Luke Timothy Johnson is the RW Woodruff Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins at the Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta Georgia. He is well known in the field of New Testament scholarship by both liberal and convservative theologians. I was listening to a course he taught called Jesus and the Gospels in which he made the following statement.
click here to listen [4:16]
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In the New Testament, we are presented as God’s new Temple – where his spirit dwells. In the Old Testament God dwelt among his people in the the Tabernacle/Temple. This was a big deal for Israel. It meant that God was close to them, involved with them, and identified with them. It also meant that God saw what was going on intimately. God punished clearly and quickly when offense was made towards Him or His Temple. Think about Eli’s sons who offered strange fire, the earth swallowing up the families who stood against Moses in front of the Tabernacle. Think about Jeremiah’s prophecy concerning the Temple – it will be destroyed because of the unholiness present in it. God is angry when his Temple is defiled with unholiness and sin.
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Just before Jesus ascended he had the following conversation with his apostles:
Acts 1:4-6
4 Gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, “Which,” He said, “you heard of from Me; 5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” 6 So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?”
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