CHAPTER #17

The Temple, Tabernacle, House, & Sanctuary of God

In Conclusion to Chapters 15, 16, & 17

Heretofore, from Chapter 15 until now, the argument of scripture has been harmoniously progressive, intricately cohesive, and thematically united, begging certain conclusions. We have studied the nine different places or peoples which make up the doctrine of The Church in the Old Testament, New Testament, and the Consummation. In other words, we have studied the shadows, realities, and finalities of salvation as it pertains to The Church, the population of the redeemed. As our study progressed, it was harmonious. As the intricacies grew manifold, they were cohesive. As the historical, contemporary, and future places and persons of The Church historically began, presently exist, and prophetically finalize, the unfolding themes are utterly united in one singular conclusion: Church Purity.

If wicked persons, sinners, strangers, and the unclean (to name a few) were unwelcomed in The Church as it existed in the Old Testament and in the Consummation, should we expect them to be welcomed in the dispensation which exists between those two points of progressive redemption? Seeing that salvation began in the Old Testament and will Consummate in the future via perfect holiness and purity wherein the congregation and assembly of the LORD will be sanctified from all the unclean, uncircumcised, and unsaved (to name a few), should we not be expectant of the same regulations to be binding upon the middle-point of redemption which does now exist in the Gentile Church Age? If not, what an unholy contradiction this would be! Has God suddenly changed his mind today, in the Gentile Church Age of the New Testament? Have the ancient forms of The Church as they were authored in the Old Testament (in nine places and persons) suddenly ceased to exist so that now, alas, The Church has no need of holiness, cleanliness, separation, and purity!?

When God authored redemption in the Old Testament by choosing a physical race of people (“a chosen generation”) for the employment of a holy office (“a royal Priesthood”) while existing as a literal Nation among the kingdoms of the world, and, yet, maintaining peculiarity from them all (“an holy Nation, a peculiar people”), should we expect that the New Testament Christians of the Gentile Church Age are no longer called to be chosen, royal, holy, and peculiar (1 Pet. 2:9)? God forbid. The attributes of redemption existing in shadows did not change when they flourished into the realities! And, certainly, they will not change when they are Consummated! The New Testament inspired authors did scrupulously prove that the calling of holiness, cleanness, and separation existing in the earthly dimensions of the Old Testament are perfectly paralleled in spiritual dimensions in the New Testament during the Gentile Church Age, and, furthermore, they are perfectly paralleled into spiritual and physical dimensions at Final Redemption which is yet to come at the Consummation.

This means that the Laws of the KING are unitedly binding in every stage of redemption from beginning to end. The assemblies and congregations of the Old Testament (in the Nation of Israel), in the New Testament (in the Spiritual Nation of Israel), and in the Consummation (in the Spiritual and Physical Nation of Israel) must be HOLY. The Tabernacle, Temple, House, and Sanctuary of the Old Testament, the New Testament, and the Consummation must be HOLY. Jerusalem of old (OT), Jerusalem a-new (NT), and Jerusalem to come (Consummation) must be HOLY. The Kingdom of God has not changed, my reader. Think of it! Should any partial fulfillment of redemption in the Land, City, Nation, and Kingdom of God in Israel be any different than their consummated and brilliant end? No! Therefore, even though we are not sinlessly “perfect” (Php. 3:12) so that we might instantaneously discover every subtlety of the Devil’s working to overthrow the Kingdom of God by infiltrating the congregations of the LORD to defile its HOLINESS, we ought to “press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Php. 3:14) – which is, namely, a congregation sinlessly perfect obtaining “the resurrection of the dead” (Php. 3:11). We must, in other words, re-establish the watchers, porters, contenders, and defenders of the faith (Jude 3)! We must, at last, agree with our Lord’s prayer and fight to see it fulfilled in as much as God would allow! Even so, “Our Father which art in HEAVEN, Hallowed be Thy name. Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in HEAVEN, so in EARTH” (Luke 11:2). Count the cost, dear reader… we are in the Last Days!

“Are you becoming rejected and despised,
Or more and more accepted and prized?
Are you perfecting holiness in the fear of God,
Or compromising the standard for man's applaud?
Is the glorious presence of God still burning in your heart,
Or has friendship with a white-washed church caused Him to depart?

Are your knees calloused from burdened prayer,
Or just your fingers from vanity fair?
Are you the offscouring of all things,
Or a delightful song even the world can sing?
Are you still pressing toward the mark of the high calling in Christ Jesus,
Or waiting in a leavened church to whom God says "when will they believe us"?

Revival is obedience and keeping yourself clean,
Not a once in a while option or some far off distant dream.
To exalt His name amidst the earth in His people, that is still His desire,
But who will bear the reproach of a Christ who came to set the world on fire!?
Who came not for peace but a sword, and put man's "orthodoxy" to the wind!
Who held fast to the word of God no matter how many people would offend!

Will God exalt His Passover Lamb when His house is filled with leaven?
Will any obey the call to "be ye separate" and thus received of heaven?

The conservative reformed orthodox of Jesus day,
Nailed Him to a cross for His "come out from among them" foolish way!
You have left the Baal worship of Babylonian prosperity…
But have you torn down the calves of conservative false Christianity!?

We have prayed He would come and dwell in our midst in this our day,
But God says, oh that I had a group of wayfaring men whose hearts are perfect and kept my way!
To show myself strong on their behalf, to be their God and they my people!
But will you go without the camp from amidst that corrupted religious steeple!?

Surely Scripture says God’s name He will exalt,
But we have not obeyed His voice, His absence is our fault.
Will we join the prophets of old and share in Jesus' cross?
Rejected by His "people", stand and brokenheartedly declare them dross?
Surely then, though few we be, even 120 in number,
Christ the risen Lord would soon appear and wake the world from its slumber!”

- Jordan Fraker

“And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.” – Luke 21:34-36