THE SEVEN TEMPLES OF GOD

Contents

Introduction

I The Tabernacle or Temple of Moses

II The Tabernacle of David

III The Temple of Solomon

IV A Natural Human Body Temple—Indwelt by God

V The Individual Temple—The Body of the Believer

VI The Corporate Body of Christ

VII The Seventh Temple

About the Author

"Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.... But he spake of the temple of his body" (John 2:19, 21).

Introduction

Most people think there is one or two temples listed in Scripture, but there are seven. God frequently does things in sevens.

The temple was given for a twofold purpose. The first purpose is a habitation of God's residence. Moses said, "I will prepare him an habitation" (Exod. 15:2). God had instructed Moses: "I want you to make Me a sanctuary, 'according to all that I shew thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it'" (Exod. 25:9).

Hebrews, Chapter 9, repeats that God spoke to Moses on how to build the temple. Moses was given by God, a pattern on how to build the tabernacle, or temple during the 40-days-and-40-nights period. God had said He would dwell in the temple. In all the temples recorded in the Word, God dwelt in the Holy of Holies of that temple. He dwelt there in His manifest conscious presence (in His shekina glory).

A second purpose of the temple is to serve as a facility in which worship is offered unto God.

The first temple was merely a tabernacle. A tabernacle serves the same purpose as a temple, but is a tent rather than a building. God spoke to Moses, "Let them [meaning Israel] make me [God] a sanctuary," indicating a PLACE of residence, a refuge, a hallowed, holy place where God would dwell.

Let us take a bird's eye view of the seven temples.

I

The Tabernacle or Temple of Moses

The first temple, or tabernacle, was the tabernacle of Moses. It was erected and carried across the wilderness for forty years into Canaan land, and was finally pitched on Mount Gibeon. It stayed there for hundreds of years.

The structure: a mobile tent

The specific truth portrayed: the law of God.

While receiving instruction to build the tabernacle, Moses basked in the presence of God on Mount Sinai.

When he came down from that mount, the children of Israel asked that they might not see his face because of the glory that was upon him. They turned from THE LAW THAT HAD GLORY. In fact, it was a fading glory, and that is why Moses would often go into the tent in order that the glory would again come upon him (see 2 Cor. 3:7-14).

Moses himself said, "I exceedingly fear and quake" at the revelation of God's law (Hebrews 12:21). It wasn't a joyful, jubilant time, it was a very solemn, sober assembly at the institution of the tabernacle of Moses. There were no musical instruments, no joyful shouts of praise offered to God, and all who went to the tabernacle in the wilderness approached it in holy fear, and even dread.

The institution of this temple brought forth the law, which symbolizes the righteousness of God, His almighty omniscient holiness, and no one could approach Him unless he met His requirements found in the law.

This is why the high priest would approach Him in fear of death. He literally trembled as he entered into the holy of holies, for he knew he had to fulfill the exact procedures or he would die (Lev. 16:2).

This first tabernacle was a beginning place of worship, and sacrifices of blood offerings were offered to God. It was a solemn type of worship, and apparently not much joy or jubilation was present. Note the progression in the second tabernacle.

II

The Tabernacle of David

Four hundred years after the institution of Moses' tabernacle, the Lord put it into David's heart to move the ark of God from Gibeon to the city of David, "and set the ark of God" (2 Sam. 6:1-10), the second tabernacle.

The only thing that David took out of the tabernacle of Moses was the ark of God (2 Chronicles 1:4), and put it upon a new cart and brought it from Kirjath-jearim. Uzzah stretched forth his hand to steady the ark, and God smote him and he died. This displeased David very greatly, and he left the ark of God at the house of Obed-edom. He didn't want any more Israelites dying, so he left the ark with the Gittite. For three months the Lord blessed the house of Obed-edom (see 2 Samuel 6:1-12).

David heard that the ark of the Lord was causing great blessing, and he went to the house of Obed-edom and got the ark of the covenant.

