Welcome to another edition of Things Unseen.

How do you think about the church?

And how do you think about your church?

As the question we've been reflecting on this week, and we've done it by looking at some

of the pictures that are used in the New Testament, body, flock and bride.

And here's a fourth one.

The church is a temple.

Twice Paul writes to the Corinthian church about this, once to ask them if they know it,

and then to tell them that they are it.

What was a temple?

It was a place where God made his presence known and met with his people.

Biblical scholars have become much more conscious in recent years that the Garden of Eden

is actually described in temple-like terms.

This is why there are various echoes of the description of Eden in Genesis 1 to 3 in

the descriptions and regulations that govern the tabernacle, and that were present too

in the building of the Jerusalem temple.

These were all special spaces and places where God met with man, and man experienced

the presence and the revelation of God.

You remember what happened in the temple when Jesus was crucified?

The great temple curtain was torn from the top to the bottom.

And on that curtain, apparently there were emblems of Cherubim, those creatures of God

that with flaming swords turned in every direction, guarding the entrance back into the Garden

...