Please remember that the temple was built in peace. The builder of the temple was Solomon, whose name means “peace.” Whenever there is no peace in the church, there is no building. Today it is with a heavy heart that I say that this problem has been with the church for the past two thousand years. The building of the church requires gifts. Without gifts the church cannot be built. However, it is very troubling that once a church has gifts, the gifts often begin to fight with each other. If the gifts are relatively small, the fighting is not so serious, but if the gifts are bigger, the fighting is more intense. The building of the church requires a certain measure of spirituality. However, the problem is that whenever someone becomes somewhat spiritual, difficulties arise. One spiritual person will fight with another spiritual person, and as a result, both lose their spirituality. This is a situation in which the weights are not proper or fitting.
Lastly, I would like to mention one more matter. David and Solomon both occupied special positions in the building of the temple. The former prepared the building materials, and the latter accomplished the building. Most readers of the Bible acknowledge that David and Solomon both typify Christ. David’s entire life was a type of Christ in His suffering, fighting, and crucifixion. Just as David in his sufferings prepared the building material for the temple, so also Christ in His sufferings and death redeemed and prepared us as the building material for the church. Solomon was a type of Christ in His resurrection, including His ascension and His coming back. Just as Solomon accomplished the building of the temple, Christ in His resurrection will build the church until His return.
Some say that the real building up of the church will not occur today but on the day of Christ’s return. They say that today is the age of David, that is, the age of the church in suffering. At most it is the age in which the Lord is preparing the building material. This concept, however, is not accurate. Remember that the Lord Jesus said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19). The Lord was speaking of the temple of His body (v. 21). In His resurrection His body became a mystical Body, the church. Hence, the building of the church is a matter in resurrection.
Not only so, if the building of the church were to be delayed until the Lord’s return, then all of the records concerning the building of the church in Acts and in the Epistles would be empty words. The record of Acts clearly shows us that immediately after His death, resurrection, ascension, and descension in the Holy Spirit, the Lord began to build His church. He began from Jerusalem, spread to all of Judea, and then turned to the Gentiles. Eventually, He will reach the uttermost parts of the earth. Therefore, all that the Lord has been doing from the time of His resurrection and all that He will continue to do until the time of His return is to build up His church. Therefore, the building of the church has already begun today and does not have to be delayed until the future.
In the Old Testament we see that when the building of the temple was completed, God’s glory filled the temple. However, it is a pity that this situation did not last long. Not long afterward, the children of Israel failed and were ultimately taken captive to Babylon. Babylon was versus the building of God. God wants a building, but Satan also wants a building. The Bible tells us that the last city that Satan built was Babylon. One day the Babylonians came to Jerusalem, and they destroyed the temple as well as the city and even brought all the vessels that were in the temple for the worship of God (except the Ark, which was not mentioned) to Babylon and put them in the temple of their idol.
Why did the Bible not mention how God dealt with the Ark? The reason why the record of the Bible does not tell us this is to indicate that the church may be destroyed, but Christ cannot be destroyed. During the past two thousand years, the problem has never been with Christ but with the church. After the temple was built up, the Babylonian forces came and tried to tear it down. Many readers of the Bible acknowledge that Babylon typifies the organized Roman Catholic Church. This is Satan’s stratagem to destroy the church.
Thank God that after seventy years, the time of the Israelites’ captivity was fulfilled, and God moved King Cyrus and stirred up his spirit to let the Israelites return to Jerusalem for the rebuilding and recovery of the temple. The record of the Bible clearly shows us that while the enemy was trying to destroy the temple, God was focused on the recovery of the temple. None of the problems were with the Ark. Instead, all of the problems were with the tabernacle and with the temple. In other words, the problem is not with Christ but with the church. When we would read church history, we realize that beginning at Martin Luther’s time, God’s people began to come out from the Roman Catholic Church. Ever since that time, God’s desire has been that we thoroughly come out of Babylon to recover the building of the church. We as a group of Christians are neither in the Roman Catholic Church nor in the Protestant churches. According to God’s intention, we desire to be delivered out of every religious organization. According to the Old Testament type, our desire is to come out of Babylon and to return to the proper foundation and ground—which is the site of the former temple in Jerusalem, upon which our forefathers and the apostles worshipped God—to rebuild and recover the temple. We wish to return only to such a ground and foundation to meet, to worship God, and to establish the church.
I hope that all the children of God would see that the problem is not with the Ark but with the tabernacle and the temple. There is no problem with Christ. All the problems are with the church. Our Lord is eternally established and unchangeable. However, the dwelling place that He wants to obtain on the earth has been misunderstood by men as well as destroyed by the enemy. Therefore, like David, we should always consider God’s heart’s desire and regard as important what He regards as important. We must not only have the Ark, but we must also have the proper dwelling place. We must not only have Christ, but we must also have the proper church to match Christ. Only in this way can God’s heart be fully satisfied, and only in this way can God be glorified in the church and in Christ. May the Lord bless us that we may treasure Him and likewise treasure His chosen and builded vessel, the church.