A New Temple Has To Be Rebuilt For Jesus To Return?

By Pastor Carl Gallups


LET THE WORD OF GOD SPEAK:

Following are biblical, contextual answers to questions about the “necessity” of a “rebuilt” and literal temple in Jerusalem in the last days. The only two fairly direct New Testament references to even the possibility of a rebuilt and third temple in Jerusalem in the end times are in Rev. 11 and 2 Thessalonians 2. But as you will soon see, these certainly are not definitive statements declaring that there must be a literal temple-building complex built in Jerusalem before the return of the Lord.  We hope this gives you some good, solid, biblical things to ponder.

=====================================

Revelation 11 might be about a “third temple,” however those verses do NOT say it is a “rebuilt” or “restored” or “third temple.” The Greek word used for “temple” in Rev. 11 (Strong’s 3485 – Naos)  is the same Greek Word used throughout Revelation for the “Temple in Heaven.” However, in the rest of the N.T. and in John’s other writings there is another GK word used ( Strong’s 2411 – Heiron) when speaking of the actual temple edifice as the one that existed in Jesus’ day.

This issue is a difficult one, but it certainly is not a “settled” issue as so many on the forum continually scream.  But we do know the following things:

1. Nowhere in the New Testament does any writer or speaker ever address directly the “rebuilding of a third literal temple building on the Temple Mount.”

2. The only direct discussion in the New Testament about a “Temple” being “built” (the only one) is when Paul teaches about the “body of Christ” being built into a “new Temple” with Jesus as the cornerstone and the believers as the building blocks. The only places where Jesus is quoted as “building a new temple” is His reference to building the Church – after His resurrection. (One example is Mark 14:58)

3. When most (some say ALL) of the NT documents were written, the 2nd Temple was still standing. It was not destroyed until 70 AD.  When that happened, it would have been a traumatic, empire-wide, cataclysmic event – especially among the Jews and early Christians. Yet the topic is never so much as hinted at in the NT documents except that Jesus prophesied that it would happen. And it did!

By the way – when Jesus refers to Daniel (Matthew 24) and the abomination of desolation (Daniel 9:27) set up on the “wing of the Temple” or “at the Temple”, some people say that this is where Jesus hints at a rebuilt temple. But there are several huge problems with this interpretation.

a. That passage in Daniel makes no mention of a temple being “rebuilt.”
b. That passage in Daniel does not even have the word “temple” in it  - in the original Hebrew. It only says he will set up the abomination on a “wing.”  Scholars have debated for 2,000 years what this could literally mean. It may, or may not, refer to a temple. If you see the word “temple” in a certain translation, it has been added by the translators. It is not in the Hebrew texts.
c. Since this is the only reference that can be applied to Jesus’ words in the New Testament concerning the possibility of a “rebuilt temple,” it falls flat on its face as a “definitive” statement from Jesus on the matter. There simply is no such definitive and clear reference from Jesus.

4. Yet – neither Jesus, Paul, Peter, John, Jude, the writer of Hebrews (who speaks prolifically about the Temple), Matthew, Mark, or Luke – ever engage in a direct, clear, discussion or prophecy about the rebuilding of a “third temple.” As monumentally huge as this event would be (prophetically and otherwise) if it actually occurred, isn’t it a bit odd that not a single writer or speaker in the New Testament documents even so much as mentioned it directly, clearly, and pointedly?

All of this is not to dogmatically declare that a temple won’t be built. But, it is to say that you can’t take a verse like that found in Revelation 11 or even 2 Thess. 2:4 and say “this is that,” when even the scriptures themselves don’t clearly say “this is that.”  

By the way, in every single mention of the Temple in the writings of Paul, he speaks of the Temple as being the Body of Christ in the last days. The only possible exception to this is the verse in 2 Thess. 2 – so we can’t say for a certainty that the this passage is definitively speaking of a rebuilt 3rd Temple. Since every other use of the word “temple” by Paul is about the Body of Christ (the Church), we have to assume that the 2 Thess. 2:4 reference is related to the Body of Christ as well. If it were not meant to be taken that way, Paul would have had to tell us that he was now changing “context” of the meaning of the word “temple” from every single other time he used it in his writings.

1 Cor. 3:16 Know ye not that ye are the Temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

1 Cor. 3:17 If any man defile the Temple of God, him shall
God destroy; for the Temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.

2 Cor. 6:19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

2 Cor. 6:16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

2 Thess. 2:4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God (Among Believers), shewing himself that he is God.

========================

See this WND headline article on the topic – for different views:

MESSIANIC PREPARATIONS UNDERWAY AS 3rd TEMPLE IS PLANNED
http://www.wnd.com/2016/09/messianic-preparations-underway-as-3rd-temple-planned/