Rebuilding The Temple Of Jerusalem?
Published 20150622 -:- Revised 20250829
NB: I am dyslexic so please bear with me. Bible references are from MKJV unless noted otherwise.
Will the temple in Jerusalem ever be rebuilt? A very
volatile question in this day and age. I don’t believe it will be rebuilt
before Christ returns and I’ll tell you why. Lets go through how the temple
came into being, what was its purpose and how and why was it destroyed.
The Tabernacle
If we go back to Exodus, Moses was given the following
instruction from God. Exo 25:8 “And let them make Me a sanctuary, so that
I may dwell among them. v:9
According to all that I show you, the pattern of the tabernacle, and
the pattern of all the instruments of it, even so you shall make it.” The
next six chapters are all about what to make, with what materials and the
protocols required. Then refer also to Heb 8:5
“who serve the example and shadow of heavenly things, as
Moses was warned of God when he was about to make the tabernacle. For, He says
"See that you make all things according to the pattern shown to you in
the mountain."”
God is an invisible God. Remember Moses in Exo 33 asked to
se God’s glory and God said in vs.20 “…You cannot see My face. For there no man
can see Me and live.” God knows the heart and nature of man; He made us to
function by our five senses. But mankind has always been of the attitude we
should be able to see the ‘god’ we worship. As soon as the children of Israel
were out of Egypt, and although they had seen all those miracles, they still
got Aaron to making a golden calf! Something that they could see and show all
the other nations, this is our god! Exo 32:4 “..And they said, These are
your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
Well Moses ‘spat the dummy’ and broke the stone tables. So
God said ‘you broke em, you make a new sit, and I’ll write on those ones’
Eventually the Tabernacle was built and it became the place
of worship and offering to the Lord. It was also the visual location where God
would meet with His people, and it was mobile. Some examples are: -
Num 12:5 “…Jehovah
came down in the pillar of the cloud and stood in the door of the tabernacle,
and called Aaron and Miriam…”
Jos_19:51 “…the sons of Israel divided for an inheritance by
lot in Shiloh before Jehovah, at the door of the tabernacle…”
What Have We Found
1 – God asked for the Tabernacle to be built because He
WANTED TO DWELL AMONG HIS PEOPLE.
2 – Moses was caught up in the spirit, (as was John in Rev),
shown a Tabernacle in heaven to copy and make the earthly Tabernacle.
3 – Moses was give DETAILED instruction as to the duties,
procedures and requirements of the priesthood.
4 – The Tabernacle could be packed up and moved. so
worshiping God had no fixed location.
Why Was The Temple
Built?
I think David was the first to decide to build a temple to
the Lord, without even asking God. It was as though he was bored, with no one
to conquer and nothing left to do. Go to 2 Samuel chapter 7 and the parallel in
1 Chronicles chapter 17
2Sa 7:1 “And it happened when the king dwelt in his house,
and when Jehovah had given him rest round about from all his enemies, v:2 the
king said to Nathan the prophet, See now, I live in a house of cedar, but the
ark of God dwells within curtains. v:3 And Nathan said to the king, Go, do all
that is in your heart, for Jehovah is with you. v:4 And that night the Word of
Jehovah came to Nathan saying,…”
God said some amazing things, that passage is loaded with
prophecy and suggested double fulfilment. Lets just pick the highlights..
‘Abbreviated’ verse 7 ‘Did I ever ask any one to build me a
temple?’….. v 9 ‘I have raised you to be a great leader over Israel’….
v10 ‘Israel will move to another place and never
return’ (KJV “that they may dwell in a
place of their own, and move no more”)
vs 12 n 13 ‘Your son will build my house and I, (God) will
establish his kingdom and his lineage will last for ever’.
Verse 2Sa 7:14 “I will be his father, and he shall be my
son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and
with the stripes of the children of men: v15 But my mercy shall not depart away
from him, as I took it from Saul,…..”
In these verses 12 to 16 many read this to be talking about
Christ’s kingdom will last forever and father son etc. Well it is a ‘type and
shadow’. But God says ‘If he commit iniquity’; so here God is
clearly talking about David’s kingdom and lineage will last forever. If you
have any doubt read the rest of the chapter to see how David responds in praise
to God, David clearly understood it to mean his lineage. But as they say in the
classics “that’s another story!” I can cover that with you another time.
In any case David’s son Solomon built the first Temple, he
obviously got it all right cause God was very happy with it. Read..
1Ki_8:63 “..Solomon offered a sacrifice…22,000 oxen, and
120,000 sheep. So the king and…Israel dedicated the house of the Jehovah.”
2Ch 7:1 “And when Solomon had made an end of praying, the
fire came down from Heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices.
