A Brief History Of The Temple Of God
There are many scriptures found in the bible prophesying the rebuilding of the Temple of God. They are found in Ezekiel, Jeremiah and Daniel.
Check out the following bible studies: Jeremiah 29 / Jeremiah 33 / Ezekiel / Daniel
The Temple of God was built twice throughout history. The original Temple, known as Solomon’s Temple, was built in 957 BCE. This was torn down by the Babylonians when the Jewish people were captured and exiled into Babylon. While in exile, the prophets Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel prophesied that a second Temple would be rebuilt by the returning exiles.
When the exiles returned to Israel from Babylon, they began building the second Temple and finished construction in 515 BCE.
In 20 BCE, Herod built additions to the Temple over a period of forty six years thereby expanding the enclosure.
The second Temple was destroyed by the Roman empire in 70 CE.
Orthodox Jewish tradition maintains that the third and final Temple will be built when the Messiah comes.
The Temple of God Is Destroyed
For the past 1400 years, the Dome of The Rock mosque has been standing on the Holy of Holies. The Jewish people believe that the location of the mosque compound is the exact location of where the Temple once stood. In particular, over the altar for sacrifices and the Holy of Holies which is the most sacred location for Judaism.
For this reason, the Israeli rabbis forbid any Jew from entering the Dome of the Rock compound and praying there. It is considered too holy to tread upon. This location is also believed to be the site where Abraham bound Isaac on the altar to sacrifice him according to God’s request.
The Dome of The Rock was constructed by the Muslims in commemoration of what they believe is the location that Muhammed ascended to heaven from.
The Dome of The rock mosque has inscriptions written in Arabic which present a selection of Quranic passages and paraphrases. These writings outline Islam’s views of Jesus. They deny the Christian doctrines of the Trinity and the divinity of Jesus, while emphasizing the unity of God and affirming Jesus’ status as only a prophet and not the Son of God.
Judaism believes that the Messiah will come and rebuild the Temple which was destroyed around two thousand years ago (70 AD). They believe that once the Messiah rebuilds the Temple, they will be able to make sacrifices to atone for their iniquity.
The Importance Of The Temple Of God In Judaism
The Temple Of God is the fundamental foundation of Judaism. This is the only place where God allows and accepts animal sacrifices. Which according to Judaism, is to be performed daily (called the daily sacrifices). The yearly tradition of Yom Kippur can also only be performed in the Temple of God. This is because it also requires an animal sacrifice.
On Yom Kippur (LINK), the Jewish people atone for their sins (namely iniquity). Without this sacrifice, this type of sin, which is a sin that is unknown to a person, cannot be forgiven precisely due to this reason. A sin that is unknown cannot be confessed and in turn, cannot be forgiven.
The reason why it is so important that the Temple is rebuilt is because the Temple is the only way that the Jewish people can perform the sacrifice for iniquity. Ever since the Temple has been destroyed and the Dome of the Rock has been put in its place, the daily sacrifices and the yearly sacrifice (Yom Kippur) have been stopped. Without these animal sacrifices, the Jewish people cannot be forgiven of their sins.
Leviticus 17:11 – For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.
Hebrews 9:22 – Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.
Rebuilding The Temple Of God
The Jewish people believe as per Old Testament scripture, that the Messiah will come and rebuild the Temple. However they have taken this to be a literal rebuilding of the Temple. This is impossible. The Dome of The Rock mosque has been built on the exact site where the sacrifice must take place. The Jewish faith is understandable, as with God, anything is possible. Waiting for the impossible is viable, if God has indeed promised this (but He has not promised the rebuilding of the physical Temple).
Not having the Temple has been a form of exile for the Jewish people. During this exile, the Jewish people have been holding on to a verse from the book of Jeremiah. It was written during the time of their exile in Babylon.
Jeremiah 29 Bible study link (coming soon)
In addition to this, they also refer to the following scriptures in Amos and Isaiah.
Amos 9:14-15 – and I will bring my people Israel back from exile. “They will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit. 15 I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land I have given them,” says the Lord your God.
Isaiah 43:5-6 – Do not fear, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, And gather you from the west. 6“I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’ And to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’ Bring My sons from afar And My daughters from the ends of the earth.
