Puzzling to Me

 

 

Look out, my brother, my sister

For the return of Christ,

For the redeemed it will be great

For the unsaved, not so nice.

 

Yes, he is coming soon

To catch his bride away

And since these are the last days

It could be any day.

 

There’ll be a great tribulation

Of exactly seven years

And you will not want to be around

To experience such fear.

 

Immediately there after

There will be the millennium

In which Jesus will be the king

Ruling from Jerusalem.

 

 

A new temple will be built

And Jesus will rule with the Jews,

That this is the promise of God

Is the dispensationalist’s view.

 

I used to hold to this

But I have been forced to change,

A more in-depth reading of the Word

Shows me it is strange.

 

The first reason is the temple

That Jesus said would be destroyed,

However, that they must be another

Is an idea some employ.

 

Why revert to types and shadows

When the real has been fulfilled?

The knowledge that I am born again

Gives me an abounding thrill. 

 

As such, we are become lively stones

Built into the temple of Christ,

He himself is the cornerstone

And he alone does suffice.

 

Our bodies are his temple

If indeed we are of the born again,

To revert to a manmade temple

To me seems insane.

 

The second reason is the Jews:

Apparently, God is in their debt

Since he made a promise to them

And has not fulfilled it yet.

 

A promise made to Abraham

Relating to prosperity and land

And God is yet to fulfil either

In accordance with His plan.

 

Thus, a new temple must be built

And the Jews must indwell the land

As promised to the worthy patriarch

Whom we know is Abraham.

 

The promise was to Abraham

And to Abraham’s seed

That all the world would be blessed

Through the promised Holy Seed.

 

In Christ is the promised fulfilled

To the Jew first and the Greek

And this is still being fulfilled

Even as we speak. 

  

It is therefore puzzling to me

That we are yet about distinctions

When God, the faithful promiser,

Has made good our redemption.

 

Heirs and joint-heirs with Christ,

Already seated in Heavenly places

To enjoy here and now and all eternity

God’s manifold, abundant graces.

 

Stewart Russell © September 13, 2022

 

Better All the Way

“A temple is to be built”

I hear some say,

“But the Muslim sacred dome

Is standing in its way.”

 

That dome must be moved

Can’t be there still,

The temple will be there

Believe me it will.

 

It will be the signal

Of Israel’s Messiah’s coming

For which devout Jews

Are currently looking.

 

Sacrifices must restart

So, the temple is a must,

Dispensationalists believe it

And do make a fuss.

 

Israel will be in charge

As nations go up to her,

This will follow the tribulation

To which the Bible refer.

 

Thus, a new temple

And animal sacrifice

Though this in the first place

Did not quite suffice.

 

There’s no temple need

Or for animal sacrifice,

Jesus’ once for all atonement

More than sufficed.

 

 

Why return, I ask,

To the beggarly elements

After the veil in the temple

Was permanently rent?

 

Showcasing for all

A much better way,

Jesus’ once for all sacrifice

Speaks to a better day.

 

A better High Priest

Than any before him,

The only High Priest ever

That can forgive sin.

 

Jesus is our temple

And our sacrifice,

He is also our High Priest

That gave his life.

 

This is borne out

In the book of Hebrews,

Go there I recommend

For a better view.

 

Better than the angels

And of better things,

We are so wonderfully blessed

We’ve a right to sing.

 

A better blessing

And a better hope,

Jesus is a better testament

Please take note.

 

 

A better covenant

Built on better promises,

The heavenly things themselves

With better sacrifices.

 

A better country

With a better resurrection

God providing a better thing

To bring us salvation.

 

Jesus is the mediator

Of this better covenant

That speaks of better things

For the elect remnant.

 

 

Better all the way:

From the Old to the New,

For the Jew and the Gentile:

For me and for you.

 

Better here and now

And still better to come,

Heirs to the kingdom of God

Through Jesus, His Son.

 

 

 

Christ the new temple,

Believers his lively stones,

Built up in Jesus the Christ

As the Spirit tones.

 

Go to Hebrews now

To study the word better

And see how Jesus shines

In this descriptive letter.

 

To God be the glory

And praise to the Son,

Honour to the Holy Spirit:

Three yet one.

 

Stewart Russell © July 12, 2024

 

Which Rebuilt Temple?

 

 

 

I hear of a rebuilt temple,

I mean one to come

Where the Jews will worship

In a millennium kingdom.

 

It’s after the tribulation

When the Jews will be gathered in,

And all of them in a single day

Will be saved from their sin.

 

It bothers me, though,

If this is really true,

Then for whom did Jesus die?

This question is to you.

 

When he said, it was finished

What did he really mean?

