The Third Temple Shall Be Built!
By Gregory M. Wilson
" Therefore thus saith the Lord; I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies: my house shall be built in it, saith the Lord of hosts, and a line shall be stretched forth upon Jerusalem." Zechariah 1:16 (KJB)
The prophet Zechariah, in 520 B.C., describes a seventy (70) year period of indignation against Jerusalem and the cities of Judah. This 70-year period may represent the years 1949 to 2019. This indignation may be represented 70 years of anti-Semitism, the hostility surrounding Islamic nations, the hostility of United Nations, terrorism and constant threats of genocidal annihilation.
Many believe that Zechariah 1's 70-year period describes the term of the Babylonian exile. However, this view contradicts the literal declarations of the Scriptures. The Babylonian exile was described by the prophet Daniel as 70 years in the desolations of Jerusalem. (Daniel 9:2) The Scriptures define indignation and desolations as opposites. Indignation is fury against a people or place. Indignation is the Hebrew word "za'am". It literally means to "foam at the mouth”, or be enraged or abhorrent. Desolations means depopulated and uninhabited. (Ezekiel 14:15, 35:9) The chronicler says that "to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths; for as long as she lay desolate she kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years." (2 Chronicles 36:21) Therefore, the 70 years of Sabbath rest for Jerusalem during the Babylonian exile cannot be represented as 70 years of indignation against Jerusalem during the same exile.
So, if Zechariah's 70 years is not the Babylonian exile, what manner of time is he speaking to? If we study Zechariah 1, with an "end of days" prophetic view, we will observe some very compelling similarities between Zechariah's day and our day. In Zechariah's day, (1) a Jewish remnant was returning to Jerusalem from the first Jewish exile in Babylon, (2) the remnant Jews were reestablishing their national presence in Israel, (3) the returning Jews desired to and did rebuild the Lord's Temple, (4) they were afflicted by the local opposing inhabitants of the land; and (5) the return from exile was associated with a 70-year period.
Similarly, in our day we see identical counterparts: (1) in 1948 a Jewish remnant returned to Jerusalem and the cities of Judah following the return from the second Jewish exile, the Diaspora, (as foretold by the prophet Isaiah 11:11) following the Holocaust, (2) the Jewish remnant reestablished the nation of Israel on May 14, 1948 and completed the second conquest of Canaan in 1949 winning the Arab/Israeli War; (3) today a remnant of Jews desire to build the Third Temple, as we currently see with the Temple Institute and the Sanhedrin; (4) the Jewish people are afflicted by the local inhabiting Palestinian Arabs; and (5) Zechariah's 70-year period may well be associated with these facts.
I believe that these compelling similarities are beyond coincidence and may well herald the construction of the Third Temple in the near future. God's mercies may well be poured out on Jerusalem, in the context of Temple construction, in or following the year 2019.
If this interpretation of Zechariah 1:12-16, it what the Lord intends, then we, who are Christ's, will experience the Resurrection/Rapture during this year.
So, we what kind of people should we be? "Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in [Israel's Prophets] did signify, when [the Scriptures] testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow." (1 Peter 1:11 KJB)
The Resurrection/Rapture will be the revelation of our Lord's Glory upon us, as "partakers of His divine nature". (2 Peter 1:4 KJB)
The Lord God, through the prophet Habakkuk says: "Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvelously: for I will work a work in your days which ye will not believe, though it be told you." (Habakkuk 1:5 KJB)