The Temple He Would Raise
Destroy or raise up — the same two words stand over every believer’s temple.
John 2:19-21
The Temple He Would Raise
Two words over one temple — destroy, or raise up
The same two words stand over every believer’s temple.
— The Standing Stone —
Behind “LORD” in your Bible lies a hidden name — in the Hebrew it is Yahuah Psalm 83:18; Yahuah is the Father Isaiah 63:16; Yahuah is the only God, beside Him there is no other Isaiah 45:5; therefore Yahuah the Father is the only true God, leaving no room for a second or third person 1 Corinthians 8:6.
Reference Piece
Why exousia — power handed down from the Father — names no second God
Foundation: The Authority He Was Given →
Part One
The Claim
1.1 — The Argument
Yahushua had just driven the money changers out of the temple. The leaders demanded a sign to prove His right to do it. He answered:
John 2:19-21
Yahushua answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? But he spake of the temple of his body.
The argument rests on one point: He said He would raise His own body. A dead man cannot raise himself. Only God holds power over His own death. Yahushua claimed that power over His own body. Therefore, the argument concludes, He is God.
1.2 — The Hidden Premise
The argument assumes that whether a body is destroyed or raised is something no man has any say in — so a man who speaks of raising his own temple must be God. Scripture teaches the opposite. It places two outcomes before every temple — destroyed or raised up — and it places the choice between them in the hands of the one who carries that temple. The verse itself holds both words.
Part Two
What John Himself Says
2.1 — Two Words in One Sentence
luō (G3089) and egeirō (G1453)
Luō — to loose, to break up, to dissolve, to destroy. Egeirō — to waken, to raise up. The first is the word of death for the temple; the second is the word of life.
“Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The sentence sets death and life side by side over a single temple. Which of the two words would have the last say over His body? That is the question the verse answers.
2.2 — “He Was Raised”
One verse later, John describes the outcome. When He “was risen from the dead,” His disciples remembered His words and believed them John 2:22. The Greek is ēgerthē — egeirō in the passive voice: “he was raised.” The second word had the last say, and John writes it as something done for Him.
2.3 — The Father’s House, the Father’s Dwelling
Yahushua called the temple “my Father’s house” John 2:16, not His own. The word He used for His body, naos (G3485), is the inner sanctuary — the dwelling place — and He named who dwells there: “the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works” John 14:10. A temple is never the God who lives in it.
Part Three
Destroy or Raise Up
3.1 — Every Believer Carries a Temple
The Son called His body a naos. Scripture uses the same word for the believer: “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God” 1 Corinthians 3:16; “your body is the temple” 1 Corinthians 6:19. The same two words that stood over the Son’s temple stand over every believer’s temple.
3.2 — A Man Can Destroy His Own Temple
“If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy” 1 Corinthians 3:17. The Greek uses one word for both halves of that sentence — phtheirō (G5351), to ruin, to destroy. The man who ruins his temple brings ruin on it. Paul says the same in other words: “he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption” Galatians 6:8; “if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die” Romans 8:13. The first word — destroy — is a man’s choice.
3.3 — A Man Can Raise It Up
The second word is a man’s choice too. “Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead” Ephesians 5:14 — a command given to the believer about himself. “If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live” Romans 8:13. “He that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting” Galatians 6:8.
At the last day every temple comes out of the grave toward one of the two ends: “they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation” John 5:28-29. One temple is raised to life; the other is destroyed. What separates them is the choice each man made.
3.4 — The Choice Between the Two Words
This is the oldest choice in the Torah: “I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil” Deuteronomy 30:15 — “therefore choose life” Deuteronomy 30:19. The believer who chooses life — trusting Yahuah through the blood and walking in His commandments — is choosing that his temple will be raised up and not destroyed. In that sense every believer can say over his own body, “I will raise it up.” He does not hold the power of resurrection in himself. He holds the choice, and the choice decides which word has the last say.
3.5 — The Son Stood Before the Same Two Words
In John 2:19 the word “destroy” is spoken to the leaders. They would destroy His temple; He would not destroy it Himself. But whether it stayed destroyed was not in their hands. It followed the choice He had already made.
Isaiah wrote that Immanuel would know “to refuse the evil, and choose the good” Isaiah 7:15. In the garden He made the choice in words: “not my will, but thine, be done” Luke 22:42. And He made it knowing the end: “for the joy that was set before him [he] endured the cross” Hebrews 12:2. Because He chose life, the destroyed temple did not stay destroyed — “he, whom God raised again, saw no corruption” Acts 13:37.
“I will raise it up” is the voice of a man who had chosen life and knew which word would have the last say over His temple. He chose first and perfectly — “the firstborn among many brethren” Romans 8:29 — and those who make the same choice follow Him: “God hath both raised up the Master, and will also raise up us by his own power” 1 Corinthians 6:14. If choosing life for one’s own temple proves deity, every believer who chooses life is God. Scripture draws that conclusion about no one.
Part Four
Reading the Verse Again
With the Greek and the context of John 2 in place, the verse can be read with its meaning drawn out:
John 2:19-21 — read in context
Destroy this temple — this body, the dwelling place of My Father, whose house this is — and in three days I will raise it up. … But he spake of the temple of his body; and when he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered.
Read this way, nothing in the verse is lost and nothing is added. The Son’s words stand. They are heard the way John heard them — two words over one temple, and the word of life having the last say.
Conclusion
The Verdict
John 2:19 is offered as proof that the Son raised His own body and is therefore God. But the verse is built on two words — destroy and raise up — and Scripture sets those same two words over every believer’s temple. A man can defile his temple and see it destroyed, or choose life and see it raised. The Son stood before the same two words, chose life with the end in full view, and John, one verse later, says He was raised. A choice every son of God is called to make proves no one to be God. Yahuah the Father remains the one God, beside whom there is no other.
Revelation calls the risen Son “the first begotten of the dead” Revelation 1:5. First means others follow. “Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power” Revelation 20:6.
Destroy, or raise up — the Son chose life for His temple, and every believer holds the same two words. None of them is God.