There is no Temple in the New Jerusalem

RV246-02

The eternal dwelling place of believers, we have learned in this chapter, is a magnificent city called the new Jerusalem. The new Jerusalem is created in heaven by God, and at the end of the 1,000-year millennium, it is brought down to earth, and set upon the new earth. The new Jerusalem glows with the brilliance of God's glory as a crystal-clear jasper stone. The streets are made of transparent gold. The new Jerusalem is surrounded by a square wall of jasper gemstone, 216 feet tall, and perhaps as wide. The wall has 12 entrances distributed three to each side, with an angel and the name of one of the 12 tribes of Israel inscribed above each doorway, signifying the presence of Israel in the new Jerusalem. Each entrance has a door made of a single, huge pearl. The new Jerusalem jasper wall rests on a foundation of 12 slabs, each made of a gemstone, and inscribed with the name of an apostle, signifying the presence of the church believers in the new Jerusalem.

The new Jerusalem building inside the wall is a cube 1,500 miles in each direction. The shape is reminiscent of the holy of holies cube in the Old Testament temple, and it no doubt is patterned after it. The entire colorful city and wall is encased in the brilliance of the Shekinah glory of God, and is a breathtaking scene, as John observes it. He struggles for words to try to convey to us the magnificence of this city that he sees, which is the eternal home, the heaven of believers.

God Himself dwells in the new Jerusalem with His redeemed people from all dispensations of human history. The new Jerusalem is a place of infinite blessedness and unfathomable joy filled with the holiness and the glory of God.

We now begin at Revelation 21:22-23, which speak now of the temple and the illumination of the new Jerusalem. Verse 22 deals with the temple. John says, "And I saw." You may remember that I pointed out to you previously that this expression, "And I saw," occurs several times in this book, and each time it is a signal from the Spirit of God that a great and new dramatic revelation is about to be made. So, when you see these words "And I saw," your ears should prick up and become alert, because something very significant is about to be said.

No Temple

So, when he says "naos," this is the part specifically that he is referring to. He is referring to the very cubicle dwelling place of God. Therefore, that's the same word that is fitting for the new Jerusalem as a 1,500-mile cube.

God met with His people, Israel, via the Aaronic priesthood and the sacrificial system of the temple. The temple ceremony symbolized various truths about the person and the work of Jesus Christ, the future Messiah Savior. The whole system was a memorial to the redeeming work of God, promised first to Adam, and then later confirmed to Abraham in the Abrahamic covenant – that God was going to send a Savior to deal with the sins of mankind.

In the Old Testament earthly Jerusalem, and in the millennium Jerusalem, the landscape was dominated by the temple on Mount Zion. If you stood outside, across the Kidron Valley, in the time of Christ, and you looked down across the city of Jerusalem, the most outstanding thing that would catch your attention was the temple. Today, you may stand on that same spot; look across the valley; and, look upon the near sight of where the temple stood. That is not the exact site. We have discovered that that is not true. The exact site of the temple was 150 feet north of where the Muslims have put up the Dome of the Rock Mosque. But today, when you stand across on that hill (the Mount of Olives), cross from Jerusalem, and you look down across, and there is Mount Zion, and there the most outstanding thing is the Muslim mosque now with its golden dome. In the old days, what stood there, in that magnificent presentation, was the temple of the Jewish people. It was this temple, including the way the temple was built, and the way the ceremonies were performed – this all spoke of the person of the God-man, Messiah, Savior, Jesus Christ, and of His work of redemption.

The Trinity

The Lord God Almighty

So, this phrase, "the Lord God Almighty," is a way of referring to the Godhead (to the Trinity). We find that this is used in this manner elsewhere. For example, in Revelation 4:8, where we read, "And the four living creatures (the angelic beings – the honor guard), each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within, and day and night they do not cease to say, 'Holy, holy, holy.'" Why are there three holies? They are referring to each member of the Godhead: to the Father; to the Son; and, to the Holy Spirit: "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty." Then the triple-holy is directly attached to this phrase: "The Lord God Almighty," indicating that this is indeed a technical expression for the Triune God.

