Therefore, as was said before, sin originated in the temple of God IN HEAVEN. Paul told us that the things in heaven needed to be PURIFIED WITH BLOOD. When God created man, and he fell like one third of the angels fell, God wanted to redeem man back to himself because:

1. Man was made in the image of God
2. Man was given life with a special substance that angels do not have: blood

God's plan was to get back into the earth, develop a covenant relationship with man, and redeem man back to a personal relationship with him, just as it was in the beginning with Adam and Eve. The overview of the plan was told to Satan after he fell, and after man fell in the garden of Eden:

From that moment on, God began to raise up a dwelling place for himself on the earth. Three major dwelling places have been:

1. The tabernacle of Moses in the wilderness
2. The temple of Solomon in the Holy of Holies
3. The rebuilt temple of Solomon after the Babylonian captivity in the Holy of Holies

In the tabernacle and temple, there were three divisions:

1. The outer court: containing the altar and the laver
2. The inner court: containing the golden candlestick, the table of shewbread and the golden altar of incense
3. The Holy of Holies: containing the ark of the covenant

There are three priesthoods referred to in the Old Testament, prior to the priesthood of the believer:

1. the priesthood of Melchizedek
2. the priesthood of Aaron
3. the future priesthood of Zadok during the millennial reign of Christ (Eze 48)

Under the Aaronic priesthood, when Aaron died, the office of priesthood was handed down from son to son to son. This is what occurred up until the time of the occupation of the Roman empire in Palestine. Around the time of the birth of Christ, the priesthood had become corrupt, and the Roman empire had even begun to appoint men they wanted to be in the priesthood, who were not necessarily Levites. The book of Malachi, written approximately 400 years before the birth of Christ, shows how corrupt the priesthood in Jerusalem had become:

As we see above, the priests were offering polluted bread and blind or lame sacrifices upon the altar. With these profane sacrifices, God was not pleased. What was God's plan as a result? This is found in Malachi chapter 3:

God said that he was going to send a messenger of the covenant, a person who would prepare the way for Jesus Christ: John the Baptist. We see a prophecy in Isaiah which John himself declared as he preached and baptized in the wilderness:

In the book of Luke, we read that this person indeed was John the Baptist, living in the wilderness and baptizing at the Jordan River:

So, the Lord lays down the law in Malachi, declaring he was going to send a messenger to prepare the way for the Lord. There was a period of approximately 400 years of darkness, in which there was no prophetic voice in Israel. From the book of Malachi to the book of Matthew, there were no persons receiving visions or revelations from the Lord.

The Lord says, "I'm going to get me a new priest, a faithful priest. I'm going to get a priest that can make intercession for the people. I'm going to get priest to redeem the people so we don't need to do these animal sacrifices any more. I want a priest that will allow access directly to my throne, and I want a temple set up not in Jerusalem, but in the body of a believer. No longer will they need to enter the Holy of Holies once a year to offer a sacrifice, the blood of bulls and goats and lambs. I want a priesthood where the people can go past the veil and enter my presence. I am going to change the priesthood into a new covenant priesthood."

Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God, was that faithful high priest. Remember, the priesthood had to be handed down from father to son, and the ORIGINAL temple was NOT on earth, but in heaven. The tabernacle of Moses and the temple of Solomon were only types and shadows of what is in heaven. And God is in heaven sitting in the true temple.

Therefore, since God is sitting in the temple in heaven, he had the right to pass on the priesthood to his Son, Jesus Christ, to become the new high priest in the temple in heaven. With this new priesthood would come six specific changes: