, the sons of God, with a lesson concerning the sternness of God’s Character. God was willing to slay every person on the earth, leaving the one human being (and his family) whom God had found to be righteous, to repopulate the earth.
The world of today needs to meditate on the flood of Noah because the Lord Jesus warned us that His return to earth would be "as it was in the days of Noah."
Abraham and Sarah were the beginning of the Church, the Temple of God. Abraham was given an opportunity to express faith, was admonished concerning the need to walk perfectly before God, and then was tested in the realm of self-will, of obedience to the Lord God of Heaven.
The faithfulness of Abraham in returning Isaac to God remains as one of the highest mountain peaks of human experience. We can find a greater denial of self only in the garden of Gethsemane.
Several hundred years after Abraham and Sarah, Mount Sinai blazed with a holy light never before revealed on the earth. The dreadful holiness of God was portrayed in the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments are the Divine judgment on the God of the present world.
Can you see in these Divine dealings the curriculum of a school, a progressive course in the knowledge of the Lord God of Heaven?
The Law of Moses made us see our need of God’s help. Adam and Eve, at the time of their creation, possessed no deep realization in themselves that they were in need of immunity to sin and self-will. Adam and Eve were formed in the image of God but they knew very little of God’s Person and ways.
The first two people did not understand that apart from union with God they posed a danger to themselves and to the remainder of the creation of God. It has required thousands of years of human experience in order to bring a tiny remnant of people to the profound conviction that apart from God we always fall into sin and enslave ourselves and our neighbors with our self-will, self-seeking, self-love, self-centeredness.
Only a small minority of earth’s billions has any concept at all of how utterly dependent on God each person is. Most human beings, believers and nonbelievers alike, journey on in slavery to sin and self-will.
In the fullness of time, God sent forth His Son, born of Mary, to live perfectly under the righteous requirements of the Law of Moses.
Here is the Redemption for every human being. Here is the Immunity to sin and self-will. Here is the Vine of God, apart from whom we cannot bear the right kind of fruit. Here is the Divine Lord, apart from whom we cannot exercise dominion over the works of God’s hands.
If it had not been for the rebellion of Eden we would not have been brought to the place of willingness to seek forgiveness through the blood of the cross, deliverance through the power of the Holy Spirit, and finally, release from the bondage of self-will and disobedience through our fellowship with the suffering of the cross.
No human being can please God apart from the righteousness of Christ and the sacrifice of Calvary. No human being can be trusted with the glory assigned to the sons of God apart from a crucified self-life and the formation of a new creation in which his personality and the Personality of Christ have been made one.
No human being can find perfect joy and fulfillment until Christ is abiding in him and the love of Christ is flowing through him to other people.
All of our inheritance as sons of God can be possessed only as we press into abiding in Christ, into God’s rest. The history of the wretched circumstances of human beings without God is a principal reason why thoughtful people are willing and desirous to press into the Lamb of God whom God has given to us.
All things of life and history work together for good to those who love God, to those who have been called according to God’s purpose.
Every painful episode has as its purpose the driving of us into Christ because it is only in Christ that our high destiny as sons of God can be achieved.
From the beginning the Lord God of Heaven has determined to find rest on earth among the peoples whom He has created from the dust of the ground. Therefore He is forming a living temple. Christ is the chief Cornerstone of God’s Temple. We, in whom Christ is being created and is dwelling through the Spirit, are the living stones of the Temple.
God has a plan and is proceeding to carry it out. He knows what He is doing. Nothing catches Him by surprise. God is sovereign in His foreknowledge, His power, His wisdom.
God is building a tabernacle for Himself. When the tabernacle has been completed He will enter it in His Fullness.
The Tabernacle of God will be situated eternally on a high mountain of the new earth. It is called the Bride of the Lamb, the new Jerusalem.
CHAPTER II. GOD’S PLAN FOR HIS TEMPLE
The Need for Victorious Christian Living
The goal of the Christian disciple who has set himself to be an overcomer, a victorious saint, is to attain the place of abiding in God’s temple to which the Father has called him. It is not always comfortable and easy (although God’s wisdom and power make it possible and restful) to match the upward calling of God with a diligent seeking of His will. Such diligence is necessary because only the victorious saints—those who conquer through the Holy Spirit their fleshly nature, the world, and Satan—will receive the fullness of the inheritance (Revelation 21:7).
The Book of Revelation emphasizes the fact that the fullness of the inheritance goes to the conquerors. The relationship of leading an overcoming life to receiving the inheritance needs to be stressed at this time in the Church of Christ.
There is not enough being said today about the need for living the victorious Christian discipleship, the life of triumphant faith in the Spirit. Therefore the believers do not always address themselves with knowledge, purpose, and dedication to laying hold on the fullness of the inheritance.
The believers, in many instances, make a few commitments to Christ and then settle back to wait for His coming. This is a most unscriptural attitude (Philippians 3:8-15). It may be recalled that the Israelites, God’s chosen people, failed to enter their inheritance because of their hardness of heart and unbelief (Hebrews, Chapter Three; Jude 1:5).
If we set our hope on becoming a living stone in God’s Temple we must give ourselves wholly to attaining the place of abiding in Christ in which we come to rest in Him and He comes to rest in us. Every day of our Christian pilgrimage our determination to dwell in the "secret place of the most High" will be tested in one manner or another.
Some days the battle is heavy; other days are quieter. It is a moment by moment, day by day, pressing into the will of God as He leads us and gives us the wisdom and strength to overcome every enemy.
Christians who are looking for a worldly life in which some of their attention can be given to the pursuit of their own desires and some of their attention can be given to the seeking of Christ, will never be able to attain the fullness of abiding in God and Christ that they could have obtained by following Christ with singleness of purpose.
The penalty for not giving full attention to God is illustrated by the Israelites who compromised with the inhabitants of Canaan, the result being that they faced (and still face) continual warfare. They had to endure seeing their sons and daughters take up the abominable Canaanite religions. There is little rest for the Christian outside the bosom of the Father (John 1:18).
The Temple of God is in the process of being constructed now. It has been the plan of God from the creation of the world to make for Himself a habitation composed of human beings who have been transformed into the image of Christ (Romans 8:28-30).
God will dwell only in Christ—nowhere else. God in Christ will dwell in His fullness only in the believer who has been re-created completely—spirit, soul, and body. "Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" (II Corinthians 5:17).
If God is to dwell in us we must "come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing" (II Corinthians 6:17). It is not possible that we can find rest in God, or He can find rest in us, until every particle of our animal nature has been dealt with.
The "wood" must be covered with "gold" (Exodus 25:11). We are being made the "Ark of the Covenant," and the "wood" of our personality must be enclosed in the "gold" of the Divine Nature.
Adam. Over the past several thousand years the plan for the Temple of God has been unfolding and the necessary preparations, sketches, and measurements have been made. The foundation was poured in Christ. The details of God’s plan for a dwelling place were not revealed to us at the time of the creation of man nor are they all clear to us in the present hour.
Although it was said of Adam that he was a son of God and that he was in the image of God, yet it was not stated that Adam was created to be the eternal dwelling place of the Godhead.
