City Life Starter

Written by Scott Fiddler

The Word

19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.

1st Corinthians 6:19-20

Reflection

Jesus comes out of the temple, and His disciples apparently comment on the beauty of the temple. Jesus responds by telling them the temple is going to be destroyed before their generation passes away. (Matt. 24:1-2; Mark 13:1-2; Luke 21:5-6). This must have been a shock to the disciples. The temple had been built by Herod. It took 46 years to build and was one of the most impressive buildings in the world. More importantly, the temple in Jerusalem was where sacrifices were made for the sins of the people and where the Holy Spirit was present. But there would be no more need for sacrifices for sin after Jesus’ death and resurrection because He became the sacrifice, once and for all, for those who would put their trust in Him. (Hebrews 10:10-12).

Then, just as Jesus had predicted, within a generation (40 years), in the year AD 70, the Roman general Titus had a siege wall built around Jerusalem cutting off all supplies to Jerusalem and then destroyed the city and the temple, ending Jewish sacrifices for sin and destroying what Jews believed was the physical habitation of the Spirit of God on earth.

In 312AD, Constantine the Great became the first Christian emperor of the Roman Empire, ending nearly three centuries of state sponsored persecution against Christians. Constantine’s successor, following the rule of Constantine’s sons, was  “Julian the Apostate.” Julian the Apostate, rightly named, though raised by Christian parents, rebelled against God and attempted to reverse Constantine’s policies regarding Christians and Christianity. Julian re-established paganism as the state religion, reopened pagan temples, confiscated church property, prohibited Christians from teaching, and allowed heretics who had been exiled to return to foster schism within the church. Julian’s strategy was to eradicate Christianity, particularly from the governing class, in the empire.

One of Julian’s tactics to undermine Christianity was to attempt to rebuild the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. Julian put the force and wealth of the Roman Empire behind his plan. What happened next was described by different writers in accounts that have survived to this day. Ambrose, bishop of Milan, in a later letter to emperor Theodosius, John Chrysostom, and Gregory of Nazianzus, who published his account of what happened during the same year it happened, all wrote of what happened. Gregory declared the event had been witnessed by the pagans, who did not dispute the miracle had occurred, which is a pretty bold thing to declare if it had not actually occurred.

But most compelling was the account of Amiantus Marcelinus, a non-Christian philosopher, who described the event as follows, “Whilst Alypius, assisted by the governor of the province, urged with vigor and diligence the execution of the work, horrible balls of fire breaking out near the foundations with frequent and reiterated attacks, rendered the place, from time-to-time, inaccessible to the scorched and blasted workmen; and . . . . the undertaking was abandoned.” As Edward Gibbon, Rationalist Enlightenment historian, and no friend to Christianity even had to admit, “Such authority should satisfy a believing, and must astonish an incredulous, mind.”

In short, Emperor Julian attempted to rebuild the temple so the Jews could reinstitute the sacrificial system and their belief the Spirit of God dwelt in their building, but as the builders attempted to start the work fire erupted from out of the foundation so many times that they gave up and abandoned the project. 

Application

As Paul noted in his letter to the Corinthians, the physical bodies of Christians are now the temple of the Holy Spirit, but the privilege of becoming the new earthly temple of the Holy Spirit came at a steep price—a price paid by King Jesus through his atoning death on the cross. The supernatural events that followed Emperor Julian’s attempt to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem demonstrated the Lord’s intent to protect the integrity of his investment. 

If you are a Christian, your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. You belong to God. 

Prayer

Lord, thank You for choosing to fill me with Your Holy Spirit. Amen.