This time when he brings it he has had a change of heart. He no longer approached it with fear and dread, even though Uzzah had been killed. Now he approached the ark of the covenant with great jubilation, and as he carried that ark he did something which was not lawful. A king, or prophet, or an Israelite could not do the work of the priest (Numbers 3:38). If anyone other than an anointed priest tried to do the work of the priest he would be put to death.

An example of this is shown in 2 Chronicles 26:16 when King Uzziah went into the temple and offered incense.

When he did this he was smitten with leprosy, and later died.

David was now acting on revelation, and stripped his kingly garments, donning the priestly ephod. Some mistakenly say that David was naked. However, he was clothed with the priestly ephod and so was covered, but he was stripped in the sense that his kingly garments were laid aside.

Here was a king that looked like a priest! If he had not had a revelation of grace he would have been struck dead.

Notice in the account in 2 Samuel, Chapter 6, that they would go six paces then offer sacrifices. David danced before the Lord with all his might; girded with a linen ephod. "With shouting and with the sound of the trumpet" (vs 14-15) he brought the ark of the Lord into the city of David.

Observe the establishment of David's tabernacle: "And they brought in the ark of the Lord, and set it in his place, in the midst of the tabernacle that David had pitched for it" (2 Sam. 6:17). Tabernacle here means tent.

David didn't even have an outer court, or a holy place. He merely had a little tent to serve as the holy of holies. He didn't have all the furniture that was supposed to be in the original temple that God showed Moses.

All David had was the ark of the covenant which he placed in the tent that he pitched on Mount Zion. There was no veil separating the ark from the people. The ark represented the presence of God. In the first tabernacle God dwelt between the two cherubim that were over and above the ark, right above the mercy seat sitting atop the ark. Here the people worshipped God.

At the coronation of this second temple (see 1 Chron. 15:1-29) there was praise, worship, dancing, clapping, lifting of holy hands and musical instruments. It was a very joyous occasion. David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings to the Lord and blessed the people in the name of the Lord of hosts (v. 18). David gave everyone wine, meat and bread. Meat and bread symbolize the WORD—Jesus; and the flagon of wine—the joy of the Holy Ghost. It was a very happy occasion, even though Michal, Saul's daughter and David's wife, despised David in her heart for his actions.

The specific truth portrayed: The tabernacle of David was a revelation of GRACE.

There was no way that God's people could worship Him acceptably—after all, they had transgressed His commandment, broken His law, and it was impossible for man to keep the law. Yet, here they were, worshiping God as though they were righteous. They were seeing the work of GRACE.

David was chosen to show forth that grace, which was a foreshadowing of grace of the New Testament, because from him would come the seed Who would actually bring it into being. “For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ" (John 1:17). The king's revelation of GRACE so pleased God that He said centuries later that He would raise again the tabernacle of David.

David was seeing something that God was going to do centuries ahead. When God talked about raising the tabernacle He didn't say He would raise again the tabernacle of Moses, but "In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof" (Amos 9:11). When the New Testament church was deciding what to do with the Gentiles who were coming to the Lord, James quoted Amos 9:11-13 as prophetic of their salvation (Acts 15:16-17).

The structure: The tabernacle of David was a stationary tent. It was pitched on Mount Zion. Scripture frequently uses the word "Zion." It means the tabernacle of David and the revelation of grace. God favored Zion. “The Lord loveth the gates of Zion" (Ps. 87:2). "When the Lord shall build up Zion" (Ps. 102:16). (See Micah 3:10.) David was greatly blessed in the revelation of this tabernacle. Sometime later he evidently felt the need to build a more fitting dwelling place for God. He came to the prophet Nathan saying, "See now, I dwell in an house of cedar, but the ark of God dwelleth within curtains" (2 Sam. 7:2). David wished to erect to God a timbered building.