The Eternality of the Trinity

This is also indicated in Revelation 19:6, where we read, "And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters, and as the sound of the mighty peals of thunder saying, 'Hallelujah, for the Lord, our God the Almighty reigns.'"

So, we have ample indication that when, John said, "I saw no temple in it," but there was a temple, there was a different kind of temple. The temple was a Triune God whom he describes here as "the Lord God the Almighty," which is the same way that God is referred to in His Trinity elsewhere.

The Lamb

It is not clear from the Word of God whether we shall ever see with our eyes God the Father or God the Holy Spirit. It is clear that we shall see God the Son, the God-man Jesus Christ. Special emphasis is here made of the presence in the new Jerusalem of the one whose person and work of redemption was portrayed in that temple in Jerusalem with its ceremonies. The whole reason for the Jewish temple was to tell things about the Messiah Savior, and to portray the whole work of God in redemption.

So, here John sees no temple, but he is told the reason for this is that the reality of what the temple once portrayed is now here, because that reality is God, and specifically, Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. We are told that they are the temple. It uses this word "naos," indicating that it is that holy of holy place that is specifically to which God is connected – the inner sanctuary. The earthly temple no longer is needed here because God Himself is present. God was the type, and the temple was the anti-type portraying Him.

Since the Triune God, then, is in the New Jerusalem, and He is visible in the form of the incarnated God-man Jesus Christ, there is no need for a temple building to portray this Triune God. The Godhead is represented by the Lamb Jesus Christ, and the Godhead constitutes the temple in the new Jerusalem. The glory of the Triune God will radiate in the new Jerusalem so that there will be no need for any symbolic representation of Him. It will be very clear that God is present.

Believers in the New Jerusalem will, of course, not have any need for priestly mediation for access to God as they did in the Old Testament temple. They will have direct and unlimited contact with the person of Christ. The temple of the old Jerusalem is replaced by God Himself in the new Jerusalem.

This termination of a geographic temple on the earth was actually predicted by Jesus Himself on the occasion when He was dealing with the woman at the well in Samaria. In John 4:21, Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe Me. An hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem shall you worship the Father." The woman was carrying on a debate: "Where is the right place to worship?" Jesus said, "The time is coming when you won't worship either here in Samaria or in Jerusalem. What was He talking about? He was talking about the new Jerusalem where there is no temple.

The Temple Today

This is a very serious Scripture, because it points out to us that as Christians, our bodies are now the only temple that exists on the face of the earth – the bodies of the believers. And because they are the temple of God, they are to be places of great holiness. We are to treat with great respect our physical bodies, and we are to treat them under the laws of God, and in compatibility with the character of God. God says, "Now, you have freedom because of your volition to treat My temples any way you want to. You who live in My temples, your body, in which the Spirit of God is also present, may indeed use that body in an ungodly and in an immoral way." But God says, "If you do this, I will destroy you."

This is very serious business. If you persistently and willfully use the body of God in a sinful way, then God will bring that temple down. He will not tolerate that insult to the Spirit of God to live in a desecrated temple.

In 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, this same principles is again enunciated: "Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit; who is in you; whom you have from God; and, that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price. Therefore, glorify god in your body." The price with which you have been born, of course, is the shed blood of Christ upon the cross, and your body therefore belongs to God as His temple via the indwelling the Holy Spirit. Therefore, you are to again recognize that you are a very special person.

In the Old Testament, the Jews had no constant contact with God via the person of the Holy Spirit. This is one of the distinctives of church-age believers. Only Christians are permanently indwelt by the Holy Spirit. In the Old Testament, sometimes God the Spirit would come on a Jew. For example, the men who had to build the temple needed special abilities as craftsman. The Holy Spirit of God would come and He would indwell them. He would give them the abilities. And when they were through with the job, He would leave them. You and I constantly have that direct line to the power of God via the Holy Spirit of God which controls us. We should remember that this is part of why we are royalty. This is why the Jew was not a royal person in the Old Testament times. But we Christians are all part of royalty because we are directly connected via the Holy Spirit to Jesus Christ the King. And the Spirit of God never leaves us.

