BonoVoxSupastar said:
To say that God is so powerful and then to say it can be contained by brick and mortar and fabric doesn't make sense.
To understand this, we have to keep in mind that God exists in three parts (the Father, the Son [Jesus], and the Holy Spirit) and can exist in multiple places at once. God came to Earth in the form of a man (Jesus) while God the Father still remained in Heaven. I guess we might call him "multi-dimensional" or something.
But when there was a temple building in the Old Testament, it wasn't like God would have been homeless if he didn't have a physical building to live in, it's just that the temple was where God in one form chose to hang out, I guess.
But God wasn't satisfied with having to deal with his children from a distance, so he had a plan (through Jesus) to eventually do away with all of the formalities so that he could hang out with each of us personally (changing the concept of what a temple is, from a physcial building to our physical bodies).
BonoVoxSupastar said:
I just don't understand why God would regionalize itself and only allow access to certain people, this is just a ridiculous idea to me.
To the best of my understanding, God's plan all along was to reunite all people with him in Heaven some day. It's just that the way he has chosen to do it is somewhat complicated and round about.
As you point out, he started out by making one nation (Israel) his chosen people, while everyone else was referred to as "Gentiles" (which basically means "not Jewish").
However, in Old Testament times, before Jesus was born, God said to Isaiah, "It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth" (Isaiah 49:6).
In other words, God's plan all along was to try to bring everyone on board eventually, but according to his plan, it couldn't happen until after his son (Jesus) was rejected by Israel, becase one of the purposes of reaching out to "Gentiles" is to make Israel relent and return to him:
"...salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious." (Romans 11:11).
But it is also made clear that in the end Israel will return to God as well:
"And so all Israel will be saved..." (Romans 11:26a)
Of course, this is all rather complicated, and I don't pretend to fully understand it all, but then, as the Bible says, "Who has known the mind of the Lord?" (Romans 11:34a)