Haggai and Zechariah: Come Follow Me with Sam

 Welcome!

Temple time!

Haggai and Zechariah are about temples. There are very few christian denominations that have temple-like spaces and rituals, and only 1 that I know of, the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which also have formalized temple rituals as part of that temple.

The argument that many christians have against a temple is something along the lines of 'since Christ came in the flesh, we have no more need of temples, which is a great theory and seems plausible at first but material evidence and divine revelation both contradict this notion. Here in these chapters, God describes a specific temple to be built in the last days, including rooms and dimensions. So obviously He cares about temples post-risen-Messiah.

Adding to that, multiple scholars have identified the forty days of Christ's ministry on the earth as the teaching of the 'mysteries of the kingdom' which in greek refer to the passing of certain knowledge through symbols etc. There is also evidence in Jerusalem and in Italy that the christians did go through specific rituals beyond the simple sacraments. The vestiges of these rituals still show up in european crowning ceremonies, catholic artifacts, and even sometimes in certain places where they hold mass.

Where Christ is, there is holy ground and a temple. The temple is meant to be the between-place to help us back to Christ. to say that we don't need temples today is to not understand what a temple is. While there could be greater arguments about what specific rituals, and what specific order to do in those temples, it is most important to know that they are absolutely crucial, and then wait on God to tell you how to fill His house.