Is the Third Temple Biblical?
Pastor Patrick D. Garlock
Within the evangelical church, there is much discussion about a need to build a third temple in Jerusalem. So much discussion, in fact, we find many Christians are clamoring for it, praying for it and even financially supporting the effort. It is a topic that seems to be engrained in the hearts and minds of Christians all over, but especially in America.
In an effort to comprehend this phenomenon, it is my duty to investigate how we got to this point and, ultimately, answer this question: Is a third temple biblical?
Let’s Begin at Ground Zero
We must first begin by realizing the religion at the forefront of wanting a third temple built in Jerusalem is not Christianity, but Orthodox Judaism. Judaism, in its root theology, does not believe Jesus Christ was the Savior promised to them in the Tanakh, or what Christians know as the Old Testament. Judaism denies Christ’s claims that He was the Messianic promise from the line of David. Those who follow this religion, therefore, feel the need to build this temple so their savior will finally come and reign from Jerusalem, over all the world. In principle, we can cognitively understand this desire. However, if a Christian proclaims to follow their belief system’s naming right, then the proposition of building it should create concern for the follower of Christ. Christianity, after all, is built on the fact that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Messianic promise.
So, to gain more insight into this strong desire from evangelical Christians to assist the Jews in building a third temple, we must dig deeper. We will begin by looking at the “proof texts” that call for the construction, then will look into the interpretation that introduced the church to it in the first place.
First, it’s a Matter of Approach
When we study the Bible, there are three rules we can follow to help us understand what we are reading. This application is called Hermeneutics (the branch of knowledge that deals with interpretation) and the three rules are as follows:
Easy before difficult
Let scripture interpret scripture
Context, context, context
All three apply ALL the time. The last one is often challenged by those who do not read a passage within its original purpose and meaning. This is called presuppositional reading, or eisegesis in theological terms, which is when a reader views the text through a lens of what they want it to mean so that it benefits them, rather than discerning through it by way of the Holy Spirit (who guides our efforts and understanding) and corroborating the interpretation with proper theology, which is called exegesis.
Let me give you an example of how this is commonly done. It occurs more than you realize.
Example: Many folks who support a secret rapture of the church, for instance, use Matthew 24:40-41 as proof text. It states, “Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left.”
Per what I just explained, one cannot read these verses without examining those preceding to properly understand what Jesus is referring to in verses 40 and 41. Jesus was asked about His eventual return and his response includes those two versus, but to get the full meaning, it’s important to begin at verse 36. Matthew 24:36-39 states, “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.”
Noah was given instruction by God to build the ark, then told there was an impending flood on the horizon. Jesus, while comparing His return with this event in history, gives us the context to compare how the world will be before His return. During Noah’s time, the world was doing whatever it wanted with no consciousness or awareness of sin. Those who got on the Ark were going to be saved, as they were left behind to repopulate the earth. Those swept away all reached their demise. If Jesus is using the implication of Noah as the benchmark, then the two men in the field and the two women at the mill have a completely different meaning. Those who are left will be the saved because Jesus is returning to destroy the earth and recreate a new one, while those who are swept away, as in the days of Noah, will meet their eternal punishment.
This is why it is always important to read Scripture in context before we form a presupposition. It is also why making a concerted effort to read the Word is vital.
Harkening Back to the Old Testament
I shared the above insight because the call for a third temple uses two books in the Old Testament for support: Ezekiel and Daniel. Let’s give these a brief look.
Ezekiel 33 through 39 deals thematically with the end of the age before moving on to the call to restore the temple in chapters 40 through 48. This major prophet firmly focused on prophecy and providing warnings to the Israelites. The Book of Ezekiel was written while he was in Babylon during the 70-year period when the people were exiled from their land, after the Babylonians raided and destroyed Solomon’s temple.
