When it comes to the Temple itself, however – the epicentre of the Jewish world, even the Diaspora world, the one place where the living God had chosen to put his name and reveal his glory, the place to which the nations would flock to see that glory and learn that name – the magnitude of Paul’s transformed symbolic world becomes at once apparent.
Tag: The Temple
T. Desmond Alexander has provided the church with a magnificent work of Biblical Theology that is both accessible and scholarly.
When was the last time you meditated on the divine purpose for and theology of the temple? Like me, maybe you’ve never given it much thought. Yet, while reading this book I found myself constantly giving thanks to God for G. K. Beale devoting a 402-page book entirely to the theology of the temple in The Temple and the Church’s Mission. You would be surprised how enlightening and edifying a study of the temple can be!
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From Adam’s fall, mankind has longed to be restored to the relationship with the LORD that he experienced in the garden. Due to this central desire, it doesn’t seem far-fetched to see future temples as designed to reflect the Garden of Eden, the fall, and the desire for a restoration to the garden paradise.
» Read the entire post: Was the Garden of Eden the First Temple? »
In this post I provide an introduction and overview of G. K. Beale’s The Temple and the Church’s Mission with the intention of giving potential readers a reason to pick it up. Check back later for my actual review.
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I’m working through G. K. Beale’s excellent “The Temple and the Church’s Mission” and lights are going on everywhere. I’ve been impressed with his insights in identifying the Temple as a representation of creation itself, showing that God’s intention for the temple was to display His plan for extending His presence throughout the cosmos (as we see fulfilled in Revelation 21-22). Beale’s thesis is that the new heavens and earth are themselves the eschatological worldwide ‘temple’ of God, and that this is hinted at even from as far back as the garden of Eden.
» Read the entire post: Parallels between Creation and the Temple »