Rebuilding the Temple, No. 2

RV145-02

During the parenthetic portion of Revelation, which takes place between the sixth and seventh trumpets, John has become an actor in the action taking place now on earth. He has been an observer in his vision up to this point. John is told by someone (probably God) to measure the future tribulation temple which he now sees erected in Jerusalem. We have shown you in the Bible that measuring identifies the status of ownership, or it evaluates the condition of something relative to whether it merits divine judgment or divine blessing. The area that John is told to measure is specified as the shrine area of the temple, meaning the temple proper: the holy place; and, the holy of holies. Measuring this temple in the tribulation is to determine its genuineness as a house of God. Since it will reject Jesus Christ, whose person and work is what this tribulation temple portrayed, it is obvious that when John measures this temple, he will find it to be an apostate place that merits God's divine judgment.

The Jews in Israel today, as you know, are in the process of planning for the rebuilding of the Old Testament temple, and for reviving the rituals of the Mosaic Law. Two previous temples have been constructed and have been destroyed. The first, as you know, was Solomon's temple. That was the most magnificent one. It was destroyed eventually by the Babylonian ruler Nebuchadnezzar in 586 B.C. This was followed some 75 years later when about 45,000 people returned from Babylon to the land of Israel. And under Zerubbabel's leadership, the temple was rebuilt. This temple was not as magnificent as Solomon's temple, but it was rebuilt.

In a period of time, under attack by foreign powers, for one reason or another, this temple deteriorated considerably. When Herod, a non-Jew (an Idumean), came under Roman authority to being king over the Jewish people, he proceeded to spend 46 years restoring this temple. It was finally completed in 64 A.D., just six years before it was totally destroyed again in 70 A.D. by the Roman General Titus.

The Jews are going to seek to rebuild their temple today in unbelief, because they still reject Jesus Christ as their true Messiah. The Jews simply dismiss the death of Christ on the cross as a misguided martyr at best. They do not view His death as the Lamb of God – the final payment for their sins. They continue to pursue the thing that the apostle Paul tried to warn them about in Romans – that they are pursuing a work ritual basis of salvation, and it will never work with God. The Jews today do not view Jesus Christ as the only channel into eternal life in heaven. Therefore, any temple that they put together is going to be an apostate operation from the first day onward.

The Building of the Third Jewish Temple

"Spurred by both religious belief and nationalist fervor, and backed by the government, a group of Israelis and Jews abroad are quietly planning the construction of the third Jewish temple. The project has sparked a lively controversy in Judaism. The debate divides theologians and political leaders. It has also united ultra-Orthodox Jews with fundamentalist Protestant Christians, both whom share the dream of a third Jewish temple.

"Among the questions being raised: can a temple be built, or even planned, without the arrival of the Messiah? What should be done about the Moslem shrines that for about 1,000 years have occupied the holy ground? Advocates of rebuilding the temple have no answers. But Rabbi Israel Ariel, head of the Temple Institute, has no doubt that a solution will be found. His institute has rebuilt 38 of the 103 ritual implements required for bringing sacrifices at the temple. "We believe that a temple will arise despite all the problems," he said. "It is the force that unites the Jewish people."

"Quietly, the government is becoming active in the effort. On October 18, the Religious Affairs Ministry sponsored the first ever Conference of Temple Research. Though the researchers did not discuss politics, many of them agreed that they considered their work relevant.

"The first temple was destroyed in 420 B.C. by the Babylonians. 70 years later (that's a wrong figure somehow – I suppose by the writer), Cyrus, Emperor of Persia, allowed the Jews to return from exile and rebuild the temple. About 45,000 Jews accepted the offer. Many more stayed in the diaspora, as the various places they settled are known. The second temple was destroyed in AD 70 by the Romans. The Romans refused to permit the temple's reconstruction, and sent the Jews into exile. Although the Babylonian Talmud was vague, Jewish scholars later ruled that the temple must await the Messiah. The medieval sage Roshi said that the temple will be will descend directly from heaven after the coming of the Messiah.

"His contemporary Maimonides was more specific. He drew up guidelines on recognizing the Messiah, and planning the temple. One requirement: the temple will not be built until a majority of the Jewish people live in the biblical land of Israel. Less than a third of the 13 million Jews live in Israel. But in 1967, Jews began to believe that the construction of the temple was in sight. Repulsing an attack from its eastern neighbor Jordan, Israel captured the old city of Jerusalem, the site of the ancient Jewish temple. Israeli authorities attempting to preserve calm, allowed the Moslems to continue to administer the temple mount. The Moslems have the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex that actually contains two houses of prayer, and is regarded as the third holiest site of Islam.