Let’s put ourselves in the shoes of the exiles. At this time, the nation of Israel, now in dispersion, knew their ancestral history. They were aware of how God had saved them from Egypt and that He dwelt with them in a beautiful tabernacle. Moreover, they remembered Solomon’s glorious temple in Jerusalem, a structure so impressive and important the Bible devotes 18 chapters to its layout, construction, dedication and appointment of its workers. This temple was built at the height of Israel's prosperity and power under King Solomon.
Now, let’s examine this from God’s perspective. He was seeking to communicate with those exiled, a disheartened people who had been told the Lord had left the temple and, thus, the Promised Land, enabling the Babylonians to capture Judah. They also had been told their exile manifested God's wrath. We read this in Ezekiel 16:1-58. So, because of this great loss, they believed restoration would never come - that their suffering meant the Lord's promises were hollow. If you were God, how would you communicate the glory of the restoration in terms this audience could understand?
The nation of Israel was, after all, promised a messiah that would rule and reign at the throne of King David. This could not happen unless they were restored. Theological study helps us understand the end of the age will not begin until the Advent of the Messiah, which Christians know and understand as the ministry of the person and work of Jesus Christ. Therefore, the importance of rebuilding the temple during the exilic period was very important for God to communicate with the Israelites.
So, when King Cyrus of Persia signed a decree allowing them to move back into their land a generation after Ezekiel wrote his prophecy, the purpose of his prophetic utterance was brought to a sudden realization and they were allowed to rebuild their temple. To be clear, since we are reading the Book of Ezekiel in its context, this has nothing to do with a third temple, only the second temple. The second temple was built upon their return, eventually improved under the direction of King Herod then, ultimately, destroyed in 70 A.D., just as Jesus had predicted.
Next, we move to Daniel. The Prophet Daniel writes his amazing book after Jerusalem is restored and the temple has been rebuilt. He too, was in Babylon. Interestingly, many of the Israelites still were in dispersion at the time as many had not been willing to return to their homeland yet because they were (at this point) two generations removed from the exilic period. They were settled in other places and living life. Many Jews would remain this way, only traveling back to Jerusalem during Passover and other holy celebrations.
Daniel’s Apocalyptic visions enable his writings in chapters 7 through 12 to convince the Jews still in exile that their God is sovereign and will provide them with a vision of their future redemption. Daniel 2:44 prefaces with a key verse stating, “In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever.”
Followers of Christ will clearly understand that Daniel is referring to Jesus Christ. Those who practice Judaism still hold to their traditions and deny Jesus as their messianic fulfillment, which still occurs today.
So, if the Old Testament prophets were not prophesying for a third temple, where on earth are we getting such information that it must be built? Honestly, it all stems from the study of end times.
Matters of Eschatology
Eschatology is the theological study of all things regarding end times. Matters such as death and the afterlife, heaven and hell, the return of Christ, the resurrection of the dead, the rapture, the tribulation, millennialism, the end of the world, the Last Judgment, and the New Heaven and New Earth in the world to come - are all points of what theologian’s call “The Eschaton,” or the end of the world. So, right away, we see this is an important topic to study.
Among the most important doctrines of Christ’s church, eschatology is not considered an “essential” doctrine. In other words, it’s not essential nor necessary for salvation in Christ. Christians are to understand and hold to the essentials, such as, but not limited to, the virgin birth, the atonement for sin at the cross and the resurrection, in order to understand their salvation. These essential pillars translate to pillars of the faith in Jesus as the Messianic fulfillment that was promised to us in the first, or old covenant.
As it stands, eschatology falls in the “non-essential” category because we don’t have to align ourselves with one particular view of end times to be a regenerate Christian. Among many non-essential doctrines, there is room for debate. This certainly includes all things regarding the eschaton. However, it is vitally important to note that although we use the term “non-essential,” it does not render it “not important.” In fact, the more we study the doctrines of Christendom, the more we realize our desire should be to constantly seek to get the entire gospel correct. Although eschatology isn’t essential, if we don’t keep an open mind to what the Word of God says, we run the risk of bad eschatology creeping in and then we find ourselves very confused by topics such as the one we’re addressing today.
