Definition of New Covenant Temple in Scripture
Glossary
Temple (New Covenant): The New Covenant of Salt is hidden in the Old Covenant of Salt, and the Old is fully revealed in the New. So when Jesus tells his listeners to destroy this Temple, and in three days he will rebuild it, he is telling them that the era of the literal geological stone Temple (the Old Covenant of Salt) is ending.[1] Instead, the New and Everlasting Covenant of Salt — the Temple, his mystical and literal body — is about to begin.
The Jewish Temple of geological stone was destroyed circa 70 AD.[2] It was never re-built. Thus, the only way that Ezekiel’s dream of the rebuilt Temple (Chapters 40-47 in Ezekiel, esp. 47) could be false is if the words of Jesus (destroy then I will rebuild, Jn. 2:19), and the words of John (he spoke of the temple of his body, Jn. 2:21) were also both false. Jesus did not refer to his body as the synagogue. However, he did explicitly say those words about the one and only Temple of His resurrected body.
Let’s incorporate our deeper understanding of stone in Scripture together with events described in Genesis Chapters 17 through 29. In (17:1-14), God makes a covenant with Abraham — a Covenant of Salt (of DNA), as signified by circumcision. In (19:26), God also shows us the consequence for breaking the covenant by allowing Idit (Lot’s wife) to become a pillar of the salt (of DNA) deprived of bio-living water. In Chapters 28 and 29, we learn about Jacob, the son of Isaac, who was the son of Abraham, which makes him the third generation living under the Covenant of Salt between God and man. I find it more than mere coincidence that God chose to give a sign of the fulfillment of that Covenant of Salt during the third generation of offspring living in it. The resurrection of Jesus occurred on the third day after his death. The New Covenant of Salt Temple was rebuilt at the Resurrection of the body of Jesus from the dead. The Scripture account of Jacob confirms that the NC Temple will be built of a new kind of stone — a living stone.
[1] Ratzinger, Jesus of Nazareth Part Two, Kindle Locations, 37.
[2] Ibid., Kindle Location 604-605.