A Brief word from 1 Peter
1 Peter chapter 2 reminds Christians that Jesus is the living stone, the true cornerstone of the promised temple. Christians have been chosen by God to be living stones like Jesus to be built-up on Him to form that promised temple. This is not physical in anyway. Peter says it is a spiritual house with a spiritual priesthood and spiritual sacrifices.
Christians, he states, are God’s chosen race to be served by the temple. They are a royal priesthood within that temple and constitute God’s set aside nation. This is a rejection of the Jewish nation in every way. Those Jews who obey the gospel of Christ are viewed the same as non-Jews who obey. Those in the spiritual temple of the body of Christ, the church, are the present chosen people of God.
Summary
God began His association with mankind in a temple of His own making. A holy city, garden, place of worship where He communed with man.
Man allowed evil into the garden.
God sent man out of the garden and into the world at large where He did not walk.
God attempted repeatedly to have a relationship with man.
When God called the Jews out of Egypt into the wilderness, He desired to be their God and for them to be His people. He arranged for a temporary meeting place to be erected as they made their way through to the land promised to them (a possible type of Eden if they obeyed).
David wanted to build God a meeting place that was more permanent than the tabernacle. God would not let him. He allowed Solomon to build it, but explained that he did not dwell (permanently) in buildings made with hands.
Because of disobedience and absolute idolatry, God left the temple build by Solomon and gave it to the gentiles. He never returned to a temple made with hands.
When Jesus came to earth, God as man, the temple was reestablished among men. Jesus is that temple. Those who put Jesus on were admitted into that temple and God came in to the temple of their bodies and dwelt with them.
Christians make up the temple of God with Christ. At the end of timekeeping, God will create a new temple but not a physical one. God is plain that He will not build a physical one on this earth, for the same reason He left the one that was here.
Those who wait for an earthly temple with animal sacrifices deny the words of God and the sacrificial death of Jesus. They also scorn the new temple not made with hands that God is forming through the church.
Philip Dampier's Blog 