Just to put this out there…Might “we” be the “Third Temple”?
Ephesians 2:19-22
19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by[b] the Spirit. ~ ESV ~
“He said one of the major signposts, which doesn’t have to do with war or famine or disease, in the Bible has yet to occur. The ancient temple must be rebuilt in Jerusalem, he said, referring to the building of the Third Temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
The Jewish Third Temple was unrealized, after Solomon’s Temple was destroyed by Neo-Babylonian Empire in 586 BCE and the rebuilt Second Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE.” (quoted from the attached article)
Looking back in time, in John, chapter 2, verses 19-21, Jesus himself told the Jews’, when they asked:
John 2:19: “19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” 20 The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” 21 But he was speaking about the temple of his body.” ~ ESV~
Regarding all the ways of our eternal God, what makes us believe that the end to one thing is truly the end of all? Reading though the modern, modified, manipulated Bible we have today, no matter the version, between all the polarizations and power plays, there is existential truth. That truth is the fact that life continues, whether it be in the physical form we are most familiar with on this planet, or the true existence in the Spiritual realm. For it is in the Spirit that we truly connect. This is why, when a loved one “perishes”, the people who remain experience anguish and pain, sometimes for a short while, other times for the rest of their time on this earth.
The New Heaven and the New Earth
Revelations 21: 1-7: Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.
5 And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also, he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” 6 And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. 7 The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son.” ~ ESV~
For it is not until the plant has created its seed and perished, and not until the seed, itself seems dried up, withered and dead, that new life is ready to spring forth. And, even then, it is buried in a dark abyss morphing through what seems would be a painful transition into an entirely different form. Are our bodies not the seed planted in soil, and as we transition our seed coat is shed?
The Parable of the Sower
Mark 4: 4-9: Again, he began to teach beside the sea. And a very large crowd gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea, and the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land. 2 And he was teaching them many things in parables, and in his teaching, he said to them: 3 “Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. 5 Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil. 6 And when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. 8 And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.” 9 And he said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