"Israel banned non-Moslems from praying openly on the mount. Religious leaders supported the stand. First, Israel's chief rabbis forbade Jews to walk on the mount to guard against them stepping on the ancient holy of holies, where, in temple times, only the high priest was granted access. Moreover, many rabbis could not fathom the coming of the Messiah at a time when a majority of the Jewish people did not observe basic religious precepts, such as the Sabbath, or the Kashrut, the dietary guidelines of Judaism. Some of the rabbis were stung that the advocates of a temple included secular Jews. "Suddenly, all these people say that the Sabbath is not important. Kashrut is not important; only the temple is important," said Rabbi Eliezar Shach, regarded as one of the last scions of European Jewish scholars.

"But slowly, some leading rabbis exhibited flexibility. Two schools located near the Western Wall are teaching about 200 students the complex laws of the temple. Others, including former Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren, have been researching the exact location of the holy of holies so that Jews can enter the mount without violating any commandment. Moreover, Haifa's chief rabbi Shear Yeshuv Cohen, considered a candidate to be Israel's chief rabbi, ruled that the candelabra of the temple may be built today. Rabbi Cohen is viewed as more traditional than Rabbi Goran.

"Still, rabbinical advocates of researching the new temple remain cautious. They consistently remind their followers that their work is to prepare for the coming of the Messiah, not to replace Him. As a result, even the maverick Rabbi Goren was sharply critical of a recent attempt by a group of Jewish activists called the Temple Mount Faithful. The group, with police permission, brought a three-ton stone to Jerusalem on October the 16th as the cornerstone of the third temple. A ceremony was to have taken place on the temple mount. Police canceled the ceremony when Arab students rioted several hours before the event was scheduled to take place. Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kollek said the riot was aimed at preventing the ceremony.

"'The Moslems believe that this is a plot to take over their holy place,' Mayor Kollek said. At the conference, researchers were careful not to endorse the idea of laying a cornerstone of the temple, but many of them appeared sympathetic to the aims of the Temple Mount faithful. "We believe that all of our hopes and all of our attempts, such as the cornerstone for the temple, will cause some activity in the heavens," said Zev Golan, the American-born director of the Temple Institute. "And with God's help, the day will come soon when we will build the temple."

A few years ago, you would not have read an article like that, and you would not have had this kind of talk going on in Israel. These are momentous days. We are moving rapidly toward something that is on the horizon in the early years of the 1990s, and perhaps the return of the Lord for all of us. I find that I'm getting less inclined to be upset with Christians who are wasting their lives. It's not a good attitude, but as I see the trivialization of members of this congregation on some occasion, I found myself saying, "Well, it really doesn't make much difference. The end is so near, it won't have much effect anyway."

Nevertheless, we act as if and must act as if that's coming is 100 years away, and we have to stay on the job. But just the very fact that the Jews are shaping up in the most critical element of their religion to reconstruct that temple is of enormous significance. And as if that is not enough, the word is coming, on increasingly authoritative grounds, that of all things, they have found the Ark of the Covenant preserved in Ethiopia. So, the most sacred object that they need for their temple is right there, waiting to be placed inside the new holy of holies.

When John measures the temple proper, he will find that it has an apostate worship. Religious rituals will be going on there, merely expressing the ethnic and the nationalistic and the religious heritage of Israel. The tribulation Jews will be supportive of the antichrist because he will have made their temple restoration possible. The Jews of the tribulation will, however, not support the true Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Measure the Temple

Measure the Altar

Measure the Worshipers

The Temple Layout

Secondly, extending beyond that was an area called the court of Israel, or the court of the men. This was for Jewish men only. Then, just in front of the entrance into the temple area (the working area) was a larger area which was called the court of the women. And here, the Jewish women were permitted to come.

So, the way it worked was that the women could come into the court of the women, and they couldn't go beyond that. The men could go up here into the court of the men, but they could not go beyond that barricade. The priests could go into the holy place, where they could minister. But only the high priests could go into the holy of holies, and only once a year.

Then the temple proper, with these courts, was surrounded by a large area, and this was called the court of the gentiles. That's important that you understand, because that's what he's talking about in this passage.