Neither of these scriptures refer to the Temple being rebuilt. They merely state that the Jewish people will be returned back to Israel. This has taken place, but with no mention of a rebuilt Temple. The Jewish people have rebuilt and inhabited these cities, but there is no Temple.
During the time of the Babylonian exile, the Temple sacrifices were stopped due to the destruction of the Temple. By not being able to perform the necessary daily and yearly sacrifices to obtain forgiveness, the Jewish people were prohibited from atoning for their iniquity. As a result, their iniquity remained unforgiven during this time.
Isaiah 59:2 – but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.
Isaiah 59:2 – Your sins are the roadblock between you and your God. That’s why he doesn’t answer your prayers or let you see his face.
Isaiah 59:2 Holman Christian Standard – But your iniquities have built barriers between you and your God, and your sins have made Him hide His face from you so that He does not listen.
As during the current exile the Jewish people face, their sins remain unforgiven due to their being no animal sacrifice.
Leviticus 17:11 – Life is in the blood, and I have given you the blood of animals to sacrifice in place of your own.
Hebrews 9:22 – Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.
Why The Physical Temple Will Never Be Rebuilt
I tell you that something greater than the temple is here.
Matthew 12:6
It is evident through the scriptures, that the Temple of God will never be physically built again. God has made Jesus, the new Temple of God. Jesus is now the only sacrifice that God accepts as an atonement for our sins (iniquity).
God has made it so that the Temple of God cannot be rebuilt because the Dome of the Rock has been erected in its place. This has been done so that the only path to forgiveness, righteousness, salvation and eternal life is through his son, Jesus, the Messiah.
John 14:6 – Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
John 10:9 – I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.
John 11:25 – Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,
Jesus prophesied of both the destruction of the Temple and the building of the Dome of the Rock shrine.
Matthew 24:1-2 – Jesus left the Temple and was going away, when his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the Temple. 2 But he answered them, “You see all these, do you not? Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.”
Matthew 24:15 “So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand).
Jesus’ prophecy of the Temple of God being destroyed was fulfilled in 70 A.D. In 685 A.D, Daniel’s prophecy of the ‘abomination of desolation’ was fulfilled when the Dome of the Rock mosque was constructed in place of the Temple.
The Apostle Paul also prophesies about the coming of Islam and Muhammed.
2 Thessalonians 2: 1-12 – Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, 2 not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. 3 Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first,
The rebellion is Islam
and the man of lawlessness is revealed,
This is Mohammed
the son of destruction,
This is Allah.
4 who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the Temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.
The god of the Muslims is Allah. He has taken a seat on top of God’s Holy mountain over the Temple of God proclaiming to be the true God.
2 Thessalonians 2:5 Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? 6 And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. 7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming.
9 The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, 10 and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11 Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, 12 in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
This is referring to the Muslim people.
Jesus Is The Everlasting And Final Temple Of God
The bible speaks of God’s plan to set up an eternal, everlasting and final sacrifice.
Daniel 9:24 – Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy place.
This everlasting and final sacrifice came in the form of Jesus, the son of God.
Hebrews 10:12-14 – But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. 14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.
Just like it did in the Temple, God’s presence, spirit and name dwells in Jesus’s teachings and interpretations of scripture.
We also become part of the Temple when we believe in Jesus’ teachings without compromise.
1 Corinthians 3:16 – Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s Temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?
Isaiah 57:15 – For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:“I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.
Acts 7:47-50 – But it was Solomon who built a house for him. 48 Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands, as the prophet says, 49 “‘Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord, or what is the place of my rest? 50 Did not my hand make all these things?’
Acts 17:24-25 – The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in Temples made by man, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.
Isaiah 66:1-2 – Thus says the Lord: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest? 2 All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the Lord. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.
2 Corinthians 5:1 – Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is dismantled, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.
Revelation 21:22 – I did not see a Temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its Temple.
God has made it so that the physical Temple with its animal sacrifice is no longer needed. This is due to the coming of Jesus who is the spiritual Temple and spiritual sacrifice. This is God’s desire – how He wishes to be worshipped in the spirit.
John 4:23-24 – Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
Paul is explaining how the spiritual Temple works in the book of Hebrews.
