Replies

Utter nonsense and not Biblical. You can pray anywhere and Israel has. You're taking the verses out of context, per usual.

Utterly nonsensical. A holy place is a specially set-aside place. The temple was such a "set aside" for prayer -- and not just any type of intercession...but intercession for ALL NATIONS...

The same "ALL NATIONS" Jesus' Great Commission focused on discipling (Matthew 28:18-20) -- a little bit AFTER that Matthew 21 comment...

And, in citing that Matthew verse -- where Jesus cited part of Isaiah 56:7--isn't taking that out context at all: all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it and who hold fast to my covenant—7 these I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.”

The context there begins talking about the Holy Sabbath, yet another "set aside" -- done on a weekly basis.

Besides. Your Johnny-come-lately Mormon superimposition is an anachronism:

And for LOTS of reasons:
* You can marry a couple anywhere and Christians -- and Jews -- have been. (You don't need a Mormon temple to do it; and the Jews didn't do it, either...neither did the Book of Mormon characters...Even the early Mormons did that all thruout the 1830s!)

* You can also perform ALL baptismal rites outside of the temple (You don't need a Mormon temple to do it -- even for "the dead"...hey...just dig up the corpses @ your local cemetery, 1010, & immerse them yourself if you're so eager to "Mormonize" the dead!)

* 1010...they also didn't have "temple recommends" back then, now did they?

* Lastly, go back to the "house of prayer for ALL NATIONS"...including Gentiles!

Yeah...here the temple was intercession for the Gentiles...and here Mormon temples have signs that effectively say, "No trespassing! Gentiles, keep out!"

Decades ago I read a little book about the Tabernacle as a reflection of hos God made us, that we were to be the tabernacle for His Spirit in our Human spirit. The author compared the outer court to the human body and the burn offering alter to the digestive system. He compared the inner Holy Place to the soul of a human, complete with the three levels of the brain (stem, limbic, cortex, IIRC) to the three pieces of furniture in the Holy Place, those being the golden lampstand, the showbread table and the alter for incense. The inner sanctum sanctorum called the Holy of Holies by the Hebrews the author compared to the spirit of a human, and that most inner place was not alive until God's Life came into it, this followed from the blood applied to the Mercy Seat for purification.

Poor old Joe Smith might have fabricated Mormonism differently had he been able to read that little book.