Adam was a living soul with the breath of life in his nostrils. He was made in God’s likeness and image. God walked with Adam, not in him. We understand now that God intends to dwell not only with the Body of Christ but also in the Body of Christ. The "mystery" of the Gospel is that Christ is in us (Colossians 1:27).
In God’s mind while He was having fellowship with Adam in the Garden of Eden was a temple built on the Cornerstone, Christ, and constructed in accordance with exact specification. In the incomprehensible wisdom of God, Adam was given a few rules to obey.
Because Adam disobeyed, just as God who knows the hearts of all men knew he would, all mankind came under the power of Satan, the originator of rebellion against God.
God did not cause Adam to sin. God knew Adam would sin because God was aware of the forces that were ready to invade the Garden of Eden. Every act brought about by evil powers, from the sin of Adam and Eve through the crucifixion of Christ to the present day, serves only to further the plan of God. Such is the wisdom and power of God.
In all that happened in the garden God had a master plan that would, in the maturity of time, furnish Him with a holy, perfect, living temple in which to dwell. Through His living temple God will be able to judge all unrighteousness—the unrighteousness in the heavens and the unrighteousness in the earth.
The exodus from Egypt. As the course of mankind proceeded after Adam was driven from the Garden of Eden, the Holy Spirit began to give glimpses of the idea God has in mind concerning the building of a holy habitation for Himself.
Notice these words from the prophecy sung by Moses and the children of Israel on the occasion of their passing successfully through the Red Sea:
Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in, in the Sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established. (Exodus 15:17)
"In the place, O Lord, that You have made for Yourself to dwell in." "In the Sanctuary, O Lord, that Your hands have established."
It is an extraordinary fact of world history that two or three million slaves from Egypt, led by a shepherd, having been directed through a deep and broad river that parted until they had passed through and then had closed on their enemies who had dared to follow them into the holy pathway, should suddenly lift up their voices in song—the entire multitude—and begin to sing in prophecy the purposes of God.
The whole Gospel story is revealed in this episode, if one adds to it the Lord’s Passover that the Israelites had just celebrated.
How the wild animals must have crouched and listened and stared in curiosity as they heard a congregation of people begin to sing in the Spirit of revelation, keeping in harmony, standing out in the desert under the cloud—the Angel of God who went before them for forty years. The acacia trees and wild shrubs rejoiced and in their own way sang with Israel the high praises of God.
Here occurred one of the most remarkable incidents in the history of mankind. God some day may provide us with a playback of this scene so we can see and hear Moses, Aaron, Miriam, and the rest of Israel singing in prophecy as the Church of God began its pilgrimage through the wilderness.
The Tabernacle of the Congregation. Notice, in Exodus 15:17, the mention of the "Sanctuary" that the Lord has established and in which he intends to dwell.
In the twenty-fifth chapter of Exodus there is another early reference to God’s desire to have a dwelling place in the earth.
And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them. (Exodus 25:8)
Heaven is the Throne of God and the earth is the footstool of God. God desires a house in which he can live and move and have His Being. He is seeking a fellowship of persons who are in His image and who can serve as His dwelling place—a house through which He can extend Himself to all His creation; a resting place in which the throne and footstool are brought together.
To illustrate and emphasize His desire for a holy dwelling place, God directed Moses to build a tabernacle according to precise specifications. "See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount" (Hebrews 8:5).
Did God Almighty actually dwell between the cherubim in that tent? He did indeed and His Glory could be seen. Moses went in to the Most Holy Place and talked to God as a friend; not as a prophet who sees visions and proclaims the burden of the Word of the Lord, but as a personal friend—face to face.
Although at a later date God came down in glory during the dedication of the Temple of Solomon, it is possible that His continuing Presence was manifest more powerfully in the Tabernacle of the Congregation than was true of the larger, more impressive Temple of Solomon.
The Tabernacle of the Congregation was the house of God until the two wicked sons of Eli carried the Ark of the Covenant into battle and it was captured by the Philistines. This occurred after Israel had settled in the land of promise.
All the time that Israel was wandering around in the desert between Kadesh-barnea and Elath, the Glory of God dwelled between the wings of the golden cherubim in the Most Holy Place.
As difficult as it is for us to understand, God actually dwelled in the Tabernacle of the Congregation. The term "house of God" was no mere figure of speech as is true of church buildings today.
The Tabernacle of the Congregation was God’s House, and if you dared to go through the entrances and approach the holy vessels you would breathe your last breath quickly, even though God’s throne was termed the "Mercy Seat" (literally, Atonement Lid or Lid of Reconciliation).
The seven houses of God. Throughout history the house of God has appeared in six different forms. The seventh form, which is the fulfillment and fullness of all that have gone before, has not been completed and perfected as yet.
The first form in which the house of God appeared was Moses’ tent, which was pitched far off from the camp (Exodus 33:7-11). Moses’ tent was termed "the tabernacle of the congregation," but perhaps was not the actual Tabernacle of the Congregation or Tent of Meeting that was set up later (Exodus 40:17).
The tent of Moses served until God was ready to show Moses the pattern for the structure that the King James translation of the Bible refers to as the "Tabernacle of the Congregation."
The second form in which the house of God appeared was the actual Tent of Meeting, referred to as the Tabernacle of the Congregation or Tabernacle in the wilderness. It is the one with which we are familiar, having the Altar of Burnt Offering, the Lampstand, the Ark of the Covenant, and the remainder of the seven holy furnishings.
The Tabernacle of the Congregation would be better termed the Tabernacle of God because it was a dwelling place for the Lord God, not for the Israelites. It truly was the House of God.
The third form in which the house of God appeared was the Tabernacle of David. The Tabernacle of David was a tent that David set up in Zion, a city located in the area of Jerusalem.
Inside the tent of David was placed the Ark of the Covenant, which had become separated from the Most Holy Place of the Tabernacle of the Congregation.
The Ark of the Covenant was brought to Zion by King David amid much rejoicing (II Samuel, Chapter Six). The remainder of the Tabernacle of the Congregation remained at Gibeon, at the high place—a site that had been used by the Gibeonites for the worship of their gods.
The fourth form in which the house of God appeared was the Temple of Solomon. The Temple of Solomon followed the same general design as the Tabernacle of the Congregation but was greatly enlarged and made more elaborate with costly ornamentation and additions.
The destruction of the Temple of Solomon was carried out by the Babylonians about six hundred years before Christ (II Kings 25:9). The Temple was rebuilt after the Babylonian captivity (Ezra 6:15), and again by King Herod in the first century B.C. It was Herod’s Temple that was standing during the ministry of Jesus and the early apostles. Herod’s Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D.
The fifth form in which the house of God has been revealed is Ezekiel’s Temple (Ezekiel, Chapters 40 through 48). Our point of view is, in spite of the details concerning sacrifice, that Ezekiel’s Temple represents the eternal Temple of God, the Body of Christ.
The Scripture does not teach in detail the exact relationship between the spirit realm and the material realm during the Millennium (thousand-year Kingdom Age). We do not know whether the saints of God will rule in bodies on the earth or through the Holy Spirit as Jesus does today or in some combination of these two forms. The description of the Temple of God in Ezekiel appears to have this half-physical, half-spiritual quality.
