DOES IT REALLY COST $11 MILLION TO BUIILD A TEMPLE?

Today I ran across an article that made me sick to my stomach.

Templo Calvario, a local Christian Church, unveiled a new $11 Million Dollar Sanctuary yesterday.

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Reading this article I couldn't help but question the judgement of God's people - and what's more their lack of understanding God's design for His Church.

"For Pastor Daniel de Leon, the idea and inspiration to build a new worship center for Templo Calvario came from God himself.
The pastor often tells his story of how in 1997 "God spoke to my heart and told me, 'Build me a house.'"

When it comes to "building God a house" God clearly says in Isaiah 66:1 - "Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house you will build for me? Where will my resting place be?"

God Himself has already promised to build His house, His Temple. He does not need our help to do this.

When King David wanted to build God's house God's response was:

"I have not dwelt in a house from the day I brought the Israelites up out of Egypt to this day. I have been moving from place to place with a tent as my dwelling. Wherever I have moved with all the Israelites, did I ever say to any of their rulers whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, "Why have you not built me a house of cedar?" - 2 Sam 7:5-7


Why are we still building Temples to God when we already have the Spirit of the Living God living within each and every one of us who follow Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior?

In all fairness, perhaps Pastor Daniel simply misheard His Lord? God didn’t say, “Build me an $11 Million dollar Temple” did he? No. He said, “Build me a house” and according to the Bible, the only “House” God wants to build is made up of living stones and a Kingdom of Priests.

In this article one member of this church says, "I can't believe this is now our temple," said Marielena Gonzales, 21. "I can't think of a better place to come each week to celebrate God."

What makes me sad is that God already commissioned a new temple over two thousand years ago. It was also very costly and was purchased at the expense of the God’s own Son. On the cross, Jesus destroyed the temple of His Body and fulfilled God’s promise to pour out His Spirit on all flesh. God Himself tore the veil on the old temple, even as the foundation was being laid upon the Cornerstone of the New Temple of God.

What’s more, these people still believe that they must come each week to a certain place in order to worship and celebrate God. Yet God’s design was to expand His worship to cover the Earth, and to become a daily, living act of praise and surrender and worship to His amazing and Holy name.

It also saddens me to know that this church, (which has become known in the past for her concern for the poor), has wasted $11 million dollars on a cold, empty building and that they have burdened their congregation with a loan payment of over $90,000 a month. Imagine how many of the poor in Orange County could have been fed and clothed for this amount of money? What’s more, this building could have provided shelter for the thousands of homeless who spend each night in the cold and the rain due to our lack of affordable housing and shelter beds.

“The pastor told his congregation to work to recruit new members in order to maintain a strong church community.”

Their solution? Use evangelism as a method of generating enough income to afford the building. Now this church exists to recruit people – not so much as brothers and sisters who are loved and embraced for who they are- but targeted strategically to help afford a building which should never have been built in the first place.


As my friend Mark Main has said:

“Churches have spent more money just on buildings in less than twenty years than it would take to eradicate hunger and many diseases from children in Africa. Add in salaries, utilities, and all the other things churches spend money on and I can only guess how much money has been spent simply on 'the faithful'.

‘That is why I am so frustrated by what I see marketed as Christianity in this country today. Is spending 28 billion dollars on nice buildings for our Sunday morning meetings more important than showing grace, mercy, compassion, and love by helping those in Africa who are dying at a rate of over 25,000 a day from starvation and preventable disease? Obviously, for American Christianity the answer to that question is a resounding YES. You can claim that isn't the case, but the facts are undeniable. American Christianity has basically said that the sickness and starvation of others isn't nearly as important as it's need for bigger, nicer buildings. Do you realize how perverse that is?"

Reading the comments below this article it’s plain to see that most do not believe that this building was worth the cost, nor that it will magically attract new congregants with open wallets and bountiful checkbooks.

People do not want a building. They want to know a God who loves them. They do not want an impersonal club to join. They want to be embraced into the loving Family of God. They do not hunger for giant screen televisions and professional sound systems. They are yearning for an intimate relationship with Jesus.

As Jesus said, "I tell you that one greater than the temple is here." (Matt 12:6) and when Jesus had fulfilled the role of the High Priest and offered himself as the final Lamb of God, and the veil in the Temple was ripped in half, from top to bottom, He made a way for us, the people of God, to become the new temple, not made with human hands, but spreading out over the whole earth, and living as the new priesthood of believers, to make known His Glory among the nations.

We do not need a temple because we are the temple. We do not need a priest, or a pastor, because we are all priests of God, empowered and filled by His Holy Spirit. We do not need an animal sacrifice to be made, because He was our final blood sacrifice, and we are now the living sacrifice, daily dying to ourselves and carrying our cross to follow Him.

Let us not return to the rubble and rebuild the man-made temple. Let us not take up needle and thread and repair the veil that was torn. Let us not commission special priests and clergy who will stand before God in our place.

Our identity, as followers of Jesus, runs deeper than brick and mortar. It transcends a building. It goes beyond ceremony. Our identity as disciples of Christ is defined by a relationship between a Loving God, and a Living Temple made of people who love God, and love others.

You are the only Temple God has ever wanted. He has already bought and paid for this. Let us focus our time and energy on "being the Church", not attending one, or building one ourselves.

**
Keith