There will also be the 3rd, earthly, literal temple building in Jerusalem during the future tribulation (Rev. 11:1-2, Mt. 24:15, Dan. 11:31,36, 2 Thes. 2:4), & also a 4th earthly, literal temple building in Jerusalem during the future millennium (Zech. 14:20-21), which won't begin until after the 2nd coming (Rev. 19:7-20:6, Zech. 14:3-21).
If those are the only verses Bible2 can pull out as evidence for a 3rd temple, then woe, woe, woe to his silliness! But I've explained all this to him before.
Rev is NOT literal, but symbolic literature. Bible 2 doesn't understand the word METAPHOR at all. He does not understand literary genres or scriptural types and anti-types.
Matthew 24 talks about the end of Herod's temple, the one the disciples could see with their own eyes. I've debated Bible2 till my eyes nearly bled on this point, and got no where. He raves about irrelevant foundations, when the discussion was clearly about the temple buildings that the disciples could see with their own eyes, and were OBVIOUSLY asking Jesus about. But, just to satisfy Bible2's futurist timetables, Jesus mysteriously suddenly DOES NOT ANSWER the disciples question about THAT temple, but starts unclear blathering about a still hypothetical 3rd temple. Yeah right. Pull the other one, it plays jingle bells.
Daniel 11, well, that's OT and could start a huge debate but I'm doubting it's end times. I see no evidence that it is a future temple. There are 2 points in history where this could already have been fulfilled: the Greek invasion or the Roman invasion.
2 Thessalonians 2 does not predict a still hypothetical future third temple!
Even commentators I know of who actually *believe* in a future Anti-Christ have commented that the verse phrase "so that he sets himself up in Gods temple" could easily mean setting himself up in God's church. Yes it is *imagery* drawn from Antiochus Epiphanes (Daniel 8, 9, and 11) and Mark 13:14. But Paul warns "Dont let anyone deceive YOU", the church! Not the Jews! The CHURCH! They have "not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness." Paul says this struggle is about a counterfeit gospel, not a counterfeit Jewish kingdom.
Now check this out.
1 Corinthians 3:16
"Dont you know that you yourselves are Gods temple and that Gods Spirit dwells in your midst?"
2 Cor 6:16
16 What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God."
Eph 2:21
Ephesians 2:21
"In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord."
It *could* be that the 'Anti-Christ' is a reference to anyone who takes up residence in the CHURCH and is trying to corrupt THAT temple of God. Indeed, since Jesus body was the TRUE temple, and we are now all growing up into the corporate temple of the Christian church, I think that makes far more sense. Especially given Paul's concern for pure preaching and teaching. The Anti-Christ here is trying to usurp God's purposes in the church.
This reading would make these verses in 2 Thessalonians an applicable warning to false teachers for ALL Christians in ALL ages, not some silly end-times-table prophecy that we may as well cut out of our bibles for 2000, 3000, or 4000 years. (Or however long it takes the Lord to return?)
What good is rebuilding an actual bricks and mortar temple for a largely secular Jewish state anyway? The real action, as far as hurting God's people goes... is to hurt GOD'S PEOPLE! According to the New Testament, that's not the Jews any more, but believers. Jews AND Gentiles that call on Christ as Lord! That's God's people now. So the Anti-Christ wants to invade and usurp the church! Get in there and do some false teaching. As 1 John says, there are many Anti-Christs. We should watch out for them.
"It is probably best to take "temple of God" as a metaphor, meaning that the AntiChrist will usurp God's authority." So says David Ewert in the "Evangelical Commentary on the Bible". In other words, this guy believes in a literal AntiChrist, but even he doesn't seem to correlate that with believing a literal third temple will be rebuilt.
IS THERE EVEN GOING TO BE A LITERAL ANTI-CHRIST?
I have 3 reasons for being sceptical about an AntiChrist.
1/ I don't read Revelation literally, as it's the most symbolic book in the bible.
2/ I don't read Matthew 24 as about a future Anti-Christ as I believe the Abomination was fulfilled in the destruction of the second temple under Titus. (After all, the disciples were asking aboUt *that* temple, the one they could see with their own eyes and point to! Jesus told them it was going to be destroyed, and the temple would suffer an abomination, and Titus had his soldiers sacrifice to him as a God while the temple burned in AD70. Fulfilled.)
3/ John talks about *many* Anti-Christs.
So, really, if this 2 Thess 2 passage turns out to be a metaphor for something else, I'm scratching my head to think of any other Anti-Christ-in-the-temple verses for the future?
This next guy is a personal friend of mine!
But is there going to be one mega-evil ruler who will deceive the world and lead millions astray and do things like brand 666 on their foreheads?
Probably not. There are passages in the Bible, which talk about a particular being that is Christ's foe (e.g., the man of lawlessness in 2 Thessalonians 2 or the dragon of Revelation 12-13 who is identified as the Devil). But this kind of symbolic language is used to describe an attitude or spirit of evil rather than a single evil person. The fact that some parts of Scripture bring ultimate evil to a head by using an individual character to identify it probably says more about how dramatic literature operates than it does about predicting history.


The devil you know | The Briefing
Or try Luke Woodhouse:
"To explain this present spiritual reality in 2 Thessalonians 2, Paul draws a picture of the last days, when the man known as lawlessness will be exposed. On that day, rebellion at its highest magnitude will be revealed for all to see. Comparisons with lawless figures over history have often been distractions for Christians, in that they miss the picture Paul sketches. But comparisons should not be totally dismissed. The global outrage at figures like Adolf Hitler is a rare opportunity to see the secret power of lawlessness brought out into the open and examined. It is a moment where the whole world stops and notices anarchy with its disguise removed. It's a glimpse of hell."
Getting refocused on the return of Jesus | The Briefing
So, in summary, I'm not even convinced in a literal AntiChrist figure, let alone an AntiChrist that has to rebuild the temple so he can stand in it!