Discussion Jumpstarter
Study leader reference - not a definitive answer
Question 2
The teaching traced “temple” from Eden (God walking with Adam and Eve), to tabernacle/temple, to Pentecost where God’s presence is no longer stationary but in each believer. What does this storyline reveal about God’s desire to dwell with mankind, and what kind of people He insists on dwelling with?
Another way to ask: What does the Bible’s story—from Eden to the temple to Pentecost—show about God’s desire to live with people, and what kind of people He wants to live with?
Discussion Jumpstarter
Direct Answer
The transcript suggests God’s constant desire is to be with people, but He insists on holiness—sin and abomination push His presence away, while the New Covenant creates an inwardly cleansed people fit for His Spirit.
- Eden is pictured as temple: “the Garden of Eden was like the temple where God walked… with Adam and Eve.”
- Sin broke access: “mankind in their sinful state could not be in the presence of the holy God.”
- God made a way again through tabernacle/temple: His presence was “in a cloud by day and by fire at night,” and later “the glory of the Lord filled the temple.”
- Ezekiel 8 shows that abominations drive God away: “to make me go far away from my sanctuary,” including idolatry.
- Pentecost shifts the location: not “a stationary location… but… in each one of us.”
- She concludes God now gives internal cleansing and separation: the Spirit “cleanses us spiritually and sets us apart for a holy life.”