So, it is sad when a Christian acts like a dog. It is sad when a Christian is a hypocrite relative to the Word of God, pretending to be a follower of Christ, and claiming to be a born-again person, and then living as if he was just a natural unsaved creature, fully indulging the sin nature. That is a great travesty, and it is a great insult. This is why the Bible is so important when it says, "Christians, first of all, walk by means of the Holy Spirit. Walk in dependence upon His guidance. How can you be guided by the Holy Spirit? You have to know doctrine; otherwise, you can just wipe it out. If you don't know doctrine; if doctrine does not permeate your mentality; and, if doctrine is not filled within your human spirit because you have been out here week-in and week-out, month-in and month-out, and year-in and year-out, not being fed upon the Word of God, you have little contact with God, and very little capacity for being led by Him.

For many Christians, the answer to why things don't click; why they're not efficient in prayer; and, so on, is because they're out of touch with the power lines of the Spirit of God. Most Christians have never been taught the principle of confessing known sins in order to keep that power line repaired. And those who do know how to confess their known sins, as per 1 John 1:9, don't have any basis for the Spirit of God to illumine them in their movement in their human spirit. The Spirit of God is walking around, and He wants to give you guidance. He's trying to bring to your attention some point of doctrine that you need to guide you, and there's nothing there.

So, what do you do? You get emotional. You ask yourself: "Why is this happening to me? Why to me?" Or you get on a mountain top, and draw your white robes around you, and you begin meditating. You slip into the world system of religion. You try to take up the slack for yourself because the Spirit of God is not there.

You are a very special person by dint of the fact that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. It is not that the temple was unimportant, as the reason why it's not in the new Jerusalem. The temple is enormously important. God always has a temple, but He is the type, and the temple was the anti-type. That was the representation of all that God is. Now, of all things, you and I are supposed to be the representations of all that God is? That's right. That's why God can say, "Be holy as I am holy." So, God says, "Walk by means of the Holy Spirit."

Secondly, because the Spirit of God indwells us, He says, "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit." That will cut you off from all divine guidance. What does grieve mean? It means willful, unrepented, unconfessed sin. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit by walking in sin. Cease and desist. Confess and admit, and change your ways.

The third thing it tells us about how to be a spiritual person is, "Do not quench the Holy Spirit." How do you quench the Holy Spirit? That Greek word means to put out something like a fire. The fire of God's guidance is burning in your heart. God says, "Look, this needs to be done. Here is what the work of God needs, and you have it in your means to do it." And you say, "I don't want to. I don't want to give away that thing. I don't want to give that up. I don't want to do this. I don't want to readjust my life." What you are doing is quenching the Holy Spirit.

Then you might as well forget about walking as a Christian. You're out of it. You can keep on the religion. You can keep on the pretenses. But when you have quenched the Holy spirit, you're out of this. When the Word of God says, "Here is what you should do. You're a man. You should act in this way. These are your duties before God within family, and as a male." Or: "This is your duty as a woman in the home before God, and as a female." But you say, "But that isn't what society tells me." So, you go with the trend of our society, and you violate the Word of God, and you have quenched Him. When God speaks in the Word of God, He has told you what to do, and the fire has been lit. And when you go negative and refuse to obey, you have thrown the water on it and sealed it off. Then you're just a poor, sorry human being in our society who's walking along in great, self-righteous arrogance.

I've noticed that the people who are believers, who are out of touch with the Spirit of God, are a sorry, arrogant group who think they are in the know. They will speak to with great forcefulness. And the less they have, the louder they speak. They will pound the pound the pulpit, so to speak, and they will try to be impressive, but they are just empty wind blowing off – nothing.

John sees no temple in the new Jerusalem because God Himself is that temple. The Old Testament temple represented all that God is and does through Christ. We today, as believers, are that temple, and everything that is applicable to that holy place is applicable to us, including the joy and the happiness of doing right, and of walking as a child of God with our integrity intact, compatible with the character of God – just acting like what we are, the royal family of God.

So, this is no small thing for God to say, "You are my temple, and I want you to keep it holy, and I want you to live in it with great joy because I've moved in with you." This marks you as the special people of God. The gentiles will never be greater than the church members. The Jews will never be greater than the church members. Only the church will be the bride of Christ. Only the church is united to Him as His body. Only the church will rule and reign with Him through that Millennial Kingdom. Because of that must, you must act as royalty.

