Separation and The World as God's Sanctuary

This past Sunday I talked about the fact that God thru his word: 1. Separated to form a world that is hospitable to life. 2. granted and filled the world with life. Separation is key to life with God. So we as Christians are to live separated from the world. Now I grew up in a conservative Baptist church. They took this too far--don't wear shorts, women wear skirts, men no hair on collar, no cards...etc. What does it mean to be separate? What is too separate? What is not separate enough?


Another point I made is that the entire world is God's Sanctuary. We need to be separate or different in our whole lives not just at church (or in the sanctuary) on Sunday morning. In fact when we do things different on Sunday morning but not during the rest of the week, we give the church a bad name. People think the church is irrelevant---because it doesn’t make a difference in their everyday lives. Further people think the church is full of hypocrites because people act different on Sunday than they do the rest of the week. Does our church have a problem with this? If it does explain why you think so? Have you met people that feel this way about the church in general in the US? Can or should the church do something to change this perception that the church is full of hypocrites and doesn't make a difference in everyday life?

God's Temple Sanctuary: The World

Hi Everyone!  Sorry it has been so long between posts--it has been hard to keep up with the blog and Facebook since we haven't closed on our home and we don't have Internet yet. 

This Sunday I promised I would post an article that discusses all the similarities between Israel's Temple, The Garden of Eden, and The World as God's Temple.  But, before I do, I want to highlight or summarize a section of this material that I didn't get a chance to talk about on Sunday, because I was running out of time.  The section I just barely touched upon was the connection between Israel's Temple and all of creation.

Here are a few of the connections that show how Israel's Temple was to reflect Creation as God's Temple:

1. The Holy of Holies represented the invisible heavens God formed on day 1 and filled on day 4 of creation.  Cherubim and heavenly angels guard God's throne in the invisible heaven.  They also guard the Ark of the Covenant in Israel's temple.  These angels are mounted on the Ark and woven into the curtain that divided the Holy of Holies from the Holy Place.  Further, the ark was called the footstool of God--where the invisible heavens meet the earth. The earth is also called the footstool of God.  Additionally, the Holy of Holies is is partitioned from the rest of the temple by a curtain--making it "invisible" to the rest of the temple--again contributing to the symbolism of the invisible heavens.
2. The Holy Place represented the sky or visible havens that God form on day 2 and filled on day 5 of creation.  The Curtains of the Holy Place were blue, purple, and scarlet representing the different of the sky.  Adding to the symbolism of the visible heavens are the picture of birds woven into these tapestries.  Reinforcing the image of the visible heavens in the Holy Place is the lampstand.  One lampstand had 7 lights and there were 10 lampstands in Solomon's Temple. This made 70 lights against the dark curtains of the Holy Place reminding the people that would peer into this area of the heavenly lights--the sun, moon, and stars.  Additionally the Hebrew word for lights is used 10 times in the Pentateuch for the lights on the lampstand and the only other place this Hebrew word occurs is in the creation account to refer to the sun, moon, and stars in Genesis 1:14-16.
3. Finally the Courtyard of Israel represents the visible land and earth.  This is indicated by the fact that the large wash basin in this area is referred to as the sea in other areas of the Old Testament, and further indicated by the alter which is called the "bosom of the earth" and the "mount of God" in other parts of the Old Testament.  Additionally the alter was to be an "'alter of earth' made from uncut stone." 

The Garden of Eden and Israel's Temple are pictures of what God original intended--that all of creation would be his sanctuary.  We need to separate ourselves as unto God in all of creation.  (Remember we learned that to create on days 1-3 means God's Word SEPARATES to create a world that will be a conducive place for the life he will fill it with on days 4-6.)  Our whole lives need to be different and not just artificially different in the church sanctuary on Sunday morning because the whole world is God's sanctuary.

Here is the link to the article containing this information that I promised to post:

Eden, the Temple, and the church's Mission in the New Creation.pdf

Here is a diagram of Israel's Temple: