A few months back I wrote a post because I'd been wondering, Why did God allow the temple in Jerusalem, the House of the Holy, to be destroyed? Wasn't the temple supposed to be God's House?
If God is all-powerful and almighty, why would he allow that to happen? Why didn't he intervene and stop it?
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Bad things happen to people. In fact, you can take a look around and see bad things, tragedies, happening to undeserving people all over the world.
Bad, "unfortunate" things have been plaguing people for several hundred millennium ... and will keep on happening, until Christ returns. Without sounding trite, it's safe to say that if you're a human being ... bad, painful and irreversible things are inevitable.
We call calamities like floods, earthquakes and tsunamis "tragedies" for one reason: because we're powerless to stop or prevent them.
So if you're a believer and accept God Almighty's infinite power, it might make you wonder "Then why did God allow his temple to be destroyed?"
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Ten or twelve years ago I was invited to a friend's wedding. After the ceremony I was walking across the parking lot with some friends when one of them reached into her purse and lit a cigarette. We didn't notice the three men walking toward us until one of them stopped and sternly told her, "Smoking's not allowed on church property."
She shrugged, crushed out her cigarette and walked another ten feet to her van. She climbed inside, opened her purse and lit another smoke. Then she looked back at the man and said, "Let that s-- -- - b---- come over here and say another word."
Don't smirk or make a face: I couldn't help wondering, Would Jesus have approached that young woman and told her the same thing?
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Does God consider a church parking lot, or any other part of a church building, to be holy ground? Those three men sure acted like it was, and I felt glad that a confrontation was avoided. But it didn't take long before I started wondering which sins weren't allowed on church property, and how strenuously those rules were enforced.
I wondered how many children had been spanked silly on the same church parking lot after a service, for no other reason than that their parents had been fighting the night before and still felt angry 12 hours later ... and the kids happened to be nearby and were too small to fight back.
I wondered how many deacons had stood on the same parking lot and whispered plots to fire and replace the preacher ... without first letting him know the source of their grievance.
I wondered how many women had been on that parking lot and stared, snickered and gossiped about "that woman" ... the one who had the gall to wear "that outfit" to church.
Why did God allow the Jerusalem temple to be destroyed?
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I believe that God allowed Roman armies to ransack and destroy the temple because even though the Creator had dictated its architecture and physical dimensions, by 70 A.D. the Holy of Holies ... man-made and man-maintained ... continued to be worshiped by men.
I believe that's a heresy and a slap at God's face. I believe that with his ascension at the completion of his ministry on earth, Jesus replaced the man-made building and became the living temple.
Building? We don't need a building: our faith is in Christ.
God is too big for any building ... and we have no right to vote on what is sinful and what is not, or to speak to each other in coded Elizabethan English and smugly consider ourselves "reverent," or to claim that any part of a building, from the steeple to the pews to the stained glass windows to the parking lot outside ... or anything else man-made or mortgaged ... is Holy. Or that we have the authority to designate any physical thing is to be worshiped or considered sacred.
Only Christ. He is the reason our sins are forgiven and that we have eternal life. Period.
Makes me wonder why churches (and their pastors) would waste time ... and mock God's grace ... preaching anything else.
I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.
-Revelation 21:22
