ISRAEL'S FUTURE THIRD AND FOURTH TEMPLES

ISRAEL'S FUTURE THIRD AND FOURTH TEMPLES

The Old Testament devotes considerable attention to describing the portable tent, or tabernacle, of the Jewish people built under the leadership of Moses. After the conquest of Canaan the tabernacle and its contents remained at Shiloh throughout the time of Judges. After Shiloh was destroyed (about 1050 BC), the Ark traveled through various Philistine cities and finally was brought to David's palace south of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, and then into the holy of holies of the First Temple dedicated by Solomon about 952 BC.

The First Temple geometrically resembled the tabernacle though it was twice as large and built of immense quantities of stone, cedar wood and lined with gold. [See Exodus 25-31; 35-40, Numbers 3:25 ff, 4: ff, also Philo (II Mos. 91) and Josephus (Ant. 3:122 ff). Moses built everything according to a pattern revealed to him on Mt. Sinai, Hebrews 8:5.]

After the First Temple was completed (I Kings 5-8), the Tabernacle of Moses was dismantled. It may have been stored in a room under the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. There is some evidence that it may still lie there to this day.

Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem and the First Temple on the 9th of Av 586 BC, the Jews were then taken captive to Babylon and the city had no center of worship until Zerubbabel and the returning exiles built the Second Temple, completing it in 516 BC.

The Second Temple, modest in comparison with its predecessor, was rebuilt and enlarged by Herod the Great beginning in 20 BC. Herod recruited 10,000 workman and set them to the task commencing in the 17th year of his reign. Josephus gives vivid descriptions of the Second Temple and its environs, and also records the terrible destruction by the Roman general Titus in 70 AD

I Kings 6 ff, I Chronicles 22 ff. 3, Ezra, Nehemiah and Haggai describe the rebuilding of the temple after the Babylonian captivity. This is the so-called "Second Temple" which Herod the Great later greatly enlarged. Jesus was dedicated in the Second Temple, He cast out money chambers there on two occasions, and He taught frequently in the temple courts.

During the 70 year captivity of the Jews in Babylon and again in the diaspora, just ending in the last century, the Jewish people have centered their worship of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in synagogues around the world. Since the terrible destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans in AD 70, temple sacrifices, offerings, instruction, and worship have ceased in accordance with an Old Testament prophecy of Hosea (about 746 BC):

"For the children of Israel shall dwell many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or teraphim. Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the LORD their God, and David their king; and they shall come in fear to the LORD and to his goodness in the latter days." (Hosea 3:4,5)

The regathering of the Jewish people to their homeland in our time (as predicted for example in Ezekiel 37) is being accompanied by a rapidly accelerating religious consciousness in Israel, the awakening of ancient longings and aspirations and the rediscovery of many immutable promises God has made to the chosen seed of Abraham. The fact that a Third Temple is to be built can be shown from the Tanach. But three passages in the New Testament also refer to such a building not now in existence as of this writing in 1996 AD. Many Christians have thus speculated in recent years about when the Third Temple would be built. This is considered by many to be an important milestone pointing to the end of the age.

The entire Temple Mount contains cisterns and passages most of which have been inaccessible since 70 AD. The Temple Mount proper was liberated from Jordanian control in the Six-Day War of 1967, but then returned by Israel to the custody of the Muslim Waqf (Jordan). The site is some 34 acres in extent with the prominent "Dome of the Rock" near the center and Al Aqsa mosque at the South end. Jews pray night and day at the Western Wall, which is below the Temple Mount, along a section of the great retaining wall of the Mount, in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City. The Western Wall as close as Jews can get these days to the site of their ancient temples.

Dr. Asher Kaufman, formerly of the Racah Institute of Physics, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, for many years made careful studies on Mount Moriah leading him to believe the Temples of Solomon and Zerubbabel were both located just north of the Dome of the Rock on the paved platform area. The Holy of Holies is believed to have been approximately on the bedrock covered by a small shrine, the Dome of the Spirits. The Muslim stewards of the site have systematically destroyed or covered over all evidence that the site was once important to the Jews or to Christians.