Hebrews 8:5-13 – They serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: “See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.” 6 But in fact the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, since the new covenant is established on better promises.
7 For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another. 8 But God found fault with the people and said: “The days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah.9 It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they did not remain faithful to my covenant, and I turned away from them, declares the Lord.
10 This is the covenant I will establish with the people of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 11 No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.
12 For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” 13 By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear.
This is fulfilled through the message Jesus spoke when we accept his message without compromise. This is why the physical Temple which is part of the first covenant, is no longer needed. This is because the second covenant is connected to the spiritual Temple which is Jesus (and Christ in us when we accept his words and teachings without compromise).
The Temple of the Lord represented the name of God. Meaning His standards of right and wrong, His commandments and teachings, which resulted in God’s presence – His spirit, dwelling there. But now Jesus has been given the name of God. He represents God’s version of right and wrong, His commandments and teachings. God’s presence now dwells in Jesus. It also dwells in us when we adhere and believe in Jesus’ teachings (his name without compromising). This makes us part of the spiritual Temple also.
Jesus is the cornerstone of the spiritual Temple, we are the building stones and the prophets of old are the foundation.
Ephesians 2:19-22 – So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
John 2:19-22 – Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” 20 The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” 21 But he was speaking about the temple of his body. 22 When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.
The Jewish people were speaking of a physical Temple while Jesus was speaking of a spiritual one.
Matthew 12:6 – I tell you that something greater than the temple is here.
1 Corinthians 6:19 – Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
1 Corinthians 3:16 – Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?
2 Corinthian 6:16 – What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Jesus Is The Only Way To Forgiveness And Eternal Life
John 8:21-24 – Once more Jesus said to them, “I am going away, and you will look for me, and you will die in your sin. Where I go, you cannot come.” 22 This made the Jews ask, “Will he kill himself? Is that why he says, ‘Where I go, you cannot come’?” 23 But he continued, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. 24 I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am he, you will indeed die in your sins.”
Jesus is stating that because the Jewish people have rejected him, they will now die in their sin. A time will come which is now already here, when the Jewish people cannot have their iniquity forgiven. This is because the sacrifices have been stopped due to the Muslim mosque being built on the place of sacrifices. Since they have rejected the teachings/interpretation of Jesus (which washes away iniquity), the Jewish people will die in their sin.
Sacrifices for iniquity cannot be made because the Temple has been destroyed. As a substitution, the Jewish people recite prayers which describe the atonement rituals. They believe it is the same as if the rituals were actually being performed at the Temple. They do their best to earn atonement through their prayers and attitude. But this is not written in the bible as a solution to iniquity and receiving forgiveness.
Without an animal sacrifice or the shedding of blood, there is no atonement or forgiveness of sins.
Leviticus 17:11 – For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.
Hebrews 9:22 – Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.
The Jewish people had to make this compromise. Otherwise, they would have to come to the realization that they cannot receive forgiveness. This is because their iniquity cannot be atoned for. Therefore, they cannot enter the kingdom of heaven and must die in their sins.
The Muslim was used to stop the Jewish people from receiving forgiveness for their unknown/unintentional sin (iniquity). By building the Dome Of The Rock Mosque in the same location as the altar of sacrifice, the Muslims have stopped the Jewish people from atoning for their iniquity.
Unless the Jewish people go through the new Temple which is Jesus’ teachings, their iniquity remains unforgiven to this day.
Muslims also attempt to stop Christians from having their own iniquity forgiven. They constantly attack Jesus’ position as Messiah and Son of God, since only those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God shall be saved:
1 John 4:15 – Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.
Romans 10:9 – because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
1 John 2:23 – No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.
1 John 5:1 – Everyone believing that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone loving the One having begotten Him also loves the one having been begotten from Him.
1 John 5:5 – Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
Muslims claim that God cannot have a son and that Jesus is not the Messiah but rather just a prophet. They also attack the validity of the word of God, claiming that it is false due to its many translations. This is all in an effort to cause Christians to lose their faith in Jesus and in so doing, lose their salvation, because they also will not have their iniquity forgiven due to rejecting the teachings of Jesus. But we must remember the following scripture:
1 John 2:22 – Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son.
Read Next: Yom Kippur Day Of Atonement Leviticus 16 Bible Study
