Temple – The DeKrakenator Daily

Saturday, June 6th, 2020

A Peculiar Person, Audio Version

In Acts 1:15, Luke mentions that about 120 disciples were gathered in Jerusalem. They were waiting for what was to come. Before he left, Jesus had given them clear instructions. He had told them to say put in Jerusalem and wait for it. Stay and wait. Wait for the capital-P promise. Wait for the Promise to arrive. So they stayed. And they waited. They waited for days and days. They waited patiently for the Promise. Like children eager for Christmas morning, they waited until the Day of Pentecost for the Promise.

On the morning of Pentecost the Promise arrived, in person. A person arrived dramatically that morning, the Promised Person. The Promise was and is a person. The Promise is a particular person, but a person unlike any other you’ve ever encountered. The Promise is a peculiar person.

Okay, I have to get a bit technical here. Hang in there, please. Person can potentially be a misperceived at this point. It can possibly be a misleading pointer. Given your probable preconceptions, the word person could be perplexing. But it is the proper word, nonetheless. It is the word I have to use. The Promise is definitely a person, but is not a human being. The Promise is a person because he is truly an individual entity. He is himself. He is a living, identifiable entity. He has personal integrity. He is a cognizant, relational, identifiable, unique, and peculiar person. But he is not a human being.

As we talk about the Promise, we have to be careful to explain what we mean, even in the use of common words. I need explain what I mean by it and he here. Rather than the pronoun it, I use the pronoun he because I need you to understand that the Promise is actually a person. He is a person, as opposed to an energy field or impersonal force. The English language poses a problem here, though, because it offers us only two gender specific pronouns. The Promise-person really should not be assigned a gender, because “he” has no gender. Some other languages do have pronouns that are not gender specific. It would be easier to meaningfully talk about a genderless person using a pronoun from those languages. But since I am using English here, I will stick with the pronoun he, just to impress the concept of personhood. He is a person.

Yes, I agree. It can be quite confusing to talk about a non-human, non-gendered entity. I readily admit that. What kind of person is this? What kind of entity is this? Is he some kind an extra-terrestrial? Am I talking about ET? Do I need to phone home?

Well, yes, he is an extra-terrestrial. But no, he is not an outer space alien. Yes, he does come from way beyond. But no, he does not travel in a flying saucer. He does not need an exterior mode of transportation. He is able just to arrive and depart on will, wherever and anywhere.

Unlike other persons, this Promise-person is not contained spatially to a body. This Promise-person can repeatedly divide himself, without any damage done, and without any loss of integrity, potency, or personality. Somewhat like water, he can fragment and disperse himself. He can also re-condense himself. He can contract, expand, disperse, and regather at will. He is person, but a peculiar person without a body. He is just not limited, in terms of space and dimension — unless he voluntarily chooses to be limited.

Since these spatial characteristics are so freakishly beyond our usual categories of what it means to be a person, we have no choice but to resort to analogies. If we wish to talk meaningfully about him, we have to use analogies. We must say he is like this thing or like that. Like, like, like — we will use a lots of likes. For example, the Promise is somewhat like water. And the Promise is a lot like fire. We necessarily resort to symbols and analogies when we talk about him. We have no choice but to do so. He is just so peculiar, so different. He is a much different person than us. He is different than what is normal and natural to us. He is a peculiar person. He is incomparable; but we have to use comparisons. He is an incomparable, peculiar, supernatural person. In fact, he’s God.

The fact that we necessarily use symbols to talk about the Promise will be important to keep in mind when I return to my direct discussion of symbolism in the Book of Revelation. Fire is the most frequent symbol for the Promised Holy Spirit in the Book of Revelation. Remember that.

As implied previously, the Promise simply has no physical limitations. He can pass through any physical barrier. He can limit himself to physical space, if he chooses. He can confine himself, disperse himself, concentrate himself, retract himself, expand himself. He can and does operate within physical dimensions. But they pose no problem to him. He is not limited by any physical barrier. This has huge implications for us as Christians.

The Promise voluntarily confines himself to willing human beings. He indwells individuals. If a human being recognizes the truth about who Jesus is, and submits to Jesus’ authority, the Promise takes up residence within him or her. The Promise indwells the Christian. The Christian thereby becomes a temple of sorts. A temple of the Holy Spirit. A supernatural entity dwells here within.

As strange as all this may sound, it is very real. And it is powerful. The same entity— the same Spirit — that raised Christ from the dead indwells you and hangs out within you, 24/7. Consider the implications. Consider the possibilities. Consider both the implications and possibilities, for there are many.

On the condition of your recognition of and submission to the Lord Jesus Christ, you have a limitless source of life-giving power available to you, all the time — through the rest of your mortal life, and beyond. Much of the New Testament serves as a users’ handbook for accessing and maximizing the Promise’s power. If you wish to make full use of your resident Promise and his power, go familiarize yourself personally with the handbook, and also join a group of people who are committed to the same. And then go make use of the Promise.

Saturday, May 30th, 2020

The Dome of the Rock and the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem

Temple Visitors – Audio Version

Temple. This blog post considers the theme of temple and how it relates to the Book of Revelation.

