The End Time Church: From the Cathedrals to the Catacombs

By Dan L. White

Copyright 2021 by Dan L. White, all rights reserved.

Chapter 92

The Temple not Made with Hands

If God spoke to you, what would you do?

When He spoke, if the mountains trembled, would you?

And when all that happened, would you ask God to please be quiet?

That’s what Israel did, as Mt. Sinai trembled when Yahweh spoke the Ten Commandments.

Exod 20
18) All the people perceived the thunderings, the lightnings, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking. When the people saw it, they trembled, and stayed at a distance.
19) They said to Moses, “Speak with us yourself, and we will listen; but don’t let God speak with us, lest we die.”

From then on, God spoke to Moses, and Moses spoke to the people. Yahweh spoke the Ten Commandments, then Moses spoke ordinances pointing to those Commandments.

The physical Ark of the Covenant was superseded by the spiritual Ark, the resurrected Messiah, who obeyed the Ten Commandments perfectly.

The physical Temple was superseded by the spiritual Temple, the flock of the Messiah, who overcome their lawless human nature and obey those Commandments.

Also, physical signs were given by Yahweh, through Moses, as reminders to obey the Commandments.

Such as this one.

Luk 8
43) A woman who had a flow of blood for twelve years, who had spent all her living on physicians, and could not be healed by any,
44) came behind him, and touched the fringe of his cloak, and immediately the flow of her blood stopped.

That fringe on His garment came from this episode.

Num 15
37) Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
38) “Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them that they should make themselves fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put on the fringe of each border a cord of blue:
39) and it shall be to you for a fringe, that you may look on it, and remember all Yahweh’s commandments, and do them; and that you don’ t follow your own heart and your own eyes, after which you use to play the prostitute;
40) so that you may remember and do all my commandments, and be holy to your God.

The purpose of that fringe ordinance was to “remember all Yahweh’s commandments, and do them.”

We see there a distinction between the Ten Commandments spoken by Yahweh and the regulations given by God to Moses, who then spoke them to Israel.

Heb 9
18) Therefore even the first covenant has not been dedicated without blood.
19) For when every commandment had been spoken by Moses to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of the calves and the goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people,
20) saying, “This is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded you.”

The fringe, spoken by Moses, was not the same as the Ten Commandments, spoken by Yahweh. The fringe ordinance was given only to remember the Commandments.

Why did Israel need that reminder to obey Yahweh’s Commandments?

Again – “that you don’ t follow your own heart and your own eyes, after which you use to play the prostitute,” Num. 39:15 .

The reminder to do good was given because their hearts were bad.

Right before those verses about the fringe is this passage.

Num 15
32) While the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day.
33) Those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses and Aaron, and to all the congregation.
34) They put him in custody, because it had not been declared what should be done to him.
35) Yahweh said to Moses, “The man shall surely be put to death: all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside of the camp.”
36) All the congregation brought him outside of the camp, and stoned him to death with stones; as Yahweh commanded Moses.

After being given repeated warnings about keeping the Sabbath holy – and every week having double manna the day before the Sabbath! – this man ignored the Sabbath Commandment. The fringe with a blue cord was then given to remember it.

This example also shows the curse of the old covenant – disobey and die.

The human heart is “not subject to God’s law,” Romans 8:7, so no amount of reminders will change that heart, or make a lasting difference. Only a changed heart makes a difference.

However, the human heart, given the way it is, may think fringes are not just a reminder to be righteous, but that the fringes themselves are righteousness. Following such thinking, the bigger the fringes, the more righteous the fringer.

Matt 23
5) But all their works they do to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad, enlarge the fringes of their garments,
6) and love the place of honor at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues,
7) the salutations in the marketplaces, and to be called ‘Rabbi, Rabbi’ by men.

A woman was healed when she touched the fringe of Yeshua’s garment. The Pharisees’ fringes were larger and longer than Yeshua’s, yet no one was ever healed touching their fringes.

What does that mean?

It means the fringes had no spiritual effect. No matter how big they were, how long they hung, they were just a physical reminder to obey the Commandments.

If the fringes did have a spiritual effect, then the Pharisees should have healed more people than Yeshua did. Their fringes were bigger! The Pharisees did not heal people, so what difference did their fringes make?

None.

Yeshua’s fringes did not heal the woman. Yeshua had the spirit of the Father. The Pharisees had the spirit of their spiritual father, Satan, (John 8:44 ). That, not the fringes, was what mattered.

Furthermore, the Pharisees’ fringes were even counterproductive. The external reminder to be righteous was used by the fringers to be unrighteous – “to be seen of men.”

Matt 6
3) But when you do merciful deeds, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand does,
4) so that your merciful deeds may be in secret, then your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.

Fringes and external physical signs contradict the left hand/right hand principle. The desire to exalt the self is native to the human heart, and external physical signs can feed that desire “to be seen of men.” This is always an issue to be faced when you wear something to show your righteousness.

So Yeshua had the fringe on His garment. Must followers of Christ also wear fringes?

Besides wearing a fringe, Yeshua was also circumcised, had a sacrifice offered for Him at His birth, and ate the Passover lamb. If we must wear a fringe because Yeshua did, must we also be circumcised and eat the Passover lamb because He did?

Yeshua was to be the Passover lamb, yet He and His disciples ate the Passover lamb when they ate the Passover.

Matt 26
17) Now on the first day of unleavened bread, the disciples came to Yeshua, saying to him, “Where do you want us to prepare for you to eat the Passover?”
18) He said, “Go into the city to a certain person, and tell him, ‘The Teacher says, “My time is at hand. I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples.”’”
19) The disciples did as Yeshua commanded them, and they prepared the Passover.

Until Christ became that Passover lamb, the old covenant was still in effect.

It did not end until the Father accepted Yeshua as the eternal sacrifice. The external physical signs and sacrifices and circumcision were part of the old covenant. That’s why Yeshua participated in those physical things that were part of the old covenant. It continued until He became the sacrifice to end that agreement. The new covenant then replaced the physical ordinances with the spiritual reality.

Heb 9
16) For where a last will and testament is, there must of necessity be the death of him who made it.
17) For a will is in force where there has been death, for it is never in force while he who made it lives.

So Yeshua had to die before the old covenant ended.

Circumcision was given to Abraham long before Moses, but in the new covenant agreement, physical circumcision was superseded by spiritual circumcision.

Rom 2
25) For circumcision indeed profits, if you are a doer of the law, but if you are a transgressor of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision.
26) If therefore the uncircumcised keep the ordinances of the law, won’t his uncircumcision be accounted as circumcision?
27) Won’t the uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfills the law, judge you, who with the letter and circumcision are a transgressor of the law?

“Circumcision profits, if you are a doer of the law,” Paul wrote. In that case, you will have fulfilled the old covenant and saved yourself. However, if you don’t do the law, then your physical circumcisi