Some (mainly
Evangelical) critics of the Church claim that, as Christians are said to be the
temple of the Holy Spirit (e.g., 1 Cor 3:16-17), this must mean that, in the
New Covenant, temple rituals and worship have been abrogated. Of course, this
is fallacious as Paul is speaking metaphorically
and is also reflective of the “either-or” false dilemma that plagues a lot of
Protestant eisegesis. Furthermore, if Christians being said to be the temple of
the Holy Spirit exhausts what can be considered a “temple” in the New Covenant, ipso facto the Church cannot be said to
be the Temple of the Holy Spirit. Of course, such is absurd, but if errant
Protestants who make this claim were to be consistent
they would have to jettison their doctrine of inerrancy!
Furthermore,
more careful Protestant theologians and authors realise that this is
fallacious, too. James Bannerman (1807-1868) in his detailed study of Reformed
ecclesiology, wrote the following:
. . .the Church is spoken of in Scripture as
the residence or earthly dwelling-place of the Spirit, the Third Person of the
glorious Godhead (Rom. viii. 9, 11, 16; 1 Cor. iii. 16, 17, vi. 11, 15-17; Eph.
ii. 18, 22, iv. 4. See the Greek in all these passages). It is no doubt true
that the Spirit of God dwells in each individual believer, making his soul and
body His temple, and glorifying the place of His presence with all heavenly and
sanctified graces. But, over and above this, and in a higher sense than can
apply to any individual Christian, the Spirit of God makes His dwelling in the
Church, enriching that Church with all the fulness of life and power and
privilege, which no single believer could receive or contain. As the body of
the Son of God, as the earthly dwelling-place of the Spirit of God, the Church
more than the Christian—the society more than the individual—is set forth to us
as the highest and most glorious embodiment and manifestation of Divine power
and grace upon the earth. And it is in reference to the society, and not to the
individuals of which it is composed—to the Church and not to its single members—that
very much of the language of the Bible refers. (James Bannerman, The Church of Christ: A Treatise on the
Nature, Powers, Ordinances, Discipline and Government of the Christian Church,
volume 1 [Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1868; repr., Vestavia Hills, Ala.:
Solid Ground Christian Books 2009], 3-4)
Just as the
Church (the society of believers) is, to a much greater degree, a possessor of
a greater endowment of the Holy Spirit without compromising the individual believer
from being a temple of the Holy Spirit, the (physical, New Covenant) temple can
also be endowed with the Holy Spirit and a God-ordained temple without
compromising either the Church or the individuals therein from being a temple
of the Holy Spirit in some sense, too. This shows the importance of not always
having an “either-or” approach to scriptural interpretation, but the allowance,
when context necessitates such, of “both-and.”
On temples
in the New Covenant, see, for e.g.:
