Apokatastasis.wiki

NL · Nederlands

Apokatastasis.wiki

5 minuten leestijd

Tabernacle

Typological treatment in the corpus

The tabernacle (the Mosaic tent of meeting, Ex. 25-40) is identified in the corpus by Nee/Lee and Noordzij as a type. In Nee/Lee the tabernacle is a type of the tripartite man and simultaneously of the church as the corporate body of Christ; in Noordzij the tabernacle’s fifty golden clasps are a type of the Holy Spirit as the unifier of the body.

Biblical anchoring

ReferenceContext
Ex. 25:8-9”Let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst”
Ex. 26:1-37Construction: boards, curtains, clasps, the Holy of Holies
Ex. 36:12-13The fifty golden clasps that join the tabernacle curtains
Heb. 8:5The earthly sanctuary as “a shadow and copy of the heavenly things”
Heb. 9:9The tabernacle as “a symbol for the present age”
John 1:14”The Word dwelt [tabernacled] among us”

Typological exposition by author

Nee / Lee

In The Economy of God (EG, chs. 21-22), Lee develops the tabernacle typology in two directions: the tabernacle as a type of the tripartite man, and the tabernacle as a type of the church.

Tabernacle as a type of the tripartite man. The three spaces of the tabernacle correspond to the threefold division of man:

“Our body corresponds to the outer court, our soul to the Holy Place, and our human spirit to the Holy of Holies, which is the actual dwelling place of Christ and the presence of God.”1

The spirit is the Holy of Holies — the only space where God dwells. The soul (the Holy Place) is the middle ground where the contest is waged between the flesh (outer) and the spirit (inner).

Tabernacle as a type of the church. The boards (acacia wood overlaid with gold) are a type of believers who have human nature (wood) encompassed by divine nature (gold). The two tenons on each board are a type of mutual dependence:

“Two tenons hold it firmly in place. Two means confirmation. [
] You and I must first learn that we are only a half; and then we must never act independently and individually without the confirmation of others.”2

The church for Lee is not formed but born — no human hand can build it.3

George Warnock

In Crowned With Oil (ch. 6) Warnock develops the tabernacle typology in connection with Urim and Thummim and the Melchizedek order. The original objects “were merely types and shadows of the reality” (Ex. 28:30):

“Urim: ‘Lights,’ from a word meaning flame, something luminous, glorified, radiant. Thummim: ‘Perfections,’ from a word meaning: to complete, to accomplish, to make an end, to come to perfection.”[^b-warnock-7a]

Both words are plural and the objects are two in number — the number of the corporate relationship in the body of Christ. In Urim and Thummim we have the Light of God coming to full perfection. We have a corporate expression of the Light and Glory of God in full manifestation. We have the full revelation of the Word, of the heart and Spirit of God, in a people that has come to abiding oneness with Christ and is hidden in the breastplate of judgment.[^b-warnock-7b]

Warnock follows the typological line of David who built a new tabernacle that foreshadowed the Melchizedek order:

“David placed it in a new tabernacle which he constructed for this new kingdom that foreshadowed the Melchizedek order, a kingdom and priesthood of righteousness and peace.”[^b-warnock-7c]

This explains the transition from the Aaronic to the Melchizedekian order: Christ reigns as Priest-King on the throne (Zech. 6:13), not in the earthly tabernacle but in the heavenly one. The Feast of Tabernacles is the eschatological fulfillment of this tabernacle typology, where the body of Christ becomes the living temple in which God dwells.

In chapter 7 Warnock develops the “more excellent ministry” (Heb. 8:6) as the heavenly tabernacle typology:

“He is the Man whose name is the Branch (Zech. 6:12). He is the Lord Jesus Himself. But He is One who ‘grows’ out of His place. He is a ‘Root out of dry ground’ (Isa. 53:2). He grows — and becomes a Vine. In that Vine are other branches, who are added to Him, and who become one with Him.”[^b-warnock-7d]

Noordzij

In the pneumatological section of his system, Noordzij draws an explicit typological connection between the tabernacle and the unity of the body of Christ:

The fifty golden clasps joining the tabernacle curtains (Ex. 36:12-13) are the typological reference point for the Holy Spirit uniting the body of Christ.4 The number fifty links tabernacle, Jubilee (Lev. 25), and Pentecost (Acts 2) as three expressions of one pneumatological reality — the Spirit as unifier.

Sub-elements

Fifty golden clasps (Ex. 36:12-13)

The fifty golden clasps join the two halves of the outer curtain. Noordzij reads these as a type of the Holy Spirit (number 50 = jubilee = Pentecost) holding the two halves of the body of Christ together. (Noordzij, EJ; see also 50.)

Boards and tenons (Ex. 26:15-25)

Acacia wood overlaid with gold = human nature enveloped by divine nature; two tenons per board = confirmation through mutual dependence. Lee: type of believers together forming the body of Christ. (Nee/Lee, EG ch. 22.)

The Holy of Holies

The innermost space = type of the human spirit as the dwelling place of Christ. Lee builds on this his entire experiential soteriology: the believer must “enter the Holy of Holies” through the exercised spirit-contact. (Nee/Lee, EG ch. 3.)

  • Connected: jubilee (number 50 links tabernacle clasps and Jubilee)
  • Via number symbolism: 50
  • Via glossary: mishkan

Footnotes

Footnotes

  1. Nee/Lee, EG (The Economy of God, 1964/1968), ch. 3 — the tripartite man and the tabernacle. ↩

  2. Nee/Lee, EG (The Economy of God), ch. 22 — boards and tenons as a type of the church. ↩

  3. Nee/Lee, EG (The Economy of God), ch. 21 — the church is born, not formed. ↩

  4. Noordzij, BXL2 (The Inheritance of Jabez) / EG (The Ark of Noah), pneumatological section — Jubilee, Pentecost and the fifty clasps as one pneumatological reality. ↩

Grafiekweergave

Backlinks