Month: February 2017

The heart of God has always been to dwell among His people.  He walked with Adam in the cool of the evening and eagerly awaits time with us everyday.

When God first brought the Hebrew children out of Egypt, He desired to have His Presence among them.  Exodus 25:8 says, “And let them make Me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.”  God commissioned a portable tabernacle that would carry the Ark of the Covenant with its mercy seat.  The presence of God would travel with His people.  Wherever they traveled, they could view His tabernacle among them.

After many years, the nation of Israel entered and conquered the Promised Land.  Under King David, the capital city of Israel was eventually established in Jerusalem.  At this point, David desired to build a permanent dwelling for the Ark.  It would be his son, Solomon, who would actually complete the First Jewish temple in Jerusalem.

But Solomon began to follow after the strange gods of his many foreign wives.  At some point, the Ark of the Covenant disappeared from the First Temple.  It was a physical sign that the Presence of God was departing as the apostasy of the nation continued into idolatry.

The nation of Israel split into two after the death of Solomon.  The northern ten tribes almost immediately plunged into open idolatry, while the southern two tribes experienced some revival.  But, eventually, both sections of Israel went into captivity due to their sin:  the northern 10 tribes around 722 B.C. and the southern 2 tribes around 586 B.C.  It was also in 586 B.C. that the destruction of the First temple by the Babylonians took place.

After 70 years in captivity to the Babylonians, Israel was freed and allowed to return to her land.  When she returned, she rebuilt her temple, the Second Jewish Temple.  The temple was built under the revival of Ezra/Nehemiah.  The temple itself was a modest one, but it was remodeled into a magnificent structure during the reign of Herod the Great.  This was the temple at the time of Jesus.

This second temple never contained the Ark of the Covenant!  Instead, the very Tabernacle of God’s Presence walked among His people in the form of a Man who visited the Second temple.  At the age of 33, He was crucified by Israel, urged on by her religious leaders.  Israel, in crucifying Christ, literally destroyed the Essence of her own temple.  The destruction of the temple building  by the Roman’s 40 years later was merely the completion of that destruction.

Yet, for Christ’s followers, there was given a great promise.  The Holy Spirit of God Himself would dwell within them (I Corinthians 6:19)!  Their own bodies became temples of the Holy Spirit.  And it continues today for everyone who believes.

So, where does that leave Israel?  Has God abandoned her for good?  Has the Church replaced Israel in the plan and purposes of God?

In Romans 11:11, Paul asked those same questions:  “I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall?  God forbid:  but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy.” 

Paul goes on in verse 23 to declare about Israel:  “And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be grafted in:  for God is able to graft them in again.”

As we can see, it is NOT God’s desire to abandon Israel for good.  His intent is to see her restored.  So, does Israel get restored back to God?  “For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, UNTIL the fullness of the Gentiles be come in.  And so, all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, AND SHALL TURN AWAY UNGODLINESS FROM JACOB,” (Romans 11:25-26).  Jacob is the nation of Israel acting in the flesh, just like the patriarch, Jacob, did.  But, because of the mercy of God, Jacob was transformed.  The nation of Israel WILL be transformed also in the future.

When?

In Daniel 9:24, God revealed to the prophet, Daniel, that 70 7’s or 490 years “are determined upon thy people and thy holy city to finish the transgression.”  The people are Daniel’s own people, Israel.  The “holy city” is Jerusalem with its temple.  The “transgression” is Israel’s turning away from God into idolatry.

What God was saying here was that 490 years remained for Israel to FINISH her sin of rejecting God for another.  The prophetic clock got kicked off in 454 B.C. with the “commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem” (Daniel 9:25) that was given by the Persian king, Artaxerxes.  From that point until the crucifixion, 483 years were fulfilled.  The prophetic clock then stopped, because Israel had literally destroyed her true Tabernacle, Jesus Christ.  Forty years later, in 70 A.D., the Roman army destroyed the building of the temple, the city of Jerusalem, and scattered the Jewish people.  Nothing was left for the prophetic clock to resume with— no nation, no city, no temple.

For almost 2000 years, the nation of Israel was dead.  Israel was “dry bones.”  So dead and for so long that church leaders began to teach that the Church had replaced Israel in the plan of God.  This “replacement” theology was foundational to anti-Semitism and rationalized away Jewish persecution— even the Holocaust— as “deserved”, since the Jews were labeled “Christ killers.”

Yet, God was not done with Israel.  This same prophecy of Daniel ALSO said that within the 490-year period, Israel would “finish the transgression, make an end of sins, make reconciliation for iniquity, bring in everlasting righteousness, seal up vision and prophecy, and ANOINT THE MOST HOLY,” (Daniel 9:24).

We Christians are waiting for the nation of Israel to wrap up this age.

The final prophetic piece— the last 7 years— will resume when the nation of Israel is in existence once again (FULFILLED, 1948), with Jerusalem as her capital (FULFILLED, 1967), and with her temple rebuilt.

The rebuilding of her temple stands its greatest chance yet with the Trump administration.    