And the glory of Jehovah filled the house. v:2 And the priests could not enter
into the house of Jehovah because the glory of Jehovah had filled Jehovah's
house.” That is a lot of livestock that went up in a ‘flash’ I hope when I get
to heaven I can see it on DVD!
What More Have We Found
5 – The Temple replaced the Tabernacle, so now the place of
worship had a FIX LOCATION.
6 – There was NO CHANGE to the sacrifices and procedures.
And the Levites didn’t need to transport the Tabernacle. 1Ch_23:26
[ PS: ‘a funny’… After Solomon built the Temple, what did he
do with the Tabernacle? ….. He rent it.... Ha Ha Ha]
The Temple Destruction
The Babylonians destroyed the Temple. Jer_25:9 “…says
Jehovah, and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant …” and
The land left desolate. 2Ch_36:21 “to fulfill the Word of
Jehovah in the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its sabbaths...”
Then after the SEVENTY YEARS EXILE in Babylon the Temple was
rebuilt under Ezra, then later added to by Herod.
Christ
And The Temple
God laid out His BIG PLAN in Daniel chapter 9, for the
rebuilding of the Temple and ushering in the Messiah. Lets have a read…
Dan 9:24 “Seventy weeks are decreed as to your people and as
to your holy city, to finish the transgression and to
make an end of sins, and to make atonement for iniquity,
and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to
seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most
Holy. v:25 Know therefore
and understand, that from the going out of the command to restore and to build
Jerusalem, to Messiah the Prince, shall be seven weeks, and sixty-two weeks.
The street shall be built again, and the wall, even in times of affliction.
v:26 And after sixty-two weeks Messiah
shall be cut off, but not for Himself.”
The 70 weeks explained for the novas. God describes periods
of time in a “prophetic day equals literal year”
principal. Refer to Ezekiel 4:6 and
Numbers 14:34. The phrases God uses are: - Time = 360 days,
Season (3 months) 90 days, Month = 30 days and Week
= 7 days.
So 70 weeks = 70 x 7 days = 490 days
= 490 literal year. Some examples are; Time - (Dan
7:12 & 25, Dan 12:7. Rev 12:14), Season - (Dan 7:12), Months
- (Rev 9:5 & 10, Rev 11:2, Rev 13:5) and DAYS - (Dan 8:14. Dan 12:11
& 12, Rev 11:3, Rev 12:6)
And the old favourite. “Time, Times and half a Time”. Well
the word ‘Times’ plural is Hebrew for ‘Twice Time’.
So it comes to, 360 +360 +360 +180 = 1260 days
= 1260 literal years. Just reduce everything to days then call it
as years.
Back to the prophecy, it is divided into 7 weeks, the
rebuilding of the Temple. Then (threescore and two), 62 weeks, a total of 69
weeks. Then the last week which is “tricky”. In any case after
the 69 weeks “Messiah shall be cut off”. There are various schools of thought.
Some say that the, (last), seventieth week is for some reason transported off
to the future. Some say it started with the beginning of Christ’s ministry, so
that verse 27 refers to Christ. Dan
9:27 KJV “And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one
week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the
oblation to cease,” That also makes senses if you link it to the previous verse
24 which talks about all the things that Christ achieved. So that when Christ
died on the cross, in the midst of the week, He put an end to
sacrifice etc.
If you would like to look at some commentaries on verse 24,
download the FREE Bible “e-Sword” along with the following commentary notes
such as, ‘John Gill’s Exposition’, ‘Matthew Henry’s Commentary’ and then the
‘Jamieson, Fausset and Brown Commentary’.
[If don’t have “e-Sword” on your PC or phone it is well
worth getting. There are so many other notes charts and books that come with
it.] So Christ finished transgression, put an end of sins, made reconciliation
for iniquity, brought in everlasting righteousness, He was the fulfilment of
prophecy, and He was anoint the Most Holy. Remember when Jesus first appeared
on the stage of Gods big plan, John the Baptist identified him as, “the lamb of
God”. So Jesus was the sin offering for the redemption of all mankind.
And in Jesus Sermon on the Mount, “Blessed are” this that
etc. go to verse 17 in Matthew. Mat 5:17 “Do not think that I have come to
destroy the Law or the Prophets. I have not come to destroy but to fulfill.
v:18 For truly I say to you, Till the
heaven and the earth pass away, not one jot or one tittle shall in any way pass
from the Law until all is fulfilled.” Well what did He do to fulfil the LAW?
Heb 9:11 KJV “But Christ being come an high priest of good
things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands,
that is to say, not of this building; v:12
Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he
entered in once into the Holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for
us.” He entered the Holy Place in heaven, the Tabernacle that Moses saw.
