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John 2:19 Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. 20 Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? 21 But he spake of the temple of his body. 22 When therefore he was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this unto them; and they believed the scripture, and the word which Jesus had said.
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Jesus rebuilt the temple in three days, just as He promised. That temple is Jesus' body, rebuilt as the corporate body of Christ, through His crucifixion, death and resurrection. The following also suggests that the temple of God is the corporate body of Christ.
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Ephesians 2:
19 Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; 20 And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner [stone]; 21 In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: 22 In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.
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Builded together "through the Spirit" we understand.
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1Corinthians 6:
19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost [which is] in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
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The "temple of God" is the corporate body of Christ, composed of individuals, through the power of the Holy Ghost. Following are all of the verses that include the term "temple of God".
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Matthew 21:12 And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves,
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The above verse is a reference to the literal temple that Jesus prophesied would be torn down -every stone - as it eventually was.
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Matthew 26:61 And said, This [fellow] said, I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days.
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The corporate body of Christ, confirming John’s account. Further confirmed by the following.
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1 Corinthians 3:16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and [that] the Spirit of Goddwelleth in you? 17 If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which [temple] ye are.
2 Corinthians 6:16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in [them]; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
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The corporate body of Christ is the temple of God. This is not open to interpretation. In the figurative language of John's vision in Revelation we find two verses that use the term "temple of
God".
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Revelation 11:1 And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein.
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John had his vision while banished to the penal colony on the Isle of Patmos. In the same chapter.
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Revelation 11:19 And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.
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That's all of the verses that use the term "temple of God". This final use of the term locates the temple of God of that verse in the heavenlies, which would be consistent with Ezekiel's account.
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Ezekiel 43:7 And he said unto me, Son of man, the place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel for ever, and my holy name, shall the house of Israel no more defile, [neither] they, nor their kings, by their whoredom, nor by the carcases of their kings in their high places.
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We have assurance that God does not dwell in temples made with hands.
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Acts 17:24 God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands;
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Any future rebuilt temple would be desolate before it was ever built, by God's own design.
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Hebrews 8:1 Now of the things which we have spoken [this is] the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; 2 A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man.
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We can now well understand where we should be on guard for that "man of sin".
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2 Thessalonians 2:3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for [that day shall not come], except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition 4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. "...above all that is called
God...".
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
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So it would seem we are left with no choice but to understand that the "man of sin" may be revealed in the corporate body of Christ, and perhaps even in an individual temple of the Holy Ghost. For a Christian to suggest that a future "temple of God" is scriptural, would require believing that Jesus' finished work on the Cross, is incomplete and unfinished. Jesus warned the
Pharisees of such.
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Mark 7:13 Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.
Hebrews 8:13 In that he saith, A new [covenant], he hath made the first old. Now that which
decayeth and waxeth old [is] ready to vanish away.
Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
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That some Jews that may remain sovereignly blinded, and could have an interest in building a
temple should not be a surprise. But as Christians we can readily see that the only "temple of God", ever since the Cross, is the one that Jesus Himself rebuilt in three days. Once we understand the location of the "temple of God", and where “that man of sin” sitteth, John
Nelson Darby's mid-19th century futurist invention collapses. As widely respected futurist Dr.
Harry Ironside of Moody Bible Institute wrote in his “Mysteries of God”. ".....until brought to the fore through the writings of.....Mr. J. N. Darby, the doctrine taught by Dr. Scofield [i.e., the Seven-Year Tribulation theory] is scarcely to be found in a single book throughout a period of 1600 years. If any doubt this statement, let them search, as the writer has in measure done, the remarks of the so-called Fathers, both pre- and post-Nicene, the theological treatises of the scholastic divines.....the literature of the reformation.....the Puritans. He willfind the 'mystery' conspicuous by its absence."
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Job 8:8 For enquire, I pray thee, of the former age, and prepare thyself to the search of their
fathers: 9 (For we [are but of] yesterday, and know nothing, because our days upon earth
[are] a shadow:)
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The 19th century brought us; Mary Baker Eddy, Joseph Smith, Charles Taze Russell, Ellen White, John Darby, Westcott and Hort, Madame Blavatsky.
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