Nathan said, "Go, do all that is in thine heart, for the Lord is with thee." But when Nathan prayed about it, the Lord said to him, "David shall surely not build me a house, for he has been a bloody man, but his son after him shall build it." However, David spent many years making plans for the building of the temple. God didn't allow a man of war to build His temple. He raised up a man of peace. The name SOLOMON means "peaceable."

III

The Temple of Solomon

The third temple is called the "house of the Lord" in 2 Chronicles 7:11.

So much was involved in Solomon's temple: cornets, psalteries, harps, and 4,000 were appointed to be singers.

There were recorders also, people who wrote down anything that was prophetic. (Where there is praise there is prophecy! It was a very noisy place. In that day you couldn't have enjoyed Zion if you were a present-day typical religious person.)

This picture of the temple is given in 2 Chronicles 5:13-14: "It came even to pass, as the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make ONE sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord;" [It is very important to be AS ONE to make one sound. On the day of Pentecost they were in one accord, in one place. "Where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in their midst" (Matt. 18:20). "Gathered" means brought into oneness. It is not enough to just get a group of people in a building and place Jesus' name over it and claim that Jesus is in the midst. You have to be gathered into oneness, into unity. They were making one sound to be heard praising in the temple of the Lord] "and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised the Lord, saying, For he is good; for his mercy endureth forever: that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the Lord; so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud: for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God."

You see, Solomon is ADDING to the tabernacle of David. They still have praise, they still have worship, they have the instruments of music, and the grace of God, but now they have added GLORY. There was no cloud of GLORY in David's tabernacle. But in Solomon's temple there was a CLOUD OF GLORY and it filled the house to where the priests could not even stand to minister. They were flat on their backs looking at the cloud of glory. They were all lying under the power of God.

The sixth chapter of 2 Chronicles is a prayer by Solomon. In the seventh chapter is portrayed the special truth: GLORY.

"Now when Solomon had made an end of praying, the fire came down from heaven, and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; and the GLORY OF THE LORD FILLED THE HOUSE.

And the priests could not enter into the house of the Lord, because the glory of the Lord had filled the Lord's house. And when all the children of Israel saw how the fire came down, and the glory of the Lord upon the house, they bowed themselves with their faces to the ground upon the pavement, and worshipped, and praised the Lord, saying, For he is good; and his mercy endureth for ever" (v. 1-3).

Three times the word GLORY is mentioned. There was GLORY at Solomon's Temple.

The structure: the temple was a magnificent building.

This is the third temple mentioned in the Word of God, yet the first that is spoken of as a building. When people think about the temple, what do they think of? A large, ornate building! This is the only one of the entire seven temples mentioned in the Word of God that was listed as a MAGNIFICENT BUILDING! When this temple was later destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, and rebuilt by Zerubbabel (Zechariah 4:6-9; Haggai 1-2), that wasn't a new revelation of God, or a new institution of a temple, but just a continuation of the old temple.

Again, the temple was later rebuilt by Herod over a period of forty-six years. When Jesus was living on earth, the temple of Solomon had been rebuilt twice, but it was still the same temple, the same place. The building had aged, had been attacked by armies, and had been rebuilt. It was a continuation of the same revelation.

Solomon's temple was seven years in being erected.

Millions of dollars worth of gold, silver and precious stones and artifacts went into the building of this temple. It was indeed a magnificent building. Solomon doubled the dimensions used in the tabernacle of Moses. It was BOTH glorious in the natural and glorious in the spiritual. It was tremendously glorious in the beginning. Later Israel felt they could associate worship with the temple and began to rebel against God and go into idolatry and commit adultery.

During the time of the prophet Hosea the whole nation was like an oven that was heated, they were so hot with adultery, wife swapping, even importing prostitutes. Hosea gives us the picture of a nation caught up with adultery. But do you know what they were saying at that time? "We have the temple."

