In our last article, “The Coming Rebuilt Temple” we showed, according to the Biblical Text, that a Temple is going to be rebuilt in Jerusalem, Israel, soon. The plans have already been drawn and there are multiple Jewish organizations that are pushing to rebuild, which brings us to the crux of this teaching. There is much controversy and misunderstanding in the church concerning a rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem, due to the fact that many in the church believe that every true follower of Jesus Christ has now become a temple of God, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, which is certainly true, therefore there is no need for another Temple to be built.
What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s. I Corinthians 6:19, 20.
But what does the above statement really mean? When the apostle Paul made this statement was he relegating the Temple in Jerusalem to a system God used until Jesus Christ came, died and rose again, or was he using metaphors and analogies. In order to find the answers to these questions, and come away knowing we have the absolute truth on the subject, we must go to the scriptures and see what they have to say about the matter. In doing so we must answer four basic questions in regard to the Temple in Jerusalem during Jesus’ time on earth, and afterward. I have used a basic outline from Randall Price’s book “The Coming Last Days Temple” for these four questions and their content.
1. How did the Jewish people regard the Temple, and what status did it hold for them?
2. How did Jesus, the early church, and the apostle Paul feel about the Temple and its services during their time on earth?
3. What is “Replacement Theology” or “Supercessionism”, from where did it originate, and why do over two- thirds of the mainstream denominations believe in it?
4. What does God’s Word have to say about a last days Temple in Jerusalem?
How Did the Jewish People Regard the Temple, and What Status Did It Hold for Them?
First of all, the Temple held a most vital place in the hearts of the Jewish people because it was the place of covenant between them and Jehovah God. It was the place of the priesthood, the blood sacrifices that atoned for their sins, the Feast Days, the place where they assembled to fellowship and sit a the feet of the great Jewish sages. It was everything they needed to be in oneness with holy God. It was the place that He had chosen to put His name there.
And it came to pass, when Solomon had finished the building of the house of the LORD...that the LORD appeared to Solomon . . . and the LORD said unto him, I have heard thy prayer and thy supplication, that thou hast made before me: I have hallowed this house, which thou hast built, to put my name there for ever, and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually. I Kings 9:1-3.
The Jewish people were his chosen covenant people, and this was his chosen covenant temple, in his holy covenant land. They were the only people on earth who had God’s very presence dwelling among them. It was here that Jesus’ parents took Him to be dedicated at eight days old.
And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child, his name was called JESUS, which was so named of the angel before he was conceived in the womb. And when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished, they brought him to Jerusalem, to present him to the LORD. Luke 2:21, 22.
Here is the God of all creation, come to earth in human form, being brought to his temple to be circumcised in order to fulfill the blood covenant rite he had made with Abraham almost two thousand years earlier. It is almost more than our minds can conceive.
Due to rebellion and worshiping other gods, the first Temple, built by King Solomon, had been destroyed in 586 B.C. by the Babylonians when they invaded Jerusalem. This Second Temple, which stood during the times of Jesus Christ, the early church and the apostle Paul, had been built by Zerubbabel in 538 B.C., then refurbished by King Herod the Great in 19 B.C. during his rule. Although this Second Temple was a vital part of the daily lives of the Jewish people, they believed that it would be destroyed and another Temple built in the future. Why? The reasons were theological, social and political.
THEOLOGICAL
“The prophecies about the exile and subsequent return to the Land under ideal conditions had obviously gone unfulfilled.” (Randall Price, The Coming Last Days Temple, page 144.)
SOCIAL
The Jewish people were under hard economical bondage due to high taxation, not only from the Romans but from their own leaders also. The religious bondage was unbearable as the religious leaders continued to add to the oral law, placing it above the Word of God. That, coupled with “ripping off of the people financially” by their leaders, was almost more than could be tolerated.
POLITICAL
Politically, the Priesthood was in a shambles due to bribery, murder and corruption.
