Sunday, June 1, 2014

Understanding the Jewish Third Temple

     
In Matt. 24 where Jesus talked about the "holy place", He was NOT referring to a third temple. In fact, Luke 21 renders this same passage as, "standing in the place where he ought not"... 
Do you have any idea where the teaching of a 7 yr. tribulation comes from? Do you recall an early church patriarch by the name of Martin Luther? It was Martin Luther that "pointed the finger" at the pope as sitting in the seat of Antichrist. Because of this fact as well as his 95 Thesis, people began to leave the Catholic church in droves! As you can well imagine, the Roman church was furious with him! They were desperate to figure out away to undo the damage that Luther had inflicted on their organization (church). So they began calling for their brightest biblical scholars. They needed away to be able to remove the stigma that the Antichrist would be the final pope. Francisco Ribera and Robert Bellarmine were brilliant Jesuit priests that fabricated the doctrine of futurism. They cunningly took "Daniel's 70 weeks" (490 yr) timed prophecy and stopped it short after only 69 weeks (483 yrs.) and then inserting a gap, now of almost 2000 yrs. They then taught that this prophecy will pick back up and the last week (7 yrs.) will commence after Christ returns secretly to get His church. By this teaching, Rome has been quite successful in removing the idea that the final pope will be the Antichrist. The reasoning being,"since the pope is a good Christian, he will be taken in the rapture, so he couldn't be the Antichrist that will be revealed in the middle of the 7 yr. tribulation." Right? ? ? 

In God's Word, we are warned that in these "last days" that there will be many false prophets and teachers. Some of these false teachings are: a pre-trib. rapture; the great tribulation will last 7 yrs.; the building of a third Jewish temple; and then in the middle of this 7 yr. tribulation, the Antichrist will enter into this newly built temple and claim to be God. Most of these beliefs are formed from a misinterpretation Dan. 9:24-27 or the "seventy weeks of Daniel". These seventy weeks (490 yrs.) of Daniel's prophecy have already been marvelously and COMPLETELY fulfilled and that even means the last "week" or 7 yr. period. God was very careful to establish the starting date of 457 BC with the phase, "from the command to restore and build Jerusalem" (which is found in Ezra 7:21-27). This prophecy was meant to help "God's covenant people" to recognize the Messiah when He arrived the first time. So, how do we know that this last 7 yr. time period is referring to Jesus Christ and not the Antichrist that is still yet to come? By doing the math... If we add 490 yrs. to 457 BC, that gives us the ending date of 34 AD. (Please keep in mind that there is no year "0" ). If we subtract 7 yrs. that will bring us to 27 AD; the end of the 69th week; the "anointing of the Most Holy" and the start of the 70th week. We know that in 27 AD that Jesus was 30 yrs. old because we also know that Jesus was born in 4 BC (king Herod the Great would also die later in the Fall of this same year). It was when Jesus was 30 that He was baptized by John and was "anointed" by the Holy Spirit and God the Father spoke saying, "Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I'm well pleased"; Luke 3:21-23. 

It was at this point that Jesus Christ began to "confirm the covenant with many for one week"; Dan.9:27. The word "many" in this verse is referring only to the Jewish people. For Jesus said, "I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel"; Matt.15:24. The prophecy continues, "and in the midst of week (31 AD) he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease". Please keep in mind that the noun "he" was defined in verse 26 as the "Messiah" that would be "cut off" or receive a sinner's death, but "not for Himself". So how did Jesus' death cause the "sacrifice and the oblation to cease"? We find the answer in Matt. 27:50-51, "Jesus, when He had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the (Holy) Ghost", Vs. 51 "And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from top to bottom; and the earth did quake...". The temple veil was used in the sacrificial service in the transference of the sins of the people to the temple by the priest "sprinkling" the blood of the sacrificed animal on to it... Jesus Christ's death also fulfilled: "to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness". 

For John said at Jesus' baptism, "Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world"; John 1:29 And this is also what Jesus meant in John 19:30, when He said,"It is finished: and he bowed His head, and gave up the (Holy) Ghost". But what about the remaining 3 1/2 yrs. of that last 7 yr. period that Christ "confirmed the covenant"? In 34 AD, our resurrected Savior, Jesus Christ, appeared unto Saul, changed his name to Paul and called him to be the "apostle to the Gentiles". This was a profound change for Christ, for when He walked the earth, Jesus never preached to the Gentile nations. For He said, "I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel"; Matt.15:24. So what happened to bring about this momentous change? The prophecy of the 70 weeks of Daniel starts by saying,"seventy weeks are determined upon thy people", Israel was given a 490 yr. probation. It was at this point that the Jewish nation's commission to teach the world about God and His statutes was taken and it was then given unto the Gentiles.

 By Christ calling Paul to now go to the Gentiles, is ABSOLUTE PROOF that the prophecy of the 70 weeks of Daniel was COMPLETELY FULFILLED !!! So what does this mean for us today? The Word of God does NOT teach a 7 yr. tribulation nor that there will be a third temple. In Dan. 9:27, where it says, "and for the overspreading of abominations he (the Messiah; the Creator who used Rome) shall make [it desolate] (king Herod's second temple was destroyed in 70 AD by the Roman general, Titus) , "EVEN UNTIL THE CONSUMMATION" (Christ's Second Coming) that means NO THIRD TEMPLE! Now, you may be asking yourself, "aren't the Jews constructing the implements that will be used in that future temple?" I have already seen this same sort of test to the authority of God's Word when Saddam Hussein said that he was going to be the next king Nebuchadnezzar and rebuild the city of Babylon. Even though he had already started excavating and had actually started reconstruction on several buildings, I was aware of what God had said concerning this... In Isaiah 13:19-20, it states that God was going to use the Medes to destroy Babylon and that Babylon would never be inhabited again! And we all know how that turned out... 

For further study on the 70 weeks of Daniel, please go to: http://amazingdiscoveries.org/S-deception_Jesus_70-week_prophecy_Daniel

No comments:

Post a Comment