Others, including Dan Bahat the Dean of Jerusalem archaeologists today, have argued persuasively that the First and Second Temples were most certainly located where the present Dome of the Rock shrine now stands. A third view is that of Architect Tuvia Sagiv who presents striking evidence that the Temple location was South of the Dome of the Rock, but North of Al Aqsa Mosque, under the present Muslim El Kas fountain. (See Update at the bottom).

The Temple Mount area is also the location of the birth of the Christian church at the feast of Pentecost which followed seven sabbaths plus one day after the death of Messiah. Neither Christians nor Jews are presently allowed to pray or worship on the site in spite of its historic importance to all of Abraham's children.

To go back even further in time the Temple Mount has great historical importance to the Jews. Abraham met a priest of the true God named Melchidezek at Mount Moriah about 4000 years ago (Genesis 14, Hebrews 5-7). A few years later, Abraham offered his son as a sacrifice there (Genesis 22), and King David purchased the site from a local resident named Ornan (I Chronicles 21), about 1015 BC.

Muslim claims to the Temple Mount date only from 638 AD. The Crusaders turned the Muslim buildings on the Mount into churches in 1099 until Saladin restored Arab rule of Jerusalem in 1187.

The New Testament makes only brief references to temples, in fact the Apostle Paul speaking to a crowd in Athens from Mars Hill said

"The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of Heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all men life, and breadth, and everything..." (Acts 17:24-25).

Instead, the emphasis of the New Covenant is the personal presence of Jesus as Messiah, Immanuel (which means "God with us") dwelling within and in the midst of his people whenever and wherever they gather in his name.

The New Testament opens with the four-gospel revelation of God's Son, Jesus. John in His gospel says that God in Christ "tabernacled" among men. Later in the First Century, both Paul and Peter call the true church "a living temple." Individual believers are "living stones" and Christ is Himself the foundation stone or the "chief cornerstone." For two thousand years of Biblical history the emphasis has been on assemblies or congregations of Christians or Jews, not on sacred buildings.

Yet there are at least three references in the New Testament to a temple building existing in Jerusalem in the future as noted above. From the context these references appear to refer to a new, or "Third Temple" yet to be built in the city. There has been growing interest since the rebirth of Israel in 1948 among the Jews for a central place of worship in their capital city. Although synagogues have served admirably as centers of worship and community for the Jews in their dispersion, a temple in Jerusalem on the exact site of the Second Temple is required by the Jews as a central house of prayer and focal point of the faith until Messiah comes.

Because of our sins we were exiled from our country and banished from our land. We cannot go up as pilgrims to worship Thee, to perform our duties in Thy chosen house, the great and Holy Temple which was called by Thy name, on account of the hand that was let loose on Thy sanctuary. May it be Thy will, Lord our God and God of our fathers, merciful King, in Thy abundant love again to have mercy on us and on Thy sanctuary; rebuild it speedily and magnify its glory. (The Jewish Prayer Book)

According to Maimonides it is incumbent on the Jews to maintain the temple in Jerusalem if it is in existence and to rebuild it speedily if it does not. Many Jews acknowledge from the Tanach that shedding of blood is associated with the remission of sins. Thus the restoration of animal sacrifices in a properly consecrated temple is seen as very important to them.

The Third Temple must be placed on the same spot of ground as the First and Second Temples because of the Jewish concept of zones of holiness on Yahweh's sacred mountain.

Jesus spoke of the Third Temple building in Jerusalem when discussing with his disciples the chain of events that would bring the close of the present age and his return. He spoke of an event yet future predicted by Daniel the prophet when the temple in Jerusalem would suffer ultimate defilement by a false Messiah who claimed to be God:
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