Are Temples Consistent with the New Testament?

And it is our privilege to have you here this evening. Hopefully some other folks will be making their way here, but we're going to go ahead and get started. It is our hope here this evening to have a formal, respectful debate about what the differences are between LDS and evangelical positions.

I ask that you treat everyone with respect, that you hold all applause or other shows of support or disgust or whatever else might be motivating you, and at the end that we applaud both speakers. It is a privilege to have men of their caliber to appear at an event like this, and so I hope that you will show respect to both of our speakers.

We're going to begin with 20-minute opening statements. The subject that we have here this evening is are temples consistent with New Testament Christianity? We're going to have, after the opening statements, 10 minutes of rebuttal.

That will take us until just past 8 o 'clock. We'll take a very short break. Restrooms are out this way, and if you need to make use of those, please be as quick as you can because we need to start back as soon as possible.

When we rejoin, we will start with the questions between the speakers, cross-examination for 15 minutes each. Then we'll have 5-minute closing statements, and then we'll have questions from the audience.

There are 3x5 cards on which you can submit your questions. You can give them to me during the break or you can give them to me immediately before the question period. I'm going to make my best effort to be fair in picking through those questions and alternating between our speakers.

Debate Introduction and Format

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We are a church that tries to stress seriousness about God and his word, seriousness about our relationship with him, particularly in terms of worship, and a seriousness about our relationships with one another.

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I have been asked enough questions that I think that it's good to point out that we are very much in sympathy with Dr. White. We are a Reformed church. That came as a surprise to some of the people that have been to the debates, but that's the reason that we keep having him here.

It is a great privilege to have him and Richard Hopkins appear with us this evening. Dr. Hopkins is a graduate of UCLA, has a Juris Doctorate. He was a trial attorney for over 20 years in California. He is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and has written two books dealing with LDS apologetics.

The first is Biblical Mormonism Responding to Evangelical Criticisms of LDS Theology. The second is How Greek Philosophy Corrupted the Christian Concept of God. We also have with us Dr. James White. He is the director of Alpha and Omega Ministries in Phoenix, Arizona.

He is an elder in the Reformed Baptist Church. His church holds to a statement of faith nearly identical to our own. He is the author of roughly 20 books now, or maybe even more, more than 20 books. It's hard to keep up.

But those titles include Letters to a Mormon Elder, The Same-Sex Controversy, Potter's Freedom, and The God Who Justifies. This is, I believe, the ninth debate that Dr. White has done for us and the second time that Dr. Hopkins has appeared representing the LDS position.

It's a great privilege to have them with us, and so I'll begin with Dr. Hopkins taking the affirmative on the question, Are Temples Consistent with New Testament Christianity?

I want to thank Pastor Jason Wallace and the Christ Presbyterian Church for the opportunity to be here today, and I appreciate all of you coming out and going through the trouble of finding this location.

The topic is an interesting one. Are Temples Consistent with New Testament Christianity? We look back at the history of the world as much as we know of it, and we note that pagans built temples that they named for their various gods.

So it's not unusual if we start to wonder whether temples were ever consistent with any of God's teachings. Why did God command Israel to build temples in the first place? Was he copying the pagans? Of course we would reject that.

Perhaps the pagans were copying an earlier era of people of God who were building temples. Well, whatever the purpose of the true and living God in commanding temples to be built in Israel anciently, our question here really is, did God change and in the New Testament stop, change his purpose with respect to having temples?

Now, Dr. White has made some claims regarding these issues, and I will attempt to address some of those claims. He's made those claims in writing, so I know of them already, and I think it would be helpful if I addressed some of them.

But we should remember that as each of us discusses this, our statements may seem, of necessity, somewhat speculative. And that is because we have to face the reality that there is very little, we know very little about temples from the Bible.

We know in general things, but we don't know details. We still have some information that is useful to us, though, and I'd like to look over that tonight. The first subject that I'd like to go with is the location of the temple.

Now, Dr. White has written that God, quote, allowed his people to build a single temple, only one, and located in Jerusalem. That's a quote. But let's look at this a little bit more fully. In Deuteronomy 16, verses 2 and 6, the Lord commanded Israel to, quote, sacrifice the Passover unto the Lord thy God in the place which the Lord shall choose to place his name there.

