The fight for religious liberty is found not only in the realm of abstract concepts and ideas. The battle plays itself out in a very tangible and personal arena. That stage is the body temple. The Bible says, “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Corinthians 6:19, 20).
Every human being belongs to God because every person is created in God’s image. The obvious implication of this biblical reality is that every person’s physical body rightfully belongs to the Creator. Similarly, Christ’s death on the cross purchased humanity back from the power of sin. Therefore, every person also rightfully belongs to the Redeemer. A Christian who has chosen to serve God as Lord and King is also obligated to protect their body temple, which is now surrendered to the control of Jesus Christ. Any denial of the responsibility and duty to protect the body temple, therefore, reveals either a refusal of creation and an acceptance of the evolutionary mindset, or a rejection of Christ’s atoning death on the cross, or a failure to fully commit to the Lordship and sovereignty of Christ.
No matter what the cause may be, the results of willfully abusing the body temple are serious. The Bible warns, “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are” (1 Corinthians 3:16, 17). Here is a clear religious liberty battleground, one in which every person is unavoidably involved. The way we treat ourselves and others reveals our true attitude about God and our real allegiance in the battle for religious liberty.
Some people may suggest that how we treat the body doesn’t really matter, and that what happens in the physical realm is secondary to what happens in the spiritual realm. This concept originated with the ancient Greeks, primarily Plato, who believed in a dualistic nature of man that disconnected the physical and the spiritual aspects of life. The biblical view, by contrast, is holistic in nature, and pulls every aspect of human existence into an organic unity that cannot be separated. This is why the apostle Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 5:23, “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Clearly, God expects Christians to value and protect their bodies as much as they do any other aspect of their being.
The reason for the Bible’s emphasis on the organic, holistic unity of human nature is that what happens in and to our bodies directly impacts our spiritual experience. The apostle Paul put it this way: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Romans 12:1, 2). The renewing of the mind comes only after the body has been presented as a living sacrifice. Freedom from sin and true religious liberty cannot be experienced while the body is willfully neglected and abused.
It should not be surprising, therefore, that the devil attacks the body as well as the mind. “The body is the only medium through which the mind and the soul are developed for the upbuilding of character. Hence it is that the adversary of souls directs his temptations to the enfeebling and degrading of the physical powers. His success here means the surrender to evil of the whole being. The tendencies of our physical nature, unless under the dominion of a higher power, will surely work ruin and death” (Ministry of Healing, p. 130). As Christ’s second coming draws closer and closer, we should expect that demonic attacks against the body temple increase in intensity and frequency. The Bible indicates that this will indeed be the case.
Writing to the Christian believers in Thessalonica, the apostle Paul warned, “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day [the return of Jesus Christ] shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God” (2 Thessalonians 2:3, 4). The Greek word translated as “temple” in this passage is naos. Paul uses this word six times in his writings―once in this passage, two times regarding the church as a whole, and three times regarding the body, in 1 Corinthians 3:16, 17 and 1 Corinthians 6:19, 20. The majority of times that Paul uses this word, therefore, he is clearly referring to the body temple as the “temple of God.”
Protestants have historically interpreted this passage in 2 Thessalonians 2 to refer to the falling away of Christianity from biblical truth during the Middle Ages. In this context, the naos, or “temple of God” refers to the Christian church as a whole; the oppressing power called the “man of sin” arises from within the church, and the battle that ensues centers on issues of religious liberty. The interpretation is historically valid and prophetically significant.
But what about the other way in which Paul uses the word naos? Could this passage also predict that the body temple will come under attack shortly before Christ’s return? If it does, two conclusions become immediately apparent. First, the attack against the body temple will, by definition, be a question of religious liberty. The second conclusion is more unsettling. The failure to recognize this attack against the body temple as a legitimate religious liberty issue will result from a “falling away” within the church.
The Bible contains these prophetic warnings to protect us from error and the blindness of self-delusion. The hard-to-hear messages from a loving Savior are given to His people so that they may escape the grip of sin and be renewed in their minds and hearts. “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (Hebrews 9:14). The same blood that was shed on the cross to provide forgiveness for sins is powerful to cleanse and purify from sin today. It promises victory over habits, weaknesses, and addictions that destroy the body and the mind.
If Christ is not given control of the mind and body, another power will take them by force. “If the human habitation is not converted to God, Satan will come in to destroy the human organism. It is a thorough conversion of the whole being that God accepts. The willingness of men to live apart from Him makes them full of imperfection in habits, customs, and practices. They disorder the whole machinery of the human body by gratification of appetites and passions. These habits and customs and practices in eating and drinking, and in laboring in any line, are determining the future destiny of man. God declares, ‘If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy.’ 1 Corinthians 3:17. Soul, body, and spirit, as the habitation of God through the Spirit, are to be holy unto the Lord” (12LtMs, Ms 56, 1897, par. 16). The power of transformation and freedom belongs to God. The choice is ours.