Third Temple?
Jesus is the True and Final Habitation of God, and Revelation says nothing about a rebuilt or third temple in Jerusalem in the thousand-year period.
In Revelation,
nothing is said about a temple structure in the city of Jerusalem during the “thousand
years” when Satan is “bound” or the restoration of the Levitical priesthood,
feasts, or animal sacrifices. Based mainly on chapters 40-48 of the book
of Ezekiel, some interpretations assume the Temple will be rebuilt
during or shortly before the thousand years.
There are several problems with this
theory. First, only one scriptural passage refers to the thousand-year
period, and it makes no mention of any temple or temple rituals. Second, Revelation locates
Ezekiel’s ideal temple in the city of “New Jerusalem.” And third, in the
New Testament, Jesus is the true and final Temple foreshadowed by the ancient structure.
During the “thousand years,” Satan is
“bound” in the “Abyss” to prevent him from “deceiving the
nations” until his release after the end of the period. Saints martyred “for
the testimony of Jesus” are vindicated and reign with Christ during this
time.
THE THOUSAND YEARS
The “rest of the dead” do not live again
until the period ends. And in the passage, neither the Temple nor Jerusalem is
mentioned - (Revelation 20:1-10).
When he is loosed, Satan deceives the
nations and gathers them to the final battle against the “camp of the saints.”
This confrontation results in the destruction of the attacking force by direct
divine intervention, and the casting of the Devil and all those whose names are
“not written into the Lamb’s book of life” into the “lake of fire”
at the final judgment.
After the “thousand years” end, John
is “carried in the spirit to a high mountain” where he sees the “holy
city, New Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God” to the earth - (Revelation
21:1-9).
The description of the city’s descent alludes
to Ezekiel’s vision when the hand of Yahweh carries him “into the land of
Israel to set him upon a very high mountain on which was the frame of a city on
the south” - (Ezekiel 40:1-5, Revelation 21:1-10). Note the following parallels:
- In Revelation, an angel gave John “a golden reed to measure the city, its gates, and its wall.”
- In Ezekiel, 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.”
- New Jerusalem had “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.”
- 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.”
- The preceding 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 Ezekiel reads, “the
name of the city from that day shall be Yahweh is there.” In Revelation,
this becomes, “the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be there” - (Ezekiel
48:35, Revelation 22:3).
NEW JERUSALEM
John states that he “saw no temple”
in the city. Instead, the “Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its 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.”
The holy sanctuary encompasses the entire city
which is also coterminous with the new creation. Thus, God’s presence is
everywhere, and therefore, all unclean things and persons are excluded from “New
Jerusalem.”
Consistently in the New Testament, Jesus is
the true and greater Temple, the habitation of God prefigured by the earlier
Tabernacle. He is the true Bethel, the “house of God,” the real mediator
between heaven and earth, the temple MADE WITHOUT HANDS that is destroyed
by evil men but raised from the dead by His Father - (John 1:14, 1:51, 2:17-21,
Colossians 1:19).
In the new messianic age, questions about
the proper location of the Temple are no longer relevant. With the first 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).
Collectively, disciples form the “temple
of God” in which His Spirit now dwells. 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” - (1 Corinthians 3:16, 6:19, Ephesians 2:20-22).
With the victory of Jesus, the time of
shadows and types has come to an end, and the structures of the old system have
reached their intended goal. Jesus is the true and final temple, tabernacle, and
sacrifice, the substance to which the shadows and patterns all pointed - (Romans
10:4, Colossians 2:9-17).
None of this means that the New Testament
has abandoned the promises of a future Temple. Instead, it has reinterpreted them in Jesus Christ.
In “New Jerusalem,” he and his Father are the true and final sanctuary.