I will not give you a full understanding of all things related to eschatology in this article, but I will provide a few important notes as part of our investigation. There have always been three distinct views to understanding how the end of times would occur. All three of these views are centered on one passage of Scripture, Revelation 20:1-3, which reads, “Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be released for a little while.”
The timing, or actual placement of this 1,000-year period, is where differing views first occur. The Premillennialist believes that Jesus will return and reign in Jerusalem for a literal 1,000 years. The Postmillennialist believes the 1,000 years are more symbolic, with the world’s population becoming more Christianized during this time, then the return of Christ will occur. The Amillennialist also believes the 1,000 years is symbolic, but they believe it’s happening now, beginning when Christ ascended, and will conclude upon the return of our Lord when He sets up His eternal new Heaven and Earth. For further understanding of the Amillennial view, please read my article that is posted on the Got Questions website: [What is amillennialism? | GotQuestions.org.][1]
[1]: https://www.gotquestions.org/amillennialism.html
Premillennialism has been around for a long time and sees Revelation 19 through 20 as happening chronologically. That’s an interpretive distinction. Although I personally do not hold to this interpretation, I can live with the idea that it’s just a differing viewpoint other believers hold. The Lord returns at the end of chapter 19. Much like the rest of the Book of Revelation, chapter 20 is like a recapitulation of 19. It’s basically like another camera angle. That changes the interpretation of chronological.
No matter if someone believes the millennium is literal or symbolic, here is where it became difficult. Less than 200 years ago, this classic Premillennialist view, now referred to as Historic Premillennialism, took a backseat in the popularity contest. A new kid on the block emerged and designed a new way to interpret this view. His name was Charles Darby, and he called the new interpretation Dispensationalism. It was based on seeing the overview of redemptive history in seven “dispensations,” or periods of time. As part of Darby’s new interpretation of Scripture, he saw the people of God, Israel, never lost their promise from God and that He would still save them. He felt the Abrahamic Covenant still was important enough that God couldn’t have forgotten about His people. Well, of course God didn’t forget. He just expanded the Kingdom to include Gentiles among His elect people. This is a clear narrative in the New Testament. Jesus taught it, and so did His disciples.
I must take a brief exit off the turnpike, to share with you why God’s promise to save His people would never go away. Think of this as a rest stop to make sure we’re on the right highway before we get back on and proceed toward the third temple understanding…
Promise is a Promise
The Old Covenant and its sacrificial system that was given to Moses for the people of Israel was intentional to set the people of God apart from the rest of the world. It also was a punishment due to the Israelites disobedience to God at the base of Mount Sinai, where they made a golden calf to worship in place of Jehovah God because they were tired of waiting for Moses to come back down the mountain.
The sacrificial system was tedious and difficult, performed only by appointed Levitical Priests, and only in the Tabernacle, which was at first mobile. Tabernacle found a permanent home in Solomon’s Temple, then later in Herod’s Temple. It is where the people met God, but only through a very specific ritual designed by God so atonement could be made for their sin as part of the Old Covenant.
Although mankind has failed Him, beginning with our first earthly daddy, Adam, and continuing through the generations that follow, God maintains His promise to save some of those out of the human race as part of His wonderful, merciful grace. Therefore, Jesus, as part of this original promise (called the Covenant of Grace, or Redemption), came to earth as God incarnate to make one final atonement for our sin. He came to not be served, but to serve. And, His service to us is to impute His righteousness onto us, as we impute our sin onto Him.
This work of Christ is not only mind-boggling, but it is the most beautiful gift that we, as humans, can receive. Due to our sinful nature, which we are born into, we deserve the punishment that is befalling all mankind due to the original sin of Adam. This is why we refer to the person and work of Jesus Christ as “The Good News of the Gospel.” So now, let’s look at what we are taught in the New Testament about this very important truth.
