"Re: Sherry Vance spiritual temple vs. physical rebuilt temple"

 

Dear Barry;

 

I understand what "gets in your way" is that "there is indeed a temple planned to be built in Jerusalem and has been planned for many years."  Yes, it is a fact that "they" (Jews AND Christians) have been planning and donating and recreating and accumulating all of the necessary implements needed for another Temple.  But that alone does not make it so.  There is no urgency, indeed no real call by the majority of Israeli Jews, for the Temple to be built in Israel.  Keep in mind that though Israel is "back in the Land", even at this late date, they still have not the Spirit of God in them.  And that won't happen until they see their Messiah Yeshua face to face the second time.  And in fact, the reality is there is no official government approval for that project anyway and it is not even remotely possible that it can happen any time soon at all. Besides that, even if Old Testament animal sacrifices were to be re-instituted (and there have been attempts even recently to offer some from time to time), the Old Testament shows many instances which allowed for sacrifices WITHOUT a temple (see Ezra, see Daniel, etc.)  The real question to be answered is what does the New Testament say about the Temple of the new covenant?  It says the temple of the new covenant is not a building built by hands.  It says "Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?"   Isaiah uttered this prophecy, "Thus says the Lord Jehovah, Behold I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone of sure foundation".  Solomon's temple was still in existence when God said this, but it is a clear prophecy that God was going to build another, different and greater temple in Jerusalem.  God himself had selected the chief cornerstone for the foundation of his new temple....Jesus Christ.  (If this isn't a purely spiritual application I don't know what is!) 

 

The problem today with looking for a rebuilt temple is it will cause people to think we are not close to the fulfillment of the return of Jesus.  People think if the temple is not "there" nothing can begin to happen.  Yet they fail to see the spiritual application.  The danger in that is that history is repeating itself - just like the people in Jesus' day looked for physical deliverance when Jesus was offering spiritual deliverance.

 

The other hang up you said you had was that "God has been dealing with the church differently than he did Israel and the 70 weeks are not complete yet and do not apply to the church at all."   But the "reality" is that the Church is not yet gone and yet the 70th Week has begun.  The church WILL be gone at the mid-point of the 70th Week, which is when God does indeed again turn to deal with Israel....to bring Israel to National Redemption.  But "the rest of the story" is also that during the last half of the 70th Week, God will be fulfilling Daniel 9:24 >> finishing the transgression, making an end of sins, making reconciliation for iniquity, and bringing about everlasting righteousness......and this fulfillment is for EVERYBODY, not just Jews, but also for those who are left behind after the church is gone who become Believers, who will in turn become Overcomers through their Faith, and will be martyred for their testimony in Christ Jesus.  The 70th Week is primarily for God's people, the Jews, but there will be more than just Jews going through it.

 

If you want to think about the Dispensations pertaining to just one group or another, it might be better to look at them generally, as how God primarily dealt with ALL men at different periods of time, and not just what will God do with the Jews and what will He do with the Gentiles.  There is indeed a difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament.....there's a difference in God's dealings with men before Moses and after the Ascension of Christ.  There's a difference in Leviticus 11's detailed Kashrut (Kosher) rules and I Timothy 4's argument against commands "to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving."  To be sure, Faith was always the central issue in the accounting of Righteousness and Salvation; but there was and is a difference in how God deals with men in different times.  When He removes the church before the great tribulation, He will certainly turn His focus to finish and fulfill Israel's last Week which was given to Daniel in understanding the vision and the prophecy that would end with the annointing of the most Holy - recognition of Jesus Christ, their True Messiah.  Jesus originally went to only the Lost Sheep of the House of Israel - His Own People.  He also began building the Temple made without hands - the church, Gentiles, the Believers bearing His Name.  He will return again to the Remnant of the Lost Sheep of the House of Israel to redeem them......but along the way He will again be bringing Gentiles through it with them.....those who come to believe on Him and who will even give their lives for their faith & testimony in Him.