Verse 5 indicates that this is a special place because it says, You can't do it at your house. This is something that's supposed to be done in a place which the Lord places his name, which we would call a temple.

Now, this commandment was given long before the Temple of Solomon was built, and yet the Passover was sacrificed annually, every year after Israel left Egypt, except for times of apostasy and until the temple was destroyed.

Where did this sacrifice take place before the temple in Jerusalem was built? Well, this is important to know because wherever it took place, that must have been the place that the Lord chose to place his name and hence could be considered a temple.

We know a few of these places from the Bible. The first year after they left Egypt, the Passover was sacrificed in the wilderness in Sinai. This is Numbers 9 .5. You can find that. While Israel wandered in the wilderness for 40 years, God commanded them to build the tabernacle.

Now, the tabernacle is referred to specifically as, quote, the Temple of the Lord, unquote, in 1 Samuel 1 .9 and 3 .3. But even after Israel settled in the Promised Land, the tabernacle was not kept at Jerusalem.

In fact, we know that when Israel first entered the Promised Land, they offered the Passover at Gilgal. This is Joshua 5 .10. Of course, when the Temple of Solomon was built, it was dedicated as, quote, the place of which thou hast said, my name shall be there, unquote.

And that's 1 Kings 8 .29. However, in 2 Chronicles 7 .12, it says that, quote, Notice that he said, not the house of sacrifice, not the exclusive house of sacrifice. The language leaves open the probability of other temple locations.

The Bible indicates that there were many other places where authorized sacrifices were offered to the Lord. What was basically required was an altar. See Exodus 20, verse 24. In fact, the specifications for a sacrificial altar are given in Exodus 20, 25 and 26, and in Joshua 8 .31.

Joshua built such an altar in Mount Tabor and offered sacrifice. That's in Joshua 8 .30. Gideon was specifically commanded of the Lord to build an altar in Ophrah of the Abizrites and to offer sacrifice.

That's in Judges 6, verses 21 through 27. He was told to build the altar in a specific location. Quote,. That's Judges 6 .26. Of course, there was an altar built where the tabernacle was located, and for many generations after Israel entered the promised land, the tabernacle was kept in Shiloh.

You can see Joshua 18 .1 and 1 Samuel 3 -5 and verse 11 for that. And it is said in tribute to Elkanah, the righteous father of Samuel, that he, quote,. But even while the temple was in Shiloh, Samuel offered sacrifice in Gilgal, where Saul was crowned.

And that's 1 Samuel 11, 13 -14. David offered sacrifice with his family in Bethlehem, 1 Samuel 20, verse 6. And before he built the temple in Jerusalem, Solomon offered, quote,. This is in 1 Kings 3 -4.

Now, when David kept the ark at Kirjath Jerem and moved the tabernacle to Gibeon, he left priests to minister and to offer burnt offerings in both locations. 1 Chronicles 16, 37 -42. After the temple in Jerusalem was built, the people went through various apostasies.

They started worshiping pagan gods and built unauthorized temples outside of Jerusalem. These unauthorized temples were closed by some of the later more righteous kings, including Hezekiah and Josiah, each of whom kept Passovers in Jerusalem.

See 2 Chronicles chapters 33 and 35. But 2 Chronicles 33 -17 implies that in consolidating all sacrifice to Jerusalem, Hezekiah may have also closed some places outside of Jerusalem, which had authorized sacrifices being made to the Lord.

You can see 2 Kings 18 -22 and Isaiah 36 -7 on that. Much later, in the prophecy repeated in Nehemiah 1 -8 -9, the Lord promises to gather Israel to "...the place that I have chosen to set my name there.".

This was after the temple had been rebuilt and Israel had been gathered back to Jerusalem from Babylon. So the passage here refers to the latter-day return of the Jews to a temple. There are many other prophecies and references in the Old Testament that speak of latter-day temples.

For example, Ezekiel chapters 40 -47, Isaiah 2 verses 2 and 3, which are repeated in Micah 4, 1 and 2, Zechariah 14 verses 16 -21, and even 2 Thessalonians 2 -4 in the New Testament. Looking at all of this, all of these scriptures together, we can see why the Lord always seemed to refer in general terms to the location of His temple.

