@Keraz ..continuation from the above post..
Throughout his vision Ezekiel describes animal sacrifices which are said to have an "atoning" purpose and effect (Ezek 43:13-27; 45:15-25). Such sacrifices could not possibly truly be atoning sacrifices, since that would reverse redemptive history and deny the efficacy and sufficiency of Christ's once and-for-all sacrifice of himself, contrary to Heb 9:11—10:22. That also would return to the "shadows" in place of the substance and reality (see Col 2:16-17; Heb 8:1-10:22).
To take literally/ physically Ezekiel's portrait of Jerusalem as the center of the world's worship (Ezekiel 47-48), where non-Israelites are excluded from the temple (Ezek 44:6-9), likewise completely reverses what Christ has done. Yahshua eliminated the requirement that worship be conducted at some special place (John 4:21, 23) and eliminated the distinction between Jews and other nations among God's people.
To say that the sacrifices are simply "memorials" of Christ's sacrifice means that there is likewise no reason to take the temple itself "literally" (i.e., as a physical structure). To view the sacrifices referred to by Ezekiel as "memorials" also would dishonor Christ since the only memorial that Christ himself gave to "memorialize" his redemptive work was the Lord's Supper, not a return to OT sacrifices (Luke 22:14-20; 1 Cor 11:23-26).
Ezekiel's vision showed a river of life-giving water flowing out from under the temple (Ezek 47:1-12). Since Jesus is God's true temple (see John 2:18-22), he is the true source of life-giving water. In John 4:10-14, he told the Samaritan woman that he is the source of eternal, "living water." In John 7:37- 39, Jesus said, referring to his giving the Holy Spirit, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the Scripture said, 'From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.'" Since no OT text explicitly says "from His innermost being will flow rivers of living water," it is likely that "a multiple allusion to pertinent scriptures is in mind. Those would be passages that were of prime significance for the meaning of the festival and were read at it."
Included among these was Ezek 47:1-11, the flowing of the river of living water from the temple in the kingdom of God. In other words, Yahshua connects the eschatological temple of Ezekiel with himself as the new temple. Hence, the waters flow not from a physical temple in Jerusalem but from Jesus himself. The church is the channel of the life-giving water whose source is Yahshua.
Ezekiel's final vision builds upon and ends with what he earlier had said in Ezek 37:26-28. Just as that passage twice said that God would "set up a sanctuary in their midst forever," so Ezek 43:7- 9 twice says "I will dwell among them forever." In 2 Cor 6:16-7:1 Paul linked the promises of Lev 26:11-12, 2 Sam 7:14, and Ezek 37:27 and showed how fulfillment of those promises was inaugurated in the church.
The New Jerusalem (Rev 21:1—22:5
), not a physical building to be constructed on the earth in the future, is
the consummation of Ezekiel's temple (Ezekiel 40-48) and is the true reality to which Ezekiel's vision pointed.
In Ezek 40:2, Ezekiel was taken to a "very high mountain" where he saw a "structure like a city." There are
no "very high mountains" in or around physical Jerusalem. The fact that he saw a structure "like" a city suggests that Ezekiel is entering into the realm of symbolic geography of heaven and earth that pertains to eschatological conditions.
That is confirmed by Rev 21:10 which parallels Ezekiel's language in describing the New Jerusalem. That passage says an angel "carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God."
In Ezekiel's vision both the temple and the city are described as square. The identification of Ezekiel's city with the New Jerusalem is confirmed by Rev 21:16 which describes New Jerusalem as "
laid out as a square."
The essential element of Ezekiel's vision is that God's presence and his will dwells among his people forever. The book of Ezekiel ends with the statement, "the name of the city from that day shall be, '
The Lord is there'" (Ezek 48:35). That is fulfilled in the New Jerusalem of Revelation 21-22:
Ezek 43:7-9 twice says "
I will dwell among them forever." In the Greek OT, the root for "dwell" in Ezek 43:7 is "tabernacle." Rev 21:3 indicates that the New Jerusalem is the consummation of all prophecy, including Ezekiel's vision, by echoing Ezek 43:7, 9 and twice saying "the tabernacle of God is among men" and "He will dwell among them." Also, three times Rev 21:3 says that God will be "among" his people.
Ezek 43:7 says, "
This is the place of my throne." Rev 22:1, 3 both state that "the throne of
God and of the Lamb" will be in New Jerusalem.
Ezekiel's temple and the New Jerusalem
both have twelve gates in the
same configuration: three on the north; three on the east; three on the south; three on the west.
Further, the apostles and the tribes of Israel are described as part of the very structure of New Jerusalem itself: the
apostles are the foundation (Rev 21:14); the twelve tribes are the gates (Rev 21:12-13). "The integration of the apostles together with the tribes of Israel as part of the city-temple's structure prophesied in Ezekiel 40-48 confirms … that the multiracial/different ethnic groups of the Christian church/ Body will be the redeemed group who, together with Christ, will fulfill Ezekiel's prophecy of the future temple and city. This is in line with other NT passages in which the whole covenant community forms a spiritual temple where God's presence dwells (1 Cor 3:16-17; 6:19; 2 Cor 6:16; Eph 2:21-22; 1 Pet 2:5)."
Ezekiel's temple is at the center of everything. In New Jerusalem, there is
no physical temple building "for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple" (Rev 21:22). Thus, the
true temple—God and the Lamb—is now central. "The equation of God and the Lamb with the temple approaches closely
the essence of the Ezekiel vision, which is God's glorious presence itself (e.g., 48:35, 'the name of the city' is 'the Lord is there'). All that Israel's old temple pointed to, the expanding presence of God, has been fulfilled in Revelation 21:1—22:5, and such a fulfillment has been anticipated within Ezekiel 40-48 itself." 17 Ezek 47:1-12 describes a river flowing from out of the temple which is healing and life-giving. Rev 22:1-2 uses the same imagery and applies it to the New Jerusalem. The identification of the river in Ezekiel's vision with the river in the New Jerusalem is corroborated by Ezek 47:7, 12 which says that there were trees on both banks of the river. That parallels Rev 22:2 which similarly says that the tree of life was "on either side of the river." In both cases the trees are said to bear fruit (Ezek 47:12; Rev 22:2). Further, in both cases the leaves of the trees are "for healing" (Ezek 47:12; Rev 22:2).
Ezekiel's temple would only be a reality for those who had put away their abominations and sins (Ezek 43:6-9). Echoing Ezek 43:6-9, Rev 21:8, 27 say that "
nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination" will be in the New Jerusalem. That shows that Ezekiel's temple could only be referring to people
who are "in Christ." Just as Christ inaugurated his kingdom and forever forgave sins at his first coming, so the New Jerusalem forms the consummation of Christ's kingdom, in which sins are forever eliminated.
------------still think Ezekiel had a vision of a 3rd physical temple? ----------------------
I now wish to discontinue any more discussion on this topic of yours and your damming doctrine of a 3rd physical temple with you. I have just toppled one of your major pillars of your precious doctrine. Live with it!
You demean Christ, APAK
Happy trails
