#1091 The apostle Peter calls the believers “lively stones.” Just as the earthly templewas built of stones, the heavenly temple is built of spiritual stones. This spiritual temple is under construction at this time.

Only when that temple is completed—when the last from among the Gentiles has been added to it—will the Church, the body of Christ, the spiritual temple, be raptured into the presence of the Lord. Furthermore, the Church—in which dwells the Holy Spirit—is also the hindering element for the salvation of Israel, as Paul documents: “blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in” (Romans 11:25b).