Thought Exercise on The Temple

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The Greatness of Solomon’s Temple

Author

Keywords

Scripture

1 Kings 6:7, Exodus 35:30–35 , Isaiah 28:16 , 1 Peter 2:4–5, Psalm 118:22–23 , Matthew 16:18

In the 1800s, a group of people were exploring just outside the ancient walls of Jerusalem, near the Damascus Gate, when they came across a hole in the ground. Curious, they began to dig—and uncovered...

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Eden a Temple, Adam a Priest

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 1:null, Genesis 2:null

John Walton, in The Lost World of Adam and Eve, argues that the Garden of Eden should be seen as a sacred space (a kind of "Holy of Holies") set off from the rest of creation, with the seven...

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Meeting Face to Face with God

Author

Mike Cosper

Keywords

Israel

While many world religions worship gods in temples, Israel’s claim was unique. Theirs wasn’t simply a consecrated center for worship; it was a meeting place where the Lord of the creation actually met...

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The Upside-Down Pilgrimage: Saul’s Journey to Damascus

Author

N. T. Wright

Keywords

Saul of Tarsus did not intend to be a pilgrim when he set off to go from Jerusalem to Damascus. Indeed, why would any pilgrim make that journey? Pilgrims went to Jerusalem, not away from it. No: Saul,...

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The Logos and the Hebrew Shakan

Author

N. T. Wright

Keywords

Scripture

John 1:14, Exodus 40:34-35, Colossians 1:19, Revelation 21:3, John 15:4, 2 Corinthians 3:118

N.T. Wright takes some time in his book, How God Became King , to connect the idea of the logos (the eternal Word), with the idea of “dwelling,” or abiding in God’s presence: The Word became flesh ...

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The Most Holy Place

Author

Vaughan Roberts

Keywords

Scripture

Exodus 25:22, Exodus 40:34-38

The tabernacle consists of a courtyard and a tent inside, separated into two sections: ‘The Holy Place’ and ‘the Most Holy Place’ or ‘Holy of Holies’. Inside the Holy Place is a table that holds ‘the ...

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Mary & Joseph were Poor

Author

Ashley Hales

Keywords

Scripture

Luke 2:22-24, 2 Corinthians 8:9, Isaiah 9:6-7, Philippians 2:6-8, John 1:14, Isaiah 61:1

They were poor. We know this because the two young turtledoves Joseph and Mary brought was the smallest offering they were allowed as devout Jews and yet the largest they likely could afford. With tw...

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The Non-Religion

Author

Timothy Keller

Keywords

When Christianity first arose in the world it was not called a religion. It was the non-religion. Imagine the neighbors of early Christians asking them about their faith. “Where’s your temple?” they’d...

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No Silver Bullet to Progress

Author

Temple Grandin

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 12:1-4 , Exodus 13:17-18, Nehemiah 2:17-20, Luke 17:5-6 , Psalm 37:23-24 , Philippians 1:6

The animal behavior scientist Temple Grandin, who achieved significant success while struggling with autism, has this to say on the subject of progress: People are always looking for the single ma...

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A Roman’s View of the Jewish Faith and Its Interaction with Egypt

Author

Tacitus

Keywords

In this excerpt by the Roman historian Tacitus, we get insight into the Jewish faith from an ancient, extra-Biblical account. We also see how the Israelites took the first commandment seriously: The...

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A People is Made by Making

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Scripture

Exodus 25:, Exodus 26:, Exodus 27:, Exodus 19:5-6, Exodus 35:21-29, Ezra 3:8-13, Ezra 6:13-22, Nehemiah 2:17-18, Nehemiah 4:6, 1 Corinthians 3:9, Exodus 35:

The Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, in his book The Home We Build Together , points out to the reader that in scripture the description of the creation of the universe in Genesis is given a mere thirty-fou...

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Yom Kippur (The Day of Atonement) in Detail

Author

Timothy Keller

Keywords

Scripture

Exodus 30:10, Hebrews 7:27, Leviticus 16:11, Hebrews 10:19-22, Leviticus 16:32-34, Hebrews 9:7

A week beforehand, the high priest was put into seclusion—taken away from his home and into a place where he was completely alone. Why? So he wouldn’t accidentally touch or eat anything unclean. Clean...

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When God Shows up…People Get Blown Away

Author

Mark Labberton

Keywords

Worship

Nobody ever went up to Jesus after his blistering warning about religious hypocrisy and shook his hand and said, “Thanks, rabbi. That was a nice talk." Nobody went up to Moses after the thunder, ...

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The Orthodox Program & Jesus’ Different Way

Author

Luther A. Weigle

Keywords

Scripture

Zechariah 9:9, Matthew 21:1-11, Mark 11:8-11, Luke 19:36-44, John 12:16-19

Judged in the light of any ordinary standards of regal splendor, military display, political campaigning, or effective advertising, it was a rather pathetic and anti-climactic affair. Jesus rode from ...

