[SIZE=+1]What is the purpose of this third temple & who will it serve?[/SIZE][SIZE=+1]
"We should not forget... that the supreme purpose of the ingathering of (Jewish) exiles and the establishment of our state is the building of the temple. The temple is at the very top of the pyramid"[/SIZE][SIZE=-2] [1]
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[SIZE=+1]There is only one purpose or need for a third temple, and that is for Jews to return to the full Mosaic Law and temple services which involve animal sacrifice for sins. Equally, there is absolutely no use or need for a temple if there is no
Ark of Covenant, upon which the blood must be offered, which has been curiously missing since
before the time of Christ. It seems highly unlikely that the present guild of priests in training for temple services[/SIZE][SIZE=-2][2][/SIZE][SIZE=+1] would even exist if there were not reliable knowledge of the whereabouts of this centerpiece of the temple and its primary function. All other necessary artifacts for temple service, including the Shemen Afarshimon [/SIZE][SIZE=-2][3][/SIZE][SIZE=+1] - an original vial of anointing oil for the high priest - and the reappearance of the
red heifer (the ash of which is vital to temple services) are in the possession of these Jewish priests today. The anticipated 'High Priest' is ultimately the awaited Messiah himself. For the Jews, his first appearing. To Christians, his Second Coming from heaven. But in both cases prophecy says first will come the deceiver, The Son of Perdition -- Antichrist.[/SIZE] [SIZE=+1]
The prophet Daniel foretold the
time of the coming of Messiah, noting that he would appear after seventy weeks of years (as Hebrews counted time) from the signing of a decree to free the Jews from captivity in Babylon to return and rebuild Jerusalem and the temple. This took place in 444 B.C. [/SIZE][SIZE=-2][4][/SIZE][SIZE=+1] when Artaxerxes Longimanus, king of Persia (464-423 BC), signed such a decree and allowed the Jews to return. Exactly as according to the prophecy of Daniel, Y'shua of Nazareth (Jesus)
presented himself before the people and to the temple as Messiah and King -- only to be
rejected by the ruling religious authorities who had
conspired against Him from the time of his
equally foretold birth. [/SIZE] [SIZE=+1]
During the ministry of Christ, he declared publicly, "Tear down this temple and in three days I shall raise it up again," confounding the religious leaders and rabble alike. He was, of course, speaking not of the temple of stone and mortar, but of his own body as the final temple and final sacrifice for sins, as well as his triumphant resurrection from the dead (three days and nights in the tomb) -- forever putting away the need or use of the temple sacrifices of animals, which were merely a representative propitiation until the Messiah should come, offering his own life and blood as the price paid in full, acceptable unto God. The redemption of mankind from spiritual oblivion was not forged in the earthly elements of temples and rituals, but in the very person of Christ, made
manifest in the flesh, bringing eternal
reconciliation, putting away forever those material elements which merely
foreshadowed His fulfillment and accomplishment in the incarnation.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+1]He presented himself to the temple on the same day the Pascal (Passover) lamb of sacrifice would be brought in and examined by the chief priests as to whether it was worthy and fitting for the task (being without spot or blemish). Not realizing it, they examined the true and final lamb of offering in the court of the temple when facing Jesus, "
the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world," and despite finding no error in him, and being utterly silenced by his wisdom and authority, unable to truly judge him wanting, they nonetheless rejected him and proceeded to enact the final
skullduggery which would result in his midnight arrest through the betrayal of his disciple Judas, the conviction in a kangaroo court of the Sanhedrin, and subsequent crucifixion at the hands of the Roman judiciary, which occupied Judea at that time.
[/SIZE][SIZE=+1]Even Pontias Pilate, the appointed governor of the region, found no fault in Jesus and sent him back to the Jewish religious authorities, under King Herod (a Jewish puppet of the occupying Roman regency). In the end, the chief priests who conspired against Jesus resorted to the lowest level of psychological and political terrorism in order to force Pilate's hand, which he quickly washed publicly in a basin to proclaim that he had no blood on his hands in the matter of the death of Jesus of Nazareth. Pilate even went so far as to make use of a special appeasement to the people, as it was the time of the feast of Passover, and offered the people their choice between a convicted zealot insurrectionist, Barabbas, or Jesus, to be set free. The crowd,
urged on by the ruling class of Jews, cried out for the crucifixion of Jesus, and the release of Barabbas. (Oddly enough, the name Barabbas means "son of the father" in Hebrew, and many have speculated that the Romans did not comprehend that the people were actually calling for Jesus, who called himself the 'Son of the Father' in his ministry).[/SIZE] [SIZE=+1]
Nonetheless, it was Jesus who was sentenced to the cross and Barabbas freed. And as was prophesied, and as He often told his followers, he would rise from the dead on the third day. Christ Himself was the true and final 'temple.' Even as His apostle to the gentiles, Paul, later declared to the Athenians, "God, that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made by human hands" (Acts 17:24). It is little understood that when Christ died, the great veil in the temple which enshrouded the Holy of Holies from sight was
rent from top to bottom by an unseen force, thus revealing to the people both that access to God's grace was thrown wide open to all, and that the temple service which had been carried out by the Jews was a sham -- for the Ark was not present for the sacrifices and had not been for some time. This was another way of revealing that Christ was the substance/fulfillment of everything put forth symbolically according to the Law, including the Ark, which was itself a picture or type of Christ.
[/SIZE][SIZE=+1]It is only upon the true altar of God, through Christ, by his own blood, that God is satisfied with the final propitiation for sins. As scripture states, "...there remains no further sacrifice for sins."(Hebrews 10:26). Thus, the Ark of Covenant has
no purpose and cannot serve God or any human being in any way, shape or form. [/SIZE] [SIZE=+1]
However, it CAN be used to deceive -- and that is exactly what is planned.[/SIZE]