Question: Should Christians Support the Third Temple?

Answer: No.

Let me give you the Biblical perspective as to why Christians should not support or contribute financially to build a third temple in Jerusalem.

Jesus prophesied that the second temple would be destroyed because the Jews did not recognize “the time of their visitation.” That means; the Jews did not recognize or receive Jesus as the Messiah.

"For the days shall come upon you, that your enemies shall cast a trench about you, and compass you round, and keep you in on every side. And shall lay you even with the ground, and your children within you; and they shall not leave in you one stone upon another: because you knew not the time of your visitation" Luke 19: 43,44.

Jerusalem was destroyed and the temple laid to ruins by Titus’ army in 70 AD, just as Jesus prophesied.

     Up to that point, the Jews were continuing the practice of animal sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins, ignoring the fact that these sacrifices were originally instigated by God to serve as a foreshadow for their ultimate fulfillment in Jesus’ sacrifice for the sins of mankind.
     God permitted the Jews to operate in opposition to His will for forty years. During that period of time they had the opportunity to hear the Gospel and repent.
     When the temple was finally destroyed, the Lord was putting an end to animal sacrifice, the last remnant of the old covenant that was replaced by the new.

If a third temple is built and animal sacrifices are resumed, it would be an act of rebellion against God and the Messiah Jesus. The Jews would be reviving a system that God has decreed as over and finished.

Any Christian who understands the atonement of Jesus, could not support the re-instigation of animal sacrifice for the forgiveness of sin.

Currently, those who are involved in the building of a new temple in Jerusalem, are talking about it being a new spiritual center where people of all nations and faiths can come together and worship the Living God. As any true Christian knows, there can be no worship of the true God without accepting what He has ordained for man’s salvation: we must accept Jesus as the Messiah and believe in His death and resurrection from the dead. So what we see arising in association with the building of a new temple, is also a new world religion that is part of the one world government’s agenda.

The view of some of the Christians who are supporting Israel in this heresy, do so under the mistaken assumption that the rebuilding of the temple will hasten Jesus’ return. The scriptures do show us that the Lord will not return until there is a falling away, an apostasy, and the antichrist is revealed, proclaiming himself to be worshipped as God in the holy of holies (II Thessalonians 2:3,4, Rev.13:6). This is the abomination that make desolate, man proclaiming himself to be worshipped as God.

While the emergence of a third temple seems to play a part in this scenario, for a Christian to assist in the construction of a temple that is being built for the false messiah/antichrist, is a form of betrayal to the Christian faith. As the book of Hebrews clearly shows us, Jesus is the final sacrifice for sin. To help in the re-establishment of a system that God has abolished is an affront to the Gospel.

I believe that the third temple will be and is a test of loyalty for the Christian. We are called to proclaim the Gospel, not align ourselves with the apostasy, the falling away that will ultimately result in the world’s enslavement to the antichrist’s one world government.

The Jews believe that their messiah will rule the world from Jerusalem. Therefore it is no surprise that Jerusalem has now been made the capital of Israel. I have heard it proclaimed from some Jews, that when their messiah comes and rules, then the Gentiles, or Goyim, will then become their slaves. This belief is reinforced in the Babylonian Talmud, which they use to interpret the Torah. The goal is to see the Christian’s faith in Jesus destroyed.
     How can any true Christian support the establishment of a system that represents the destruction of the Christian faith?

The foreshadow of the antichrist, as history and Daniel’s prophecy attests (Daniel 11: 24-31), was Antiochus Epiphanes. He was helped in his ascent to power by Hellenized Jews. These were secularized Jews who were opposed to the orthodox Jew’s strict adherence to God’s word and their faithfulness to Him. Likewise, Christians today who support the construction of a third temple, for whatever reason, are like those Hellenized Jews who enabled Antiochus to be in the position to violently persecute and destroy the Jew’s faith.

Some Christians mistakenly believe that this third temple will be the millennial temple Jesus will use when He returns. We have to understand that Jesus’ prophecy of the time before He returns that He describes in Matthew 24, is a duel prophecy. While it contains elements that apply to the destruction of the temple in 70AD, it is also referring to the events that occur in the last generation before His second coming. In other words, the previous history will be repeated.

The Bible predicts that Israel will be invaded by the Gentiles and go into another captivity before the Lord returns (Rev. 11:2, Zechariah 14:2). The antichrist will desecrate the holy of holies, and that is when the Jews are warned in Jesus’ prophecy to flee the city. The temple and Jerusalem will be destroyed again.

If there is to be a millennial temple built, it will be after the Lord returns and it will be constructed by repentant Jews specifically for the Messiah Jesus. I do not believe that Jesus will inhabit a temple, if indeed He needs one, that has been constructed for the antichrist.

When God allowed the first temple, Solomon’s grand temple to be destroyed, it was, according to Ezekiel’s prophecy, because they had placed their thresholds next to God’s thresholds, and their posts by His posts (Ezekiel 43:8). This means that they were polluting the temple with their own ways which were in opposition to God’s ways. This desecration will be repeated when today’s Jews in Israel, who have rejected Jesus as the true Messiah, begin sacrificing animals again. They will be by every evidence we have in the Biblical record, “flying in the face of God.”

I believe that the sacrifices, or their attempts to re-establish them, will be the trigger that instigates their captivity and catapults the world into the great tribulation and the wrath of God’s judgment.

While the Christian should not support the building of a third temple in any way, we should not make any physical attempts to prevent it, other than warning those involved of what the Bible tells us concerning their rejection of the truth of the Gospel. Our prayer should be, “God’s will be done.”

Israel was the womb through which God birthed deliverance for the entire world in the Messiah Jesus. We must love and honor our mother Israel for this reason. She may be an enemy of the Gospel at this moment in time, but we are to love our enemies and do good to them that persecute us. We have this assurance in the scriptures, that when her purge is completed, those who are the Lord’s will receive Him at His second coming with tears amid the ashes (Zechariah 12:10,11).

The world is teetering on the edge of the great disaster to come. This is a time for the true Christian to follow the Lord’s command to “Come out of Babylon” (Rev. 18:4) and turn our backs on anything that would keep us from holding onto our faith.

Copyright 2020 by H.D. Shively

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