I've spent too much of my time looking into these kinds of things in the past, but I still don't really know where I fall on it all. One thing though, wouldn't building a physical temple and offering animal sacrifices there be an abomination in and of itself? I'm not sure if a third temple will or not be built during or before the great tribulation. But, I'm pretty sure it would be offensive, any way you cut it, to God if one ever is built. Is that a reasonable statement?
I think so. Kinda like trampling the blood of Jesus underfoot.
Jesus is the Lamb of God and His sacrifice was perfect and complete.
When the third temple is built and the sacrifices resume, they will be in vain.
Tiz true.
God is outside of time as we know it. He knows the end from the beginning. We only see segments. Kinda like watching a parade. We only see one float or band or crazy clowns riding in tiny cars at a time. But God sees the whole thing at once. Sorta like if we were on top of a building and looking down on the parade with bionic eyes.
God already knows that this third temple will be built and what is going to happen there. Some would say He would approve of it but I think because God can take what the enemy intends for evil and turn it around for our good, that is what He will do with this too.
Speaking of the Temple...
In reguard to @NoHype replies.
Again half truths, there will be a third temple built in Jerusalem. Solomon built the second temple.
2 Kings 24:13; 1 Chron 28:11; 1 Chron 29:1; 1 Chron 29:19; Ezra 2:58; Neh 11:3; and this is the temple Jesus preached in John 10:23;
However this temple was torn down by the Roman's in 70 AD. The waling wall is the only remnant of the temple currently.
I am sorry B-A-C but you are misinformed. Solomon built the first and most glorious temple. It was destroyed in 586 BC by Nebuchadnezzar. It was rebuilt by Zerubbabel who was appointed Governor by King Darius I of Persia.
In Dan 11:31; Dan 12:11; Mal 2:11; we see something called the abomination of desolation. Tradition (not the Bible itself) hold that Antiochus Ephiphanes III sacrificed
a pig on the altar of the temple. This could be true as swine are considered unclean animals in Jewish culture.
Not so much tradition but historical. Antiochus Ephiphanes III did trash the second temple and when Judah Maccabees and his band of rebels took the temple back from the Greeks, they had to purify it and a miracle happened. It is the point of origin of Hanukkah, The Jewish Festival of Lights, also known as the Feast of Dedication.
To my knowledge there is only one Jewish Festival that occurs during Winter. That festival is Hanukkah/Festival of Lights/Feast of Dedication.
What happened was...
When the Maccabees were cleaning up the temple after the Greeks had defiled it, they found only one vile of oil for the lamp/menorah that was unopened. The lamp had to burn for eight days for the Dedication and there was only enough oil for one day. And it would take eight days to prepare more oil. It was special oil. Had to be done a particular way. The amazing thing is the lamp never went out. It stayed lit the entire time. How awesome is that!
Jesus was in Jerusalem for the Feast of Dedication. One of the passages you posted above (John 10) tells us so.
"
John 10:22 At that time the Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem. It was winter, 23 and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the colonnade of Solomon. 24 So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” 25 Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name bear witness about me, 26 but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. 27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”
When King Herod (Herod the Great/ Herod I) expanded the Temple platform in the first century BC, he constructed a covered colonnade around the entire perimeter. The colonnade on the eastern wall was commonly called “Solomon’s Porch”
"Herod's Temple" is a renovation/expansion of Zerubbabel's temple (The second temple). It was bigger than Solomon's Temple but no where near as grand.
However the majority of scholars don't think the beast himself will build the temple, for one thing if he built it, it would be a temple dedicated to himself, not to God.
I am in agreement. In considering the Passage in Zechariah 6, I do not believe that it is saying that The Anti-Christ/False Prophet are the "them both"
Zechariah 6:13 "It is he who shall build the temple of the Lord and shall bear royal honor, and shall sit and rule on his throne. And there shall be a priest on his throne, and
the counsel of peace shall be between them both."
Zechariah was a prophet at the time of the Babylonian Exile. Zerubbabel led the first group of Jews who returned from the Babylonian Captivity in the first year of Cyrus, King of Persia. The date is thought to have been between 538 and 520 BC. In all of the accounts in the Hebrew Bible that mention Zerubbabel, he is always associated with the high priest who returned with him, Joshua (Jeshua) son of Jozadak (Jehozadak). Together, these two men led the first wave of Jewish returnees from exile and began to rebuild the Temple .
Ezra 5:Now the prophets, Haggai and Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophesied to the Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem, in the name of the God of Israel who was over them. 2 Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua the son of Jozadak arose and began to rebuild the house of God that is in Jerusalem, and the prophets of God were with them, supporting them.
I am trying to think of something persnickety to say to NoHype, but he didn't even acknowledge that I said that he might be right. He is wrong, but that is beside the point.