We do know that Christ and His servants will rule the earth for a period of time denoted in Scripture as one thousand years (whether literally or symbolically), and then over the new earth for eternity. It is possible that Ezekiel’s Temple outlines some of the aspects that will be true during the thousand-year Kingdom Age in which there may be situations involving flesh and blood people who are being ruled by saints who themselves are living in glorified bodies.
It seems more likely to us, however, that the representation of Christ in the first chapter of Ezekiel reveals to us the final form of glorified man, the ruler of God's universe, and the description of the temple portrays the development of the inner character of the saint. Finally the member of Christ's Body, having passed through the four levels of water, becomes a tree of life, planted on the banks of the River of Life, bringing life and healing to the saved peoples of the earth.
The sixth form in which the house of God has appeared is our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is the eternal dwelling place of God. In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead in bodily form. God the Father has His eternal rest in Christ.
All of the houses of God prior to Christ were greatly reduced in significance as soon as the Lord Jesus appeared. The Temple of Herod changed from the house of God into nothing more than an elaborate building the instant Christ came into view.
The God of the house of God stood in the streets of Jerusalem and beheld His handiwork. The supremacy of Moses, Aaron, and the Levites passed away like the dew before the morning sun. Behold, a greater than Moses was here.
The seventh form in which the house of God will appear is the new Jerusalem. The new Jerusalem is the Body of Christ, the Wife of the Lamb, the glorified Christian Church (Revelation, Chapters 21 and 22).
When every member of the Body of Christ has come to personal maturity, has been created in union with the Head, Christ, and is one with every other member, then the Head and the Body will be the eternal House of God, the Temple of God, the dwelling place of God and the Lamb forever.
Today we refer to buildings constructed by various groups, Methodist, Baptist, Lutheran, Catholic, Pentecostal, and so forth as "houses of God." But the buildings are not houses of God.
After the people go home on Sunday at noon you can desecrate the altar, the platform, the pews, and the choir loft. You can play any secular song on the organ or piano. You can clear the area and hold a dance, gamble, smoke, curse, use God’s name in vain or do anything else. No holy fire will issue forth and slay you. No voice will proclaim, holy, holy, holy. You will not be afflicted with leprosy.
Our natural environment, living and inanimate, is affected by the Glory and Presence of God who dwells in God’s people. His Glory is revealed when the Church assembles and enters worship. Nevertheless, except for unusual instances, it is true that after the people leave, the church building, no matter how ornate, is void of the Presence of God. He has left with the saints.
(When there has been much prayer in one location one can feel the holiness of God there. But this is not the "house of God" in the same sense as the Tabernacle of the Congregation.)
It was altogether different with the Tabernacle of the Congregation. Imagine what would have happened if an Israelite went into the Holy Place, began to sing and dance in honor of a heathen god, or cursed, using God’s name in a blasphemous manner. Of course, we know that this could not have happened because if an Israelite even approached the Courtyard of the Tabernacle with such a thought in his heart he would have been struck dead instantly.
God Almighty, in all His holiness and glory, truly lived in the Tabernacle of the Congregation. It reminds us of the fact that in Christ dwells all the fullness of the Godhead. God Almighty in all His holiness and glory truly lives in the bodily form of Jesus of Nazareth.
The term church can never refer to a building. The building in which Christians worship, no matter what kind of design and furnishings it has, can never be more than a meeting hall for the Church of Christ, the true and eternal Temple of God. As the Holy Spirit announced through Stephen, God never again will dwell in a temple made with hands.
We are the Temple of God. The term church is the English translation of a Greek word that means "called out." We are "called out" from the world to be a holy people, peculiarly God’s own.
A building can never be "called out" from the world. Therefore the term church, technically speaking, cannot be applied to a physical structure. Such usage of the word, although a long-standing tradition, tends to steer people away from the fact that God intends that every Christian leave the spirit of this age and follow Christ with an undivided heart so God may abide in him. The Christian is God’s house.
Although God lived in the Tabernacle of the Congregation and accompanied the Israelites through all their wilderness wandering (just as He accompanies you and me through all our wilderness wandering), nevertheless, the chief purpose of the Tabernacle of the Congregation is to point us toward the eternal Temple of God that is being built on the proven Cornerstone, the Lord Jesus Christ.
The burden concerning the house of God appears many times throughout the Old Testament. The idea of the house of God being constructed from God’s called-out people did not appear clearly until after the Lord Jesus rose from the dead. In Old Testament times the Israelites understood the house of God to be a physical structure, such as the Temple of Solomon or the Temple of Herod.
The patriarchs and prophets. God communicated in many different ways with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, Gideon, Elijah, Elisha, and numerous other patriarchs and prophets. The Holy Spirit of God came upon them and they prophesied, performed miracles, received Divine direction, conquered in battle, and exercised supernatural strength. The Glory of God was revealed in the things they did and taught.
Never once, however, did God take up His permanent dwelling in them. Yet, the New Testament, from the Gospels forward, teaches that God’s plan is to live in the believers. The new covenant re-creates the personality, spirit, soul, and body, providing a holy dwelling place for the Fullness of the Godhead.
The mystery of the Gospel is "Christ in you." Because of the re-creation and the indwelling, the new covenant is superior to the old covenant.
Jesus stated that he who is least in the Kingdom of God is greater than John the Baptist, although John, being "Elijah" who was commissioned to announce the arrival of Christ, was the equal of any of the prophets.
God is in the process of taking up His eternal abode in each member of the Body of Christ from the least to the greatest. God did not create His eternal dwelling place in any of the prophets of old—not even in John the Baptist.
God did not fashion His sanctuary in anyone prior to His coming to earth in Christ. Work began on the construction of God’s Temple after the resurrection from the dead of the Lord Jesus.
The true tabernacle that God is establishing is being built on the holy, tested Cornerstone—Christ. The Christian Church, which is being measured from and constructed on the Rock, Christ, is the new Jerusalem, the Body of Christ, the everlasting Mount Zion mentioned so often in the Book of Psalms (Psalms 102:16; Hebrews 12:22).
The Temple of Solomon. The desire that came into David’s heart to build a house for God can be found in the seventeenth chapter of I Chronicles, beginning with the first verse:
Now it came to pass, as David sat in his house, that David said to Nathan the prophet, Lo, I dwell in an house of cedars, but the ark of the covenant of the Lord remaineth under curtains.
Then the answer of the Lord to him, verses four and five:
Go and tell David my servant, Thus saith the Lord, Thou shalt not build me an house to dwell in: For I have not dwelt in an house since the day that I brought up Israel unto this day; but have gone from tent to tent, and from one tabernacle to another.
Also, verses eleven and twelve:
And it shall come to pass, when thy days be expired that thou must go to be with thy fathers, that I will raise up thy seed after thee, which shall be of thy sons; and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build me an house, and I will stablish his throne for ever.
Solomon, David’s son, indeed did build a magnificent temple that followed the design of the Tabernacle of the Congregation. When Solomon’s Temple was finished it was dedicated with great ceremony. During the dedication the Glory of God descended into the Temple in such power that the priests were unable to enter the house of the Lord (II Chronicles 7:1,2).
The Body of Christ. When the Scripture is studied it becomes clear that the Lord was not speaking primarily of Solomon when He said, "He shall build me an house, and I will stablish his throne for ever."
