02.04. Chapter Four

Chapter Four The Foundation Platform In order to raise the surrounding mount to a level with the floor, the place of the altar on its summit, a foundation platform of stupendous structure was built. To was to form this foundation platform that the Lord gave commandment, as we read in 1 Kings 5:17, “And the king commanded, and they brought great stones, costly stones, and hewed stones, to lay the foundation of the house. “This broad platform level and secure, was for the erection of the Temple, its courts, and other buildings. And the foundation was of costly stones, even great stones, stones of ten cubits and stones of eight cubits (1 Kings 7:10—in plain language, about twenty feet and sixteen feet in length. These firm foundation stones remain intact beneath the surface to the present day. One of the great services which the Palestine Exploration Fund Committee has rendered to the Church of God is the investigation which they have so skilfully carried on in respect to this foundation platform, it is an oblong structure, in round numbers about one thousand five hundred feet long, and about one Thousand feet in breadth it is known as the Haram-ash-Sherreff or Noble Sanctuary of the Mohammedans. The surface is nearly level, carpeted with grass; cypresses are found there, and oratories and mosques. About the centre of the enclosure is a platform nearly square, about sixteen feet in height, formed in part of masonry, in part of the native rock, and paved with stone slabs, on which stands that which is now known as the Mosque of Omar, which the Mohammedans call Kubbet-es-Sakhra, or “Dome of the Rock. “Above the surface of this platform time has done its work; siege after siege has committed ravages; but below the surface, to a depth of sixty, seventy, or one hundred and twenty feet, there have been discovered those vast stones of which we read in the Sacred Record, so closely joined that scarcely a pen-knife could be put between the joints; without cement, firm and immovable. On some of them may be seen the marks of the builders, in red vermilion.

Foundation Truths This foundation platform is built upon Mount Moriah-Moriah, the vision or manifestation of Jah or Jehovah; as it was said, “In the mount of Jehovah it shall be seen. “In that wondrous twenty-second chapter of Genesis, we have not only foretold God’s own Lamb which He has provided, but we have there the mount of Jehovah-Jehovah Jireh. Solomon as a wise master-builder, went deep, and laid the foundations upon a rock: hence their security. Let us learn from it afresh the lesson of our Lord in Matthew 7:1-29, that, however “well builded, “however skilfully erected, our house may be, if built on sand, when the hour of trial comes and the overwhelming scourge passes through, it must come down. When God lays judgment to the line and justice to the plummet, He will sweep away every refuge of lies. “It is on GOD that the firm foundations of our faith for time and God eternity must rest. If our faith is in Christ, it must be in the Christ of God, founded upon the character, the perfections, and the attributes of the unchanging, eternal God. “Trust ye in Jehovah for ever: for in Jah (Jehovah) is the Rock of Ages” (Isaiah 26:4). Jah—the title of God in the eternity of His existence, “inhabiting eternity, “to whom past, present, and to come is one eternal now. Jehovah—the title of God as the everlasting one, “that is, and was, and is to come. “God’s purposes and plans connected with the ransom of man in time, and the monument of His eternal glory to be erected thereupon in eternity, were laid deep in the counsels of eternity; the work was according to the eternal purpose, the purpose of the ages, which He purposed in our Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 3:11). The father in eternity laid the stupendous plan. The son laid down His life to accomplish it. The eternal Spirit renders the work effectual in each believing soul. “Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 3:9-11). “This is the stone which was set at nought of [by] you builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we can be saved” (Acts 4:11-12). If faith is to be steadfast and secure, it is not to be forever laying and relaying the foundation. “Not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment” (Hebrews 6:1-2). Let these vast truths be taught as the rudiments and foundations of our knowledge of Divine things—unchanging, immovable. There can be no glory to God, no salvation to men, where there is no Divine foundation. It is no building of God, no habitation of God through the Spirit, if the divinity of Christ is denied. The rock foundation of our faith must be “God manifest in the flesh. “As the Apostle says, “To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, ye also as lively [living] stones, are built up a spiritual house...

Wherefore also it is contained in the Scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion a chief corner-stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on Him shall not be confounded [ashamed]” (1 Peter 2:4-8). Christ Himself, in His person and work, is the chief corner-stone of the whole. The rock is the truth of God which He reveals to the soul, as in the case of Peter (see Matthew 16:15-18), when he confessed, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. “And Jesus answered and said unto him, “Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood bath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father which is in heaven. And I say unto thee, That thou art Peter [a stone] and upon this rock I will build My church. “Then we also read, “built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner “[foundation corner] (Ephesians 2:20). The apostles and prophets of the New Testament dispensation, through whom the truth of God was revealed and given to us, built upon those great and grand foundation truths contained in the inspired Scriptures of the New Testament in full confirmation, dovetailed in, and builded together with the massive truths of the Old; resting upon the same foundation. Every doctrine of revealed truth is truth as it is in Jesus—all centering in His blessed person, all in harmony with His work, accomplished at no less a cost than the incarnation, sufferings, and death of the Son of God.

Then, again, where there is no divine, eternal spirit, there can be no Christ. Who is the Christ? The Christos in the Greek, which means the anointed— “The Spirit of Jehovah is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me” (see Luke 4:16-21)—is the answer. You cannot have Christianity without Christ; you cannot have Christ without the Spirit; you cannot have the Son without the Father, nor the Father apart from the Son. To take away or deny one of these foundation truths is to disturb the whole, for these things, like those great massive stones of the Temple foundation, are embedded together.

—Our Daily Homily