That is the problem with a brick-and-stone building, it is associated as being "the house of the Lord." We have to have meeting places, but so often we spend so much time putting up brick and stone edifices. Even Spirit-filled ministers in Full Gospel churches say, "We have to build the house of the Lord. We want beautiful carpets, stained-glass windows, only the finest things for the house of the Lord." Those material things do not make it the house of the Lord. It is merely a meeting place. It ought to be nice enough to accommodate the people, but, at the same time, we often do the very thing Israel did by thinking we can associate worship and our relationship with God with a literal building. This is seemingly what denominations are mostly about. Solomon's temple degenerated to this concept, so God had to raise up more temples.

Temple number four adds a new dimension to our concept of the structure of the temples of God.

IV

A Natural Human Body Temple—Indwelt by God

Jesus of Nazareth is the fourth temple mentioned in the Word of God.

"Then answered the Jews and said unto him, What sign shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these thing? Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building [in the rebuilding] and wilt thou rear it up in three days? But he spake of the TEMPLE OF HIS BODY" (John 2:18-21).

The structure was Jesus' body of humiliation.

Jesus' natural body was the house in which God lived.

"God was in Christ" (2 Cor. 5:19). Jesus could say, "I and my Father are one" (John 10:30). He had seen the Father, He had seen the habitation of God, and He was in the place where worship was offered to God, as was the case in all of the temples mentioned in the Word of God.

The temple of Solomon was the habitation of God. God filled it with His glory, and it was a place where worship was offered. In one day they "sacrificed sheep and oxen, which could not be told nor numbered for multitude" (2 Chron. 5:6). In the fourth temple Jesus of Nazareth fulfilled both requirements: "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father" (John 14:9), the HABITATION of God. "I always do the things that please Him, He dwells in me." And, secondly, where worship is offered: "In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent..." (Luke 10:21). He WORSHIPPED the Father.

Jesus said, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." The Jews mistook that he was speaking of His body; they understood Him to be speaking of the literal temple that they had spent forty-six years in rebuilding. When Jesus was hanging on the cross, the chief priests, who were used to laboring in the temple, came by wagging their heads and said, "Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself. If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross"

(Matt. 27:40). The Jews missed His teaching, for they understood the temple only in the physical sense.

The special truth portrayed: resurrection.

Many people today miss the true, simple revelation because they only understand the "house of God" in the physical sense.

John brings forth this teaching in 1:14:

"And the Word was made flesh, and tabernacled [the literal word] among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth."

Even though Jesus was the fourth temple, He had the third temple characteristic—"we beheld His GLORY." He also had the second temple's characteristic, for the 17th verse said of Him: "...but GRACE...came by Jesus Christ." He obeyed the first temple's characteristic (the law), according to Hebrews 4:15 which stated He was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin. "...and truth came by Jesus Christ."

The primary truth of this fourth temple, RESURRECTION, is fulfilled in the verse, "Destroy this temple, and IN THREE DAYS I WILL RAISE IT UP" (John 2:19).

With each temple there is an unveiling of truth that broadens or widens with each successive revelation. It first began with the law of God, which caused God's people to realize that they needed something called GRACE. The law brings us to GRACE and teaches us that we need GRACE

(Galatians 3:24). We sinned, we failed God, we could not meet God's requirements—all 613 commandments hang over our head, and, if we offend in one point, we are guilty of all (James 2:10). We need GRACE. We must have GRACE. We need the truth of the tabernacle of David: GRACE.

As a result of enjoying God's grace, we see the revelation of God's GLORY. The law made man realize he needed grace. When grace was ministered, GLORY was manifested. The glory was so strong that it was able to contain in it resurrection power—for that was how the fourth temple was raised from the dead, "...like as Christ was raised from the dead by THE GLORY of the Father..." (Rom. 6:4).

The fifth temple, too, moves from a building to a person.

V

The Individual Temple—The Body of the Believer

The structure: the redeemed body of the believer:

"What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost..." (1 Cor. 6:19). God looks on each believer as being A TEMPLE as much as He did that stone building that was erected by Solomon. "We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us" (2 Cor. 4:7).

