Journal: Southern Baptist Journal of Theology
Volume: SBJT 29:3 (Fall 2025)
Article: Redeemed Humanity And Temple Theology: Defining God’s Presence On New Covenant Terms
Author: Everett Berry

Redeemed Humanity And Temple Theology: Defining God’s Presence On New Covenant Terms

Everett Berry

Everett Berry is a Donor Relations Specialist at GuideStone Financial Resources. He earned his PhD from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky. Dr. Berry served as professor of theology at Criswell College, Dallas, Texas from 2004–2023, the editor of the Criswell Theological Review from 2012–2023, and was Chair of the Graduate School of Theology at Arlington Baptist University, Arlington, Texas from 2024–2025. He has written numerous articles and two books entitled They Spoke of Him: How Christ Unlocks the Old Testament (Rainer Publishers, 2017) and Those Who Endure to the End: A Primer on Perseverance (Wipf & Stock, 2020). He is married to Tabitha and they have two grown children.

Introduction

One of the most significant themes in Scripture is God’s dwelling among his people. As it unfolds in the biblical storyline, there is a natural gravitation toward the subject of a temple. Thus, the emergence of a “temple theology” motif. This is largely why the subject still receives so much attention in both higher critical and evangelical scholarship today. Literature abounds with volumes produced on the importance of temples in ancient backgrounds,1 the history of Israel,2 and biblical theology.3 Yet one idea underlying all the different angles of temple research is the uniform concept of God’s presence in heaven somehow manifesting a localized, theophanic residence on the earth. This supernatural convergence between heaven and earth unfolds throughout the Old Testament (OT), beginning with the Garden of Eden.

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It then develops further through the function of a tent-tabernacle after the exodus, and later transitions to an actual temple, whether it be Solomon’s, the one built by the post-exilic Israelites, or the one erected by Herod. From here, temple praxis is eventually directed at the person of Christ himself, subsequently fleshed out through the reality of the church as God’s people, and ultimately culminates in the renewal of the earth as a “temple” of heaven itself in the eternal state.

However, one question that continues to cause notable debate in evangelical scholarship is the theological viability of a future literal temple. So much so that we want to engage how this inquiry should be approached in light of how New Testament (NT) writers interpret temple ideas through the prism of the finished work of Christ. To do so, we will 1) summarize the concept of a temple in categories defined by the OT and the Mos...