The Heavenly Temple

We have already said that Old Testament temple typology pointed to Jesus Christ and to his church as its antitypes. There is a third antitype found in the book of Hebrews, that of the heavenly temple. As stated before, the fact of multiple referents should not be regarded as contradictory. Rather, we should recognize that the shadows and types of the Old Testament are multifaceted, though they all ultimately point up to the person and work of Christ.

The Letter to the Hebrews has no stated author, and I can agree with Origen's sentiment that only God knows who wrote it. The general epistle is written to Jewish believers in Christ who seem to have been under some pressure to forsake Christianity and return to their pre-Christian Jewish faith. In response, the author points to the dangers of abandoning Christ, with an emphasis on the superiority of Christ to everything found in the Old Covenant. Thus, the Son of God was superior to all created beings, offered to us a greater salvation that was not known to the angels, was greater than Moses, offered a greater Sabbath rest, was a greater high priest after a superior order, offered a greater sacrifice, and spoke of a greater covenant that made the old one obsolete.

Having said that -- I just raced through Hebrews, so please pardon me if I left something out -- the writer also says that Christ ministers in our behalf in a greater tabernacle, described as "the true tent" (Heb. 8:2, referring to a tabernacle). Having described the work of the priests at the temple, the writer proceeds to say that those priests "serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, 'See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain'" (Heb. 85-6. This and all other quotes are taken from the ESV). Heb. 9:11 refers to this as a "greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation), and Heb. 9:24 says that "Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf." The following verses emphasize that Christ is not offering sacrifices, as his once and for all offering of himself sufficed to put away sin. Rather, he is at this heavenly tabernacle before the throne of the Father mediating in our behalf.

All of this is an elaboration, in light of the Christ event, on the brief statement by God to Moses at Mount Sinai found in Exodus 25:40. In the midst of providing Moses instructions regarding the construction of the tabernacle and its furnishings, God says to Moses, "And see that you make them after the pattern for them, which is being shown you on the mountain." Thus, what Moses was to build was based on a heavenly "pattern" that he was shown.

I should note that this provides an understanding of the relationship between the earthly temples and tabernacle and various realities presented under the New Covenant that is consistent with the mode of interpretation that we have been using throughout the study. The tendency of many is to see physical structures as "the real ones," with any attempt to think of them as types or analogies  pointing to spiritual realities being dismissed as not taking the text seriously. However, the author of Hebrews clearly declares that the tabernacle -- and by inference in describing ongoing priestly functions, the temple -- was a physical copy of a heavenly reality that is the site of Christ's greater ministerial work. This is neither liberalism nor some form of Gnosticism pitting physical against spiritual truth; rather it is sound biblical exegesis affirming that God provided us with physical patterns pointing to profound truths regarding the person and work of Christ in our behalf. If such Christ centered, Christ honoring redemptively centered teaching of Scripture is called liberalism, may we have more of that kind of liberalism.

As of now, I intend two more posts in this study: the first looking at Revelation 21 and 22 and the other providing a post-mortem on how this should be -- and should not be -- reflected in the teaching of churches.