He referred to it as the place that I have chosen to set my name there. As the circumstances of Israel changed, He knew there was going to be different places that they would need temples. And after Solomon's temple, it appears that circumstances may have justified additional temples elsewhere in Israel as well.

But in the last days, the temples will be built in Israel and other places that are not specifically stated in the Bible. So, we do not feel that we should put God in a box, claiming that Jerusalem is the only location He can ever put a temple.

God has spoken generally about the place where His temples will be located, and we feel that we should not restrict His options. So, now, Dr. White has also written, quote, The temple in Israel had one primary function, the worship of God through the offering of sacrifices.

Now, of course, sacrifice was certainly one function performed in the temples. But was it the one primary function of the temple? Well, sacrifices were not performed inside the tabernacle specifically, nor were they performed in the Holy of Holies in the temple of Solomon.

There were offerings made there, though, blood offerings. But what was the purpose of these inner rooms of the temple? And what about the upper chambers of the temple that were referred to in 2 Chronicles 3 and 9?

What took place in these temples? We have no indication specifically from the Bible, but certainly they would have been entirely unnecessary if the one primary function of the temple was sacrifice. So, let's take a look at the Bible and see if we can determine from Scripture some of the other uses of the temple that were made by the people.

Luke 24 tells us that after Christ spent 40 days instructing his disciples following his resurrection, he told them to, quote, "...terry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endowed with power from on high.".

Unquote. That's Luke 24, verse 49. He then left them and was, quote, "...carried up into heaven.". Verse 51. Verses 52 and 53 say that in response to his command, quote, "...they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God.".

This suggests that the apostles understood that the temple was the place they should go to be endowed from on high. It also indicates that praising and blessing God is one of the activities that occurs in the temple.

Psalms 11 .4, which is quoted in Habakkuk 2 .20, says, quote, "...the Lord is in his holy temple.". Unquote. Isaiah 6 .1 says, quote, "...I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.".

Unquote. Thus Israel understood that the temple was God's house on earth and that he visited it. So clear was this understanding that Psalm 18 .6 says God, quote, "...heard my voice out of his temple.".

Unquote. Isaiah 66 .6 also refers to the voice of the Lord coming from the temple. From this we learn that hearing, seeing, or even talking with God is a reason for the temples. In Psalms 27 .4, the psalmist prays, quote, "...that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.".

Unquote. This suggests that people went to the temple to make inquiries about the Lord. That is what Christ was doing in the temple when he was but a child. Luke 2 .46 says that his parents found him, quote, "...in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them and asking them questions.".

Unquote. Psalm 29 .9 says, quote, "...in his temple doth everyone speak of his glory.". Unquote. This also suggests teaching and inquiry. Of course, during his ministry, Christ regularly taught in the temple.

We see that from Matthew 26 .55, Mark 12 .35, John 7 .14, and 8 .20. Note that in Acts 3, Peter teaches the people about Christ when he is in the portion of the temple called Solomon's Porch. And in Acts 5 .19 -20, an angel opened the prison doors to the apostles and commanded them to, quote, "...go stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life.".

Unquote. In response, they, quote, "...entered into the temple early in the morning and taught.". Unquote. Teaching about God and Christ, then, is another reason for temples. Amos 8 .3 refers to the songs of the temple.

Unquote. This suggests that singing was an activity that occurred in the temple. Another one that Dr. White has recognized specifically is prayers. Prayers were often in the temple. And indeed, Jonah 2 .7 refers to prayer coming to God, quote, "...in thine holy temple.".

Unquote. Christ referred to the temple as the house of prayer, specifically. Matthew 21 .13, Mark 11 .17. Acts 3 .1 says that Peter and John, quote, "...went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour.".

Unquote. This suggests that prayer was a special activity scheduled at a specific, separate time. Paul prayed in the temple. Acts 22 .17. And while praying in the temple, Paul received a vision of Christ.

Acts 22 .17 -21. Thus we see that prayer was a very important part of temple activity. The Bible refers to purification rituals being performed in the temple. For example, 2 Chronicles 30 .29, Nehemiah 12 .45.

Paul mentions that he was, quote, found, quote, "...purified in the temple, neither with multitude nor with tumult.". Unquote. Acts 24 .18. His point was that he was there not to profane the temple, nor to teach the multitudes about Christ on that occasion, but simply to perform this purification ordinance.

