Christians Are The New Testament Temple

Christians are often outspoken about our disagreement with the LDS Church concerning modern temples. In Mormonism, the temple is a critical part of the plan of salvation. 

Latter-day Saints will often appeal to the unchanging nature of God explaining that there were temples in the Old Testament, and so we should expect to see temples today? How do Christians respond to this claim? In this video, we’ll explain where Christians think the temple is in the New Covenant age.

The Temple is the Dwelling Place of God among man

In the sinless Garden of Eden, God regularly communed directly with Adam and Eve (Gen. 2:15-17, 3:8), but after the fall, Adam and Eve were permanently barred from the Garden—they were not permitted to be in the perfect place of God’s dwelling any longer. Sin caused a deep separation between mankind and God (Isaiah 59:2).

The Bible tells us that after judgement day, when all sin has been dealt with, God will again dwell with his people like He did before the fall (Rev. 21:3). Revelation even says of eternity that there will be

“no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.” (Rev. 21:22). 

In the days of Moses, God commanded that the tabernacle, also called the “Tent of Meeting” be built (Ex. 26-27). But this tabernacle was to contain a floor-to-ceiling curtain (or veil) to separate the people from the holy presence of God  (Ex. 26:31-37). Even though the tent of meeting was in the middle of the camp of Israel, it actually epitomized man’s inability to fully dwell with God due to sin!

Under the reign of King Solomon centuries later, God’s people constructed a more permanent dwelling place for God in Jerusalem—the Temple (1 Kings 5-8). Yet the veil remained as a reminder that sin has separated mankind from the presence of God.  

The Old Temple system was fulfilled in Jesus

The Temple also served as the center of the sacrificial system (Lev. 1-5). In order to deal with sin, humans need a substitute to die in our place, taking the wrath of God that we deserve (Isaiah 53)! These sacrifices served as an atonement for sins under the Law of Moses (Heb. 9:22). But Hebrews says

“But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God…For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified” (Heb. 10:12-14).

 When Jesus died,

“behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom” (Matt. 27:51).

Jesus was not only our fully-sufficient atoning sacrifice, but He also provided us a way for God to dwell with us, as illustrated on earth by that veil tearing in half! The problem of sin separating God’s people from His presence was done away with by the once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus atoning for our sin!

To say that we still need a temple today is to say that Christ’s sacrifice was insufficient to reconcile us to God, and that Jesus failed in repairing the breach that sin created between us and God.

Christians are now the Dwelling Place of God

Jesus promises His disciples that:

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever…You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.” (John 14:15-16). 

Later in that chapter, Jesus said,

“If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” (John 14:23).

His teaching was that God – the Father, Son, and Spirit – will now live within those who love Jesus. In other words, Jesus taught that Christians are now God’s dwelling place on earth.

Paul taught this same thing in several of his epistles:

“So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.” (Ephesians 2:19-22).

“Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.” (1 Corinthians 3:16–17)

“What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” (2 Corinthians 6:16)

So where is the New Testament Temple? Christians are the temple: the dwelling place of God on earth. 

Jesus’ death on the cross fulfilled the need for a veil that separated humanity from God’s presence. There is no more need for a physical building to epitomize our separation from God! Those who believe in Jesus are now God’s holy temple, His dwelling place, on earth.