So, you had the temple area: There was the temple proper – the area for the priests. Then you had the area for the men, and the area for the women. Then there was a large area for the court of the gentiles. It actually was something like a 26-acre area that was involved there. So, there was a large area for the gentiles.

John is told, "Go in there, and measure what is taking place in these various areas, in order to determine the spiritual genuineness of what they're doing. The worshipers in the Jewish court area in John's vision represent the Jews in the tribulation. They will be men who are worshiping God in unbelief toward Jesus Christ. They will not be worshiping Him as the Messiah Savior. The Jews in the tribulation will be, therefore, in apostasy in all of their religious practices, and they will be rejected then as they are rejected by God today.

So, God is going to measure these worshipers, and find them indeed to be apostate, and then bring discipline and death upon them. The act of measuring will verify who the true believers are in the tribulation for divine approval or divine preservation. When God measures, He determines who is in, and who is out.

We understand that in part (again, I say) from how the act of measuring is used in the Bible, and this particular concept of measuring, in order to determine those who are saved and those who are lost, is illustrated in 2 Samuel 8:2: "And he (speaking of King David) defeated Moab." What he did was defeat one of the great enemies of the Jewish people. Now he has collected a mob of prisoners. Then it says that he measures them: "He measured them with the line. This is exactly the picture you have in the revelation of what John is doing: "Making them (that is, the Moabites) to lie down on the ground."

So, what David did here was to take these Moabites, and he had them all lie down on the ground in line-upon-line. Then he created a measuring line: "He defeated Moab. He measured them with the line, making them lie down on the ground. And he measured two lines to put to death, and one full line to keep alive. And the Moabites became servants to David, bringing tribute." He strung out a line, and he put equidistant knots in it. And he says, "This is death row." They stretch the line out. All of these were put to death. This is the saved row. All these people were taken off into captivity and slavery. He came down to the second one; measured the line; two segments went to death; and, one segment was secured.

The idea of a line of measurement was to determine death or life – to determine what happens to an individual. That's exactly the picture that John is portraying for us.

God's Judgment upon Religion

The measure is to determine those elements of the temple which merit divine protection in the tribulation. God is going to find that His Jewish people, and their temple, and all their worship system, and all their rituals do not measure up to His standard of righteousness. And God will say, "Thumbs down" on the whole lot.

I suspect that this tribulation temple will be totally destroyed, along with the Jewish worshipers who will in time enter the lake of fire. This temple will be totally destroyed. The Jews will have rebuilt it under the auspices of the antichrist, and the temple that Jeremiah sees that exists in the millennium will be a totally new structure, rebuilt by godly born-again believing Jews.

In Revelation 11:2, John is given an interesting instruction. He is told to leave out the court which is outside of the temple, and do not measure it. What is he talking about? Leave out the court which is outside of the temple. He's talking about this court of the gentiles – this which is outside the confines of the temple area (the temple proper), and it's a court for Jewish priests; for Jewish men; and, for Jewish women. John is told, "Don't measure this area." Now, why is it that God is not interested in making any determination or evaluation concerning that area. The court of the gentiles is left completely outside, and John is told that the reason for this is that it has been given it has been given to the nations (that is, to the gentiles), and they will tread underfoot the holy city for 42 months. This large area is the only area in which gentiles can operate. Beyond this area are the precincts of the temple for the Jewish people.

A Wall in the Temple Separated Jews and Gentiles

This inscription was written in Latin and in Greek, and it said, "Let no stranger come within the barrier, and the court which surrounds the temple. Every trespasser who is caught will be himself responsible for his ensuing death." So, what the authorities said was, "If you're a gentile, and you come walking in here, you're dead, man. You do not walk on temple ground if you are a gentile."

This wall, interestingly enough, was probably the background of the analogy that Paul gave of the relationship between Jews and gentiles, which had been changed in the era of the church. In Ephesians 2:14, Paul says, "For He (Jesus Christ Himself) is our peace, who made both groups, Jews and gentiles, into one, and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall." I'm almost sure that this is what Paul had in mind. Everybody knew that this was the barrier of the dividing wall between the Jew on the inside and the gentile on the outside. Everybody who knew how this was set up in the temple grounds would understand Paul's comparison here. He is saying, "In the church age, God has done a very dramatic thing. There are no more gentiles, and there are no more Jews. There are only people who are lost and going to hell. And there are people called Christians who are born-again and going to heaven. And these Christians come from both the Jew and the gentiles sides of the wall, and they've been made into a whole new group of people, the church, the body of Christ. This wall of separation and enmity has been broken down by the Lord Jesus Christ, who has made of both of these now, one new man.

