by Terry Wane Benton<\/p>\n
“He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more. I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God. And I will write on him My new name<\/em>” (Revelation 3:12).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
This seems to be a reminder that though the earthly temple in Jerusalem was to be destroyed with not one stone left upon another (Matthew 24), still there is the far greater temple (Ephesians 2:19f) that Jesus built, and the “spiritual stones” that compose this temple are the dedicated Christians (I Peter 2:3-9). We are “living stones” that build up a far greater spiritual house.<\/p>\n
In this spiritual temple, Jesus can mark us out for high honors, like the “pillar” of the earthly temple was notable. West observes, “According to I Kings 7:21, there were two pillars in Solomon’s Temple named Jachin (“He shall establish”), and Boaz (“In Him is strength”). To be a pillar in the Temple of the living God is to enjoy the state of being made, by the grace of God, spiritually established and strong.” [p.219]. This means you could be honored as a very stabilizing force in God’s house.<\/p>\n
The pillars of the earthly temple “went out” when Nebuchadnezzar took them out in 586 BC and would soon be likewise taken down and out in AD 70 by the Romans, but in God’s spiritual temple, we can be such pillars as “shall go out no more.” This “New Jerusalem,” in contrast to the old, earthly Jerusalem, is from heaven, not the earth, and such that no man can invade it and take away its honorable stones of living faith.<\/p>\n
The High Priest alone wore the holy crown with a headband with these words “Holiness to the Lord” (Exodus 39:30). But every Christian has a chance to have written across his forehead “My new name”. That is the honorable new name for you. Barnabas was given the name “Son of Encouragement” by the disciples. He had formerly been known as Joses (Acts 4:36). What a wonderful honor the brethren wrote across his face, so to speak! But when God counts us as very special instruments of strength and stability in the church, what special name would be our designation from Him? That is a wonderfully encouraging thought!<\/p>\n
You can be God’s pillar, a Jachin (established and stable), or a Boaz (a source of “strength” for the brethren because you committed yourself to be an “overcomer” of apathy and discouragement). Are you an overcomer? What position in God’s New Jerusalem spiritual temple do you occupy at present? Do you represent the reputation of strength and stability? Or weakness and instability? What would it take to be an “overcomer?”<\/p>\n
Let us have ears to hear what the Spirit is trying to get us to think about and become!<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Terry Wane Benton “He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more. I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[494,448,1210],"class_list":["post-65558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-christian","tag-church","tag-strength"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":67781,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-time-of-reformation\/","url_meta":{"origin":65558,"position":0},"title":"The Time of Reformation","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 25, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton The Book of Hebrews makes the argument that we had, in the past, been using carnal, earthly things in service to God (Hebrews 9:1-11) but would, from the Old Testament perspective, see a \"time of reformation\" (Hebrews 9:10) in which we would put down the carnal,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":67961,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-red-heifer\/","url_meta":{"origin":65558,"position":1},"title":"The Red Heifer","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 7, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton The Muslims have occupied the place of the Jewish temple with the Dome of the Rock for centuries. There are Jews who want very badly to remove the Muslims and the Dome of the Rock so that the Jews can rebuild a temple in that place.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":66014,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/jesus-the-divine-temple\/","url_meta":{"origin":65558,"position":2},"title":"Jesus the Divine Temple","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 18, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer John's gospel begins by affirming that Jesus is the divine logos, the Word through whom all things were made. In Him is life and light. Life comes from Him, and He, the light of the world, came to this earth to overpower the darkness so that all\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":36155,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-pillars-of-the-temple\/","url_meta":{"origin":65558,"position":3},"title":"The Pillars of the Temple","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 25, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jefferson David Tant In giving Solomon instructions for building the temple, God gave a somewhat unusual command concerning two pillars at the entrance. \"And he set up the pillars at the porch of the temple: and he set up the right pillar, and called the name thereof Jachin; and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/temple.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":36714,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/jerusalems-fall\/","url_meta":{"origin":65558,"position":4},"title":"Jerusalem’s Fall","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 16, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton Though Jerusalem had been destroyed during the Babylonian period (536 BC) as predicted by Jeremiah, it was also predicted that the Lord of hosts would be riding on the clouds to bring about that fall, and later the fall of Babylon, which was used to bring\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":24436,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-the-christians-new-name\/","url_meta":{"origin":65558,"position":5},"title":"What is the Christian’s new name?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 3, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: When we accepted Christ we were given a new name and identity. What is our now or name? Answer: The phrase \"new name\" is only stated three times in the Bible: \"The Gentiles shall see your righteousness, And all kings your glory. You shall be called by a new\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65558\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}