The Gospel of John records that Jesus, having driven the money-changers out of the temple at Jerusalem, said, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." That he did not refer to a structure of stone and wood is clearly seen in the explanation which John gave, "But he spake of the temple of his body." Paul similarly used the word "temple" and in his first epistle to the Corinthians wrote (3:16, 17): "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are."
Mary Baker Eddy gives the spiritual sense of "temple" in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 595) as "body; the idea of Life, substance, and intelligence; the superstructure of Truth; the shrine of Love." These three great religious leaders knew that the only temple in which "the Spirit of God" dwells is wholly spiritual, perfect, and indestructible.
Then what of a mortal with his so-called body made of flesh, bones, and blood? Obviously, a mortal is not the wholly spiritual man whom the Scriptures declare to be the image and likeness of God. The man of God's creating has a spiritual identity comprised of the spiritual qualities of God. These spiritual qualities—peace, joy, love, intelligence, harmony, and so forth—constitute man's substance. A mortal may appear to have a body that is perfect or imperfect, but physical appearance has nothing to do with the spiritual fact that man is the immortal idea of being. Christian Science teaches us that neither God nor the real man can be cognized by the physical senses. The body which these senses seem to perceive is a false mental concept, an illusion. As we lose our faith in the reality of material things and gain an understanding of the perfection of being, what appears to be the physical body will manifest our improved concepts.