In many traditional churches the minister will say, "I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go unto the house of the Lord." This could be said in the Old Testament times, but in the New Testament the only time you could leave the "house of God" would be when the spirit leaves the body and you go to the eternal temple. A believer is always in the house of the Lord. I even have my own services, and take my own offerings. This temple is in operation!

The first requirement or purpose of the temple is a habitation of God, a place for God to reside—"which is in you." THE HOLY GHOST IS IN YOU. YOU are a habitation of God. God dwells IN you. Thus, the first purpose of the temple is fulfilled because the Holy Ghost is in you.

The second purpose of the temple is a place where worship is offered to God. "For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body..." (1 Cor. 23 6:20). "Glorify" is the Greek word doxa, which means praise, honor and worship. YOU are the temple of the Holy Ghost. God dwells IN you by His Holy Spirit, therefore do the work of the temple: praise, honor and worship God!

Worship should be exercised toward God in our spirit and in our body, which are God's. As always, the temple is owned by God. It is His property. It is His house. It is His dwelling place. It is His sanctuary. God said to Moses, "That is the place where I will dwell in all the earth: in that temple" (Exod. 15:2). Habbakuk said, "But the Lord is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him" (2:20). Sometimes you sense the Lord's presence so strong in your "temple," that you must be still and know that He is God (Psalm 46:10).

The special truth portrayed in the fifth temple is devotion or worship. "Therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit which are God's." "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice" (Rom. 12:1). In the first temple they offered sacrifices, and today you offer yourself as a living sacrifice.

In the New Testament the sacrifice is LIVING, whereas in the Old Testament the sacrifice wasn't a sacrifice until it was dead. This is why in the Jewish mind "sacrifice" meant death. But the Apostle Paul offered the paradox: I am crucified, yet I live (Galatians 2:20). If I'm sacrificed, I'm dead, and I'm not a sacrifice until I am dead. When the priest inspected that lamb, it was laid on the altar, and couldn't be put on the altar until it was dead, dismembered (cut in pieces) and then the fire consumed it. The difficulty with these "living" sacrifices today is when the problem gets hot we crawl off the altar!

We are to be a living sacrifice. Make your consecration complete and settled, "...bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar" (Ps. 118:27). Tie yourself to Christ.

A startling aspect not given in the other five temples is revealed in the sixth temple, bringing us closer to the final, permanent purpose of the temples.

VI

The Corporate Body of Christ

The fourth temple is the body of Jesus.

The fifth temple is the body of the believer.

The sixth temple is the corporate body of Christ.

"Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are" (1 Cor. 3:16-17).

Each believer is a temple of the Holy Spirit, but the corporate body is THE temple of God. "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God?" "Ye" in 1 Corinthians 3:16 is plural. It is not singular as it is in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20:

"Know ye not that ye are..." In 1 Corinthians 3:16 "you all" are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in [all of] you.

The purpose of the temple, a place for God's habitation is expressed here: "The Spirit of God dwelleth in you."

"If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are."

In my early christian life I heard that if I smoked or drank alcoholic beverages, or abused my body, that I was defiling the temple of God. Now it is true that God does demand holiness in the personal temple, but that is not what is being discussed in 1 Corinthians 3:16-17. Paul said, "YOU [the church] are the temple of God," the corporate church is the temple of God. Then how does a man defile the corporate temple? Through teachings, false doctrines! And if any man defile the corporate temple with false doctrine, him shall God destroy. Peter talks about false teachers and false prophets coming in, saying they "bring upon themselves swift destruction" (2 Pet. 2:1).

That believers are a corporate body of Christ is shown also in Ephesians 2:19-22:

"Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the HOUSEHOLD OF GOD; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; in whom all the building [notice, it is a building] FITLY FRAMED TOGETHER GROWETH unto an holy temple in the Lord."

It is a temple. "Fitly framed together" means being organized compactly. "In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit." In this holy temple each believer is a living stone making up the corporate temple.