Of the 28 high priests between 37 B.C. and A.D. 70, all but two came from illegitimate non-Zadokite families. It became increasingly clear to most Jews that the ocultic center, which regulated all of Jewish life, was in the hands of a vast network of economic, and religious oppression...Such social and political factors prompted many Jews to consider the theological perspective that the corrupt system would give way to a new one. What this attitude of dissent reveals is that in the first-century context, negative expressions concerning the Second Temple (especially in comparison with the Tabernacle and the First Temple), were not condemnations of the Temple. Rather, they testified to the importance the Temple played in the nations very existence and eschatological formulation. (Randall Price, The Coming Last Days Temple, page 145.)
JESUS’ FEELINGS ABOUT THE TEMPLE
To the Jewish community the Temple was their lifeblood. But what about Jesus Christ? What was His attitude concerning the Temple? Did He believe that God the Father was finished with it now that He was on earth? Let’s investigate the scriptures and see.
In Luke 2:41,49 we see an interesting story about Jesus when He was 12 years old. He had gone to Jerusalem for the Passover, and when the days of the Passover were over his parents began their journey back to Nazareth when they realized that Jesus was not with them. They returned to Jerusalem, searched for Him for three days, and finally found Him on the Temple Mount, sitting with the doctors of the law, asking them questions and making statements that astounded those who heard.
And when he was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast. And when they had fulfilled the days, as they returned, the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem: and Joseph and his mother knew not of it. . . . And when they found him not, they turned back again to Jerusalem, seeking him. And it came to pass, that after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them and asking them questions. And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers...and his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? Behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing. And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? Wist ye not that I must be about my Fathers business?
Even at the age of 12 Jesus loved the Temple and its surroundings. Later, the zeal for His Fathers house aroused great anger toward those who bought and sold on the Temple Mount. (We must remember that when the Bible speaks of Jesus going into the Temple, it does not mean the Temple proper, but the compound outside of the Temple. Jesus, being of the tribe of Judah could not enter the Jerusalem Temple. Only the priesthood could do that.) It was in the Court of the Gentiles, on the Temple Mount, that the oxen, sheep and doves fit for sacrifices were sold. This is where Jesus Christ cast out those who bought and sold.
And he went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold therein, and them that bought; Saying unto them, It is written, My house is the house of prayer: but ye have made it a den of thieves. Luke 19:45, 46.
Our Lord Jesus loved His Temple, its services and the Feast Days because he had instituted them. But it all had become defiled and would have to be destroyed. Jesus predicted, not only the destruction of the Temple, but Jerusalem also, due to the sin and corruption.
And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple and his disciples came to him for to show him the buildings of the temple, and Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? Verily, I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down. Matthew 24:1, 2.
The fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecy took place in 70 A.D. when the Roman General, Titus, captured Jerusalem and burned the Temple. Later, every building stone was dislodged from the others and cast to the ground, fulfilling Jesus’ prophecy to the letter. Jesus foretold the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, not because He hated them, but because the leadership of Israel had defiled them, rejected Him, and were leading the people astray from God and the truth of His Word. Yet, the Lord Jesus knew that one day in the future a new Temple would be built in Jerusalem that would glorify Him.
THE EARLY CHURCH AND THE TEMPLE
As we examine the early church and its relationship to the Temple, we find more confirmation tht the church knew it had not replaced it. In Acts, chapter 2, after the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and His telling them of things to come and teaching them what they needed to know to carry on His work, Peter stands upon the Temple Mount and preaches that great sermon in which 3,000 Jews came to know Jesus Christ as their Savior. Then, in Acts 2:46, we find the church meeting daily on the Temple Mount. "And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart.”
Acts 3:1 tells us that Peter and John continued going to the Temple Mount to pray, after Jesus’ ascension into heaven. “And Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour.”
In Acts 5:12, 21, the apostles had been working moracles by the power of the Holy Spirit and it caused the religious leaders to be filled with indignation, so they threw the apostles in prison. In verses 19 through 21 it says that an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and told the apostles to go to the Temple Mount and tell the people about Jesus.
But the angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors, and brought them forth, and said, Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life. And when they heard that, they entered into the temple early in the morning and taught.
