FLESH AND THE PHYSICAL
In Literal or Symbolic Interpretation Part 1 and Literal or Symbolic Interpretation Part 2 we discussed at length why it is important to always interpret the Bible symbolically. While we say that this principle is always true, we will also say that it is especially true regarding tabernacles, temples and altars because of the frequency with which God uses these physical objects to convey spiritual truth. Because Tabernacles, Temples and Altars, and pilgrimages enjoy such visibility in religion and culture, however, it is very hard to get beyond their physical meaning to their spiritual meaning. Thankfully, the Bible gives us clues that direct us to those spiritual truths.

STUDY TIP: See Place Where God Will Place His Name  for understanding of the spiritual place (i.e. heart/spirit) symbolically represented as tabernacles, temples and altars. Here we learn that spiritual tabernacles, temples and altars are the hearts of New Covenant disciples.

To understand these spiritual truths, we must begin by acknowledging that God is spirit and that his people are created in his image. Or, to be more exact, God is in the business of  re-recreating flesh-oriented people to spirit-oriented people. Or, to put it in God’s language, he is in the business of changing hearts and minds. This is what Jesus meant by being born again.

STUDY TIP: See Characteristics of an Evil, Impure Heart and Characteristics of a Pure Heart. Also see  Signs, Wonders and Miracles

Being born again, or re-created is not a simple,ene-step process as religion teaches. It is a little-by-little process during which faith grows and we look less and less at the physical substance of things and look more and more on the spiritual substance of things.

STUDY TIP: People who want to understand spirituality as God understands it will look at their heart. Is it an evil, impure heart or is it a good, pure heart? To do this they need to understand the hidden life of their heart. And to do this they must examine their own hearts.

As people become more spiritually oriented, they begin to see temples, altars and high places less and less as physical locations to which they travel to have an encounter with God. Instead, they see these places as symbolic representations of the heart. This awareness radically changes their religion. This transition from flesh to spirit is the result God’s ongoing work to wean his people from a temporal outlook and fleshly pursuits.

God’s work is symbolically represented as creation, or, more accurately, recreation. The first six days of creation compare to six days of man’s creative work in trying to reach God through physical effort (i.e. flesh). The seventh day is when man ceases from that work and rests. This is the spiritual equivalent of entering the Promised Land.

STUDY TIP: See Fourth Commandment, and Reason for the Law for more about God’s purposes in people.

Also see Time: Hours, Days, Weeks and Ages for understanding of God’s symbolic use of time.

The ultimate goal of God’s transformational, creative work is that people will worship him in spirit and truth — instead of in the flesh (i.e. with their physical bodies. Such pure worship is the spiritual — not physical — substance of Pure Religion. The place where it all happens is in the Kingdom of God/Heaven which is in the midst (i.e. heart) of people. In other words, spiritual worship does not happen in the activities of the flesh (i.e. physical body) of people who engage in physical religious activities with their physical bodies. Nor does it happen in physical locations of any kind — whether made by man or not. Rather, it happens within a person’s heart where God writes his laws in New Covenant disciples. This is why God is so focused on the heart.

One of the principles of RELIGION is that religious activities happen in unique physical places using religious artifacts or props that religions always use to carry out their religious theater (i.e. hypocrisy).  Different religions have their own places designated for worship and they employ their own religious devices (i.e. objects and rituals) when they worship. All religions make a point of distinguishing themselves from other religions by the architecture of the places they worship and the forms of the objects and rituals they employ while worshiping. Such physical distinctions are useful in creating and reinforcing a sense of community identity within each religion that helps keep religionists faithful to that religious community. They are a fulfillment of the impulse for religionists in Babylon to make a name for themselves by building a city and a tower to reach God and to be safe within the walls of their city.

AUTHORS’ NOTE: See Cities, Kingdoms and Nations and Egypt and Babylon for more about Babylon and spiritual cities.

The story of Babylon tells us that God confused the efforts of people to reach to heaven (i.e. God) and create security for themselves through their physical efforts. Another graphic example of this impulse to create religion through buildings is found in the personal palace and temple that Solomon built. Although God did destroy Solomon’s temple which is symbolic of man-made religion, he did not destroy the tower of Babylon. Rather, he confused their language so that they could not communicate with each other as necessary to build one large tower (i.e. religion), and he dispersed them throughout the World of Religion in many religious forms that we see on the religious landscape today.

The existence of the multitude of religions in the world today is evidence of that inability to speak the same religious language (i.e. share the same religious beliefs). And it also shows that God has effectively scattered religious people as he said he would do. What we have as a result is not one group of people building one city and one tower to heaven. Instead, we have many diverse groups of religious people building individual spiritual cites and towers. In effect, they are all individual manifestations of the Babylonian impulse to build a tower and a city that provides security and community in the place where they reach out to touch God in heaven through their physical efforts. They are all mini Babylons.