The Holy Spirit was looking down through the years to a greater Son of David, the Lord Jesus Christ. The Word of God to David through the prophet Nathan was a prophecy concerning the Body of Christ, an announcement of the plan the Lord had all along—that of the construction of the eternal dwelling place of the Most High.
King David himself was one of the most outstanding prophets of all time.
Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined. (Psalms 50:2)
Why leap ye, ye high hills? this is the hill which God desireth to dwell in; yea, the Lord will dwell in it for ever. (Psalms 68:16)
The Scripture just quoted, Psalms 68:16, describes God’s desire to inhabit Mount Zion. Spiritual Zion is the Kingdom of God, the fulfillment of David’s Tabernacle, the building of which is the purpose for the present age (Acts 15:16; Hebrews 12:22). Christ is the chief Cornerstone in Zion.
The eighteenth verse of Psalms 68 gives additional understanding:
Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive: thou hast received gifts for men; yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them. (Psalms 68:18)
The fourth chapter of Ephesians unfolds the meaning of Psalms 68:16,18:
Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. (Ephesians 4:8)
And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; (Ephesians 4:11)
The gifts "for the rebellious" are the gifts and ministries of the Holy Spirit, especially apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastors and teachers.
Psalms 68:18 reveals the purpose to be accomplished by the gifts and ministries given to the Body of Christ: "that the Lord God might dwell among them." The fourth chapter of Ephesians confirms this statement of purpose: "the perfecting of the saints; for the work of the ministry; for the edifying [building up] of the body of Christ" (Ephesians 4:12).
In the fourth chapter of Ephesians, verses seven through sixteen, the method and goal of God’s plan for a temple are set forth in brief form. Paul states, in this chapter, that God has given gifts and ministries to the Church and that the end result of the operating of these ministries is the building of the Body of Christ until it stands complete in all the will of God.
The Body of Christ is to be brought to perfect Divine unity and is to attain a maturity described as "the measure of [maturity as measured by] the stature of the fulness of Christ."
God the Father will dwell only in Christ. He will dwell nowhere else. It is vain for the "high hills" to leap because God will dwell only in Zion, which is Christ—Head and Body. As of now the Head, Christ, is perfect. God has found His eternal resting place in the Lord Jesus Christ.
God desires to have much more room, a much larger family than this. Also, God is in the process of creating a bride for His beloved Son. In order to accomplish His goals, God Almighty has purposed in Himself to build the Body of Christ. The Body is to be fashioned from members selected by Himself (II Timothy 1:9).
In Christ, Head and Body, God can fill the universe with Himself in bodily, visible form (Colossians 1:15; Revelation 3:12).
The Christian Church is far too immature, at the present time, for a calling as high as this. Therefore God, through the ministries and gifts given to the Body of Christ, is fashioning each victorious saint with the end in view of forming the saints together into one body—a body that can be called in truth "the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ," "the fulness of him that filleth all in all" (Ephesians 4:13; 1:23).
The gifts of the Holy Spirit are given to the Christian Church, the Body of Christ, so the dwelling place of God, Mount Zion, may be a holy and wholly fit place for the Presence of God.
When the Lord shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory. (Psalms 102:16)
For the Lord hath chosen Zion; he hath desired it for his habitation. This is my rest for ever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it. (Psalms 132:13,14)
Spiritual Mount Zion is the Body of Christ. Mount Zion of the physical world was one of the hills on which the city of Jerusalem was built. It was referred to also as the city of David. It was here that David installed the Ark of the Covenant under a tent, amid much rejoicing, while the Tabernacle of the Congregation remained at Gibeon (I Chronicles, Chapters 15 and 16).
Spiritual Zion is the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of God. Zion is the habitation of God, the place of His rest.
In the Book of Isaiah, Israel is asked this question:
Thus saith the Lord, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest? (Isaiah 66:1)
Here is one of the great questions of the Scriptures. The next verse gives the answer:
For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the Lord: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word. (Isaiah 66:2)
The follower of Christ who is poor and of a contrite spirit—he is the house of the Lord; he is the place of God’s rest.
Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:3)
If we are rich in our own ways and of a proud and ambitious spirit, then—Christian or not—we are not a suitable dwelling place for the Father in Christ. Christ wishes to come in to us Christians and to dine with us and find pleasure in and with us. This is not possible if we are filled already with other things—even religious things.
The testimony of Stephen. In the seventh chapter of Acts, the question concerning God’s house is asked again—this time through Stephen:
Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool: what house will ye build me? saith the Lord: or what is the place of my rest? (Acts 7:49)
The circumstances surrounding this new covenant posing of a question first asked under the old covenant are significant. The episode concerning Stephen occurred shortly after the giving of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. The elders of the Hebrew community had a witness of Christ on trial for his life.
Jesus had stated previously:
But when they shall lead you, and deliver you up, take no thought beforehand what ye shall speak, neither do ye premeditate: but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye: for it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost. (Mark 13:11)
Stephen had been delivered up to the Council by some of the members of the synagogue of the Libertines, and others. They had set up false witnesses who proceeded to distort Stephen’s testimony. These attacks came after Stephen had performed "great wonders and miracles among the people." In accordance with the Word of Christ, it was the Holy Spirit, not Stephen, who was answering the question of the high priest: "Are these things so?"
Because Stephen’s trial took place on the occasion of the birth of the Christian Church it is of the utmost importance. The charges were that Stephen had spoken "blasphemous words against Moses and against God," and, "blasphemous words against this holy place, and the law: for we have heard him say, that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place, and will change the customs that Moses delivered us."
Notice that it was the Jews, not Stephen, who first raised the question of "this holy place, and the law." The battle was joined right at this point.
Under the old covenant, the Temple had been the dwelling place of God. Somehow the Jews began to be aware Jesus was going to change the location of God’s habitation. "We heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place." What Jesus had said was, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up" (John 2:19) referring to His own physical body.
The Holy Spirit was ready to begin building the Body of Christ which, along with the Lord Jesus, is the habitation of God. The scribes and the elders could sense the change coming, being under the influence of Satan, and so they attacked immediately. The Holy Spirit wasted no time in responding. (Acts 7:46-51).
The words with which Stephen (the Holy Spirit, actually) answered the charges should be weighed in light of the fact that they reflect one of the principal concerns of God for the Church age.
Up to this moment the elders of the Jews had supposed that God had restricted Himself to the Temple in Jerusalem and to its ordinances of worship, programs, politics, sales, and other activities. The Holy Spirit had a message for the Hebrew elders. He spoke it through the mouth of Stephen straight into their hearts:
Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye. (Acts 7:51)
What the Holy Spirit was testifying to the Jewish leaders may be paraphrased as follows:
"You builders suppose I am dwelling in your temple in Jerusalem and in the activities conducted there. But I am building for Myself a temple made without hands. You have rejected the Cornerstone that I have selected. You are always resisting the Holy Spirit, as your fathers did, so do you.
"The building of My eternal Temple is at hand. Here is a living stone of My Temple standing before you, testifying to you. Yet, you cannot perceive it. My rest, My house, is constructed from the meek of the earth—the faithful, who tremble at My word. I resist the proud but strengthen the humble and cause them to stand.
"If you would submit yourselves meekly to Me with lowly and believing hearts, you would find rest and peace for your souls. But as long as you are filled with pride and your own ways I can not find My habitation, My rest, in you."