We would think that if the Lord Jesus had been against the Temple, its services and Feast Days that the disciples would not have continued keeping these things. Plus, if they thought the church had replaced all of this, why did they continue there? But God had not instructed them to abandon the Temple. It was a vital part of their daily lives. They knew that the Temple would eventually be destroyed, as Jesus had said, but they also knew that in the future there would come a national and spiritual restoration of Israel. Peter spoke of this in Acts 3:19 through 21. The Jewish prophet Jeremiah had spoken of these days also.
Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.
Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man, and with the seed of beast, and it shall come to pass, that like as I have watched over them, to pluck up, and to break down, and to throw down, and to destroy, and to afflict, so will I watch over them, to build, and to plant, saith the LORD. Jeremiah 31:27,28.
Behold, I will gather them out of all countries, whither I have driven them in mine anger, and in my fury, and in great wrath; and I will bring them again unto this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely: And they shall be my people, and I will be their God. Jeremiah 32:37, 38.
So, we can see from the above scriptures that the early church did not believe that they had replaced the Temple.
THE APOSTLE PAUL AND THE TEMPLE
If anyone should have know that the church had replaced Israel and the Temple, it would have been the apostle Paul. Yet, the Temple continued to hold a sacred significance to him, even after his encounter with the Lord Jesus on the road to Damascus, and his conversion experience. In Acts 18:18, and 21:17,20, 23-26, Paul is under a Nazarite vow.
And Paul . . . sailed thence into Syria, having shorn his head in Cenchrea: for he had a vow. And when we were come to Jerusalem, the brethren received us gladly. And the day following Paul went in with us unto James; and all the elders were present. And when he had saluted them, he declared particularly what things God had wrought among the Gentiles by his ministry. And when they heard it, they glorified the Lord, and said unto him, Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe and they are all zealous of the law:. . . . Do therefore this that we say to thee: We have four men which have a vow on them; Them take, and purify thyself with them, and be at charges with them, that they may shave their heads: and all may know that those things, whereof they were informed concerning thee, are nothing; but that thou thyself also walkest orderly and keepest the law. . . . Then Paul took the men, and the next day purifying himself with them entered into the temple, to signify the accomplishment of the days of purification, until that an offering should be offered for every one of them.
When the Jews tried to kill Paul in Jerusalem, he was taken to Caesarea to stand trial, and when the Jewish leaders made false accusations against him before the new governor of Judea, Paul answered them by showing his loyalty to the law and the temple.
. . . the Jews which came down from Jerusalem stood round about, and laid many and grievous complaints against Paul, which they could not prove. While he answered for himself, Neither against the law of the Jews, neither against the temple, nor yet against Caesar, have I offended anything at all. Acts 25:7, 8.
Although Paul was born-again, he still regulated his life by the Temple and its Feast Days, and was an observant Jew. Never in scriptures did he ever teach that the church had replaced the Temple or Israel.
HAS THE CHURCH REPLACED ISRAEL AND THE TEMPLE?
Paul’s description of the church as a temple does not imply that he viewed the Jerusalem Temple as having been replaced by the church...Paul’s analogous use of naos indicates that no substitution of the Temple was intended. The Greek noun naos is indefinite, rather than definite, in all the occurrences except one. If Paul unambiguously meant to teach that the church was presently or eschatologically the New Temple, the definite article would have expected. The fact that Paul always uses naos (the Temple proper and especially the Holy of Holies) rather than herion (the Temple complex and especially the precincts) shown that he is thinking about the spiritual nature of the Temple as the place where God’s presence dwelt. If Paul was seeking to denigrate the Temple as a defunct institution and promote the view that the church was the new spiritual temple, then we would have expected him to abandon a term (naos) that emphasized the Temple’s spiritual significance and incomparable holiness. Randall Price, The Coming Last Days Temple, pp. 292, 288. As we said before, Paul was using metaphorical terminology to describe and compare the church to the temple.
WHAT IS REPLACEMENT THEOLOGY, AND
WHERE DID IT ORIGINATE FROM?