Don't you have a surge of disgust in you as you read about the royal families around the world today? These people are royalty? Most of the commoners in those countries have more quality as human beings than the so-called royal families. The royal families of the world today are a huge joke. They're nothing but lowlife creatures, but they have the money; they have the position; they have the prestige; they live in palaces; and, they have great authority. People listen to them and consult with them, but they're nothing but blowing wind. They're a zero. The commonest Christian who is well-versed in doctrine, and who keeps his temporal fellowship intact, respecting his body as a temple of the Holy Spirit, knows infinitely more than these royal people, and is an infinitely greater person – a truly beautiful person, rather than those that are presented by the royal families of our time.

2 Corinthians 6:16 also says, "Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols?" You Christians are the temple of God. What association, in God's name, do you have with idols? Things became so bad in the Old Testament under the Jewish system that they actually brought the idols into the temple of God. They actually brought the idols in, and were worshiping Baal within the temple. And when the Old Testament prophets were shown that by the Spirit of God, they could not believe it. Talk about something being a loathing abomination! And here is the same concept:

"What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God. Just as God said, 'I will dwell in them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.'" How more explicit can you make it than that?

You might say, "Oh, I don't fool with idols." You don't? Are you greedy? Are you covetously clutching what you have? That's your idol. The Bible says, "Idolatry is akin to witchcraft, and witchcraft is idolatry." The Bible says that greed and covetousness are idols. We don't build things out of stone and wood and metal, and then put the little image up there that we worship. Oh, you can go to the grocery stores here in town, and in the sections devoted to these to the Latin American segment of our culture, you have all the practices you need for idolatry. There are the little candles that you can that light. There is the paraphernalia of one kind or another of the holy pictures that you can put up there. They're all there, and you can buy it, even with food stamps. You can buy your religious approach to God with food stamps. Isn't that wonderful? What a country we live in! How religious; how gracious; and, how considerate!

I watch those shelves, and those candles go as fast as they can put them on the shelf. The pictures go as fast as they can put them on the shelf. This is religion bringing ideas into real experience. Unfortunately, the people who do that are part of a religious system that has ensured that the people who follow that religion will not trust in Christ alone for free grace salvation. So, therefore they're going to hell. They're on their way to the lake of fire, and they think that they're going to take up the slack with these religious practices: with burning their candles; and, going through their rituals. But Jesus is going to say to them, when they stand before Him, "Depart from Me. I never knew you."

And they will say, "What? Do you realize how many candles I've burned for You?" Well, take your candles with you, because you're going to a burning place where it'll be easy to light them. And you can keep burning them for all eternity, because it's not going to do you any good there anymore than it did when you were alive. This is serious business?

Not to recognize that my body is a temple of the Holy Spirit is a great disaster. When you come to ultimate contempt for that body, you won't hesitate to kill it. Suicide is the ultimate expression of expressing your contempt for your body as the temple of God. And that's a bad way to go out into eternity. And taking the bodies of other people, like unborn children in abortion, and murdering them, is to murder what is the temple of God. Those children before the age of accountability are the children of God.

We have a great conference in Cairo now of all the weirdos from all the nations of the world. And in the forefront is the United States. It is a conference on population control. It is a conference on how to promote abortion for all the countries of the world. They're having a fit because the Roman Catholic Church (in this case) is right in opposing abortion as the taking of life. And the Muslim world (in this case) is right because they consider it murder to take the life of an unborn child. So, they've all ganged up against Vice President Al Gore, and all of the Americans, and all the people from the sophisticated countries around the world who want to figure out how to depopulate our planet.

Well, what they need to know is that God has a solution coming. Boy, is God going to depopulate this planet? Once we Christians go zooming out to outer space, and the prophetic clock starts ticking on those last seven years of Daniel's 490 years of human history, then three-and-a-half years will go by. And, of the six billion people on this earth, three billion will be dead by then. And by the end, almost all the rest of them will be dead too. Our world has a madness of contempt for the human body. This is why God is so severe on those who shed innocent blood and take innocent life. What was told to Noah is true till this very day: a willful murder deserves death.

