Saturday, September 3, 2022

The problem of a future rebuilt Jewish Temple

Some are opposed to the expectation of a future Jewish Temple in which there will be animal sacrifices because the Jewish Temple and sacrifices have been rendered obsolete after both the crucifixion of Christ and the change of the people for God from that of the nation of Israel to the Gentile-Jew Assembly, being the "Church."  Likewise, it's difficult to understand the need for sacrifices during the Millennium as revealed in Ezekiel chapters 40 through 48--which is why some will say that vision was an ideal never to be realized or it is somehow fulfilled in the Church.

The following scriptures are the basis for believing in a future temple during the time when the "abomination of desolation" (AOD) takes place:

15 "Therefore when you see the 'abomination of desolation,' spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place" (whoever reads, let him understand), ... 21 For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. Matthew 24:15-21

Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, 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, showing himself that he is God. 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4

27 And one week shall establish the covenant with many: and in the midst of the week my sacrifice and drink offering shall be taken away:

and on the temple shall be the abomination of desolations; and at the end of the time an end shall be put to the desolation. Septuagint / Daniel 9:27

Don't even some (or most) Preterists (who believe most prophecies have been fulfilled n the past, especially in the events surrounding AD70 and the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple) see a more literal fulfillment of Daniel's prophecy of the AOD in the temple in the events of AD70, which was some 40 years after the crucifixion and the establishment of a Church? It's just that Futurists believe that prophesied event (the AOD) is yet future and not in the past, and the Jewish Temple which was destroyed in AD 70 will be rebuilt (to some degree) for this event to happen.

I think it should be considered that the Animal sacrifices dealt with sin on a temporal, theocratic level for Israel.  They were not to be offered up just anywhere. 

And justification was always by faith in God and the coming Redeemer, for "Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness."  

The destruction of the temple and Jerusalem was Divine judgment on the nation because of her rejection of Messiah--because they "did not know the time of your visitation" (Scripture below).

The destruction of the temple removed that place of God's special presence from among national Israel.

The temple and the sacrifices are not of any necessity to us he Church, because they only had a purpose or function in the theocracy of national Israel.  

If Ezekiel chapters 40 through 48 isn't written off as some unrealized ideal that could have been fulfilled after the Babylonians captivity, then the temple and sacrifices could have a temporal type of role with dealing with sin with reference to the functioning of the theocracy of national Israel.  This role doesn't and never did provide justification of the sinner before God, only for their continuation in the land as a special people for God's purpose.

Isn't it an argument of the Preterist that the AOD can't involve a future temple and sacrifices because of the work of the cross?

But doesn't even the Preterist believe the Abomination of Desolation was fulfilled in the Temple in the events of AD70, about 40 years after the Cross of Christ and the beginning of the new people, the Gentile-Jew Assembly? 

41 Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, 42 saying, "If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43 For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, 44 and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation." Luke 19:41-44

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