End of the Year 2015

Shawn McCraney argues against institutional religion by highlighting that the concept of 'material church' is a misleading farce that detracts from genuine worship, as true worship should be in spirit and in truth, not bound to man-made structures. By using biblical references such as 1 Corinthians 15:46 and Genesis 2:7, he supports his assertion that the spiritual follows the natural, urging believers to break free from the confines of organized religion and foster a direct, living relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

The teaching explains that God established a pattern where the physical comes before the spiritual, demonstrated first by creating a material Nation through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and later by manifesting the Messiah physically through Jesus. This pattern is also evident in Jesus' life, where He physically fulfilled the Law and the Prophets and gathered a material following, laying the foundation for a spiritual redemption and relationship with God.

Jesus abolished dietary laws, fulfilled the Sabbath as the ultimate rest, and was established as the final High Priest through His death, burial, and resurrection, promising to return for physical salvation from judgment. He chose twelve apostles to usher in a new spiritual era, prophesying the imminent end of material religion, which culminated in the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 70 AD, marking the transition to a spiritual New Jerusalem and New Earth.