 

Barry, you said: "The view as I have come to understand it is that once the church is gone, then the last week (7 years) will resume and there will be a temple physically rebuilt as God goes back to dealing with Israel as he did before the church dispensation. The two do not mix."  This view is the commonly taught "pre-tribulation rapture before a 7 year tribulation"...of which I had been a strong and staunch believer in my first posts to the Doves back in 1998 because it was what I had always been taught.  It isn't that "the two do not mix".....it is that after considering many 'opinions,' revelation of truth is progressive.  There is reconciliation of the Scriptures, such as in Matthew 25 where the passage says plainly that those who are saved "inherit the Kingdom" prepared for them from the foundation of the world, though the Kingdom, as an inheritance, is always spoken of as a literal, physical piece of land given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  Yet in Peter, Ephesians, & Colossians, there is also mentioned the spiritual inheritance of an heavenly kingdom.   Even the nations who will be judged as to how they treated Jesus' brethren during the great tribulation will inherit the kingdom through the Sheep & Goats Judgment. How the Lord deals with ALL men - Jews or Gentiles - is not totally exclusive of one another.  There is a saying:  As goes Israel, so goes the World!  I will bless those that bless you and curse the one who curses you. 

 

Lastly, Barry, you said: I believe that the tribulation is God's last attempt to save as many as will be willing to finally see that the law cannot be kept by man but was fulfilled by Jesus in our place and by this sacrifice we may be saved apart from works of the law. To convince man of this God will allow man to once again try to keep the law and do the temple sacrifices as in the Old Testament to finally demonstrate their need for Jesus when they see their inability to keep it and they will finally look on Him whom they have pierced etc.  I see this statement as sort of an oxymoron in that you say "God's last attempt" yet the fact is Jesus WAS the LAST attempt - the LAST Sacrifice!  It is not through re-instituting O.T. sacrifices during the great tribulation that God is going to teach anyone anything.  The main event of the period of great tribulation is that God is going to let the Jews almost be destroyed so that they will finally turn back to Him and cry out to HIM and He will rescue them.

Paul distinctly said that the middle wall of partition between Gentile and Jew has been destroyed. And to say that God will remove the church and revert back to law-keeping for the Jews is to propose that God will build again the thing He destroyed -- the middle wall of partition.  No, the purpose of the great tribulation for the Jews is stated in Daniel 12:7...."it shall be for a time, times, and an half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished."  Don't worry - Daniel didn't understand either (verse 8) but he was told it would be for a long time.  We don't have that option.  We must understand NOW!  

There will be a Jewish Remnant hidden and protected by God during the great tribulation who will comprise the redeemed nation of Israel when Christ returns.  But in the meantime, WHO will also be persecuted and killed during this time?  WHO will offer themselves as "living sacrifices" for their Faith in Jesus Christ?  Daniel 12:8 states: "Many shall be purified and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly; and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand."

 

Barry, to say "God will allow man to once again try to keep the law and do the temple sacrifices as in the Old Testament to finally demonstrate their need for Jesus when they see their inability to keep it and they will finally look on Him whom they have pierced etc." is not the purpose of the great tribulation!  He's done with the physical temple and re-instituting animal sacrifices!  It's clear that the temple is now a spiritual temple not made with hands and that we worship in spirit and in truth.  God is going to bring Israel to her knees to cause her to realize her rejection of her God and to acknowledge they are doomed without Him.  When Israel cries out to her One True and Living God of Abraham, Isaac, & Jacob, THEN will God answer and show mercy and send His Son from Heaven to save her and redeem her.  It's THEN they will look upon Him "the second time" (because He visited them a FIRST time) and they will mourn in their  recognition and realization that He was and is their True Messiah.

 

Rather than looking for a rebuilt temple to see "what time it is"; look instead to the spiritual application of WHO the temple is.  Again, remember the Jews rejected the meaning and high calling of Christ's spiritual deliverance, instead, looking for a physical deliverance.  Don't be caught off guard doing the same thing.  Another physical temple is nowhere to be found in Scripture except for Ezekiel's Temple which will be built by Christ as the Millennial Temple.  There all the measurements are given, as they were for the first two Temples.  But again, there are no measurements given for any "tribulation temple" (because you can't measure people!)  And there is also the application of "measuring" a temple with a reed like unto a rod - the rod of chastisement upon those who become the temple of God during the great tribulation due to their former unbelief previous to the Rapture.  Well, I won't keep repeating.  We all have our "opinions."  Only the Scriptures are true.

Sherry Vance