See Acts 21 -26. The Bible also refers to washings in the temple. Regarding Aaron and his sons, this is in Exodus 29 .4, chapter 30, verses 18 -21, chapter 40, 12, and 30. Now, Leviticus 16 .4 and 24 required all priests to wash themselves, quote, in the holy place, unquote, before putting on the, quote, holy garments, unquote.

Moses was commanded to, quote, take the Levites from among the children of Israel and cleanse them, unquote. And this was the first thing he was to do in order to cleanse them. Quote, sprinkle water of purifying upon them.

That's Numbers 8, 5 -7. These washings were associated with the purification rituals mentioned above in Numbers 19, 19 -20. In fact, in Solomon's temple there was a sea, it was called, which was a large basin that was, quote, for the priests to wash in, unquote.

And that's 2 Chronicles 4 .6. The fact that these washings involved all who came into the temple is suggested in Psalms 26 .6, which says, quote, I will wash my hands in innocency, so will I compass thine altar, O Lord.

What do we know about these other aspects of temple worship? Well, very little appears in sacred writ. I pretty much told you all that is there just now, summarized it. Some very early Christian groups claimed to have temple knowledge and wrote some of it down.

These groups were called Gnostics because of their claims to know these extra biblical details. But these groups were heretical in a great many respects. And so their information, though it is interesting, is unreliable.

The Masons today claim to have some of this information passed down to them through their grandmasters. But can we rely on their information? I don't think so. We don't think so. But we can learn from these sources that there were things done in the temple that were instituted by the Lord.

And though they are referred to, the details were not made public in holy writ. These details were lost or perverted over the centuries, but they were important to New Testament Christians, the early Christians.

Otherwise, these early Christians, including the apostles themselves, would not have spent so much time in the temple. Now, how do we get accurate information about these details today? I suggest there is only one source that we can rely on, and that is revelation from God.

He is the source to whom Joseph Smith went, and he is the sole source for what is practiced in LDS temples today. Those who are familiar with LDS temple ordinances, however, do recognize numerous subtle references to temple practices that remain both in the scriptures and in the less reliable writings of the early Christian groups.

That is why our scholars occasionally point to these early writings as substantiation for LDS doctrine on temples, but these sources are not the basis for our doctrine by any means. The final source for any knowledge we have of what was practiced in the temple anciently is modern revelation, and that, I believe, is the only reliable source available for that information.

Now, Dr. White claims that, quote, Jesus Christ fulfilled the law as well as the function of the temple, unquote. Does the Bible uphold this claim? Well, we know that Christ fulfilled the law, but there is no passage in the Bible that specifically says the temple functions were fulfilled.

There is scripture that tells us that the law of Moses was fulfilled, but the law of Moses was separate from the temple. Paul, in fact, listed it separately when he defended himself in Acts 25 .8. He's saying, quote, Neither against the law of the Jews, neither against the temple, nor yet against Caesar have I offended anything at all, unquote.

The law of Moses was also separate from sacrifice. Jacob offered sacrifice in Genesis 31 .54, long before the law of Moses was instituted. And before Moses was given the law, he asked Pharaoh to allow the Hebrews to go out five days, or let's see, it was like three days, yeah, into the desert to offer sacrifice to their God.

That's in Exodus 5. Also, we note that the sacrifices offered in the Temple of Solomon were to be, quote, an ordinance forever to Israel, unquote. 2 Chronicles 2 .4. Is there any other way we can tell whether or not the functions of the temple were fulfilled?

I suggest there is. We can look at the practice of early Christians after Christ's resurrection. What do we learn from looking at that? Well, after the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, which fulfilled the law of Moses, the apostles, including Paul, attended the temple regularly.

Acts 2 .46 says they were continuing daily with one accord in the temple, unquote. The Jews caught Paul there in Acts 26 .21. Thus, the Bible verifies that the apostles and early Christians were in the temple regularly.

What does this tell us? Well, it doesn't give us many details, but it tells us this one thing for certain, and that is that temples are definitely consistent with New Testament Christianity. Thank you.

We'll now have opening statements from Dr. White.