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An Astronaut Enters Jerusalem

Author

Joshua DuBois

Keywords

Scripture

Exodus 3:5, Matthew 21:12-13

Neil Armstrong, the great astronaut, once took a trip to the Old City of Jerusalem. He went to the Hulda Gate, which opens to the Temple Mount. Armstrong asked a guide whether Jesus had in fact walked...

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Your Labor is Holy

Author

Charles Spurgeon

Keywords

To a man who lives unto God nothing is secular, everything is sacred. He puts on his workday garment and it is a vestment to him: he sits down to his meal and it is a sacrament; he goes forth to his l...

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The Importance of Holiness in the Bible

Author

Kevin DeYoung

Keywords

There’s no question holiness is one of the central themes in the Bible. The word “holy” occurs more than 600 times in the Bible, more than 700 when you include derivative words like holiness, sanctify...

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Judaism in Jesus’ Day

Author

William H. Marty

Keywords

Scripture

1 Kings 12:1–24, Nehemiah 1:1–11 , Daniel 3:1–30, Luke 4:16–30, Mark 12:13–17, Acts 25:26

In addition to worship in the temple, Jews met in synagogues for prayer and for reading the Scriptures. Jesus and Paul taught in synagogues. Jesus was executed by crucifixion, a Roman method of punish...

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Social Media and Appeasing the Gods

Author

Mike Cosper

Keywords

Religion

Religion is the business of appeasing gods. In the old days, you’d take some unfortunate animal to a temple, give it to a priest, and the priest would dispatch of it for you before the watchful eyes o...

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Hell in the Bible

Author

Matthew Y. Emerson

Keywords

Hell

First, Sheol in the Old Testament and Hades in the LXX and in Greco-Roman thought can be used to refer to both a general place for all the dead as well as a place of torment or consignment for the unr...

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It is Well

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 5:4, Psalm 147:null, Psalm 34:18, Revelation 21:1-8, 2 Corinthians 1:3-12, Romans 8:18-28, John 11:null, 2 Thessalonians 3:16, John 14:27, 1 Peter 5:7, Daniel 6:, Psalm 46:, Psalm 23:, Job 1:, Job 2:, 2 Samuel 11:, 2 Samuel 12:

If you ever travel to Jerusalem and are looking for sites to see, beyond all the ‘must-see’ sites related to Ancient Israel, the Temple Mount, and the sites associated with Jesus, you might venture to...

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The Center of the World

Author

Christianity and Social Order

Keywords

Scripture

Colossians 3:5, Philippians 2:3-4, Galatians 2:20, Jeremiah 17:9, Ephesians 2:1-3, Romans 5:12, Isaiah 53:6

Former Archbishop of Canterbury William Temple describing original sin I am the centre of the world I see; where the horizon is depends on where I stand…Education may make my self-centeredness less ...

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Two Triumphal Entries

Author

Osheta Moore

Keywords

Palm Sunday

Scripture

Zechariah 9:9, Matthew 21:1-11, Mark 11:8-11, Luke 19:36-44, John 12:16-19

Palm Sunday is the occasion on the Christian calendar when we commemorate Jesus’ triumphal entry in Jerusalem. The concept of a triumph requires some explanation, because it’s foreign to modern believ...

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Expectations for the Messiah King

Author

N. T. Wright

Keywords

Scripture

Revelation 19:16, Matthew 2:2, John 12:12-16

In this short excerpt, scholar N.T. Wright describes the expectations regarding the Jewish messiah king: The coming King would do two main things, according to a variety of texts and as we study a v...

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The Origins of the Prosperity Gospel

Author

Kevin Nye

Keywords

Russell Conwell, founder of Temple University and half the namesake of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, was an American minister who began his ministry in 1880. While he wrote and preached countle...

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A Short History of World Religions in America (other than Christianity)

Author

Barbara Brown Taylor

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 56:6-7, Ruth 1:16-17, 1 Kings 8:41-43, Acts 2:5-6, Ephesians 2:14-15, Psalm 22:27

By many accounts the first Muslim in America was Estevancio of Azamor, a Moroccan guide for a Spanish expedition in 1528 that landed in Florida. A couple of centuries later, as many as a third of the ...

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Not Everyone Wanted a Messiah

Author

N. T. Wright

Keywords

Not all Jews of this period believed in or wanted a coming Messiah. But those who did, and they were many, cherished a frequently repeated set of expectations as to what the anointed one would do when...

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To Eat Pork Or Not To Eat Pork

Author

E. Randolph Richards and Brandon J. O’Brien

Keywords

Food

When the first Christians were trying to decide whether Gentile Christians should keep Jewish dietary laws, they weren’t just quibbling over doctrine. Just like we do, ancients were transferring their...

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The Problem with Cults

Author

Ronald Rohlheiser

Keywords

Energy

What is wrong with a religious cult is not that those in it are insincere or that the energy it attempts to access and contain is not real. The reverse is more true. What is wrong is that a cult, by i...

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An Unlikely Adoption

Author

Daniel Darling

Keywords

Scripture

James 1:27

Joseph exhibited the true spirit of adoption. It is a vivid picture both of God’s adoption of us as His children in Christ, but also the call every believer has in welcoming into our homes and communi...

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