The Third Temple is Being Built Right Before Our Eyes

Rev. 11.2 “The court which is without the temple” has reference to the temple on earth. The temple in heaven is the true temple; the temple on earth is considered here to be the court which is without the temple. Although during the time of the Old Testament kings the altars had been erected on high places to worship God, the task of those few kings who were raised up for the purpose of reformation had always been to try to get rid of these altars at the high places. What men had erected was rejected by God. Only during the transitory period of the calling of the nations to Christ did the Jews who became Christians go also to the temple to worship God (Acts. 2.46, 3.1, 5.20).

In the Old Testament period there was a central temple, but in New Testament times there is no physical building called a “church”; for under the New Covenant we are to worship God in spirit and in truth (John 4.23,24). Further, we are called to worship God in the heavenly sanctuary (Heb. 10.19-22).

How does God abolish the earthly temple so as to draw men to worship Him in the heavenly one? The Lord Jesus offered himself as a sacrifice. At His death all the sacrifices were terminated. And seventy years after the birth of Christ the Romans destroyed the temple at Jerusalem. With the result that there is no longer any temple on earth.

Yet here in the passage before us we find the temple on earth again. This, therefore, is a return to the Old Covenant. “The abomination of desolation” mentioned in Matthew 24.15 has reference to an idol, whereas the phrase “the holy place” is a reference to the temple. During the Great Tribulation an idol will be placed in the sanctuary (2 Thess. 2.2-4; Rev. 13.14).

"That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for [that day shall not come], except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God" (2 Thess. 2.2-4).

"And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by [the means of] those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live" (Rev. 13.14).

This image is placed in the 3rd Temple of Jerusalem which begins construction in 2010 and is to be completed within the first year of the 7 year Tribulation so it should be completed no later than 2016.

“The holy city” is Jerusalem (Matt. 4.5). Those who worship in the temple above are the people described in 7.9-17.

“Tread under foot” (Rev. 11.2 is the same as is spoken of in Luke 21.24. The nations will have domination for 42 months over the holy city.

"And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it" (Rev. 21.22).

Rev. 21.22 There is no temple in the new city. During the Old Testament period only the temple was holy, the rest of the land was not reckoned holy. At the time of the Lord Jesus the temple was still on the earth. During the church period there is a temple in heaven but none on earth. In the millennium, however, there will be a temple on earth as well as one in heaven. In the new heaven and the new earth there will no more be a temple, since there will be no need to offer sacrifice for sin. The entire new city is most holy. Formerly, men communed with God through the temple; now, all who live in the city can commune with God directly because He and the Lamb have become the center of this new city.

22.1,2 declares that the throne of God and of the Lamb is situated in the midst of the street or plaza of the new city, whereas the prophet Ezekiel saw in his vision that the glory of the Lord filled the holy temple. If New Jerusalem descends at the millennium, where will be the center of worship—the new city or the temple on earth? Where will God dwell? Thus, the New City does not come down yet.