Why God not Dwelling in Temples made with Hands is so Important

Many times when talking about the practices of Christianity - especially what are wrongly called "churches" - referring to buildings, it can seem to be a irrelevant point, as it was just the way things were done back at the beginning of the church.

That would be wrong thinking, as the revelation that God doesn't dwell in special buildings wasn't something related to the culture of that day, or lack of money to build some type of special building, it is something that has always been part of the very heart of God.

Steven died defending this fact, with Saul - whose name would be changed to Paul - listening and looking on. He would have never done that if it wasn't crucial to the people of God.

Calling a building a church is a horrid idea and thought, and needs to be wiped out of our way of life and thinking. It contradicts "everything" the New Testament says about what the church is.

God always had the eternal thought in Him that He would dwell within a people; to be in intimate union with them, fellowshipping on an ongoing, daily basis. What does that have to do with a building? Absolutely nothing.

So what these buildings do is take away from what it is God really wants to experience together with us, which is sharing and living His life within a people, i.e. dwelling.

When people think going to a building has anything to do with what the church is, they think they've discharged the will and purpose of God during a couple hours a week, and then go on living in a false sense of personal satisfaction and gratification, thinking God is pleased with them.

God is after much more than going to an edifice, He created us so that He could live in an intimate relationship with us: individually and corporately. That's why there was never a special building with the idea of it being a church. That idea never entered into the thought of Christians before Constantine turned them to it.

While early Christians got off track in other areas before Constantine, this wasn't one of them. He built what was the first special buildings eventually called a "church." It was an historical, monumental disaster.

The point in continuing to talk about this? We must open ourselves to what it is that God intended before creation and time. These buildings and what is practiced in them is one of the greatest hindrances to that happening.

If God doesn't Dwell in Temples made with Hands, then what are you doing there?

When Steven was taken into custody and false witnesses arrayed against him, he began his defense of the accusations against himself.

Toward the end of his discourse, Steven had this to say about the temple:

“Our fathers had the tabernacle of testimony in the wilderness, just as He who spoke to Moses directed him to make it according to the pattern which he had seen.

“And having received it in their turn, our fathers brought it in with Joshua upon dispossessing the nations whom God drove out before our fathers, until the time of David.

“David found favor in God’s sight, and asked that he might find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob.

“But it was Solomon who built a house for Him.

“However, the Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands; as the prophet says:

"‘Heaven is my throne, and earth is the footstool of my feet; what kind of house will you build for me?' says the Lord, or what place is there for my repose? Was it not my hand which made all these things?'"

This statement by Steven was what eventually led to his death at the hands of the Jews, as he was basically tearing down the entire temple system of that day.

It was there that he followed up with his analysis of the condition of the Jews listening to him saying: “You men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit; you are doing just as your fathers did. Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who had previously announced the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become; you who received the law as ordained by angels, and yet did not keep it.”

The final sealing of Steven's fate was when he saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God, saying, “Behold, I see the heavens opened up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” That's when they took him and murdered him by stoning.

Steven throughout his entire talk to the Jewish leaders was concerning God doing a work in the earth, and the Jews always resisting that work.

It culminated in the final subject where he got to what the charges against him were about: God doesn't dwell in temples made with hands (or houses). He of course meant special buildings built to be considered the place God lived; as if God like to fill up empty, physical structures.

The false witnesses against Steven accused him in this way earlier in the narrative: “This man incessantly speaks against this holy place and the Law; for we have heard him say that this Nazarene, Jesus, will destroy this place and alter the customs which Moses handed down to us.”

It's interesting in what they accused Steven of, because in essence that's probably what he did say ... referencing the time Jesus said he'd destroy the Jewish temple and be raised up as the real temple: Himself.

That's why they hated it so much when Steven said he saw Jesus standing on the right hand of God. The true, living temple had risen, and the former types and shadows were now meaningless.

So with that being the case, why do we continue to resist in our day the reality which Steven died for back then, that God doesn't dwell in temples made with hands?

I go back to my question then: If God doesn't dwell in temples made with hands, what are you doing there?

God Doesn't Dwell in Temples made with Hands

If God doesn't dwell in temples made with hands, then what are you doing there.
 
This article deals with the foundation behind that question. 
 
