Description

Contents

INTRODUCTION

1

God Walks with Man

Paradise:
Outside the Paradise
Noah and the Flood
God Coming Down
The Experience of the Patriarchs
God of Abraham
El-roi
Bethel
Peniel

2

Ark of the Covenant – Tent of meeting

God Experience of Moses:
Ark of the Covenant
Tent of Meeting
God Who Shows the Way
Miraculous Presence
Making an Idol out of a Holy Object
Do not forget the True Goal

3
Jerusalem Temple

The Ark to Jerusalem
From the Tent to the Temple
Pilgrimages
Missing the Goal

4

Temple In the Eyes of the Prophets

Amos
Hosea
Micah
Isaiah
Jeremiah:
Ezekiel

5
In The Exile

6
Post Exilic Period

Reconstruction of the Temple
Hopes not fulfilled
Trito Isaiah – The Temple and Justice
Religious Renewal based on rituals
Purity of Faith
Ritualistic Religiosity
Absence of Prophets
Persecution – Renewal
The Hasmonean Rule
The Roman Period
Herod the Great and temple reconstruction

7

Jesus and the House of God

House of my Father – House of Prayer
Cleansing of the Temple
Market Place or Den of Thieves
Prophecy about the Destruction of the Temple
Jesus is the Temple

8

House of God Today

A New Approach to the Temple
Heavenly Temple
Where is Heaven
Ascension – Presence
The Mystical Body of Christ, the Church
The Church – House; Christ – Corner Stone
The Christian Faithful – The Houses of God
It Was I
God is the “House of God”
Conclusion

ABOUT THE BOOK

“I saw the LORD standing beside the altar, and he said:
“Smite the capitals until the thresholds shake, and shatter
them on the heads of all the people; and what are left of them
I will slay with the sword; not one of them shall flee away,
not one of them shall escape.” (Am 9,1). Why does God ask to
destroy the temple and kill all those who came for worship?
This prophecy of Amos comes as the conclusion of his critic
against cult without compassion and devotion without
justice.
The House of God or rather God’s presence among the people
is the main theme of this book. The Bible starts with the
Paradise where man walked with God in the Garden of Eden
(Gen 3, 6) and ends with the New Heaven and New Earth
where God would make His tent among the people (Rev. 21, 3).
“
I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God
the Almighty and the Lamb” (Rev 21, 22). Thus there was
no temple in the beginning and there will be none at the end
either. In between, the bible tells about various temples or
modes of God’s presence among the people, such as the Ark
of the Covenant, the Tent of Meeting, the Jerusalem Temple,
the Body of Christ, The Community of the faithful etc. In this
book an attempt is made to go through this long evolution
in the view of the places of worship and encountering God’s
presence.