The Third Temple

[031064]

Recently I’ve been interested in the Third Temple. Is this a necessary factor for the return of Christ Jesus? Or is it true that the anti-Christ will return and make his thrown there? Someone please explain this, thanks.

 

[Zenas]

Recently I’ve been interested in the Third Temple. Is this a necessary factor for the return of Christ Jesus? Or is it true that the anti-Christ will return and make his thrown there? Someone please explain this, thanks.

Yes, and yes. See 2 Thessalonians 2:3-5:

3Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction,
4who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.
5Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things?

 

[031064]

So it will not be a holy temple but a blasphemed temple?

 

[Zenas]

So it will not be a holy temple but a blasphemed temple?

I am no expert on eschatology but this is the only scriptural support I can find for a third temple. There may be others but I have not noticed them. We know this has to be a third temple because Titus destroyed the second temple in 70 A.D. and there has not been another temple built since then. So the temple mentioned in 2 Thessalonians 2 is either (1) not yet built or (2) a metaphor that refers to some other holy place. In either case we know the “man of lawlessness” will desecrate it.

 

[rwoehmke]

The answers so far seem based on what is in my opinion a flawed interpretation of Revelation. I would recommend the Bible Study written and given by Jeff Cavins on Revelation. It is very diffrent from the implications of the “Left Behind” series.

 

[Zenas]

The answers so far seem based on what is in my opinion a flawed interpretation of Revelation. I would recommend the Bible Study written and given by Jeff Cavins on Revelation. It is very diffrent from the implications of the “Left Behind” series.

We’re not talking about Revelation here. We’re talking about the third temple, which is not mentioned in Revelation. I have read all the Left Behind books and they are indeed based on seriously flawed theology. I don’t see how what were are discussing relates to them. Moreover, I believe Jeff Cavins (who I admire greatly) would agree with what we are saying here, i.e., there will be an apostasy just before the return of Christ, there will be the rise of some kind of antichrist, and there will be a notorious desecration of some holy place.

 

[thistle]

Yes, and yes. See 2 Thessalonians 2:3-5:

How do you know the quote from thessalonians refers to a third temple when it was written before the destruction of Jerusaem in 70AD?

 

[PaulDupre]

True, my bible says that 2 Thessalonians was written around 51 AD.

 

[Zenas]

How do you know the quote from thessalonians refers to a third temple when it was written before the destruction of Jerusaem in 70AD?

Well for starters we can agree that St. Paul was referring to a future event, i.e., something after 51 A.D., when he wrote this. We can also agree that the temple of New Testament times was the second temple, the first having been destroyed by Nebuchadrezzar in 587 B.C. So we look at what happened in history between 51 A.D. and 70 A.D. to see whether the temple experienced anything like what is described in 2 Thessalonians. Unless I missed it, no one entered the temple and exalted himself as a god during this period. Titus destroyed the temple and the rest of Jerusalem as well, but no one has accused Titus of being St. Paul’s “man of lawlessness.”

Since 70 there has been no temple for anyone to enter and exalt himself. Indeed this prophecy cannot be literally fulfilled without the building of a new temple (the third temple).

The only alternative to a literal fulfillment of this prophecy is that St. Paul was not referring to the Jerusalem temple but instead meant some other holy place or tradition. An unlikely alternative because Paul, unlike St. John and St. Luke, rarely indulged in hidden meanings or veiled expressions.

 

[Muzhik]

There are a number of Old Testament prophecies that would indicate the rebuilding of the Temple. I’ll try to dig them up.

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[031064]

I am largely ignorant here, so bear with me. Couldn’t Muhammed be the ‘man of lawlessness’ because he ‘ascended’ at the place were the Holy of Holies resided in the temple? I just made that connection- isn’t it possible?

 

[031064]

Here is a rendering of the third temple:
images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://kenraggio.com/First%2520Temple.jpg&imgrefurl=http://kenraggio.com/KRPN-TheThirdTemple.htm&h=338&w=500&sz=60&hl=en&start=1&um=1&usg=__zyA5M34YWdBFYWNubHiZRV2HRH8=&tbnid=yF-7J7ZOmMhc_M:&tbnh=88&tbnw=130&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dthird%2Btemple%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:en-ca:IE-SearchBox%26rlz%3D1I7DACA%26sa%3DN

 

[scriabin]

Here’s your “third” temple, which St. Paul himself identified in 3 different letters—

2 Cor 6:16

1 Cor 3:16-17

Eph 2:21

—in which Pope Paul VI declared lawlessness as already having entered:

Pope Paul VI stunned the world with the words: “We have the impression that through some cracks in the wall the smoke of Satan has entered the temple of God: it is doubt, uncertainty, questioning, dissatisfaction, confrontation… We thought that after the Council a day of sunshine would have dawned for the history of the Church. What dawned, instead, was a day of clouds and storms, of darkness, of searching and uncertainties.” [Pope Paul VI, June 29, 1972, Homily during the Mass for Sts. Peter & Paul, on the occasion of the ninth anniversary of his coronation]

The sacrifice in the Temple is being obscured, ridiculed, and denied by some of her very priests. The man of authority in the Church, the Pope, is holding back the man of lawlessness for now; but as Paul VI said, “the smoke of Satan has entered the temple of God.”

 

[Zenas]

Here’s your “third” temple, which St. Paul himself identified in 3 different letters—

2 Cor 6:16

1 Cor 3:16-17

Eph 2:21

—in which Pope Paul VI declared lawlessness as already having entered:

The sacrifice in the Temple is being obscured, ridiculed, and denied by some of her very priests. The man of authority in the Church, the Pope, is holding back the man of lawlessness for now; but as Paul VI said, “the smoke of Satan has entered the temple of God.”

Very interesting, but I don’t think Paul VI had the human body in mind when he referred to “the temple of God.” He had in mind the Church and I left that open as a possibe, but in my opinion unlikely, meaning of “the temple” in Posts #4 and #9 above.

 

[scriabin]

From the Catechism:

CCC 797 “The Holy Spirit makes the Church "the temple of the living God”

These verses refer not to individuals but to we Christians collectively as one body:

From Scripture:

2 Cor 6:16 “For *we *are the temple of the living God…”

1 Cor 3:16 “…you are God’s temple…”

Eph 2:21 “…the household of God…the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple…”

From a Pope’s homily:

Quote:
Pope Paul VI stunned the world with the words: “We have the impression that through some cracks in the wall the smoke of Satan has entered the temple of God: it is doubt, uncertainty, questioning, dissatisfaction, confrontation… We thought that after the Council a day of sunshine would have dawned for the history of the Church. What dawned, instead, was a day of clouds and storms, of darkness, of searching and uncertainties.” [Pope Paul VI, June 29, 1972, Homily during the Mass for Sts. Peter & Paul, on the occasion of the ninth anniversary of his coronation]