Randy Kluth
Well-Known Member
Paul has to be prophesying about a future new Temple that as I say: is well prophesied to be present on the Temple Mount:
The prophetic Scriptures clearly predict that the Third Temple will be built and the sacrifices reinstated, in the final years leading up to the Return of the Messiah. It is clear, too, that there will be more than just the Jewish people living in the Land of Greater Israel. All the Israelites from all 12 tribes of Israel, plus those grafted in, will migrate to New Israel soon after the Lord’s Day of vengeance and wrath, the terrible Day of fire and storms, that will clear and cleanse most of the Middle East.
But that isn't a prophecy--it's your own interpretation of the Scriptures. And mentioning Antichrist will take his seat in the temple of God is hardly a statement indicating the old temple of Herod would be rebuilt!
Look at how Moses told Israel the tabernacle would be built with great detail. And look at all the detail the Bible went into describing Solomon's project in building the temple. Finally, look at all the attention to the event at which the temple would be rebuilt after the Babylonian Captivity.
Then look at the lack of attention to any event or any detail with respect to a supposed rebuilding of a temple at the end of the age. It just isn't there. And that's likely because the temple of stone and wood was just a temporary phase until Christ came, became the real heavenly temple, and built his Church, the fulness of his temple.
The several statements about a future temple may purely be use of OT language to express a NT temple with Christ and the Church figuring prominently--not a physical temple. After all, OT prophecies would not likely use NT language as long as the Old Covenant was still in effect!
Any reference back to an OT physical temple seems purely designed to distract away from Christ to the externals that had caused the Jews to fail in the first place. It wasn't all about a physical temple, but more, about obedience from the heart and about an inward spirituality, not tied to a particular regimen of rituals and laws. The Law was fulfilled in love, and not in killing sheep and cows.