Post by ambassador on Aug 1, 2009 23:34:06 GMT -5
Where is the “Lord’s House?”
Ever since the Dispensation of Grace began with the Apostle Paul, erroneous ideas have crept into the Church, the Body of Christ. Today, it can very difficult to establish what doctrine is God’s pure Word, and what doctrine is simply man-made religion. No matter how wrong and false it is, tradition can extremely hard to leave.
Now, I often hear people refer to their local church building as “the Lord’s house.” However, on the basis of the Bible, this is not correct. I am not trying to attack or ridicule, but we need to be very careful not to be promoting something wrong. At one time, I was led to believe the nonsense that in order to be in God’s presence, I had to attend services at a local church building! Every church is just an ordinary building; constructed of temporal wood or stone, just a common manmade structure.
Read Acts 17:24 KJV. The setting is Mars’ Hill, where the Apostle Paul is confronting the Athenian intellectuals and philosophers. “God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands.”
Indeed, at one time, God’s presence was in the Old Testament Israeli Temple/Tabernacle. An example of this is the last six verses of the Book of Exodus. In Old Testament Israel, the Tabernacle (later the Temple built by King Solomon) was “the house of God,” or “the Lord’s house” (for a few examples, see Exodus 23:19; Joshua 6:4; 1 Kings 7:12, 50-51). However, there is no such thing as that “Lord’s house” today because the Second Temple was destroyed by Roman Emperor Titus in A.D. 70.
Pagan religions today have shrines, mosques, temples, and cathedrals where you can supposedly “find God,” or some “deity” that is everything but the God of the Bible, the Lord Jesus Christ. By claiming any local church is “the Lord’s house,” we are no different from the pagans around the world. Today, the Lord dwells in the hearts of believers, in the presence of the Holy Spirit. We Christians are “temples of the Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians 3:16-17; 1 Corinthians 6:19; 2 Corinthians 6:16). Our bodies are “the Lord’s house.”
Ever since the Dispensation of Grace began with the Apostle Paul, erroneous ideas have crept into the Church, the Body of Christ. Today, it can very difficult to establish what doctrine is God’s pure Word, and what doctrine is simply man-made religion. No matter how wrong and false it is, tradition can extremely hard to leave.
Now, I often hear people refer to their local church building as “the Lord’s house.” However, on the basis of the Bible, this is not correct. I am not trying to attack or ridicule, but we need to be very careful not to be promoting something wrong. At one time, I was led to believe the nonsense that in order to be in God’s presence, I had to attend services at a local church building! Every church is just an ordinary building; constructed of temporal wood or stone, just a common manmade structure.
Read Acts 17:24 KJV. The setting is Mars’ Hill, where the Apostle Paul is confronting the Athenian intellectuals and philosophers. “God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands.”
Indeed, at one time, God’s presence was in the Old Testament Israeli Temple/Tabernacle. An example of this is the last six verses of the Book of Exodus. In Old Testament Israel, the Tabernacle (later the Temple built by King Solomon) was “the house of God,” or “the Lord’s house” (for a few examples, see Exodus 23:19; Joshua 6:4; 1 Kings 7:12, 50-51). However, there is no such thing as that “Lord’s house” today because the Second Temple was destroyed by Roman Emperor Titus in A.D. 70.
Pagan religions today have shrines, mosques, temples, and cathedrals where you can supposedly “find God,” or some “deity” that is everything but the God of the Bible, the Lord Jesus Christ. By claiming any local church is “the Lord’s house,” we are no different from the pagans around the world. Today, the Lord dwells in the hearts of believers, in the presence of the Holy Spirit. We Christians are “temples of the Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians 3:16-17; 1 Corinthians 6:19; 2 Corinthians 6:16). Our bodies are “the Lord’s house.”