The Third Temple Defiled

 

            In an online article in the news magazine called, Israel Today (a news agency based in Jerusalem), Ryan Jones writes a very interesting article on how peace in the Middle East will be achieved, and the way peace is to be achieved is to rebuild the Third Temple (1). He writes that this idea comes from an Israeli organization that is committed in rebuilding the Third Temple called the Temple Institute (2). This organization believes that long lasting peace will come to the Middle East, and presumably Israel in particular, if people will rally and donate to the Temples construction, thereby making history (3).

            The people at the Temple Institute have prophetic notions in their quest to rebuild the Third Temple because Scripture does attest that it will be rebuilt (Rev.11:1-2), and the Temple will be a focal point in the final seven years of the four hundred ninety years decreed upon Israel (Dan.9:24, 27), but the focal point on the Third Temple will not be what the members of the Temple Institute have in mind. They have in mind that the Third Temple will be a place where people will find tranquility and peace, and where people will come from all over the world as a pilgrimage (3), but the bible writes a different story.

            The bible has predicted that the Third Temple will be rebuilt (Rev.11:1-2) and that time is very soon, as it will be rebuilt in time for the man of sin to go into it and desecrate it just as Antiochus Epiphanes went into the Second Temple and defiled it, circa 168 BC, by erecting a pagan alter and sacrificing a sow pig on it. Antiochus took the blood of the sow pig and sprinkled it throughout the Temple sanctuary thereby making the sanctuary unclean. This act of desecration was prophesied to the Prophet Daniel by the one who looked like a man dressed in linen as he was standing on the bank of the Tigris River; at this time the daily sacrifice ended for a period of time (Dan.10:4, 18; 11:31).

            There will be another desecration to the Temple, this being the Third Temple, which will also bring an end to the daily sacrifice just as it did when the Second Temple was desecrated. This desecration cannot happen of course until the Third Temple is rebuilt which will be rebuilt I assume by the Temple Institute in Israel. This second desecration was also revealed to the Prophet Daniel (Dan.8:13; 9:27; 12:11) and was also mentioned in the gospels by Jesus (Matt.24:15; Mk.13:14). This desecration is prophesied to happen in the middle of Israel’s seventieth week period (Dan.9:24-27) which is better known to most Christians as the seven year tribulation period (Matt.24:9, 21, 29; Mk.13:19, 24; Rev.7:14), and the hour of trial (Rev.3:10), it is even referred to as the wrath to come (1Thess.1:9b-10; 5:9-10). During this time period God will reveal his anger toward the unbelieving inhabitants of the earth prior to the second coming of Jesus Christ from heaven (Matt.24:27, 30; Rev.19:11-14).

            As said above the Second Temple was desecrated by Antiochus Epiphanes as prophesied (Dan.11:31), but the Third Temple will be desecrated by a man know as the “the man of sin” (2Thess.2:3, HNV). This man of sin is the man whom the world will announce as the leader of the one world government and he is the individual who is prophesied riding on a white horse who goes forth to conquer the world (Rev.6:2), he is also referred to in Scripture as the first beast (Rev.13:1-8)—this man is commonly referred to as the Antichrist (1Jn.2:18; 4:3). This man of sin will desecrate the Third Temple in the middle of the seven year tribulation period (Dan.9:27; 11:36), and this act is where we get the phrase “the abomination of desolation” (Matt.24:15, HNV) mentioned by Jesus in his Mount of Olives discourse. This beast will go into the rebuilt Third Temple and will exalt himself even above the Lord God Almighty (2Thess.2:4) and by this act will defile the Temple.

 

(1) http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/24821/Default.aspx

(2) https://www.templeinstitute.org/

(3) https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/build-the-third-temple--3