THE DECAY OF THE CHURCH - Part 1

  Care must be made that a “synagogue of God” is not turned into a place for Sanhedrin to meet. Of course, there are no synagogues nor Sanhedrin in this age… or is there?

  A synagogue is a “house of assembly” that is consecrated for pray, study, rooms for offices for the priests and other workers, classrooms, study and social halls, and a sanctuary for the faithful to worship. As such they are remote “temples” similar in organization to the Jewish Temple. Within the sanctuary is where the rituals, public prayers, and worship is performed when the Jews are assembled.

  Synagogues are for the Jewish faithful alone. They are essentially sanctuaries from the world and are for commune with God and each other. Buildings are not a requisite for assembly, meaning that anyplace ten or more are assembled, is a synagogue.

  Temples always had some sort of “structure.” The “Temple” in the beginning was made by the hands of God, whereas Temples made by hands, are not Temples of God but for kings. God never required a “House” as Stephen cautioned:

⁴⁶  (David) who found favour before God, and desired to find a tabernacle for the God of Jacob. ⁴⁷ But Solomon built Him an house. ⁴⁸ Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet… (Acts 7:46-47)

  Stephen was speaking of the indwelling of the Holy Ghost to those of, “the synagogue of the Libertines, and Cyrenians, and Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia and of Asia, (who were) disputing with Stephen” (Acts 6:9).

  There were only three “Temples” not made by human hands. The first Temple was a natural God-made “Garden” in the middle of the Earth that was then called “Eden.” In the middle of the Garden was the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge. Both trees belonged to God but had different fruits.

  The Tree of Life had twelve fruits for the preservation of the faithful two, and the other tree, a multitude of pleasantries. Those trees were God-made “tabernacles” in the middle of the various other “tents,” any by that it is meant the canopies of the trees.

  The Garden Tabernacle was not only a real Garden with real trees, but a “Garden of Living Souls,” so to speak. As Adam and Eve multiplied, each person would have their own tree under which to stand facing God.  The same type of worship was introduced during the exodus from Egypt, excepting rather than a Tabernacle made by God, they were tabernacles made by the hands of men. Still, God did not need a house, but anyplace would do where the faithful would assemble.

  The other two “temples” are the Body of Jesus and the bodies of Christians. (More on that later.)

  Jesus explained synagogue worship when he stated, “For where two or three are gathered together in my Name, there am I in the midst of them” (Mat 18:20). That applied to the Garden of Eden, to the assembly of Israelites in the wilderness, to those who followed Jesus wherever He went, and the Crucifixion as well. Not ending there, wherever people assemble; that is a synagogue; the building means nothing.

  Adam and Eve had been alone with God in the Garden, listening to the Word, and that was a “synagogue,” according to Jesus.

  During the Greek period, the buildings where the Jews met were synagogues, and even the Samaritans with the loss of their own temple, worshipped in synagogues.

  During the Hasmonean and Herodian dynasties, the Second Temple had been destroyed, and according to Flavius Josephus, the Jewish historian, only the foundation remained. During that period God did just fine but the Jews and Samaritans still mostly met in synagogues to set themselves apart from both the Greeks and later the Romans.

  The synagogue in Jerusalem became political. It was a government within a government with their own laws, regulations, and punishments. The various faithful became more faithful to the High Priests and the party regulars than to God.

  The Pharisees and Sadducees were both political parties and the “synagogue” was wherever they met. It turned out that wherever they went they had “church.” As purveyors of knowledge, they executed judgment rather than love wherever they went. Rather than standing under the Tree of Life; it was always knowledge of the Law used to judge the lesser, who were sinners. They even took their “lawyers” (scribes) with them to make certain that every jot and tittle were correct.

  There developed a division and a hierarchy in the synagogue and that bad government was instituted in the Temple that Herod built; a Temple that was not for God, but the way to appease the Jews that were disgusted with the Law-breaking of the Arabian, King Herod. It was not God’s House but Herod’s “Congress,” using modern terminology. It was a “congress” that he would tolerate but not placate.

  Originally, the body politic assembled in synagogues because there was no Temple wherein to meet. The three main political bodies were the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Essenes. It appears that the Essenes tired of the politics and moved to the caves away from Jerusalem, perhaps to return to a “house” built by God, but also to remove themselves from the politics of Judaism.

  On the other side, the Samaritans had a similar organization, and they were divided spiritually and politically from the Jews. The Samaritans, as it evolved, were Jews outwardly but Persians inwardly as Samaria was transplanted at the time of the Diaspora with peoples from near Babylon.

  They would not even meet with each other, each having their own Temple, and each having their own holy mountain. Satan was busy dividing the chosen people by the time Jesus was born.

  Then Herod built for God (sic) another House. It was better than the Second Temple and on par with Solomon’s Temple. It was likely even more extravagant because Herod built it to gain favor with the Jews, caring little about God. God allowed Herod to become king, but it was not because he was a lover of God, but a lover of Caesar and Antony.

  Jesus was attacked for commenting on the futility of Herod’s handiwork: False witnesses said it rightly but for the wrong narrative; speaking of Jesus, “This fellow said, ‘I am able to destroy the Temple of God, and to build it in three days’” (Mat 26:61). Jesus was speaking of Himself as God and the “Temple” of God. The Romans, the Greeks, the Hasmoneans, the Herodians, the Sanhedrin, the Pharisees, and the Sadducees would destroy Him, but He would sacrifice Himself as His Flesh was a proxy for His Father. When Jesus was crucified, He gave up the Ghost, meaning the Spirit of God that had lived in Him since the baptism in the Jordan.

  Jesus was the “Temple” that God built, and Herod’s Temple was Herod’s. They could all meet there, but most often, Jesus was found teaching in synagogues (Mat 4:23). He did go to the Temple, but it was to chase off the merchants and thieves. Herod had no qualms about breaking Jewish Law because he was not Jewish inwardly, but Arabian. It did not take long, with just a few bribes, before all the political parties came to favor Herod and deny the Law of God. They adopted the law of the tyrant, Herod, and defected from the Will of God, as Josephus writes.

  The Christian Church was founded on Jesus as the Temple of God, and each Christian a “synagogue” where individuals meet with the Ghost of Jesus personally. Synagogues were more than buildings but where even ten of the faithful would meet without a house or not. The Christian Church was meant to be more like Garden worship where there dwelled God and two of His followers. That was meant to be but would not happen. The “Church” shall become as rotten as the Temple and the synagogues. It is more about the building and the esteemed within than about God.

(To be continued)

(picture credit; Learn Religions; "The Tabernacle)