“IT IS FINISHED!” So
the moment Christ died, “the job was done” and God Himself confirmed it by
tearing the curtain from top to bottom. It was the curtain that separated the
Holy Place from the Most Holy Place. Only the High Priest could enter the Most
Holy Place once a year to fulfil the requirements for the atonement of the
nation. God was saying the Temple itself was no longer required. Christ as High
Priest put an end to the requirements ONCE and for all. Most important anyone
could now enter God’s presence through Christ.
Heb 4:16 “Therefore let us come boldly to the throne of
grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
What More Have We Found
7 – After Christ the earthly Temple was no longer required
8 – After Christ the High Priest duty was no longer required
After Christ and The Purpose of The Temple
The Temple: Where should worship take place? Remember
the incident with Jesus and the woman at the well. John 4:21 “Jesus said to
her, Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you shall neither
worship the Father in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem. v:22 You worship what you do not know, we know
what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. v:23 But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true
worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father
seeks such to worship Him.”
The Ark of the Covenant: There is a very interesting
prophecy in Jeremiah chapter 3 verses 6 to 16. God is comparing the two nations
Israel and Judah. He gave Israel a bill of divorce. But Judah became so wicked,
Jer 3:10 “And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah has not turned to
Me with her whole heart…” So God turns to Israel to ‘woo’ her back again.
Remember this prophecy is in Jeremiah’s distant future. Now the Jews even
today, believe that they are the descendants of Judah. Also they believe that
Israel, (The Lost Ten Tribes), are still lost amongst the Nations. But in any case
when we get to verse 16, God is saying this to Israel in the DISTANT future, (and NOT the JEWS). Jer 3:16
“And it will be when you have multiplied and increased in the land, in those
days, says Jehovah, they shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of Jehovah!
Nor shall it come to mind; nor shall they remember it; nor shall they visit it;
nor shall it be made any more.”
The LAW and The New Covenant
Jer 31:31 "Behold, the days come, says Jehovah, that I will cut a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah, (so it is to BOTH Houses), :32 not according to the covenant that I cut with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which covenant of Mine they broke, although I was a husband to them, says Jehovah; :33 but this shall be the covenant that I will cut with the house of Israel: (ONLY The House of Israel is mentioned?) After those days, says Jehovah, I will put My Law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. :34 And they shall no more teach each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, Know Jehovah; for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says Jehovah. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sins no more." That is speaking of the NEW covenant through Christ.
What More Have We Found
9 – So, the location of worship is no longer of
any importance.
10 – The Ark of the Covenant is no longer required in the
future.
11 – The LAW will be in our heart and be a constant witness
to us as to right and wrong!
Can we see where all this is now
leading us?
The Temple of Today
Paul is a master at using analogies, and one topic he used
was the Temple. He shows that our bodies are a temple to God, he did this in
odder to show the need for spiritual cleanliness. Some examples:
1Co 3:16 “Do you not know that you are a temple of
God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?”
1Co 3:17 “If anyone defiles the temple of God,
God shall destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which you
are.”
1Co 6:19 “Or do you not know that your body is a temple
of the Holy Spirit in you, whom you have of God? And you are not your own,”
1Co 9:13 “those who minister about holy things live of the
things of the temple? And those attending the altar are partakers
with the altar.”
2Co 6:16 “And what agreement does a temple of
God have with idols? For you are the temple of the living God, as
God has said,"
Eph 2:21 “In whom all the building fitly framed together
groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:”
Then Peter takes it one step further to show that we all
together as one body form individual parts of the Temple of God. And Christ
showed John many years later, in Rev 3:12 an example that each of us forms part
of the ‘Temple of My God’.
1Pe 2:5 “you also as living stones are built
up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices
acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” Rev 3:12 “Him who overcomes I will make him a pillar in the temple
of My God, and he will go out no more. And I will write upon him the name
of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes
down out of Heaven ….”
Question
If we are as individually or corporately the Temple of God
then what about the reasoning behind why God wanted the Tabernacle built?
From our notes above, Point 1 – God asked for the Tabernacle
to be built because He WANTED TO DWELL AMONG HIS PEOPLE.
These passages below all show that God was dwelling in
Christ and then after Pentecost He will dwell in each of us.
Joh 14:10 “I am in the Father and the Father in Me?…I do not
speak of Myself, but the Father who dwells in Me, He does the
works.”
Joh 14:17 “the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot
receive ... But you know Him, for He dwells with you and shall
be in you.”
Rom 8:9 “But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if
the Spirit of God dwells in you………”
Rom 8:11 “….the One who raised up Christ from the dead shall
also make your mortal bodies alive by His Spirit who dwells in you.”
1Co 3:16 “Do you not know that you are a temple of God, and
that the Spirit of God dwells in you?”