The chief Cornerstone. The Lord God has certain specifications that must be met before He will be pleased to rest in a dwelling place. God will dwell only in His Christ, His Anointed One. Christ Himself is the only acceptable pattern for the House of God.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the chief Cornerstone in the Temple of God. Each of the other stones must be measured carefully from Him. More than that, each stone must be created by Him and of Him and He must be formed and dwelling in each of them. The Temple of God is Christ, Head and Body, brought to absolute completeness and perfection as the eternal dwelling place of God.
Why leap ye, ye high hills? this is the hill which God desireth to dwell in; yea, the Lord will dwell in it for ever. (Psalms 68:16)
The preceding verse indicates that none of the manmade institutions ("high hills") has any hope of becoming the dwelling place of God. They may "leap," that is to say, they may desire and attempt to become God’s headquarters. But God has chosen Zion, the Body of Christ, the Christian Church, as His home.
Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste. (Isaiah 28:16)
To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, Ye also, as lively [living] stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. (I Peter 2:4,5)
God is in Jesus and Jesus is in God. While He was on the earth the Lord Jesus reminded us continually that it was not He who did the miraculous works but the Father who dwells in Him. Yet, as we find in the second chapter of First Peter, there are more living stones who are to be added to the eternal habitation of God.
The coming of God to dwell in His Church remained a mystery throughout Old Testament times. Now it is revealed openly by the writers of the New Testament.
We who are Christians need to be more aware of the significance of the hour in which we are living and of the nearness of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our realization of His nearness should result in a Spirit-directed, diligent grasping of a life of holiness in the Presence of the Lord.
We firmly believe and desire that the Lord "shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven" (Acts 1:11). Not only we, but the whole creation also groans in travail, looking toward and hoping for the coming of the Day of days (Romans 8:19).
We believe also God’s purpose at the present time is the building of a temple in which he can abide continually. Let us make sure we do not go to sleep spiritually while we are waiting for Him to come, and thus miss the plan that Christ has for us as individuals at this moment.
We must make a success of the overcoming life now if we are to be able to pass successfully through the judgments that certainly will come upon the world because of the abundance of sin, and if we hope to be prepared to meet Christ when He appears.
We must give all our attention to insuring that Jesus is having His unhindered way in our personality.
What do we Christians mean when we testify that we have Christ in our heart? Do we mean the Seed, the Word of God, has been planted in our heart? Or do we mean we have undergone a transformation of character?
Is it a fact that God and Jesus are dwelling in us? Do the Persons of the Godhead actually enter us?
Since a considerable portion of the Scriptures is devoted to the concept of the building of a habitation for God, we should take a closer look at what the Word of God states concerning God’s plan for His Temple.
CHAPTER III. THE DESTINY OF THE TEMPLE OF GOD
The Christian tradition is that the believers will make their eternal home in the spirit realm, continuing in a state of bliss and accomplishing little of importance. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Numerous passages of the Old Testament portray the destiny of the Body of Christ, Israel, the Temple of God. The Kingdom of God is being designed to govern the nations of saved peoples of the earth. Heaven is coming to the earth. Our inheritance to a great extent is here in the earth. The Temple of God will be located in the earth. The remainder of our book describes some aspects of the destiny of the Temple of God.
Christ, Head and Body, is the Temple of God. Christ is the Anointed One who is to come (Isaiah 11:10). Jesus is Christ, the Anointed Deliverer. The Christian Church is the Body of Christ, the Body of the Anointed Deliverer.
The Lord Jesus is the Head of the Body, He came to earth two thousand years ago. The Body of Christ is being formed now and has not as yet been revealed to the world.
Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. (I John 3:2)
The revelation of the Head and Body of Christ is drawing near (Romans 8:19; Colossians 3:4). The son of God was revealed in order to "destroy the works of the devil" (I John 3:8). The Head and Body of Christ will be revealed so the task of destroying the works of the devil may be completed (Romans 16:20).
The purpose of the coming of the Lord is to separate the good from the evil, the light from the darkness.
Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. (Matthew 24:40)
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind: Which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away. (Matthew 13:47,48)
The work of Christ, Head and Body, is to loose the bondages produced by wicked spirits and to remove from the earth every trace of the works of darkness.
The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 13:41,42)
God has assigned the responsibility for destroying the Kingdom of darkness to Christ. The task will be accomplished totally. No part of it will be left undone.
Unlike the incomplete conquest of Canaan by the Israelites, the fighting forces of the Church of Christ will leave no area of bondage touched. The Lord’s soldiers will invade every segment of the earth and bring all nations under the Head, Christ. The conquering saints totally share Christ’s love of righteousness and hatred of sin and rebellion.
Christ, the Seed of Abraham, shall deliver the earth from bondage.
That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice. (Genesis 22:17,18)
The Seed of Abraham is Christ. There is only one Christ, and yet Christ will be multiplied as "the stars of the heaven." Christ, the Seed, is being multiplied in us. It is Christ, the Seed, who will be revealed in the end-time and who will release the created universe from the chains of futility into the glorious liberty of the children of God (Romans 8:20,21).
The Seed is multiplied through the members of the Body of Christ. How many are the Seed? The Seed is destined to be as the stars of the heavens and as the grains of the sand on the seashore. No man will bring deliverance during the Day of the Lord. It is Christ, Head and Body, who will set the creation free.
The birth of the ruling Son, described in Revelation, Chapter 12 is an expression of Christ formed in the Church. It is Christ in the Church, in His Body, who will judge and deliver the earth, bringing justice to the nations (Isaiah, Chapter 42).
Ultimately the Wife of the Lamb, the new Jerusalem, the Temple of God, will assume its rightful place as the highest government of the earth, possessing authority and power over all God’s creation.
The belief that wicked people will continue indefinitely to govern the earth is laughable.
The Son who is born represents the authority and power of the multiplied Christ. As He announces the Lord’s army, Joel cries: "There hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations" (Joel 2:2).
The victorious saints have attained eternal life through Christ and are the "firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb" (Revelation 14:4). They are the right arm of the Church of Christ that will reach into every corner of the earth and enforce obedience to Christ. They will rule with a rod of iron. They are the bronze feet of Christ that will crush Satan under foot shortly (Revelation 1:15; Romans 16:20; Genesis 3:15).
The Temple of God will usher in the Kingdom-age Jubilee. The return of the Lord Jesus with His saints will be a consuming fire on all the works of unrighteousness but a time of blessing and edification for Israel and of deliverance for the nations of the earth. It is the Year of Jubilee.
Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubile to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land. And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family. (Leviticus 25:9,10)
The thousand-year Kingdom Age (Millennium) is the Year of Jubilee, the Day of Atonement, of Reconciliation, the Day of the Lord, the establishing of the rule of God on the earth.
There are several aspects of the Year of Jubilee that give us understanding concerning the millennial rule of Christ:
The term jubilee is associated with musical instruments (Genesis 4:21), indicating that the thousand-year Kingdom Age will be a period of rejoicing.
The trumpet of the Jubilee was sounded on the Day of Atonement, showing that the thousand-year Kingdom Age will be a period of reconciliation to God by the removal of sin (Hebrews 9:28).
