Mike,

I found this interesting concerning Heb 9:8- http:// www. blueletterbible. org/ lang/ lexicon/ lexicon. cfm? Strongs= G4714&t= KJV. I have read that often, and in my mind the reading of it seemed certainly to imply that the way into the holy place was not made open while the first tabernacle was standing in a literal sense. But upon looking at the Strong’s definition and the other uses of that Greek word, standing means – AV — sedition 3, dissension 3, insurrection 1, uproar 1, standing 1 . Couple that with verse 15 in the same chapter and even more meaning is presenting itself. Care to comment on these verses? Is this saying that God at that point was ending a long period of sedition, dissension and insurrection by the nation Israel? The new tabernacle, the body of Christ, now has access to the holy place through Jesus Christ our Lord. And they will in fact be having His law written on their hearts and mind. There is a lot more meaning here yet for me to understand. Just wanted to send this to you.

L____

Hi L____,

Thanks for sending this along. So the word ‘standing’ here in Heb 8:9 actually means “sedition 3, dissension 3, insurrection 1, uproar 1.” That is very edifying to know.
I have never had any doubt that the physical temple was still standing even after the curtain was torn from top to bottom. The day of Pentecost makes it obvious that many Christians were brought into the holy of holies while the first physical tabernacle was still standing. But this bit of understanding helps to make clear which ‘temple’ is under discussion in Heb 9:8.

Heb 9:8 The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing:
Heb 9:9 Which [ was] a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience;

“The first tabernacle” is a type of the real “first tabernacle” which is our bodies:

1Co 3:16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and [ that] the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
1Co 3:17 If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.
1Co 6:19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
1Co 6:20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.

Once again God uses the physical to hide the spiritual Truth. Physical Israel is not the true “Israel of God,” and the physical temple is not and never will be the true temple of God. With this understanding, 2Th 2 should really come alive:

2Th 2:3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for [ that day shall not come], except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
2Th 2:4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
2Th 2:5 Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?
2Th 2:6 And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.
2Th 2:7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth [ will let], until he be taken out of the way.
2Th 2:8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
2Th 2:9 [ Even him], whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
2Th 2:10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
2Th 2:11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
2Th 2:12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

Lacking a love of the Truth is simply a matter of not having been given spiritual eyes and ears to see that the man of sin is you and me sitting in the true temple of God which was “yet standing” before Christ came and destroyed both the old temple and the man of sin, which are one and the same. They are one and the same because “Your bodies are the temple of God.” It is the man of sin that restrains the day of the Lord which comes to us and destroys that man of sin and His tabernacle with the brightness of His coming.
Those who cannot yet see these spiritual truths are still “believing a lie and are still being damned by the strong delusion which God has sent to them.

Eze 14:9 And if the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the LORD have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand upon him, and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel.

“But I am persuaded better things of you…” I hope you are able to join us for our live stream studies in the book of Revelation. They are each Sunday at 11 A. M. EST on ustream. They are on this very subject of “the heavenly things themselves.”

Heb 9:23 It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.

Again, thanks for sharing, Luke. I now see that so long as we are not given spiritual eyes to see the things of the spirit, our “first tabernacle is yet standing” as “the man of sin” who is standing in opposition to “the coming of our Lord.”
Your brother in Christ,

Mike