God's House

The Lord God has never wanted a house. When King David declared his intention to build a temple for the Lord, the Almighty responded, "Who is man that he can build a house for me? I have always gone from tent to tent." (1 Chronicles 17:5). But the stubbornness of man could not be stopped, for King Solomon eventually fulfilled the plans of his father David. The Temple, the grand place of worship and sacrifice in Jerusalem was not God's plan, for he said to the Prophet Isaiah, "Heaven is my throne, and the Earth is my footstool, Where is the house you could build for me?" (Isaiah 66:1). The Lord God is making clear to his prophet that He created and owns everything, why would he need to be contained & confined to a building?! God is omniscience, He can be everywhere at once and yet His people dared to say please stay only in this building?!

The Temple of Solomon was destroyed by the Babylonians. Those Israelites who were taken into captivity broke into two groups: one believed that Jehovah was with you no matter where you lived (that he dwelt among them as the Scriptures affirm), while the other group was convinced that Jehovah only dwelt in Jerusalem and in the Temple which was in ruins (a false conception that continues to this day). Eventually the exile of the Jews ended and they were permitted under King Darius to return to their land. There a new Temple was built by King Zerubabel, which later would be modified by King Herod the Great. When God came in the flesh as Jesus Christ, He spent very little time at the Temple, in fact He only went there to be Circumcised, during his First Passover (where at age 12 He taught the Religious Leaders). He possibly  went to some other feasts, and a final Passover of which He entered the Temple and drove out the money changers because they had turned his Father's House into a Den of Thieves (Matthew 21:12) before He was put to death on the cross. God incarnate did not spend time in the lavish Temple, He spent his time with people in Galilee, Bethany, Nazareth, Sidon, and Tyre.

So why did Jesus spend so little time in the most splendorous Temple in all of time? Because God wants to dwell with His people, not the pillars and pylons! St. Paul illustrates this best with the following verses: "Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in your midst?" (1 Corinthians 3:6), and "We are temples of the Holy Spirit," (1 Corinthians 6:19). Paul hits it home with the following verse that illustrates how there are temples of other gods and how the Lord God has nothing to do with them, "What agreement is there between the temple of God and the temple of idols? For we are the Temple of the living God. As God has said, I lvie with them and walk among them, and I will be their God and they will be my people." (2 Corinthinas 6:16). In fact, Paul's words expose something that scholars and theologians know, temple building is a pagan practice and Jehovah resisted the idea of a building because it was what all other false gods had.

If the Old Testament prophets and The Apostle Paul cannot convince you that a building is not what God intended in relating to man then read about The Apostle Peter and The Transfiguration! There is a moment when Jesus is Transfigured and talking to Moses and Elijah. St. Peter seeing them says, "I shall build three tabernacles (dwellings), one for Moses, one for Elijah, and one for you Lord." To which the Father in Heaven says, "This is my Son in Whom I am well pleased, listen to Him!" (Mathew 17:4). Peter never built those tabernacles (although the Catholic Church did, I've been to the site), because Christ taught his disciples that God's house is among his people; The Apostle John verifies this by saying, "But the Temple he spoke of was His body (believers)." (John 2:20).

Jesus foretold the second destruction of the Temple. The scripture says, "And while some of the Disciples were talking about the temple (of Herod), that it was adorned with beautiful stones votive gifts, He said, 'As for these things which you are looking at, the day is coming when in which there will not be one stone left upon another which has not been torn down." (Luke 21:7-8). Christ was foretelling the coming of Titus and his Roman Legions who would sack Jerusalem and destroy The Temple in 60 A.D. In fact Jesus warned  his Disciples and Followers to not even take their belongings with them once they see the city surrounded and they would only have three days to escape with their lives. (Luke 19:42-44). I have been to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem and seen the ruins. All that remains is a retaining wall (The Wailing Wall) which was not apart of the Temple and the actual ruins of the Temple are broken down as Jesus said they would be. The logical conclusion here is that God does not care about the temple and that through Jesus His Son he was creating a new temple, one that dwells among people In the flesh and that dwells in the hearts and souls of men. The reason Jesus did not use the Temple is because God was finally changing communion with Him back to intimacy and not the pagan way of building a temple. Jesus who is God was restoring it back to the intimacy and direct connection Adam had with the Lord. For back in Eden, Adam and Eve did not need, nor had a temple or church to talk to God in. It was nature, the creation of the Almighty itself that the Lord walked in with his children. (Genesis 1).

Christians have continued the tradition of temple building. It started with Emperor Constantine who 312 won a decisive victory at The Battle of the Milvian using the Cross (some texts say he had his soldiers paint red crosses on their shields, others he saw a cross in a vision or dream, some say both). Constatine having promised that he would convert to Christianity if he won the battle with the sign of the cross, did become a Christian and opened up his pagan temples to become churches for believers. For many this was triumph because it meant the end of persecution that had begun under the Roman Emperors Nero, Caligula, and Diocletan. The Christian faithful were finally free to practice their faith without persecution, but there was catch.. they were taken from their homes and meeting places where they simply sought Jesus and were led by the Holy Spirit and placed in a building that now had pagan priests presiding over the prayers. In fact, Constantine even said, "I will not require my people to give up their pagan beliefs. We shall have to settle with them being saved at all. Then one day perhaps a generation will be willing to depart from their ancestral ways." (Paraphrase). And thus paganism crept into the Church via the pagan priests who now chanting to Christ and implementing their rituals dedicated to their old gods were free to practice a blend of Christian Paganism sanctioned by the Emperor. In that moment what God had done through His Son Jesus, and His Holy Spirit through the Apostles of setting his followers free of a system and buildings was undone. In addition, Christianity became paganized and departed from the teachings of Jesus and the Apostles dramatically and polluted the faith.

In the Middle Ages there was race to build mighty cathedrals and churches all over. Like the Great Temple that once stood in Jerusalem, these churches tower over the cities of Europe and Asia. While they are impressive, and beautiful, they are not what Jesus wanted. God so wanted to be close to man again and fix the disconnection, that He died upon the Cross to pay the penalty of our sin. But man and his big ideas built systems and temples the resemble the Old Covenant and Law which are now obsolete and replaced by The New Covenant and Jesus Christ! (Hebrews 8:13).

God's House is in us, his followers! The Almighty dwells within us, not stones and hollow buildings! We can have access to the Creator and Savior anytime! We do not need to sacrifice sheep or sing some song in Latin. Jesus Christ is with us. You do not need a church building to commune with Him. I hope that this post has illustrated through Scripture and Historical records how temple building is a man made idea that actually honors men and not God, because God wants to be just with men (and women)! Our faulty thinking of building shrines and temples for the Lord is a idolatry in our hearts that Jesus Christ came to break. God who is The Father, Son (Jesus Christ) and Holy Spirit wants to talk directly to us and relate to us wherever we might be! Everywhere you step is holy ground, because the Almighty lives in those who believe and trust in Him!

To put it most succinctly: Religion raises temples and cathedrals while a Relationship with God raises trust and (true) connection with The Creator and Savior. Religion creates hollowed out tombs called temples where spirituality and relating to God dies, and Relationship creates a deep connection, major spirituality, and closeness to God that can be achieved anywhere and in anyplace.