Hebrews 8:6-7 - “But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.”
If the original promises made to the fathers in the Old Testament were good and still to be held to today, the author of Hebrews would not be telling us they were faulty and that the second one is enacted on better promises. His better promises were fulfilled with the birth, life, death resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. Jesus, being one with God the Father and the Holy Spirit, was, is and always will be part of the Triune Godhead. So, Jesus becoming incarnate is what the entire Old Testament was pointing us to; planned even before the world was created. Concerted study of the Book of Hebrews shows us the sacrificial system was put in place only to serve as a type and shadow in our effort to get to Jesus Christ, who would come to be the sacrifice for mankind, “once and for all.” While the promise of redemption remained intact, the methodology for us to attain salvation changed.
When Jesus Christ died on the cross, the temple curtain was torn from top to bottom, signifying the division between God and His people was removed and we can now approach Him in reverence by surrendering to Christ as our Savior. He became the once-for-all atoning sacrifice on our behalf. You see, Christianity believes that Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of all the Old Testament law and prophets and that He broke down the walls of hostility. We are one people – the church. The term “temple” now refers to the people of God, not a physical building.
There is no longer a division between the people of God.
Okay, glad we made sure we were on the correct road. Now, let’s continue to investigate why Darby’s road made our path to salvation so much more difficult.
When Darby introduced Dispensationalism and contended that Israel and the church were two distinctly different people groups, he wasn’t exactly met with open arms by his peers. No one had ever taught this, so it created a lot of friction. In fact, one of his colleagues stated, “Distinctions have been drawn by certain exceedingly wise men (measured by their own estimate of themselves), between the people of God who lived before the coming of Christ and those who lived afterward. We have even heard it asserted that those who lived before the coming of Christ do not belong to the church of God! We never know what we shall hear next, and perhaps it is a mercy that these absurdities are revealed at one time, in order that we may be able to endure their stupidity without dying of amazement. Why, every child of God in every place stands on the same footing; the Lord has not some children best beloved, some second-rate offspring, and others whom he hardly cares about.” – Charles Haddon Spurgeon.
Spurgeon, who is often referred to as the prince of preacher’s, held to a premillennial view, but even he could see that Darby’s method of interpretation was horribly problematic. To keep Jews, separate from everyone else even goes directly against the words of Paul the Apostle.
Romans 9:1-8 - “I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit— that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen. But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.”
Paul would not be in “great sorrow and unceasing anguish” in his heart if the Jewish people were simply saved because of their ethnicity. Paul, being Jewish himself, was a man of great pride. He had a love for his roots and his countrymen. But, this passage clearly shows the despair he is struggling with when he is willing to be “accursed” and “cut off from Christ” if it meant his fellow race would be saved. This plea by Paul flies directly in the face of Darby’s weak attempt to separate the “Jews” from the “Jews and Gentiles.”
This is where eschatology matters. Darby took the biblical understanding of the rapture, which means to be caught up (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18), and turned it into a moment in time when the church (collection of Messianic Jews and Gentiles) would be secretly whisked away to heaven solely for the purpose of God dealing with the “stiff-necked” Jews that were left to suffer along with the unsaved. This would happen all so they would come to faithful repentance in Christ as a means of fulfilling God’s original covenant with “His people.”
Now, upon first glance, this can almost resonate with Christians because we read about the importance of God’s people throughout the Old Testament. But, I’ve already shared with you that our God never forgot about His people, He just expanded the kingdom to include gentiles and Jews. Again, Jesus made us one people, removing the “wall of hostility.” Darby’s eschatology is severely flawed if you look at it. I will show you some of the ever-growing inner-interpretations of Dispensationalism and additions that have crept into the church through this complicated secret rapture, or removal.