The simple definition of “Replacement Theology” or “Supercessionism” maintains that God has rejected the Jews as His covenant people and replaced them with the church, who also has become the heir of all that God promised Israel. It states that Jesus Christ and the church have fulfilled all of the Old Testament prophecies and they do not literally apply to Israel and the Jewish people anymore. What they have done is spiritualized the scriptures. Needless to say, this is heretical teaching and will not stand up to sound biblical exegesis. God, being a covenant God, has never replaced Israel with the church, and it is absolute foolishness, nonsense, and arrogance to propagate such false doctrine. Ironically, today, Israel is a real embarrassment to Replacement Theology and its proponents as we watch Israel continue to fulfill the very prophecies that the church has claimed to fulfill centuries ago. To see how foolish Replacement Theology is, try putting the word “church” in place of the word “Israel” in Romans, chapter 11.
Where did Replacement Theology originate from? It all started during the first century when the Gentile converts began to separate themselves from the Jewish element of the church due to persecution. After the temple was destroyed in 70 A.D., by Titus, the Roman General, and the Jewish nation scattered to the nations of the earth, the church thought that God was finished with the Jews, since they had rejected Jesus Christ as their Messiah (although almost half of the population of Jerusalem were born-again Jews in the First Century), and that the church had now replaced Israel. Justin Martyr, an early church apologist, held to this view, as did some of the early church Fathers such as Origen and Chrysostom. They also believed that a Temple would never be rebuilt in Jerusalem.
When the Roman emperor, Constantine, made Christianity the state religion in 313 A.D. “Replacement Theology” or “Supercessionism” became dominant, to the point that today the majority of mainline denominations continue to feed this heretical poison to their seminary students and congregations who go forth and regurgitate the same. Yet there are many in the church who are putting forth the biblical truth regarding Israel, that God is not finished with them, and has not replaced them with the church. They believe the literal interpretation of God’s Word, that in the last days He would bring Israel back to their land and then pour out His Holy Spirit upon them.
What we must remember is that God has a plan for Israel as well as the church. There are many Jewish people who will be saved and become part of the church in these last days, completing the “One New Man” that the apostle Paul speaks of in Ephesians 2:13-15.
But now in Christ Jesus ye (Gentiles) who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, (Jew and Gentile) thus making peace. (Emphasis mine)
There are also many Jewish people who will go through the Tribulation Period and be ushered into the Millennium, inherit the land of Israel, and serve their Messiah, Jesus Christ, when He sets up His kingdom on earth in Jerusalem. The land will be allocated to them, fulfilling God’s promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt, and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children’s children for ever. And my servant David shall be their prince forever. Ezekiel 37:25.
So, today there are two dominant views in the church regarding Israel. The “literal interpretation” believes that Israel will be restored to the land, another Temple will be built in Jerusalem, God will judge the nations and usher in a universal peace. The “spiritual interpretation” believes that the Old Testament prophecies were fulfilled in Christ and the church, and that any future Temple symbolizes the church and its priestly role under the New Covenant.
According to Jesus Christ, in Matthew 24:15, the apostle Paul, in II Thessalonians 2:1-4, and John the Beloved, in Revelation 11:1,2, there will be a rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem in these last days before Christ returns. “When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place,
(whoso readeth, let him understand).” Matthew 24:15.
Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. II Thessalonians 2:1,4.
And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein. But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months. Revelation 11:1, 2.
I believe, with all my heart, that we are the generation that will see a temple rebuilt in Jerusalem which will usher in the Antichrist, and ultimately the Lord Jesus himself. The plans for such a temple have already been drawn and it is only a matter of time before it is built.
In Part III of the “Soon Coming Rebuilt Temple” we will reveal some startling events which will show us how very close we really are to the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. Are you ready?
I pray that this teaching has given a clear understanding to our readers in regard to the Temple, Israel, and the church, and that each of you will pass this on to someone else. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem, for the salvation of the Jewish people, and for us, as we pursue the heart of God in getting these truths out to the world.