Notice that Ephesians 2:15-22 present that very picture: "By abolishing in his flesh the enmity, which is the law of commandments, contained in ordinances, that in Himself, He might make the two, Jew and gentile, into one new man, thus establishing peace (between these two which were so antagonistic), and might reconcile them both into one body to God through the cross by it having put to death the enmity. And He came and preached peace to you (you gentiles), who were far away; and, peace to you (you Jews), who were near. For through Him (Jesus), we both have our axis in one spirit to the Father, so that you (you gentiles) are no longer strangers and aliens (outside of the court of the temple), but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God's household, having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, whom the holy building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit."

So, in the church age, God has broken down this dividing wall, and has brought Jew and gentile into one tremendous body of believers, and made of them a new group, the church, directly related to the second person of the Trinity as a wife, in all her intimacy, is related to her husband.

So, this is the thing that is the background of this verse. John is told, "Forget the court of the gentiles. Don't measure it." He says that the reason for it is that this is being given over to the gentiles for their domination.

God is going to permit the antichrist and the gentile nations to eventually control both of these parts of the temple area during the tribulation. The antichrist is going to put his own image inside the temple to be worshiped. But when, in the first three-and-a-half years of the tribulation, he becomes the protector of the Jew, the gentiles are going to be restricted to that area, and they will be given that area to operate in. They are going to tread upon this area specifically in a dramatic way for three-and-a-half years – 42 months. What he is talking about there is the last three-and-a-half years of the tribulation era when the antichrist double-crosses the Jews with whom he has made a covenant. He has made agreement with the Jews to hold the Arabs in check, and to permit the Jews to restore their ancient worship. The peace is going to be enforced upon the Arabs. The Jews are going to be free to rebuild their temple. They will resume their religious rituals as Daniel 9:27 predicts.

But under gentile domination, the tribulation temple will become a place of foul satanic evils. In Revelation 22:15, this is referred to. This very temple becomes something that God completely condemns outside of this temple. Outside of those who are true to God, those who are worshiping God in this antichrist temple, are dogs, and sorcerers, and the immoral persons, and the murderers, and the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices lying. So, the worst element are out there.

This is going to be a domination of the holy city, referring to Jerusalem. The gentile domination of the temple from their court will continue for 42 months (the last three-and-a-half years). At that time, Matthew 24:15 says that the antichrist will put his own image up, and demand that he be worshiped as God. During the first three-and-a-half years of the tribulation, he will be helping the Jews. This time, when the gentiles dominate Jerusalem, is what Jesus referred to in Luke 21:24: "Jesus said, 'And they will fall by the edge of the sword and will be led captive into all the nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the gentiles until the times of the gentiles be fulfilled.'" The times of the gentiles is fulfilled by the antichrist. That will bring it to the end.

So, John is told, "Don't measure this area, because it's going to be taken over and given to the gentiles right down to the end of the tribulation era. But the tribulation will be the time when eventually the antichrist falls.

Now, here is a problem. We're saying that the Jews are going to rebuild their temple. In 691 A.D., the Moslems built a temple called the Dome of the Rock. It's a mosque which is set on the place which has been viewed as the holy of holies in the site of Solomon's Temple. It is, in fact, the third most sacred site to the Arab world after Medina and Mecca: Mecca; Medina; and, the Dome of the Rock is the order of sacredness to the Moslems. Those of you who've been there know that when you go inside, after you've taken your shoes off, that you are able to look down and see this huge rock. From this rock, Muhammad said that Abraham offered Ishmael, not Isaac, as the Bible says. The Arabs said, "That's wrong. It was Ishmael." He was the line of God's promised blessing, and of the kingdom descent. Furthermore, the Moslems teach that Muhammad ascended to heaven from that very rock.

Archaeology Discoveries of 1967

Well, some recent archeological discoveries began in 1967. No sooner were the Jews there than they had their archaeologists start researching this whole area to see what they could uncover of the anchor points by which they could judge where Solomon's temple and the holy of Holies actually were located. Revelation 11:1-2, that we have looked at, predict that after the tribulation temple is rebuilt, part of the old temple mount will still be under gentile (that is, Arab) control. It will be the court of the gentiles. Where this dome stands is, in fact, the court of the gentiles. This domination is to last the last three-and-a-half years.

