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DEFINING THE TEMPLE

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 5, 1900

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 77, No. 23.

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DEFINING THE TEMPLE.

By S. S. Craw

S. S. CRAW. (Sadorus, Ill.)
According to John 16:8 the office of the Holy Spirit is to reprove, or convince, the world of sin, etc. John 3:18 says: “He that believeth on him is not condemned; but he that believeth not is condemned already.” Then, in the light of these two texts, it is presumption on our part to try to convince or reprove anyone for not accepting the Word, or to condemn; for he is condemned already. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” The Spirit and the Word agree. The Word by the Spirit says: Our bodies are the “temple of the Holy Ghost,” and that, “if any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.”
By a little study and investigation we may easily ascertain some of the most common ways in which the temple of God, the body, is defiled. By the use of anything that is harmful to the body, we are defiling the temple of God.
But, says one, How may we defile the temple by eating a rich, juicy beefsteak or a piece of fried ham?—In more ways than one; for while there is food in the steak, there is also poison, and the body was never intended to be the receptacle of poisons in any shape or form.
But how about the ham?—Well, let us read what the Word by the Spirit says: “And the swine, because it divideth the hoof, yet cheweth not the cud, it is unclean unto you: ye shall not eat of their flesh, nor touch their dead carcass.” “For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God: the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.”
Since the nature of the swine is that of a scavenger, eating anything in the way of offal, it was never intended that our bodies should be defiled with such a loathsome creature, and the same Word by the Spirit says: “For, behold, the Lord will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire. . . . They that sanctify themselves, and purify themselves in the gardens behind one tree in the midst, eating swine’s flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse, shall be consumed together.”
In conversation with a man, the writer was once asked: “Why do you condemn swine’s flesh, and yet eat beef?”
I replied, “But I don’t eat beef.”
“Nor pork?”
“No.”
“Nor chicken?”
“No.”
“Well, you never can convince me that it is wrong to eat ham.”
Neither will I try to convince anyone. I will let the Word by the Spirit do that. If it fails, the responsibility rests with the one who rejects it.