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 PrintableVersion Heaven on earthFrom Old to NewHEAVEN ON EARTH This is a fairly academic book which is well worth reading. Its main aim is to explore the function of the temple within the Bible and to explain its implications for our theology. The backbone of the book is exegetical. We move through the various books of the Old and New Testaments gathering an understanding of the role of the temple. Some intriguing observations emerge. The basic function of the temple is threefold. It is a place of revelation, a place of atonement and a place where God’s presence dwelt as a covenant sign. A strong case is made that Samuel, Kings and Chronicles, which record the building of the temple, show a similar ambivalence to it as Stephen expresses in Acts 7. Perhaps the most stimulating essay on the Old Testament material is by Crispin Fletcher-Louis, which explains the temple as forming the background to understanding Christ’s incarnation. He unfolds this in terms of the image of God in man. Unlike pagan temples, God’s temple has no image or idol, but rather the high priest functioned not only as man’s representative before God but as God’s ‘idol’, God’s representation to man. When we come into the New Testament there is a fine study on the place of the temple in John’s Gospel, and of why the temple is never mentioned directly in Hebrews. The separate essays on Luke and Acts would have worked better as one. We are given new insight into Revelation chapters 21 and 22 as the links between Eden and the temple are unpacked, and an argument put forward that the Jewish temple was structured to represent the whole of creation. Hence the Bible has always worked towards the time when there will be no temple, for all creation is God’s temple. In the last few chapters of the book we move from biblical theology to systematic theology. Daniel Strange contributes a fine essay on our understanding of the concept of the presence of God, in which Clark Pinnock’s view that the presence of God is always a saving presence is repudiated. This is followed by a study from Stephen Sizer on contemporary Christian Zionists who are working to see a temple rebuilt in Jersusalem. In the light of the exegetical studies, not only does this not make any biblical sense, it also has frightening implications for the politics of the Middle East. JEBJohn Benton© Evangelicals Now - April 2005 |
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