What has happened is that recent archeological explorations on the temple mount have uncovered a totally new facet of information concerning where the old temple was located, particularly the holy of holies. What the Jews did was dig a tunnel 300 feet long along the northern wall. They came into Wilson's arch, which is an archway that you go into. They went down 200 feet below the current level to the original temple level, and they dug in for 300 feet. This tunnel is there today, and it's called the Rabbi's Tunnel, because it is now used by the rabbis to approach what they believe to be Solomon's holy of holies, where the ark actually rested.

This excavation revealed the original foundation stones of Herod's temple. These things are 400 tons in size, and were fitted together so closely that, to this very day, you can hardly push a razor blade between them. This was skilled craftsmanship. And lo and behold, 200 feet below the surface, they find these foundational stones upon which the temple rested. And, wonder of wonders, what they discovered here, when they got to the end of their 300 feet was that they ran into a gate – an entrance into the temple mount area. In ancient times, it was known as the Western Gate, and the Western Gate was directly opposite the Eastern Gate.

The question remained: where was the access? ... It's important to know where this gate is, because once you draw a line, something was revealed of enormous importance to the Jewish rabbis. The Eastern Gate is totally blocked in. It's filled in with rock. You cannot go in and out. It is the gate which the Old Testament speaks of as the Golden Gate – the one through which the Messiah will return. And when He comes through it, He will come to set up His millennial kingdom. When Moshe Dayan, the general in 1967, and his troops came charging up to this wall, they were so excited and so elated that they now had the whole city of Jerusalem, the soldiers said, "Shall we break the gate open?" For some reason he said, "No. Leave it closed. Don't touch it." And it is closes to this day.

The Mishnah is the document of Jewish records that the rabbis have in which they keep accurate records from ancient times. In the Mishnah, they indicated that indeed the Eastern Gate and the Western Gate were directly opposite. But they also recorded that when you stood here in the Eastern Gate, you could look directly into the entrance of the holy place. You stood at the Eastern Gate, and you looked into the gate, Beautiful, which is the entrance into the area of the court for the women. You could look to the Western Gate, and you could look right into that court area.

Knowing that, that gives an absolute, accurate, pinpoint geographic location to where the old temple of Solomon stood, and you notice that it's 150 feet north of where the Dome of the Rock stands this day. They have an anchor point. They have a fix on the Western Gate. The Eastern Gate is obvious. When they draw a line, what do they find there? It is fantastic. That line goes right through that little cupola called the Dome of the Spirit, or the Dome of the Tablets. I find that to be a very interesting name, because if that's where the Ark of the Covenant stood, you know what one of the main things in the ark was the two stone tablets bearing the Ten Commandments on it. That's what the Arabs themselves had name that thing.

The Jews, under a strong man like the antichrist, could remove part of this structure, but they could never remove a certain part of it without a lot of difficulty. But now they don't need to. Furthermore, they found that from the Western Gate, there are many tunnels that go out, which are actually underground water tunnels. Flavius Josephus, who lived in the first century, and who was around when these things were happening relative to Christ, records these underground systems of water from the Western Gate. And that again anchors the fact that this is indeed the Western gate. It fits that picture.

Under this Dome of the Spirits, there's another thing that's impressive to the rabbis. There is, at that point, the bedrock of Mount Moriah on which the temple was built. The bedrock was a flat area, which is exactly the kind of a place on which the Ark of the Covenant would have been placed.

Well, the Moslems, when they found this out, did not like this at all. They call upon the Jews to fill that tunnel and close that gate off, because that is telling a significant thing. They know enough about Jewish records to know that this anchor point puts the temple 150 feed north of their Dome of the Rock, and they're not on the sacred site after all. But the Jews have not filled it in. They don't want to create any problems. They don't want to stir any ill feelings. So, they have soft-pedaled all of this.

However, the point is that if all this is now correct, the Jews can start building their third temple at any time without any conflict over the Dome of the Rock. They can do that within the lifetime of all of you who are here today. For this reason, this area of the gentiles court is outside of the true temple area. ... And John was told, "Don't measure this place," because the Arabs and the other gentiles are going to have charge that." The Jews, under the antichrist, will only have the one area, and later on, he will take that over the other area as well. The Word of God is alive; it is active; and, it is true. Aren't you glad you came for this session?

Dr. John E. Danish, 1989

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