First, many who hold to Dispensational theology believe that the Holy Spirit is removed from the earth after their version of the rapture. This is blatant heresy. Jesus promised His Spirit to us as a “helper” until His return. Why would the Spirit of God vacate His own creation for a period of 3 ½ to 7 Years? Furthermore, if we understand the Scripture, we know that the Spirit of the Living God in whom we serve, moves upon the unrepentant believer, causing them to repent and believe in Christ. How will this happen if His Spirit is gone? It cannot. That’s severe flaw number one.
Second, if the Spirit is gone and Jewish men, women and children are running around with no cause for salvation, then all they are doing is being slaughtered at the hands of a sudden surge of people who are anti-Semitic. What does hatred of Judaism have to do with hatred of Christ? What I mean is, while people hate God, they hate His son much more. Jesus Christ is the name above all names because the Father has given His son ALL authority over all things. The outpouring of hatred in the last days will come upon Christ’s church. Just keep this in mind.
We must be careful not to impose ideologies onto the text that we cannot find a clear understanding of. Because this idea dismisses and minimizes the need for the gospel to go forward to Orthodox Jews and presupposes they are already saved through their ethnicity. Again, see Paul’s struggle in Romans 9. It doesn’t get any clearer. There aren’t enough pages for me to uncover the 500 problems created by Dispensationalism here, but I promise I’ll write about that in the future. In the meantime, for sake of getting to the temple, you just need to understand this secret rapture occurs in the Dispensational model to get back to a focus on Jews. This is literally the only reason it was ever created and continues to be taught today. Most people have no idea.
The Temple
Building a third temple, if in fact one is built, is more complicated than we realize. To be clear, not all Jews agree it should be built. Judaism has flourished for thousands of years without a Temple. Since the rabbis say Torah study and prayer can replace Temple service, there is less urgency to bring one back. Additionally, many Jews agree with Maimonides that sacrifices are no longer the best way to worship God. Early leaders in the Reform movement even named their houses of worship temples to signify they had abandoned the traditional Jewish longing to rebuild the Temple.
There are, however, a minority of Jews who are preparing to build a Third Temple by studying Temple worship practices and constructing implements to be used in the Temple when it is rebuilt. So, what are the roadblocks?
The main impediment to the rebuilding of the third Temple in Jerusalem is the presence of the Muslim Dome of the Rock on the place where the Temples once stood. The Temple Mount also is home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which was built in A.D. 715, and is regarded as the third holiest place in Islam, after Mecca and Medina.
The exact location of the original temples still is a debatable topic among Jewish scholars, although there remains a wall on the western side of the site that wasn’t completely destroyed. This also is referred to as the “wailing wall” or often just the “western wall.”
Artifacts from the original Temple now are housed in the Vatican and they are not relinquishing these over to Orthodox Jews anytime soon. Catholics love artifacts. These are considered national treasures.
This then leads us to a question. If Orthodox Judaism is somehow able to pull off construction of a new, third Temple, do we need one?
If we find ourselves agreeing that the church is a separate entity from those who are Jewish, then the clamor for a third Temple seems to be in order. But, if we agree that Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of all Old Testament theology, then we are in no way needing a third Temple to welcome our Savior. Nowhere in the New Testament is a third Temple called for. In fact, the only temple mentioned in the NT is the one in Revelation, which gives measurements that are nothing like that of Solomon’s Temple. Instead, it’s a cube. This, theologians say, is because the cube is a symbol for the permanent Temple Christ will bring when He returns to set up His forever throne on the new Earth.
If a Temple is built and any form of animal sacrifices are reinstituted, this this is a very scary proposition for any Christian that supports it. No single point of emphasis in the life of Christ could be more important than the resurrection, which only occurred after He paid the ultimate penalty for our sins – to be a “once-for-all sacrifice.”
Based on what I’ve shown you in this study, it just doesn’t make sense to desire a third Temple. Can one be built? Absolutely. However, I once heard a famous theologian state that if we were to build a third Temple, then all it would do was raise a stench of smoke up to the nostrils of our God. I couldn’t agree more.
2 Corinthians 6:16 – “What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”