It is not a brick building, nor is it a human organization

—it is a divine organism—it is a holy temple—fitly framed together—builded together. God is doing something that involves all of us. It is something done together. "In whom ye also are builded together for an HABITATION of God through the Spirit."

Each temple adds to the other, and you lose none of the preceding truths. By the resurrection power of Jesus in our spirit we have been raised from the dead, and each of us made into a single temple. Corporately, we are fitly framed together and growing into a holy habitation of God. When Ezekiel saw that "house of God" (Chapter 47), he was seeing the corporate temple of God and the power of God flowing out of it at the end of the age.

In Ephesians 2:22 we see that we are a habitation of God—the first purpose of the temple. The second purpose being a place to offer sacrifice, we see fulfilled in 1 Peter 2:5: "Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up SPIRITUAL sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ."

The word LIVELY means "living." Lively stones—not cemented and mortared together, making movement impossible, but a spiritual cement—"knit together in love" (Col. 2:2) so that there is plenty of movement. Lively stones! Yes, they are that lively bunch—tambourines, etc.

Thank God, that is what we are supposed to be! Lively stones BUILT UP. That is, "allow yourself to be built up a spiritual house FOR AN HOLY PRIESTHOOD" (literal).

In 2 Corinthians 6:16 we are given an interesting contrast concerning the Old and New Testament temples.

"And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye [plural] 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."

In the Old Testament God said, "I will dwell AMONG THEM" (Exod. 25:8), but in the New Testament He said, "I will dwell IN them."

In the Old Testament God dwelt in that tabernacle, and it was among Israel. They would go to the tabernacle, so He dwelt among them. But in the New Testament He dwells IN the temple. He dwells in the people, for the people have become the temple. He dwelt among them in the tabernacle because it was located where the people would go to it. But in the New Testament we are the temple so He dwells in us, and He walks in us. If He is walking in us He is doing everything He did when He walked on earth 2,000 years ago, manifesting forth grace, glory, resurrection, healing, deliverance. It is all coming forth.

According to Hebrews, Chapters 9 and 10, we are told that Jesus entered into the heavenly temple when He made the eternal covenant with God by His shed blood. There was an actual temple structure in heaven. Revelation, Chapter 19, supports this, even though it is also symbolic, John saw the temple—he saw the ark of his testament, and he heard voices of thunderings and lightnings. Some persons say that the ark of the testament is Jesus. The ark was a symbol of Jesus, yes, but there was a literal ark in heaven, and a literal temple, for Hebrews, Chapters 9 and 10, speaks of Jesus entering into a tabernacle not made with stone, but into heaven itself, and, if He did and sprinkled the blood on the mercy seat—well, where is the mercy seat?

It was on top of the ark of the covenant—so there had to be an ark of the covenant on which to sprinkle blood.

When Jesus did this He became accepted of God as the ark of the new covenant, and from that time on there was a change in the heavenly temple. That is why when John saw the eternal temple (Revelation 21:3) he saw that the temple isn't really a building at all, rather it is God and His people.

"And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with [or, in] men, and he will dwell with [or, in] them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God."

Notice the affirmation of John in verse 22. In Chapter 11:19 he had seen the temple and the ark, but now in 21:22 he said, "And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it."

The Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are now the temple! Moses got a vision of the literal heavenly temple, a literal ark, and made a copy of it on earth. That's why the author of Hebrews referred to the literal physical building as a "shadow."

To my natural senses if I were to be in the Old Testament temple, the tabernacle of Moses, or the temple of Solomon, and I walked to the laver and said, "This is a shadow," or went to the curtains about the holy of holies and said, 'This is a shadow," it wouldn't feel like a shadow.

"Shadow" means an outline of something else. Your shadow is an outline of your body. The earthly tabernacle that Moses built was an outline, or a shadow of the true heavenly temple. When Moses was on the mountain for forty days and forty nights God showed him the temple in heaven, and instructed him: You build the one on earth just as the one you have seen (see Hebrews 8:5).