The trumpet was heard throughout all the land, suggesting that during the thousand-year Kingdom Age complete deliverance will come to the children of God and "all Israel shall be saved" (Romans 11:26).
Jubilee was celebrated on the "fiftieth" year, making the Jubilee a type of Pentecost (Pentecost means "fifty"), pointing toward the unprecedented outpouring of the Holy Spirit during the thousand-year Kingdom Age.
Every Israelite was to return to his original house and field, signifying that the slavery to sin into which mankind has sold itself will be abolished during the thousand-year Kingdom Age—especially with regard to the Church. Every true believer will have restored to him his birthright as a child of God.
The time of darkness and light. The Scriptures give us a solid basis for rejoicing. A time of glory and of the Presence of God is coming to the earth because of the love of God for those whom He has created. The Temple of God, Christ—Head and Body, will be that Presence.
No matter how dark the cloud may become that even now is settling on the peoples of the earth, the Glory of God shall appear. All the revivals of past history have been but the merest sprinklings compared with the deluge of harvest rain soon to come.
Economic chaos, famine, the Antichrist, the False Prophet, violence, unbridled lust, and every other abominable work are appearing on the horizon of the earth. The days ahead will be times of shaking, of sin, of judgment, of heavy spiritual darkness, of despair, of men’s heart failing them for fear. God will demonstrate once and for all to both the heavens and the earth the consequences of rebellion against His will.
There will be no sin that wicked spirits can conceive that will not abound in the last days of the present age. Weak, unstable, halfhearted Christians will be tossed about like straw in a hurricane. Some will be saved as by fire. Others will fall away and be destroyed (remember Lot’s wife!). Every Word of Christ will be fulfilled to the letter. It is the great and terrible Day of the Lord.
The days of God go from evening to morning. Man has had his day to show what he can do. Now the Day of the Lord has come upon us. It will begin with an "evening." There is coming a darkness never before known on the earth.
The oppression, pain, and insanity of sin will be intensely horrible. Except those days were shortened by the Lord no flesh would be saved. All life on the earth would perish. The Book of Zephaniah describes the great tribulation.
And I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the Lord: and their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as the dung. (Zephaniah 1:17)
For His elect’s sake the Lord will execute His work on the earth quickly (Matthew 24:22; Romans 9:28).
All during the period of coming darkness, even when the oppression reaches its blackest and heaviest, there will be spiritual protection for the true believers, God’s remnant, and for those who go to the remnant for safety. It may be recalled that when God poured His wrath on the gods of Egypt, the land of Goshen was spared (Exodus 9:26). No matter how dark Egypt became, Israel had light in the midst of the darkness (Exodus 10:23).
We find in Revelation, Chapter 12 that the Woman, representing the Christian Church, will be "nourished" from the face of the serpent. "A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand, but it shall not come nigh thee" (Psalms 91:7).
There shall be seasons when the saints will be persecuted, thrown into prison, and otherwise suffer for the Gospel. Persecution for the Gospel’s sake is taking place now in some parts of the world. It always has been so with the Church of Christ because we must "with much tribulation" enter the Kingdom of God.
Jesus says to us, "Fear none of the things that thou shalt suffer: behold the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried, and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life" (Revelation 2:10).
Yet, as far as the Church of Christ is concerned, there always will be light—especially at the height of the darkness (Isaiah 60:1-3). God will not leave Himself without a witness in the earth.
The wrath that will be poured out is the anger of God against the gods of the world, against the spirit of the present evil age that is attempting to carry on the business of the earth apart from the Spirit of God. God will crush and destroy this spirit and all who embrace Babylon. "Babylon" refers to man-directed, institutional religion, including (and especially) the Christian religion.
"The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God" (Psalms 9:17). It will be a period of horror until men cry out for death; but death will flee from them.
"The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein" (Psalms 24:1). God will never turn over His earth, Christ’s inheritance, to the wicked one. God will exercise His wrath on the evil spirits in the earth—and they tremble at the prospect! (James 2:19).
Yet, even in the midst of the terrifying judgments that soon are to come, "Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered" (Joel 2:32). The earth belongs to the Lord and He will not leave it.
The Glory of the Lord will increase in the saints as the Day of the Lord draws near. "Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the Glory of the Lord is risen upon thee" (Isaiah 60:1). The remnant of saints will be the source of God’s authority, protection, and blessing for all who seek Christ during the great tribulation.
The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the Lord come. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call. (Joel 2:31,32)
At the climax of the darkness, when the world cries "Peace and safety," having destroyed (so it believes) the testimony of the saints, Christ will appear in glory. The dead in Christ will rise. Those who are alive in Christ on the earth will be caught up together to meet the Lord and to participate with Him in the destruction of the forces of wickedness.
The Church at that time will arise (Ezekiel, Chapter 37). The Church, the army of the Lord, will shine as never before because the Father and the Son will be dwelling in the saints (John 14:23; Joel 3:16,17). The Light of the Church, the Lord Jesus Christ, will descend from Heaven and avenge the blood of the saints who have been tortured and martyred on the earth.
Christ will come to tread the grapes of the wrath of God, and all the ungodly will drink of the unmixed wine until they are full.
The Kingdom comes. God’s wrath will issue from His Temple.
I have long time holden my peace; I have been still, and refrained myself: now will I cry like a travailing woman; I will destroy and devour at once. (Isaiah 42:14)
There will be poured on the wicked, to an extent never before witnessed on the earth, the destructive vengeance of God. Statesmen, generals, the wealthy, the famous, the poor—all who have chosen the spirit of this age and have refused the Gospel of the Kingdom—will be destroyed at the coming of Christ and His army.
The rulers of the earth will attempt to resist the government from Heaven but all their efforts will be crushed. Finally they will throw down their weapons and cry out to the mountains and rocks to hide them from the Face of God and from the wrath of the Lamb (Revelation 6:16).
To no avail. They will be sought out and killed. Every person who resists Christ will be consumed by the fire of God’s judgment.
The thousand-year Kingdom Age will be a period of judgment, war, and liberation. It will result in the destruction of those who resist Christ but also in the building up of the saints of God and in deliverance and healing of the earth and its peoples.
The Millennium (thousand-year Kingdom Age) is the period of redemption and release—redemption and release by judgment, war, and then the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the earth. It is the time of the imposition of the power of the Holy Spirit on the Church and the nations such that the knowledge of the Glory of the Lord will fill the earth—the knowledge of the righteous Person and ways of God. This righteousness will be enforced with the rod of iron that characterizes the Kingdom Age reign of Christ and His saints.
In spite of the outpouring of blessing and praise that will cover the earth during the thousand-year Kingdom Age, the nations will be governed by a rod of iron. This is because the rebellion against God has gone so deep into the personality of mankind and has been of such long duration that it will not be purged from people in a moment.
In fact, after the Kingdom Age period of the rule of righteousness and the teaching of God’s ways throughout the earth, Satan still will be able to deceive the nations and lead them in revolt against the rule of God through Christ and the saints.
After the Battle of Armageddon, Satan will be bound and locked in the bottomless pit. The saints will stand with Christ upon the earth in transfiguration splendor. It may be a highly select company of saints, as we think about the fact that only three of the twelve disciples were present with the Lord on the Mount of Transfiguration.