When Jesus Christ Himself walked on this earth, as the God-man, people were in the very presence of the ultimate temple of God. And it is this ultimate temple that they will see in the new Jerusalem.

In the meantime, folks, we re are it. We are the temple, so let's act accordingly. Quit pretending that you don't have your idols that you're bringing into God's temple. Sweep them out, and have nothing to do with those things that are contrary to God's mission for you, and to God's capabilities that He has given you. Move it, and do it, or you are insulting the Spirit of God who lives within you.

Revelation 21:23 goes on and says, "And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine upon it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb." "The city" is referring to the new Jerusalem. It does not have any need for a sun or for a moon in order to illuminate it.

This does not say that there will be no sun; that there will be no moon; or, that there will be no stars in the new heavens. That's not true. These have in fact been created by God to exist forever. The Bible tells us that in Psalm 148:3: "Praise Him, sun and moon. Praise Him, all stars of light."

Then, in Psalm 148:5 it says, "Let them praise the name of the Lord, for He commanded that they were created. He has also established them forever and ever." God said, I have made these luminaries in the sky to last forever. So, the sun and the moon and the stars will be there. They will in fact continue their function of day and night in the new earth. As the new earth rotates on its axis, it will go through the relative cycles of day and night. These heavenly light bearers, however, are not needed for illumination in the new Jerusalem.

The Glory of God

1 John 1:5 tells us very explicitly that God is light. He is that by virtue of His holiness. God always is surrounded by the dazzling light of His Shekinah glory; that is, the glory of His presence.

1 Timothy 6:16 points this out to us: "Who (referring to Christ and to God) alone possesses immortality, and dwells in unapproachable light; who no man has seen or can see; to Him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen." This is speaking here of God the Father: "Who alone possesses immortality." He can never die: "And He dwells in unapproachable light." Because of that – that light reflecting His holiness, no man can see God at any time.

God the Son was the source of spiritual light to mankind, to lead believers into the visible glory light of God. That was the role of Jesus. He was the light of the world. In John 8:12, Jesus says, "I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have the light of life." Here He is referring, of course, to spiritual enlightenment. Those who obey Him, and who listen to His words, receive spiritual enlightenment, and they will in time dwell in the very glory light of God.

This is the glory light that Jesus Himself displayed on the mount of transfiguration in Matthew 17:2, when suddenly, He was illuminated with a brilliant light, and even His clothing glowed with that light.

The Glory Light of God

Then later, when they built the Solomonic temple, 1 Kings 8:10-11 point out that the same thing happened again. The presence of God was shown by the glory light: "It came about when the priest came from the holy place that the cloud filled the house of the Lord so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord."

God dwelt in that place. And because God dwelt in that place, it was His house. You should not refer to our gymnasium in which we meet as the house of the Lord. You might not be too inclined to say that because it is a gymnasium, but you should not say that because God does not dwell in this place. God is dwelling here now because all of you believers are here. But the moment the last believer walks out of this place, there is no presence of God here anymore.

In the Old Testament, the priest could leave the temple, but the presence of God was always there, because that's where God dwelt. You might be more inclined to use that phrase, if you are a member of a church that has a magnificent cathedral, but that doesn't make any difference. God is still not there. I have found that the more external accouterments a group puts together religiously, in which to surround themselves as they meet, the less internal presence of God there is in the real temple, the temple of the living God within themselves. Because God's presence was there, that temple became His house.

The divine glory light will also fill the millennial temple in Jerusalem. Haggai 2:7-9 and Ezekiel 44:4 point that out. The time is coming when the millennial temple will be built, and lo and behold, the place will again be filled with the presence of God. Haggai 2:7-9: "'I will shake all the nations. They will come with the wealth of all the nations. I will fill this house with glories as the Lord of hosts. The silver is Mine. The gold is Mine,' declares the Lord of hosts. 'The latter glory of this house will be greater than the former,' says the Lord of hosts. 'And in this place I will give peace,' declares the lord of Hosts." Now, this is referring specifically to the Millennial Kingdom. This passage deals with the millennium, and God says, "This is going to be a greater place of glory than was the original temple of Solomon."

