Jovial, Renee M,
Frank, Martin & Michael, and the others who have written
letters to FiveDoves regarding the Abomination of Desolation:
Is it possible that
the antichrist does not cause a third temple to “become”
desolate?
I had always been
taught that he makes it desolate by placing an image of
himself in the holy place.
However, if he does
make it desolate, he is not making it desolate to the LORD.
That place has been
desolate since Jesus said so:
Matthew 23:38 Behold, your house is left unto you
desolate.
39
For I say unto you, Ye shall
not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed
is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.
Matthew 24:1 And
Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and
his disciples came to
him for to shew him the buildings of the temple.
2
And Jesus said unto them, See
ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall
not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be
thrown down.
3
¶
And as he sat upon the mount of Olives,
the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when
shall these things be? and what
shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the
world?
Jesus left the
temple desolate, because he said so, and when he, the
incarnated LORD, departed, that was it.
Then he told his
disciples that the temple would be torn down, which it was,
about years later.
When Jesus said that
he was leaving their house desolate unto them, it wasn’t
desolate of human beings, as for nearly 40 more years there
would be people in there.
He didn’t leave it
desolate of religious activity, as they continued with that
for nearly 40 more years.
He left it desolate, because he, the LORD of Glory was
departing from there, and pronouncing the place desolate,
essentially “Ichabod”.
Daniel’s prophecies
regarding the temple were short term, near term, and long
term.
There was a short
term fulfillment in the days of Antiochus Epiphanies
(historically captured in the Apocrypha, Maccabees).
There was a near
term fulfillment in the days of Jesus’ earthly ministry, and
shortly thereafter.
Long term, there may
yet be things still to happen.
Before the
prophecies in the book of Daniel were given to him, a similar
thing had happened when Daniel was a youth.
Nebuchadnezzar came
into Jerusalem and destroyed the temple.
Ezekiel, who was in
Babylon at the time, was given a vision of that:
First, the glory of
the LORD was still in the temple:
Ezekiel 8:3 And he put forth the form
of an hand, and took me by a lock of mine head; and the spirit
lifted me up between the earth and the heaven, and brought me in
the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the inner gate
that looketh toward the north; where was the seat of
the image of jealousy, which provoketh to jealousy.
4
And, behold,
the glory of the God of Israel was
there, according to the vision that I saw
in the plain.
Second, the glory of
the LORD went up to the threshold:
Ezekiel 10: 4
Then
the glory of the LORD
went up from the cherub,
and stood over the threshold of the house;
and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was
full of the brightness of the LORD'S glory.
Third, the glory of
the LORD departed from off the threshold:
Ezekiel 10:18
Then
the glory of the LORD departed from
off the threshold of the house, and stood over
the cherubims.
19
And
the cherubims lifted up their
wings, and mounted up from the earth in my
sight: when they went out, the wheels also
were beside them, and every one stood at the
door of the east gate of the LORD'S house;
and the glory of the God of Israel
was over them above.
So where did the
glory of the LORD go
next?
Ezekiel 11:22 ¶ Then did the cherubims
lift up their wings, and the wheels beside them; and the glory
of the God of Israel
was over them above.
23
And
the glory of the LORD went up from
the midst of the city, and stood upon the mountain which
is on the east side of the city.
The glory of the
LORD had left the temple and went next to the mount of Olives,
the mount on the east side of the city, as shown in the
prophecy about the Second Advent:
Zechariah 14:4
¶ And his feet shall stand in
that day upon
the mount of Olives, which is before
Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives
shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward
the west,
and there shall be a very great valley; and half of
the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it
toward the south.
The glory of the
LORD departed from the temple and went to the mount of Olives,
leaving the temple desolate – Like Shiloh, it had become
“Ichabod”.
Then not long
afterwards, Nebuchadnezzar came and destroyed the already
desolate temple.
Those priests in
there, after the glory had departed, and before Nebuchadnezzar
came, like Samson, did not realize.
Some years later, in
a similar fashion, the LORD of glory was in the temple again,
this time incarnated, Jesus Christ.
So, in similar
fashion, when the LORD of glory departed from there, he went
next to the mount of Olives, again (Matthew 24:1-3).
Although it doesn’t
say explicitly, I believe that during the 70 years Babylonian
captivity, that the glory of the LORD didn’t stay upon the
mount of Olives.
I believe that the
glory of the LORD went back to heaven during that time.
In a similar
fashion, forty days after his resurrection, the LORD of glory
ascended from the mount of Olives and returned to heaven.
So Jesus said that
he was leaving the place desolate unto them.
Also, that they
would not see him henceforth till they say, “Blessed
is he that cometh in the name of the Lord”.
That doesn’t happen
until the Second Advent.
So how could the
antichrist make a third temple desolate, in the same fashion
as the first two had been made desolate?
Or how could he make
a third temple desolate like Antiochus Epiphanies did?
How could he make it
desolate like that, unless it had first become “un-desolate”?
It currently is
desolate since Jesus left it at the end of Matthew 23, and
then was destroyed nearly 40 years later.
I had always assumed
that it became “un-desolate”, when the third temple was
rebuilt.
When it was
sprinkled with the water of the ashes of the red heifer.
Also when it was
sprinkled with the blood of the renewed animal sacrifices.
But I was dead
wrong! Those things absolutely cannot make that place
“un-desolate”.
I wrote about this
in a little more detail, a few days ago:
http://www.fivedoves.com/letters/march2013/gino317-2.htm
But suffice it to
say, a third temple, built by an agreement with the antichrist
cannot make it “un-desolate”.
Also, a temple built
by a Levitical priesthood that rejects Jesus cannot make it
“un-desolate”.
There is now a new
covenant.
There is also now, a
new and everlasting priesthood after the order of Melchisedec.
There has been a
once and for all sacrifice of the Lamb of God.
So, for a Levitical
priesthood, who still reject their Messiah, to try and go back
to the old covenant, while they reject the new covenant,
to try and go back from the new High Priesthood of Christ to
their old covenant Levitical priesthood, while rejecting the
new High Priest,
to try and go back to the old covenant sacrifices, while
rejecting the only acceptable sacrifice of the Lamb of God,
to try and rebuild their temple after the LORD used the Romans
destroy it, the same Romans that they used to crucify their
Messiah,
to try and do all this by making a some kind of agreement with
the antichrist, while still rejecting Jesus Christ,
how could that be blessed & acceptable to the LORD, to
somehow make it “un-desolate”?
No, those things are
a far greater abomination, than any graven image that the
antichrist could put there.
What blasphemy they
would be making by having animal sacrifices again, when there
is no more sacrifice for sins after the cross.
Their ultimate
blasphemy would not somehow make a third temple “un-desolate”,
so that the antichrist could then make it desolate afterwards.
We must also
remember what happened during Antiochus Epiphanies, and what
happened during the earthly ministry of Jesus, and shortly
thereafter, when reading Daniel.
Even if the
antichrist & a replaced Levitical priesthood get together,
build a temple and start sacrificing animals, they cannot make
it “un-desolate”.
Also the LORD is not
going to honor such blasphemy by making it “un-desolate”, and
thus negating his new covenant & new priesthood, by going
back to the old.
A third temple is
not going to somehow become “un-desolate”, so that the
antichrist can then actually make it desolate.
Jesus left it
desolate, and it will stay desolate until he returns.
I would love to read
what you think of these things, but please, before you
respond, take a brief pause to see how I had explained this by
scriptures:
http://www.fivedoves.com/letters/march2013/gino317-2.htm
Thank you,
Gino