To begin our investigation of these matters lets go to the end of the scriptures. In Revelation 21:22 we are told that in the bride, the lamb's wife, there is no temple. For the bride is that city that is coming down out of heaven from God. There is no temple here because our Lord and our Father are that temple.  
 
Then in Eph. 2:21-22 we are shown that we are joined together in Christ and are growing into a holy temple where God can dwell in by His Spirit.
 
When you read these things, think back to the gospels where Jesus is talking about Him being in us and us in Him etc. These scriptures give us a good picture of how these two things work together. He is our temple and we are His temple. We dwell in Him and He dwells in us.
 
Paul asks us the question in 1Cor. 3:16 - Don't you know that you are the temple of God? You need to ask yourself that question. Do you know the answer?
 
Most will answer this question with a yes; the problem is that when we take this to its conclusion, the great majority resist the implications of what the scriptures teach us.
 
Let's now look at an example in Acts where Stephen is confronting a crowd of Jews. Stephen is telling them that David asked God if he could build a dwelling place for Him. Yet we are met with the powerful statement that God does not dwell in temples made with hands. In other words: physical temples made by men. 
 
Then Stephen reminds us of what God spoke through the prophet when He asks the question: "What house or temple could you possibly build for me?"
 
Solomon also says this when he mentions that the heaven and even the heaven of heavens can't contain God, let alone the little temple that he had built.
 
The church of Jesus Christ were the first people serving God that didn't have some type of special building built for serving God. They were the first people on earth that worshipped God in their simple homes. The reason why was because believers were now the temple of God.  

It wasn't until the pagan Constantine came and a number of compromising Christians forsook the ways of God and cooperated in Constantine's building of the first buildings on the planet that were used to meet in by Christians. The church has went downhill ever since that time, adding all other types of pagan rituals to this terrible error. 
 
The building of pagan-inspired places for Christians to meet was the foundation of the ensuing centuries of unbelievable pagan mixture in the church. 
 
The other things that were soon added that were pagan to the core, couldn't have been added except these pagan buildings were added first.
 
It was a disaster of the highest order.
 
The temple of God had reverted back to what existed in the old testament times as a type and shadow of what was to come. When that which was to come became real, the physical type and shadow was no longer meaningful.
 
This is the same principle as the blood of the animal sacrifices of the Old Testament. Once Christ came and His blood was shed, the use of animal sacrifices among believers was meaningless. 
 
Types and shadows existed for the purpose of pointing to a coming reality and fulfillment. Once the reality emerged, the type and shadow is discarded.

The implications of this is so powerful that it is one of those things that most Christians like to shrug off and continue on with things as they are.
 
If you deal with this one reality, everything else that has been built upon the false concept of bricks and mortar being the 'house of God,' would collapse. That is why many fight this with a vengeance.
 
All of the types and shadows still operating to this day collapse under the revelation that the church is a living, breathing people of the Spirit. The false terminology of `going to church' becomes as meaningless as it was in the early church. The first and early Christians would have given you a blank look if you were to use that type of weird language back then. It didn't exist in their mindset or way of life.
 
Today we must re-examine this backward step. Applying something as spiritual or holy to an inanimate object is bizarre at least and most definitely pagan. This is what idolatry has always been: the applying of godhood or holiness to an object. For example the making of a golden calf and saying that that is the god that brought you out of Egypt. 
 
Another example would be the worship of materialism. Many in our generation love their things. While these are inanimate objects, we apply prestige and success in the eyes of man to them. They are 'symbols' of our accomplishments. Rather we should care more about what pleases God than what pleases people.
 
This is what has happened with the inanimate 'temple' worship of our present day. People really believe that it is a sign that they are pleasing God and a reward from Him when they build these pagan-inspired temples and then apply the name 'church' to them. 
 
What it really does is take away everything that Christ wanted the church to be. It takes away the unseen nature of the spiritual way of life that is Christ. It hides the real work of Christ that centers on Christ being formed within us; that deep inner work that has always been how God shapes Himself within us. 
 
It distorts what the body of Christ really is. It destroys the true practice of being a priesthood of believers. 
 
We could go on and on. 
 
The key here is to turn from these things. Why? For God doesn't dwell in temples made with hands. And I'll ask the question again: If God doesn't dwell there, than what are you doing there?