Beautiful Temples

Beautiful temples were commonplace among the Gentiles. Paul said God does not dwell in temples with hands.

 

Temples were rare among the Jews. We could say they were nonexistent except for the temple in Jerusalem, first built by Solomon.

 

Paul was saying that no temple ever built by man, including Solomon’s or the Parthenon, can contain God. To think the God who made the world and everything in it and who sustains the world by the power of His Word could be contained in a building regardless of size, beauty or cost diminishes his majesty.

 

God is Spirit, and spirit cannot be limited to any one space or the moment of one event.

 

In contrast to the pagans and the Jewish temple in Jerusalem, in all the New Testament there is no mention that the Christians ever built or bought or owned a material building of any kind that might be called a temple, cathedral or sanctuary for the Lord.  So much of 20^th-century American Christianity is in some way associated with a material building, which is often an elaborately beautiful and costly facility, the highest priority and biggest item in the church’s budget, and the focal point of virtually all of the church’s activity. The average Christian’s practice of his religious faith is within the church building.

 

Christians have forgotten that God does not dwell in temples made with hands,