We are living in the era of the fifth and sixth temple now. In God's calendar the church age has occupied the fifth and sixth days. The seventh day will be the time of eternal rest, the thousand year rest—which will be interrupted for a brief moment and then continue on for eternity. We will then realize the seventh temple dispensation for all eternity.

VII

The Seventh Temple

Seven is the number of perfection.

The structure: the truth that comes forth will be that the Lord God and the Lamb and His servants are as one.

This is a mystery. We will be kings, but He the great King of kings. We will be different, but be as though we are one.

An eternal mystery. Just as the trinity—one and yet three in one. And now the entire family—one yet many millions in one.

"Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore. My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And the heathen shall know that I the Lord do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them FOR EVERMORE" (Ezek. 37:26-28).

The special truth portrayed: eternal fellowship.

Praise God for everything that we see going on in the sixth temple now, but it won't be perfect until that seventh temple. The seventh temple is actually the perfected sixth temple.

"And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it" (Rev. 21:22).

About the Author

Although born in a minister's home David rejected the Gospel in his early teens and rebelled against the lordship of Christ.

By the age of 15 he was involved in many forms of sin and soon found himself at the point of self-destruction.

In his despair the Lord mercifully drew David to the Cross and saved him on November 30, 1969.

In the six months following his re-birth David read the Bible from cover to cover several times. This led to a deeper knowledge of the Lord than he had been taught growing up in church.

At the age of 17 he entered into a full-time preaching and writing ministry. He has traveled widely and his messages in print have gone all over the world and into several languages. Hundreds of thousands of people have been edified through the literature ministry.

All of this has happened solely through the grace of God.

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The Precious Blood is a unique approach from the Scriptures teaching the significance of His blood in 13 in-depth chapters. A must for the serious believer.

THE MIND OF CHRIST

The Mind of Christ is a 48-page revelation on the provision Jesus made for the believer's mind. How to be free from the curse of forgetfulness.

THE FIELDS ARE WHITE

The Fields Are White is a 32-page study and exhortation to worldwide Gospel evangelization.

AWAKE, CHURCH!

Awake, Church! is a powerful, hard-hitting exhortation to arouse from lethargy. The trumpet blows in this book.

GOD CANNOT LIE

God Cannot Lie is a fundamental study on the infallible integrity of God's Word and the importance of knowing the Word.

THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT

The Fruit of the Spirit presents the subject from the viewpoint of 3 harvests—for You, Others, and God.

Enlightening study full of insight.

NO LION SHALL BE THERE

No Lion Shall Be There is a detailed exposition of Isaiah 35 showing the way to victory in your life.

CALLED TO PERFECTION

Called To Perfection is a powerful proclamation that we are called to live holy. Many insights from the Word on holiness are presented.

AND THY HOUSE

And Thy House is a truly inspiring book showing a believer the ways the Word teaches to intercede for his loved ones which will result in their salvation.

FREE FROM FEAR

Free From Fear is a wonderful book that will truly help the reader realize the provisions God has made for us to be fearless all the days of our lives.

JESUS BORE OUR SORROWS

Jesus Bore Our Sorrows is a 48-page study on the healing provision for the soulish nature. How to receive healing for the emotions is taught in this book.

MELCHIZEDEK

Melchizedek is a unique presentation from Genesis, Psalms, and Hebrews on this mysterious personage answering who he was and what role he filled.

Table of Contents

Introduction.

The Tabernacle or Temple of Moses.

The Tabernacle of David.

The Temple of Solomon.

A Natural Human Body Temple—Indwelt by God.

The Individual Temple—The Body of the Believer.

The Corporate Body of Christ.

The Seventh Temple.

About the Author.

Table of Contents

Introduction.

The Tabernacle or Temple of Moses.

The Tabernacle of David.

The Temple of Solomon.

A Natural Human Body Temple—Indwelt by God.

The Individual Temple—The Body of the Believer.

The Corporate Body of Christ.

The Seventh Temple.

About the Author.