The Lord Jesus, who by then will have manifest all authority and power in Heaven and on the earth, will delegate portions of His authority and power to His faithful disciples. They will go out from his side to their appointed realms.
As soon as the victorious saints have been enthroned in their places as spiritual overseers, the Church will begin its ministry to the saved people of the earth—people who have been protected throughout the judgments of God on the workers of sin and rebellion.
The light of the Glory of God will be abiding on the saints. The nations of the earth will flow to the Church asking for the knowledge of God Almighty, the God who came down in thunderous wrath on the vileness that had grown in the cities of the world until they had become ten times worse than Sodom and Gomorrah.
As the Church begins to minister and teach, exercising the authority and power of the Kingdom of God, the Holy Spirit will commence His work of healing the people of the land. The ends of the earth will come, seeking the Lord. The Life that is in our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Tree of Life, will be supplied through the saints so the nations of the saved can partake and live.
The ministry of the Church will increase, the nations becoming more and more obedient, until the Holy Spirit is as a mighty ocean of glory covering the earth. The destroyed areas of the earth will be rebuilt.
The saints will be called "restorers of paths to dwell in," "the seed that the Lord hath blessed" (Isaiah 58:12; 60:9).
The fiercest of animals will become harmless. Sickness and death will be removed. The wisdom and blessing of God will flow to all people as they receive His beloved Son, the Lord Jesus. The nations will believe in Christ because they will see Him in the saints (John 17:21-23). All rebellion will be put down under a rod of iron, the disciplining power of the Holy Spirit that will be exercised through Christ and His saints.
This era of judgment, deliverance, reconciliation, and healing will continue until the entire Church has been perfected and is ready for its installation on the new earth as the new Jerusalem, the Wife of the Lamb.
The Presence of the Holy Spirit will increase until the Glory of God is a broad river of Divine Life issuing from the believers (John 7:38). The destruction of the spirit of the current age, this Sodom and Egypt, this attempt to live on the earth without Christ, will be total. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon and through the fervent disciples of the Lord Jesus also will be total. "Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound" (Romans 5:20).
The Church of Christ will be delivered from the power of sin and death and made ready for its ministry to the prisoners of the earth (Isaiah, Chapter 42). The thousand-year Kingdom Age will be an age of such joy and rejoicing in God that we Christians scarcely can visualize it in our most wonderful dreams.
In view of the events that are approaching the earth, the message of the Church to the unsaved is now and will continue to be until the Lord returns: "Flee from the wrath to come. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Be baptized in His name and you will be saved in the Day of Wrath. Enter the covenant now because terrible destruction is coming from the Lord."
All can be saved by accepting the blood of God’s Lamb, Christ. No person will be able to stand in the Day that is near unless he has accepted the protection of the blood of Jesus.
The Day of Atonement. The coming thousand years of redemption will be a jubilee of deliverance and glory for the Israel of God as well as for the nations of saved peoples of the earth, as God reveals His Glory through His Temple. The term "Israel of God" refers to those persons whom God has called out from the world under the old covenant and the new covenant. It has a secondary, significant reference to those who are Jews by race because of human birth (Romans 2:28,29; Galatians 6:15,16).
The fact that the trumpet of Jubilee was sounded on the Day of Atonement is worthy of note. The Day of Atonement (Leviticus, Chapter 16) was the only day of the Hebrew year during which the high priest was instructed to pass beyond the veil that hung in front of the Most Holy Place. The blood of a young bull and of a goat was sprinkled upon and before the Mercy Seat, the young bull being offered for Aaron and his household, and the goat for the sins of the people.
Then the sins of the children of Israel were placed, by the laying on of Aaron’s hands, on the head of a live goat and that goat was led out of the camp. Here is a picture of I John 1:9: "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
During the Day of Atonement, God performs two services for us: first, He forgives our sins (the blood of the slain goat sprinkled upon and before the Mercy Seat); second, He cleanses us from all unrighteousness (the sins placed on the living goat and carried out of the camp). God through Christ both forgives and delivers us.
The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ was shed on Calvary for our sins. His blood was sprinkled upon and before the Mercy Seat in Heaven and also on our heart. As we confess our sins, after we have become a Christian, our sins are carried away from us so we do not continue committing them.
After our sins have been forgiven and removed from us, we then are eligible for all the blessings of the Jubilee. Deliverance is appointed for us. It is with the greatest rejoicing and praise that we glorify God in the returning of our birthright as God’s children. Little by little we are enabled by the Holy Spirit to fight our way into the land of promise and to begin to recover the spiritual life that was lost in the Garden of Eden.
The redemption that is drawing near has to do especially with the restoring to us of immortality. Adam and Eve had access to the Tree of Life. If they had eaten of it they would still be alive on the earth to the present hour. When they sinned, spiritual life withdrew from their bodies. They "died" the moment they sinned, as God warned they would, although their physical bodies did not manifest the death for nearly a thousand years.
Christ "hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel" (II Timothy 1:10). We who are Christians have been sealed to the Day of Redemption that soon is to come. In that day eternal life will be restored to our bodies. We will be immortal on the earth.
Even though we are Christians our bodies are "dead because of sin." We are dragging around a "body of death." Christ was offered as a sacrifice to God for the forgiveness of our sins. Having been forgiven we now are looking for His glorious appearing. When He appears, He will raise our mortal bodies from the dead without sin unto salvation (Hebrews 9:28). The Millennial Jubilee will commence with the restoration to life of the victorious saints.
The door is open now to "whoever will." Those who set their heart and mind to the task of conquering in Christ can fight their way into the riches of the Kingdom of God. Even though the remainder of the Church may be slow to realize their opportunities in Christ, any person who will seek Christ with his whole heart can forge ahead in God and begin to eat the old corn of the land.
When the thousand-year Kingdom Age comes, and the Head and Body of Christ appear in glory, the blessings of the Day of Atonement will be applied to the whole earth, particularly to the Lord’s people. During that Day, as Paul teaches us, the Lord will restore the nation of Israel to His favor. "All Israel shall be saved" (Romans 11:26).
A multitude of people who are Jewish by physical birth will be brought into the one Seed, Christ, thereby becoming heirs of the promises of God.
In Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek. Any man, woman, boy or girl who receives Christ as Savior and Lord becomes a part of the Israel that will rule with God throughout the thousand-year Kingdom Age and the new heaven and earth reign of Christ. God will "make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles" (Romans 9:23,24).
The full blessings of the Day of Atonement will be applied to all Israel during the thousand-year Kingdom Age. The sins of the Lord’s people will be forgiven and their bondages broken. This is the promise of God to His people in the Day when He shall take away their sins.
What a day of release is at hand! The authority and power of the blood of the cross shall deliver all the people of God.
The guilt of sin was removed on the cross. The power of sin will be broken as the army of God, the victorious remnant of saints, goes forth in the full anointing of the Holy Spirit. This is the coming of the Kingdom of God into the earth.
No other kingdom can withstand the coming of the Kingdom of God. As soon as Christ has His saints ready to appear with Him, every other personality and force will move before their advance. The saints will come with Christ at their head to cleanse and deliver the peoples of the earth.