Well, good evening. It's good to be with you again this evening. I'm glad all of you found your way through the university parking lots and various and sundry other things to the location here. A very important topic this evening, especially here in the location where we find ourselves.

Obviously there would be places around the United States, and indeed outside of Utah there would be a lot of times when I think a lot of Christians would have questions concerning just how valid this particular discussion really is.

But we are talking about something that if you are LDS, you fully understand is central to the teachings of your faith, and it is one of the major differences that exists between the LDS faith and historic Christian faith, such as my own, that believes that the church is what is commanded of us in the New Testament in the sense of the only thing that we build.

Christ builds his church. We, the people of God, are the temple of God, and all the things that were associated with the Old Testament temple, that temple there in Jerusalem, or before that fixed structure was built, the tabernacle that God gave the exact means of building, the exact way it was to be laid out in Scripture for a purpose, as we will see.

We believe that the function of that tabernacle and that temple was to point to Jesus Christ, was to point to his sacrificial death, was to demonstrate through the offerings that were made year by year, the writer to the Hebrews tells us, that these things were pointing forward to a much greater fulfillment in the person of Jesus Christ, and that since he has come, and since he has offered that one sacrifice, and since he is the only holder of the Melchizedek priesthood, according to the book of Hebrews.

Therefore, the concept of Christians building structures, calling them temples, and engaging in religious activity within them, is contradictory to,. A, the teaching concerning the tabernacle or temple in the Old Testament, and then in the New Testament, the fulfillment of those things in the person of Jesus Christ, and the teaching concerning the nature of the law, the nature of sacrifices, and the nature of the singular sacrifice of Jesus Christ, found particularly this evening in the book of Hebrews.

Now, just a few things, just to make sure that we're all on the same page, because there have been a lot of scripture references already cited, and they're cited so quickly that most of the time, especially in a context like this, especially if you're sitting in some of those rows where there's not much light, even if you wanted to try to look up the references, you would have difficulty in so doing.

But let's try to refocus our attention. What I have said in the past, and some have, for some odd reason, focused upon the word allowed in context, it obviously meant that God only commanded the building of, first, the tabernacle.

The tabernacle was portable. There was only one tabernacle. God did not say, build as many tabernacles as you can. God did not say, build multiple tabernacles and place them all over Israel so that people have ease of access.

There was one tabernacle, and that one tabernacle housed that special Ark of the Covenant, and it was that one tabernacle that people were to go on the Day of Atonement, on the Day of Covering, Yom Kippur, the Day of Covering, Kephar, to cover over when the sacrifice would be made and the blood would be sprinkled upon the altar.

Now, the functions of that particular tabernacle in regards to those offerings was transferred to the singular temple in Jerusalem when Solomon built that, and so the people of God were to gather to one place.

In fact, it's fascinating. The men were to come together. They were to come to that place of offering as the people of God, and this was such a universal command, to go to one place, not to many places, but to one place, that God, in His Word, even promises that when the men leave, and think about those Israelites who were living on the borderlands, and right across a boundary or a river would be their enemies, those who hate them.

They see the men leaving at the same time each year. What is to keep them from coming across and carrying away the women and their goods? God even promises to take away the desire from the heart of their enemies to take their lands when they would be faithful to go to that one place of worship.

Now, were there not other places of worship? There certainly were, and they were idolatrous. The Bible is filled with references to the idolatrous worship that took place in many places, and almost all of these places were modeled after the Asherim, the groves, were modeled after the pagan religions that constantly were encroaching upon the people.

God's prophets were constantly having to talk about the fact that Yahweh is the one true God, that you cannot bring the worship of Yahweh together with the worship of other gods. This kind of syncretism, this kind of giving in, coming to Jerusalem to worship Yahweh, but then going and worshiping the Baals and the Asherim and the Ashtoreth and so on and so forth, this was something that the people in the Old Testament did all the time.

And we read the prophets over and over again calling the people to pure worship, and God once in a while grants repentance. We see the reformations under Hezekiah or Josiah, and there is a period of time when the Asherims are destroyed and there is a restoration of true worship, but unfortunately most of the time the people are very content to tip their hats toward the true worship of God and then go on with that which fulfills their own desires.

