This expectation is based on Chapters 40-48
of the book of Ezekiel, as well as Isaiah 2:2-4 (“in the last
days the mountain of Yahweh’s house will be established on the top of the
mountains…and all nations will flow to it”). There are four problems with
this interpretation:
1. Only one scriptural passage refers to a thousand-year period and it does
not mention a temple (Revelation 20:1-10).
2. Revelation locates Ezekiel’s ideal temple in “New Jerusalem” (21:1-22:5).
3. Jesus Christ is the true Temple foreshadowed by the earlier Tabernacle
and Temple “built-with-hands.”
4. In the New Testament, Jesus is the “light of the world,” not
Israel
The only passage that refers to a
thousand-years period is Revelation 20:1-10. In it, Satan is bound
to prevent him from deceiving the nations. Saints martyred “for the
testimony of Jesus” are vindicated; they reign with Christ for the period.
The “rest of the dead” will not live until the thousand years are ended.
Neither Temple nor Jerusalem is mentioned.
Satan is loosed at the end of the Millennium
to deceive the nations and to gather them to the final battle against God’s
saints. This confrontation results in the destruction of the wicked and the
final judgment.
In contrast to claims of a Millennial Temple,
in Revelation 21:1-7, John sees “a new heaven and a new earth,”
and the “holy city, New Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God.”
John is carried “in the spirit to a great and high mountain” to see the
descent of the holy city (21:9-10). This alludes to Ezekiel
40:1-2 where the hand of Yahweh carried Ezekiel “into the land of
Israel to set him upon a very high mountain on which was the frame of a city on
the south.”
In John’s vision, an angel took “a golden
reed to measure the city, its gates, and its wall.” Similarly, in Ezekiel
40:3-5, a man “with a line of flax in his hand and a measuring reed
stood in the gate…And, behold, a wall on the outside of the house round about,
and in the man’s hand a measuring reed six cubits long, of a cubit and a
handbreadth each: so he measured the thickness of the building, one reed; and
the height, one reed.”
The New Jerusalem has “A wall great
and high; with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels; and names written
on it, which are of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel: on the east were
three gates; and on the north three gates; and on the south three gates; and on
the west three gates.”
Likewise, in Ezekiel 48:30-35, “The
gates of the city shall be after the names of the tribes of Israel, three gates
northward…And at the east side three gates…And at the south side three gates.”
In Revelation 22:1-2, John saw “a
river of water of life, bright as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God
and of the Lamb.” On either side was “the tree of life, bearing twelve
fruits yielding fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the
healing of the nations” (22:14; 22:19).
This last passage alludes to Ezekiel
47:1-12 where the “waters proceeded out from under the threshold of
the house eastward.” On either bank grew “every tree for food, whose
leaf shall not whither, neither shall the fruit thereof fail: it shall bring
forth new fruit every month, because the waters thereof issue out of the
sanctuary; and the fruit thereof shall be for food, and the leaf thereof for healing.”
The final verse of the book of Ezekiel reads,
“The name of the city from that day shall be, ‘Yahweh is there’” (48:35).
This corresponds to Revelation 22:3, “and the throne of God and
of the Lamb shall be there.”
John does state that he “saw no temple”
in New Jerusalem, but he refers to its lack of a physical building. In it, the
“Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are the Temple,” just as the city
has no more need of the light of the sun or moon, “for the glory of God
illuminated and its lamp is the Lamb.”
In the end, the holy sanctuary encompasses
the entire creation. God’s presence is everywhere; all unclean things and persons
are excluded from the heavenly New Jerusalem.
Consistently in the New Testament, Jesus is
the true and greater Temple, the habitation of God prefigured in the earlier
Tabernacle (John 1:14; Colossians 1:19; 2:9). He is the true Bethel, the
“house of God,” the real mediator between heaven and earth (John 1:51).
He is the temple Made-without-hands destroyed by evil men but raised from the
dead, according to scripture (John 2:17-21).
Questions about the proper location of a
temple building are no longer relevant; with the arrival
of Jesus “the hour is coming and now is when the true worshippers will
worship the Father in spirit and in truth” (John 4:20-24).
Disciples collectively form the “temple of
God” where His Spirit dwells (1 Corinthians 3:16; 6:19). They are “built
upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being
the chief cornerstone…in him all the building fitly framed together grows into
a holy temple, a habitation of God through the Spirit” (Ephesians
2:20-22).
In Christ, all the fullness of God dwells (Colossians
2:9-17). Christians are built up, established, and made “complete in him”;
Jewish and Gentile believers are “circumcised with the circumcision
Made-without-hands.” Since disciples have been quickened in him, no longer
are they subject to calendrical and dietary rites. Such practices had their
time and place, but in the end are mere “shadows of the coming things.”
What was foreshadowed under the old system has arrived in Jesus Christ.
