There's obviously been a lot of talk in the wake of recent clashes between the United States, Israel and Iran in the past week. A lot of what I'm seeing is people asking if there is prophetic significance to any of these events and well, I'm not just interested in any of that. Too many people have tried to read prophetic significance into current events, and been wrong, for me to dare go down those rabbit holes again. Could all of this have prophetic significance? Sure, but it's too early to tell. To me, the more interesting conversations have been around a Third Temple. I'm not quite why this subject has come up now - it might have something to do with a theoretical; something having to do with the temple mount being bombed and destroyed..."and then what would happen" kind of thing. Nevertheless - it has got me thinking...because a MAJOR sign that end times events are in play would be the construction of a third temple. Why? Because that is one of the predictions of Scripture, particularly within passages that speak of the End and Jesus' return.
Prooftexts:
Ezekiel 40-48 (a must read, but too long to put here)
Daniel 9:24-27
"Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place. Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of the anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks. Then for sixty-two weeks it shall be build again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time. And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one [other translations read "the messiah"] shall be cut off and shall have nothing. And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war. Desolations are decreed. And he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week, and for half of the week he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator."
2 Thessalonians 2:1-7
"Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion come first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things?"
From the 2 Thessalonians passage, clearly a temple exists at the time of 'man of lawlessness'. The Daniel passage is a little more obscure but it seems to point to the existence of a 'sanctuary' at the end -- which is destroyed by the 'desolator', but at which people offer sacrifices and offerings, which could only be the Temple if you're familiar with the stipulations of the Sacrificial System. If you combine these passages with others like Isaiah 2 and Micah 4, which also seems to contain temple language, then the picture of a third temple becomes more plausible. I don't necessarily insist on these interpretations, but I at least hold it as possible that a third temple could be constructed at some point in my lifetime...and the important question is "what does/would that mean"?
If these prophecies are as they appear to be, then the rebuilding of a third temple would mark the beginning of a period of time (some say seven years). According to the passage from Daniel that I shared above, "And he [the prince of destruction] shall make a strong covenant with many for one week, and for half of the week he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering." Biblical scholars say that the week represents seven years, so the abomination of desolation spoken of in the Daniel and quoted by Jesus in Matthew 24 occurs halfway through that seven year period - meaning that Jesus would then be returning in another 3 1/2 years after that. If you study the prophetic texts in Daniel closely, this is roughly the timeline laid out there as well.
This does tie in well with what I've been sharing here on this space recently though...how our generally poor understanding of the Sacrificial System here in modern times could actually be used to deceive believers. Say, for example, a third temple was built and Jewish people restarted the sacrificial system. How many Christians would decry that as unnecessary or even blasphemous/heretical?
Tucker Carlson, on a recent episode of his podcast, claimed that a third temple would be tantamount to denying Christ himself saying,
"There are amazingly a lot of American evangelical leaders - Christian Zionists - whose main point is rebuilding the third temple. Now, how could an American Christian or any Christian call for the building of a temple whose presence, whose inherent presence - denies Christ?"
This is the kind of spirit I have in mind - people who believe that a third temple goes AGAINST what Scripture says, who would see it's construction as an affront to Jesus...when nothing could be further from the truth. In Acts 21, Paul returns to Jerusalem to meet with the other Apostles and word has reached them that Paul has been falsely accused as preaching against the Law of Moses, against Jewish customs, and the temple (21:21). In order to counter this false claim, James and the other 'elders' (likely other Apostles) prescribe a Nazarite vow of purification for Paul (ala Numbers 6) and for Paul to pay the expenses (aka Sacrifices) of four others who have also taken a Nazarite vow. Paul, I assume in agreement with this, does exactly what is he told to do. There is no reason to believe he disagreed with this prescription and I think it is also safe to assume that he was eager to dispel these false claims as well.
I share this to point out that the Apostles themselves (and Paul for that matter) did not believe that Jesus had done away with the sacrificial system with his death. They did not see the observance of sacrifices to be antithetical to their belief that Jesus was the messiah. I humbly suggest that they didn't see an issue because there was no issue and it is we, going on 2,000 years later, who do not understand the point and function of the Sacrificial System very well...and this is closely tied to the temple itself, which was at the very center of that system. More to come.
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