Now, what happens then, since we are talking about are temples consistent with New Testament Christianity? The first thing to recognize is, well, if you as a New Testament Christian do not seek to build a single temple, see, if there is going to be a consistency, if there is going to be a demand to say, well, unless you have a passage that says stop building a temple, singular temple, then you are to continue to do that, which really wouldn't be relevant to the thesis this evening because, as we know, Mormonism builds many temples, but if we were to substantiate the thesis, at least someone might say, well, still you have to explain why the people of God in the Old Covenant built that one temple and their worship is focused there, and in those early days the church in Jerusalem, as long as that temple existed, they still went there, they used it as a place of proclamation, which of course they did.

It is interesting to note, however, that those Christians outside of Jerusalem do not make pilgrimages, they do not go to the temple to do things in the sense of, where do they go and evangelize? They evangelize in the synagogues, in the same place where the Jews were.

Why do they go there first? Why does Paul, whenever he goes into a city, go into the synagogue first? Because there you find the scriptures, there you find the people who already possess the Word of God, you can go to the Word of God and say, look, here you have the prophecies of the Messiah, here you have the pictures of the Messiah, that's where you start, and then in each one of those instances in Acts, when eventually the Jews rebel against that, sometimes even driving the apostles out of the city, then you have the apostles going to the Gentiles at that point in time.

Look at, for example, Acts chapter 13 for a good example of that particular situation. But still the question remains, well, if you're going to say that New Testament Christians do not build a particular structure, upon what basis do you do so?

Well, I think the universal answer to that question throughout the history of the Church has been very clearly enunciated in the book of Hebrews. The book of Hebrews presents to us an apologetic. It is a book written to those Hebrew Christians who were under duress, they recognized what they were facing, they would be put out of the synagogue, they would be, in essence, excommunicated from their families, they would be considered to be dead.

And there was this temptation placed before them, this force placed upon them that said, come back to the old ways. This Jesus the Messiah thing, it's just not worth what you're giving up. Think about the family, think about all the difficulties you're going to go through.

Come back to the old ways. Come back to the old ways. And so what does the writer to the Hebrews do? He demonstrates the supremacy and superiority of Christ in numerous different ways to the old way. He demonstrates that there's, in essence, nothing to go back to.

Now in that process, for example, he demonstrates the eternal nature of Christ, the deity of Christ in Hebrews chapter 1, his supremacy over the angels, his supremacy over Moses, and then, most interestingly enough for us this evening, he begins an extended section where he demonstrates that Jesus Christ is our one high priest and that he has made one offering and the contrast is drawn between the many offerings which took place in the temple, not in multiple temples, but in the temple, the contrast is drawn between those repeated offerings and the people coming to that one offering, especially on Yom Kippur, the day of atonement, with the singular sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

In the process, the author addresses the issue of, for example, the priesthood. And he says that the old priesthood has been done away with. The Levitical priesthood, traced through Aaron, and Aaron only, no one who is not of the family of Aaron, can hold that priesthood.

Remember what happened in Numbers when the ground opened up and swallowed Korah, Dathan, and Mabirim for daring to claim priesthood authority when they did not have it. That particular priesthood is contrasted with Christ's priesthood.

In fact, in Hebrews 7, verse 12, we're told where there is a change of law, there's a change of priesthood. The two are connected together. And in point of fact, that priesthood which offered the sacrifices, which had charge over the temple precincts, was done away with.

Its purpose is fulfilled. Why? Because a greater priesthood, he is called the mediator of a better covenant with better sacrifices, better promises, a better hope. Each of these placed in contrast with the old covenant, and that old covenant and its old priesthood was part and parcel of the old temple and the worship that took place within it.

And so you will notice that while we have the one incident of Paul and a Nazarite vow, we do not have sin offerings any longer by anyone, even those in Jerusalem. And never do you find in the New Testament or in the history of the early church, those Christians going out and building buildings and offering sacrifices within those particular structures.

And so we have the contrast that is presented to us by the writer of the Hebrews where he says all of these things, the priesthood and their offerings, the sacrifices, the things that took place were pointing forward.

In fact, remember in Hebrews you have the discussion where you have all of the furniture and the way it was arranged in the holy place. And it specifically asserted all of this God gave us the exact way it was supposed to be built for what reason?