In a previous post, I explained how I was once an angel in Los Angeles. In the original Greek, from which English eventually inherited the word, angelos really just means messenger. A messenger can be a glorious heavenly being or an unimpressive, ordinary earthling. For a while, I worked for a successful county-line law firm as a courier, driving around the greater LA area. As a courier, I had navigate my way through traffic to various court houses and hand-deliver important legal documents and time-sensitive messages. Thus, in my mind, I officially qualify. I can claim that I was briefly an angelos in Los Angeles.

A few years after I drove and delivered messages for the law firm, someone from my school asked if I would be willing to drive a van for them. A delegation of English-speaking scholars from across the Muslim world was about to come to Los Angeles. Was I available and would I be willing to drive them around? Yes, I was available. And yes, I would drive them around LA.

The year was 2002. September 11th was a very recent and raw memory. The United States State Department, in cooperation with some institutions of higher learning, had arranged for a delegation of English-speaking Muslim scholars to tour the United States. I believe that the US State Department and the American schools hoped that the scholars would return to their respective countries and speak positively about what they had seen and experienced in the USA. The tour was an attempt at academic and religious diplomacy. Good PR was surely the goal. I’m not sure if that’s what happened, though. Still, it was eye-opening to be their driver.

One of the destinations to which I drove the scholars was Wilshire Boulevard Temple. As the name indicates, Wilshire Boulevard Temple is located on Wilshire Boulevard, a road that runs right through downtown Los Angeles. You may have heard of it before. The Temple, which I will abbreviate from hence as WBT, is an impressive historic building that belongs to a Jewish congregation. From an artistic standpoint, WBT visually wows a visitor. It has a big central rotunda, much like most state capitol buildings. If you stand underneath the rotunda and look upward, as I did, golden gilded Hebrew letters and words go around the inside of it. To my surprise and delight, I could read it. I knew exactly what it said. It was the Shema.

“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.” That would be Deuteronomy 6:4; and that is the Shema.

For me, it was an electrifying moment. Not long before that, I had taken Hebrew. I stood there, looking upward, and actually read what it said, with ease. And I was struck by the weight and the serendipity of that moment. Representatives of the three religions that lay claim to the monotheism proclaimed in that verse were all gathered there. However, we were hardly in harmony. For one thing, we disagreed about the identity of the Temple (of God).

The Jewish temple that once stood in Jerusalem — will it be rebuilt someday? For centuries now, the temple’s former location has been a Muslim sacred site. The Dome of the Rock was constructed where the temple once stood. It is there to this day. The site is under the jurisdiction of Muslim authorities. They are determined to hold it. If the Israelis attempt to take control of the location, a regional war will probably immediately ensue.

With all that in consideration, hear what one of the Muslim scholars asked the head rabbi at WBT. While we all stood around in the office of the rabbi, a visiting Muslim scholar asked him, “Do you want the temple to be rebuilt in Jerusalem?” It was a loaded question. The rabbi’s answer surprised me. It probably surprised the Muslim scholars, too.

The rabbi said, “No, I don’t, because if the temple were rebuilt we would need to resume the whole sacrificial system. I don’t want that to happen.”

Alternatively, there are other Jewish religious authorities who do want the temple in Jerusalem rebuilt. That was not discussed with the visiting Muslim scholars at WBT that day, though.

A lot of Christians have been taught and believe that the Jewish temple in Jerusalem must be rebuilt before Jesus returns. The Book of Revelation briefly mentions “the temple of God” in the first two verses of Chapter Eleven. Interpreters have to decide which temple is referenced. Is it a rebuilt Jewish temple in Jerusalem, or something else? That is a super-important question. If it is understood to be a rebuilt Jewish temple in Jerusalem, then we ought to intently watch what happens at that contested location in Jerusalem. However, if it is not a rebuilt temple in Jerusalem, then fixating on events in Jerusalem is unnecessary. Again, interpretively, a lot hangs the identity of the temple in Revelation 11:1-2.

The temple mentioned in Revelation 11:1-2 is actually the Church, not a rebuilt temple in Jerusalem. That is how I read it. We are mistaken to expect a rebuilt temple in Jerusalem, which might never happen, anyway. Here, the Rabbi at WBT, along with the Muslim scholars, may have their collective way. There may never be a rebuilt temple in Jerusalem, at least, not prior to the parousia of Jesus, that is, prior to the Second Coming.

The New Testament repeatedly says that the Church is now the temple of God. We ought to believe it. The Church really is the temple of God now. God’s presence is no longer to be found in a brick-and-mortar building or a stone-and-mortar temple, but in a living temple, in and among the corporate people of God. Ephesians 2:19-22 says as much, and is worth a quick read.

All of this said, the land and the people of Israel are not irrelevant. On the contrary, the nation of Israel is still relevant to Revelation and will be important in The End. After all these centuries of time, God continues to be faithful to the Jewish people for the sake of their ancestors; and they still do have a role to play in the fulfillment of prophecy. Explaining that will have to wait for another day and another blog post, though.