2Ti 1:14 “Guard the good Deposit given through the Holy
Spirit indwelling in us.”
Jas 4:5 “Do you think that the Scripture says in vain, The
spirit that dwells in us yearns to envy?”
The Temple of the Future
There is often talk about rebuilding the Temple at
Jerusalem. I have heard that the Temple already exists in a prefabricated form,
and the Jews are just waiting for the chance to go ahead with assembling it on
site. But that could be just roomers getting out hand. There are also a lot of
Christians who firmly believe that the Temple will be rebuilding, and very
soon. To understand this, we need to go back to the basics of what people
believe about the book of Revelation and the coming end times. My guess is
about 90% of Christians these days believe the Futurist interpretation. Within
that doctrine or interpretation there are now about two or three versions of it, and it's about as hard to understand as, “WHOs On First”. For example, Post Tribulation and Pre Tribulation, in other
word does the church go through the Tribulation or not etc. etc.
We cannot deny that one of the best and earliest writers on
the subject was Francisco Ribera (1537-1591). Three others gentlemen followed
him with similar works, but Ribera produced a 500 page theses on the subject
and his work was incorporated in the Vulgate Bible as commentary notes. So his
work was held in high esteem. Ribera claimed the letters to the churches were
applicable to the pagan Roman age. The rest of the book of Revelation was to be
fulfilled in the future in a literal 3 ½ years. You can ‘Google’ and Wikipedia
his work along with the works of Cardinal Robert Bellarmine, Michael Walpole
and Manuel De Lacunza who wrote under the pen name of Juan Josafa [Rabbi]
Ben-Ezra. The basic teaching is that the Antichrist will rise up in that future
3 ½ years.
Just for the sake of argument lets assume the
Futurist Teaching is correct! The key scripture that backs up the idea of a future
temple is; 2Th 2:3 “Let not anyone deceive you by any means. For that Day shall
not come unless there first comes a falling away, and the man of sin shall be
revealed, the son of perdition, v:4 who
opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped,
so that he sits as God in the temple of God, setting himself forth, that he is
God.” Obviously, the Temple would have to be rebuilt, so that the ‘man of sin’,
(the Antichrist), would move in, take it over as his Temple and so on. But with all
the scriptures we have looked at above, regarding the purpose for the Temple
etc. something just does not make sense with that assumption. I have some
questions.
1: - Would God want the Temple rebuilt and if so WHY? What
purpose would it serve?
2: - Who is going to rebuild the Temple? The Jews or the
Antichrist?
For argument sack lets say the Jews rebuild the Temple!
The Jews (no offence meant), they despise Christ! He was and
still is in their eyes an illegitimate blaspheming liar. That’s why they took Christ to
Pilate to have Him killed, refer to the scriptures Matthew 27, Mark 15, Luke 23
and John 18. It is assumed they wish to rebuild the Temple, because they wish to start up blood sacrifice again. In recent years the Jews have acquired some "Red heifers"! So, they clearly want to start blood sacrifice again!
The Futurist teaching claims that the Jews will
eventually start blood sacrifice and offerings in that "new" rebuilt temple! Then the Futurist interpret Dan 9:27; "He", as being the Antichrist and He does the following. Dan 9:27 KJV “And he
shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of
the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, …” So, for the
Antichrist to stop sacrifice and the oblation it infers that the Temple must
therefore have been rebuilt by the Jews for that purpose.
For argument sack lets say The Antichrist rebuild the Temple?
That's Worse still! What if The Antichrist dose rebuilt the
Temple? Now that opens a can of warms. Your assuming that if the Antichrist
builds the Temple that God would refer to it in HIS scriptures as “the
temple of God”. That is a ridiculous interpretation! You would be saying that God is thrilled the Antichrist rebuilt the Temple? So that God would state in His scriptures that the building the Antichrist put together would be called "The temple of God"
3: - What would God say if Jews, Christians, Muslims or
Antichrist, rebuilt the Temple and restarted sacrifice and the oblation? They
are blatantly denying Christ and His sacrifice once and for all! Would God call
it His Temple? As in 2Th 2 above, where God calls it “the temple of God”.
I don’t think so.
A Simple answer is this:- Could not that scripture, 2Th 2 “the
temple of God” be referring to the body of Christ, as being the church and not a future temple? So that
the Antichrist stands up within the "body of Christ", that is within the Church of today and says he is God! And he should be worshipped! Who do you know in the Christian world today that has that claim? He dose exist TODAY, and he still claims that privilege!
Lets ask that question again "Will the Temple be Rebuilt? ... what do you think?
Well thanks for your time hope that has given you food for
thought.
Until next time Yours Adrian Deacon