THE HOPE OF ISRAEL - The Preterist Archive

220 The Hope of Israel: What Is It?
AN HABITATION OF GOD
In complete agreement with this revelation by Peter,
is what Paul wrote in his Epistle to the Ephesians, concerning
that masterpiece of God's "workmanship"
which He is raising up at the present time, that wondrous
building, "fitly framed together," built "upon
the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus
Christ Himself being the chief corner stone, for an
habitation of God through the Spirit" (Eph. 2:10,
20-22) But Paul goes more . fully into the subject, and
he clearly identifies this great building with what had
been under consideration at the Jerusalem Conference,
by emphasizing the place which the saved from
among the Gentiles have in this great work of God.
That equal participation of saved Gentiles with saved
Jews in the one "household of God" (Eph. 2 :
11-19) is
"the mystery of Christ, which," writes this apostle,
"in other ages was not made known unto the sons of
men, as it is now revealed unto His holy apostles and
prophets by the Spirit" ;
and that mystery was, as the
apostle himself defines it: "That the Gentiles should
be fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partakers
of His promise in Christ, by the gospel (Eph. 3:4-6).
OTHER DETAILS OF THE PASSAGE
It has been already pointed out that the words
"which is fallen down" &c. could not be taken as applying
either to the literal tent which David had erected
as a habitation for the ark, or to Solomon's temple. In
what sense then was the tabernacle of David fallen
down and in ruins? To find an explanation for those
words we must needs take them in a figurative sense;