What was it that was finished,

If not the old covenant theme?

 

If the blood sacrifices were types

And the physical temple a shadow,

Why rebuild a new temple?

Please tell me; I want to know.

 

 

If the middle wall of partition

Was really broken down,

Then on the idea of a new temple

We ought to frown.

 

I like the Sunday school song

We sang so long ago,

It conveyed an understanding

That I think we need to know.

 

“We’re building up a temple

We’re building up a temple

We’re building up a temple of the Lord,

Hey brother, won’t you help?

Hey sister, won’t you help?

We’re building up a temple of the Lord.”

 

1 Peter 2:5; 1 Corinthians 3:16

 

What is the nature of this temple?

It’s a temple not made with hands,

But a temple of lively stones:

A spiritual house, as God planned.

 

To offer up spiritual sacrifices

Acceptable to God by Jesus Christ,

We, as lively stones, are God’s temple

Ever since his finished sacrifice.

 

The disciples once went to Jesus

To show him the temple structure

And no doubt, they were disappointed,

As he showed them the sad picture.

 

Not one stone, he said then,

Would be left upon another,

As he foretold the temple’s destruction

The disciples were clearly bothered.

 

They equated this with Jesus’ return

And the end of the world,

“When shall these things be?” they asked,

They were clearly perturbed.

 

The temple was the centre-piece

That is all that they knew,

Just like the ark of the covenant

It was security to the Jew.

 

The temple with its sacrifices

Was coming to its end,

The old covenant would pass away

And this was around the bend.

 

 

This was the rebuilt temple

From back in Persian times

And its destruction, after Herod’s upgrade,

Would be a significant sign.

 

It was a splendid edifice

Of which the Jews were proud

But not long after Jesus’ prophecy

Its destruction would be loud.

 

The end of the Mosaic covenant

The end of the blood sacrifice,

Another would become the focus

And that would be Jesus Christ.

 

So, when I hear of a rebuilt temple

I really have to ask, “Which one?”

It can’t be one in our future

For the temple worship has gone.

 

Stewart Russell © June 2020

 

The Unfolding of a Plan

 

 

The unfolding of a plan

From inception to completion,

The narrative, not the myth,

Of man’s redemption.

 

From Eden’s perfection

To that horrendous fall

But thank God, in His agape love,

That was not all.

 

Thus, came offerings

That were only types:

Of the symbolic and ceremonial

But weren’t quite right.

 

Until Shiloh came

That was to be the Light

Shining out of gross darkness

And blackness of night.

 

From a stone as a pillow

To a pillar of stone,

Angels ascending and descending

Showing God’s throne.

 

From a stone to an altar

With many a stone

Bearing the sacrificial offerings

Whereupon burn.

 

To a crudely looking tent

But heavenly designed

Where man approached God

At an appointed time.

 

 

To tabernacle with man

Though not in fulness

But symbolic of what was to come

In man’s eternal rest.

 

To an impressive edifice

Built by David’s Son,

The third king of mighty Israel,

Who was King Solomon.

 

But this was not all;

These were mainly types

Signifying greater was to come

In the form of the Light.

 

This centre-piece temple

Became the wherewithal

And just like in Eden’s Garden

Denoted another fall.

 

Destroyed then rebuilt

By Nehemiah and Ezra

It later became a sight to behold

When refurbished by Herod.

 

Monumental in significance

It was to the Jews

When in relation to its future

Jesus gave terrible news.

 

It was the Jews ultimate

But to God: part of a plan;

A plan that was steadily unfolding

In the redemption of man.

 

Destruction was coming,

Its time near at hand

And soon very little would remain

Of this temple grand.

 

The unfolding of a plan

From inception to completion,

The narrative, not the myth,

Of man’s redemption.

 

 

From a stone to an altar,

From an altar to a tabernacle:

All bespeaking itinerancy

Before the temple.

 

Then came the temple:

A more permanent stay

But then that was removed

And Jesus is here.

 

And now we, lively stones,

Are built up into him,

Pardon of our transgressions

And relieved of our sin.

 

No longer strangers

From Israel’s Commonwealth

But one in the Lord Christ Jesus

Growing in spiritual health.

 

 

The plan has unfolded;

“It is finished!” said Christ,

He is our temple and we, his,

No more sacrifice.

 

Our bodies are temples

In which Christ dwells,

It’s a wonderful transformation

Of which we can tell.

 

We have come to Mt Zion

Leaving Sinai behind,

Never to return to that mountain

Now or at any time.

 

 

The unfolding of a plan

From inception to completion,

The narrative, not the myth,

Of man’s redemption.

 

Stewart Russell © January 5, 2025