This will be the greatest period of rejoicing imaginable. The appearing of Christ with His army will usher in the Day of Jubilee for the earth. All the cleansing and delivering will be founded on the work of atonement accomplished on Calvary.
When the Lord Jesus comes to set up His Kingdom on the earth, "He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied" (Isaiah 53:11).
Atonement means reconciliation. The term atonement has many shades of meaning. One of the main concepts is that of reconciliation.
Before we accepted Christ as our Lord and Savior we were alienated from God, separated from the life of God. We were not in God’s family. As soon as we accepted Christ, putting our faith in Him, the process of reconciliation commenced. It began in our inner man and will be completed when our body is raised from the dead into immortality.
Atonement brings us from alienation from God all the way to reconciliation to God. Our final level of reconciliation will be as complete as was true of our former level of alienation. We were alienated completely and we shall be reconciled completely. It is a perfect atonement, a perfect reconciliation.
The works of the devil separate us from God. When man sinned at the beginning he came under the authority and power of the wicked one. Over many thousands of years the nature of the adversary has been developed and revealed in mankind to such an extent that humans are conceived and born in sin.
Rebellion against God and His ways saturates our every fiber—we were born that way. The evil nature of people is not reconciled to the Father in a moment, although any person can gain forgiveness and come under the protection of God in the moment of receiving Christ.
The first step in the process of absolute reconciliation is the removal of the authority and the guilt of sin. This removal was accomplished perfectly on Calvary. Satan has no authority whatever over a human being who has asked Christ for salvation. At the moment of receiving Christ the individual passes from the authority of darkness to the authority of Christ.
God has provided the legal foundation for the change of authority. There is nothing anyone can do to prevent the change of authority from occurring when a human being fulfills the legal requirement by believing and being baptized.
At the moment of believing in Christ, the person is found to be not guilty, by the Judge of the court of Heaven. Therefore the authority of the wicked one is nonexistent as far as the believer in Christ is concerned. However, the Lake of Fire retains jurisdiction over sin whether found in a non-Christian or Christian.
What about the power of sin? So great is the power of sin over Christians that many churches deny that it is possible for the believer to overcome his sinful habits; although the Scripture states: "Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live in the appetites of the flesh" (Romans 8:12).
We understand that Satan uses the lusts of our fleshly nature, guiding and deceiving us into the "works of the flesh." The world, Satan, and our fleshly nature conspire against us as we attempt to live in a righteous, holy, and obedient manner. We love to obey God but sometimes we find it difficult to perform His will with a pure heart.
If we will cooperate with the Spirit of God He will come in judgment against the control that the world, Satan, and our fleshly nature have over our behavior. The result of the Divine judgment will be the destruction of sin and the bringing of us into the fullness of resurrection life. Seen from this point of view, the judgment of God is to be greatly desired by the believer in Christ.
To the extent that we sin we have not been reconciled to God. It continues to be true, however, that our guilt has been removed and we are without condemnation as long as we are doing God’s will to the best of our knowledge and ability.
The fact that sin still retains some control over our behavior is proof that a part of our personality has not as yet been reconciled to God. Our mortal body remains unredeemed. It is still under the power of the enemy. It is dead because of the sin that dwells in it.
Every part of our personality that has been reconciled to God obeys God promptly. The part of our personality that still is hostile toward God and seeks to compel us to live in the lusts of the flesh is under the judgment of God and will be destroyed.
Insofar as a part of us still lusts after the world, to that extent, and in that particular area of lust or rebellion, the atonement (reconciliation) made by Christ has not as yet accomplished its work in us.
The trumpet of Jubilee signaling release from servitude and restoration of property was sounded on the Day of Atonement, the Day of Reconciliation (Leviticus 25:9). The fact that the kingdom-wide fulfillment of the Day of Atonement, which is the thousand-year Kingdom Age, is still ahead for the Church of Christ, indicates to us that a more complete salvation and reconciliation to God than we have known will come to the Church in the future.
The thousand-year Kingdom Age that will begin when the Lord Jesus returns to earth will be a period during which the Church will become reconciled to God through Christ. It is the time of the marriage of the Lamb, the union of Christ with His Bride.
Mankind was separated from God originally by the working of Satan. The only manner in which reconciliation to God can be accomplished is by the destruction of all the power and influence of the devil, his authority having been destroyed on the cross of Calvary.
Since the route to reconciliation to God is destruction of the enemy, the way to bring about full atonement is war. Our complete redemption will have been accomplished when every trace of the kingdom of Satan has been driven from us by unrelenting war.
The Kingdom of Christ comes against the forces of darkness. Now we can understand why it is that the trumpet of Jubilee, the establishing of the thousand-year Kingdom Age, and the Day of Atonement are all associated with warfare and judgment. Peace and restoration can come to the nations of the earth only through Christ’s rule with a rod of iron.
The thousand-year Kingdom Age will be installed on the earth by the power of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and His Army. The saints will judge and cast out all the works of darkness. The peoples of the earth, particularly the Israel of God, will enter glorious liberty during the Kingdom Age. All the deliverance and glory is founded on the blood of the Lamb. It is the fulfillment of the Old Testament Day of Atonement.
Pentecost of Pentecosts. The Year of Jubilee is associated with the Levitical convocation of the Day of Atonement in that the trumpet announcing the Jubilee was blown on the Day of Atonement.
The Year of Jubilee is associated also with the Levitical convocation of Pentecost. The Jubilee was celebrated every fiftieth year. The term Pentecost is derived from the Greek word meaning fifty. Pentecost, the feast of Weeks, was observed fifty days after the celebration of Firstfruits (Leviticus 23:16).
The Book of Acts portrays the new-covenant significance of the feast of Pentecost. Pentecost is the outpouring of the Holy Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit being the One who is charged with bringing to pass the will of God in the Church of Christ.
Since Pentecost was celebrated once each year, on the fiftieth day after Firstfruits, and since the Year of Jubilee was observed every fiftieth year (Leviticus 25:10), we may say that Jubilee is the Pentecost of Pentecosts.
The fulfillment of the Jubilee is the climactic outpouring of the Spirit of God on the saints, to which the Scriptures refer in several passages—an outpouring of glory so extensive that the whole earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Glory of the Lord. The Jubilee outpouring of glory, the Pentecost of Pentecosts, will come to pass during the Kingdom Age.
One of the first references to God’s intention to fill the earth with His Spirit is found in the Book of Numbers. The occasion was the provoking of God in the wilderness and the resulting threat of God to "kill all this people as one man."
In response to the prayer of Moses, God pardoned the complaining and rebelling of the Israelites. Then God revealed what is in His mind concerning His purpose in the earth:
But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord. (Numbers 14:21)
We find the same promise in the prayers of David:
And blessed be his glorious name for ever: and let the whole earth be filled with his glory; Amen, and Amen. (Psalms 72:19)
Again:
So the heathen [nations] shall fear the name of the Lord, and all the kings of the earth thy glory. When the Lord shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory. (Psalms 102:15,16)
And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. (Isaiah 40:5)
For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. (Habakkuk 2:14)
God came from Teman, and the Holy One from mount Paran. Selah. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise. (Habakkuk 3:3)
Ezekiel has quite a bit to say about the Jubilee, the Pentecost of Pentecosts, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit that will accompany the bringing in of the thousand-year Kingd