Israel’s former temples were destroyed because of her transgression of turning away from her true God.  This transgression will continue into the final 7-year period with the upcoming Third temple.  The Bible speaks of a “falling away” or great apostasy that takes place during the end times.  Many in Israel will regard a mere man as their “messiah.”  This man— the Antichrist— will enter the Third temple and declare himself, God.

This “abomination of desolation” that enters Israel’s Third temple will trigger the greatest period of persecution in Israel’s history.  IT WILL BE WORSE THAN THE HOLOCAUST!  Rocked into wakefulness, Israel will cry out for her true Messiah.  And He will appear in the clouds to save her.  Messiah Jesus Christ WILL destroy Israel’s enemies once and for all.  Salvation will come to Israel.  She will make “an end of her sins, make reconciliation for her iniquity, usher in everlasting righteousness, seal up vision and prophecy, and she will anoint the most Holy,” (Daniel 9:24).

So, what is God’s attitude toward the temples?  God loves the temple.  Whether a tent of tabernacle in the desert, a golden Ark of Covenant in a glorious temple, a body of a believer, or the crucified body of Messiah, God loves His temple.  It’s not the temple He has a problem with.  It is our unfaithfulness to Him that He hates.

The very next Jewish temple to be built will be the temple of the tribulation period.  And God may be using American Christians to help bring it about.

The Bible speaks of a literal, physical temple that will stand in the end time.  Into this temple will walk a man who will proclaim himself, God.  His declaration— and the statue he will erect— will be an “abomination” that desolates the temple.  Jesus cited this abomination as THE SIGN for Jews living in the area of Judea “to flee to the mountains.”  

This is not talking about a spiritual temple.  It will be a physical temple with an event that is witnessed by the world.  The introduction of this abomination will trigger what the Bible calls “the great tribulation,” the worst period of persecution the world has ever witnessed.

In the midst of this tribulation, the sun will suddenly grow dark.  The moon will not give its light and the stars will be seen falling in a spectacular meteor shower in the heaven.  And then “all the tribes of earth will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory,” (Matthew 24:30).

THIS EVENT HAS NOT YET HAPPENED IN HUMAN HISTORY.  The “abomination of desolation” that Jesus speaks about in Matthew 24:15 is in the future, and was not fulfilled during the temple destruction of 70 A.D.  Remember, this future tribulation is followed by the visible Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

However, it WILL happen in the very next Jewish temple to be built in Jerusalem.  This temple will be the THIRD Jewish temple.  And American Christian leaders, as well as the top Rabbis of Jerusalem, are joining together and pushing hard for it to be built!

The FIRST JEWISH TEMPLE was the temple of King David and Solomon.  This temple stood until 586 B.C., when it was destroyed by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.  The Bible is very clear that the reason for the destruction of the temple was the idolatry of Israel.  Beginning with the idolatry of the northern 10 tribes around 722 B.C. and then finishing with the southern 2 tribes in 586 B.C., the temple’s destruction was linked to the apostasy of Israel away from her one, true God, Jehovah.

The SECOND TEMPLE was the temple of Ezra/Nehemiah.  It was expanded and greatly remodeled into the magnificent temple of Jesus’ time by King Herod.  This temple’s doom was sealed when Israel rejected and crucified the very tabernacle of God, Jesus Christ.  The Roman army merely finished off the destruction of this temple by tearing down the building in 70 A.D.

The next THIRD TEMPLE will be the temple that is desecrated by Antichrist.  The desecration of this temple will take place after the great apostasy of Israel in accepting a mere man as her “messiah.”  Jesus said, “I have come in My Father’s name and you do not receive Me.  If another comes in his own name, him you will receive,” (John 5:43).  This prophetic statement was referring to the future Antichrist when some in Israel will accept and worship a man as their promised messiah, despite his lack of Biblical credentials.

So, there are THREE temples of Israel that are destroyed due to her idolatry.  Each temple’s destruction can be linked to blasphemy of the Three Persons of the Trinity:

1. The First Temple against Jehovah the Father;
2. The Second Temple against Jesus Christ the Son;
3. The Third Temple against the Holy Spirit who bears witness to the Son. “And every spirit that confesses not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God:  and this is the spirit of antichrist, of which you have heard was coming, and now is already in the world,” (I John 4:3).  In the end times, the spirit of Antichrist will be embodied in human form as a literal man, entering a literal temple.

During the millennial reign of Christ, there will be a FOURTH TEMPLE built on this present earth.  It is described in great detail in the book of Ezekiel.  This will be superseded by the “Lord God Almighty and the Lamb” of Revelation 21:22, who dwell with us forever as our eternal Temple!

But, let’s get back to the upcoming Third Jewish Temple.  In a prophecy found in Daniel 9:24-27, the final end time period of 7 years begins with a treaty or “covenant.” This treaty could include an arrangement for the rebuilding of the temple!

Until the recent presidential election, Israel had little hope of being able to rebuild her temple.  Deserted by the former U.S. administration, she had little clout to work with.  But that is changing.  Strongly legitimatized by a Trump presidency that is attempting to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, Israel now has a much stronger expectation of building her Third Temple.    

The man who has had towers erected to himself all over the world, could be the one to enable Israel to erect her Third Temple.  If so, he will be assisted by an alliance of Jewish and Christian leaders who have promised to create a “tower” of protection around him.