God never intended to achieve perfection
through the Levitical system, otherwise, He would not have promised a future
and greater priest (Hebrews 7:11-28; Psalm 110:4). A change of
priesthood indicates a change of law, the bringing in of a new order.
The Levitical system was powerless to perfect
anyone, therefore, we now “draw near to God with the bringing in of a better
hope.” Jesus became the “guarantor of a better covenant,” appointed
to a better and “un-transmissible priesthood.”
The Levitical priests entered the earthly
Tabernacle to offer “gifts and sacrifices” (Hebrews 8:1-13). But
the divine service they rendered constituted “glimpses and shadows of the
heavenly things”; the Tabernacle was only the model of the heavenly
reality.
In contrast, Jesus ministers on behalf of his
people from “the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens in
the Holy place and Real Tabernacle pitched by the Lord and not man.” He
likewise offered “gifts and sacrifices,” not animal sacrifices but his
own life.
Jesus inaugurated a “new and better
covenant legislated on better promises” (Jeremiah 31:31-33). The old
covenant was “not faultless”; it was unable to achieve “purification
of sins,” otherwise God would not have promised a new one (Hebrews
1:1-3; 8:1-11). With the arrival of the new covenant, the old “has been
made obsolete” (Hebrews 8:13).
Jesus is the supreme high priest, the final
mediator who entered the “greater and more perfect Tabernacle, one
not-made-with-hands, not of this building,” to appear in the presence of
God for us (Heb 9:11, 24).
Jesus is the “true Light that lights every
man that comes into the world” (John 1:4-9; Luke 1:78-79; 2:32; Acts
26:23). The mission previously given to Israel has now fallen to him and to
his followers. He fulfills the role because he is the true Israel of God. His
disciples also are lights in the world, but only as they reflect Christ’s light
(Matthew 5:14; Philippians 2:15; 1 Thessalonians 5:5; Revelation 1:20).
With the arrival of Jesus, the light of
Yahweh’s word has and is going out to the nations, beginning at Jerusalem. “Thus,
it is written and thus it behooved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead
the third day; and that repentance and remission of sins should be proclaimed
in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem” (Luke 24:45-47).
At his ascension, Jesus commanded the
disciples to tarry in Jerusalem until they received the Spirit, then they were
to “bear testimony to me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, in Samaria and
to the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8). The book of Acts
documents the early stages of this global mission.
Jesus came to “the circumcision to confirm
the promises made to the fathers.” This included the promise that “the
Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy.” As Isaiah prophesied, Jesus was
and is the “root of Jesse risen to reign over the Gentiles; in him shall
they trust” (Romans 15:8-9).
The gospel is proclaimed to all nations “for
the obedience of faith,” as promised by the prophets and according to the
commandment of God (Romans 16:25-16). The scriptures foresaw that God
would justify the heathen and therefore proclaimed to Abraham, “In you will
all nations be blessed” (Galatians 3:8). This has now occurred in
Abraham’s “seed, which is Christ” (Galatians 3:16).
As he concluded his testimony before the
Sanhedrin, Stephen reminded the temple authorities that “the Most High does
not dwell in places made-by-hand.” However much a part of the Levitical
system, at the end of the day, temple buildings and tabernacles are man-made
structures; shadows, types, glimpses, and models of the true and greater
habitation of God’s Spirit.
With the arrival and victory of Jesus Christ,
the time of shadows and types have come to an end. He is the end of the Mosaic
system for believers (Romans 10:4). The structures of the old regime
reached their intended end; the time of fulfillment was at hand. Jesus is the
true and final temple, tabernacle and sacrifice, the substance to which the
shadows and patterns pointed. Their time and relevance have passed.
The single passage that describes a
thousand-year period fails to mention any temple, tabernacle, sanctuary, altar,
animal sacrifice, Jerusalem, Israel, Palestine, or any other geographic
location.
The individuals who reign with Jesus are
never identified by ethnicity or national association. They are recognized for
their refusal to take the mark of the Beast and their martyrdom for Jesus.
Elsewhere, the company of faithful saints
destined to reign with Jesus is comprised of men and women “from every
kindred, tongue, people and nation.” Ethnicity no longer has ANY relevance
(Revelation 5:9-10; 6:9-11; 12:11; 14:12).
A temple building in Jerusalem is found in
the Millennium only by importing it into the text from elsewhere. This does not
mean that the New Testament has abandoned the promises of a future Temple, but
it has reinterpreted them in Jesus Christ.
The fundamental problem with the Premillennialist view is that it ignores how the New Testament interprets and
applies Old Testament prophecies. Since Jesus is the fulfillment of said
promises, the true and final habitation of God’s Spirit, proponents of
Premillennialism must explain why it is still necessary to return to the
incomplete “types and shadows” of the Levitical system.
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