In Ezekiel 44:4, we have this again: "Then He brought me, by the way of the north gate, to the front of the house, and I looked, and behold, the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord, and I fell on my face." Ezekiel here is describing the millennial temple. It will be filled with the glory of God.

So, the new Jerusalem is going to be constantly illuminated with the brilliant light of God's glory. The power company will make very little money on the new Jerusalem. Other places on the new earth, they'll have some business to take care of us, but not in the new Jerusalem.

Interestingly enough, God gave the prophet Isaiah a preview of this whole scene of the new Jerusalem bathed in the brilliance of the glory of light, so that, there's no knight there, and there's no need for any illumination externally. Just listen to this, speaking of this eternal state of the new Jerusalem: Isaiah 60:18: "Violence will not be heard again in your land, nor devastation nor destruction within your borders. (This is on the new earth.) But you will call your wall salvation, and your gates praise. No longer will you have the sun for light by day, nor for brightness will the moon give you light. But you will have the Lord for an everlasting light, and your God for your glory. Your son will set no more. Neither will your will your moon wane. For you will have the Lord for an everlasting light. And the days of your mourning will be finished. Then all your people will be righteous. They will possess the land forever: the branch of My planting; the work of My hands, that I may be glorified. The smallest one will become a clan, and the least one a might nation. I, the Lord, will hasten it in its time." Here is the great promise, specifically to Israel, that they will dwell within the glory light of God forever.

So, Revelation 21:23: "The city (the new Jerusalem) has no need of the sun or the moon (though they are still in existence) to shine upon it (They do need it for shining upon the rest of the daylight and nighttime cycles of the new earth). For the glory of God has illumined the city of God, and its lamp is the 'arnion' (the Lamb)." This word is repeatedly used in reference to the Lord Jesus Christ. And we're told that He is the direct source of the kind of the Shekinah glory light in the New Jerusalem.

Unsaved people and carnal believers always prefer darkness to light in order that they may live out their ways. People who are doing what is wrong prefer darkness. John 3:19 says, "And this is the judgment, that the light is come into the world (namely, Christ), and men love the darkness rather than the light, for their deeds were evil." Unsaved people and carnal believers prefer darkness, but believers who are in temporal fellowship prefer to live in the light of God's Word of doctrine.

In John 8:12, this is pointed out when Jesus says, "I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." It is the duty of all of you as Christians, then, with bodies who are the temples of the Spirit of God, and who are indwelt by that Holy Spirit, to live by the light of doctrine.

1 John 1:5-7: "And this is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, cleanses us from all sins." Do you want to have fellowship with God your father? Do you want to have fellowship with the Creator God? Do you want to have fellowship with the God who makes everything work for you or not work for you? Then you must walk in the light of the Word of God. To walk in the light of the Word of God, you must know the Word of God.

Do you see why a congregation like Berean Church, and a ministry like Berean, at all age levels, is so enormously important. It is because here is a place where you will truly be introduced to the doctrines of the Word of God. You will not be left to act as a fool unless you choose to do so. You will be in the know. And those of you who choose to walk in the light will walk hand-in-hand with the Lord Jesus Christ. But those of you who choose to ignore the light, then Satan will have a field day with you.

The new Jerusalem has no temple because God, whom that temple represented, is Himself there. He is the temple. And the city is illumined by the glory of God, and Jesus Christ is the source of that illumination. Everything that we have, and are, and ever will be is because we are related to Christ. Don't ever do anything that hurts that relationship, and don't ever think that you have developed so far, and you've grown so mature, that you don't need to constantly feed upon the powerful and living and active Word of God.

Yes, you will all be in the new Jerusalem. On some level, you will be assigned a mansion to live in. You will have a dwelling place that is yours. But your relationships in that new Jerusalem will be governed by the quality of the life that you lived as a Christian; how you treated this body that is the temple of the Spirit of God; the integrity with which you conducted yourself; and, the fact that you did not have idols that kept you from doing what you could have done in service for God. And I can tell you on the authority of the Word of God, those of you who rise to that service will be richly rewarded. And your life in that new Jerusalem will be enormously enhanced over the lives of other Christians who have their eyes on temporal things, and who take the Word of God with indifference.

Be a Fanatic

Dr. John E. Danish, 1993

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