Greetings, this is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church with a moment of truth where we challenge you to think through an important issue of life and faith. And today, in what temple do you rejoice and find your hope? There are two temples in which Christians place their hopes in our own day. Let's explore them and see where they lead. Two temples, the true temple and the trendy tribulation temple, as I call it.

Well, let me tell you the temple in which I rejoice, all right? First of all, not four points to this temple. I rejoice, first of all. I rejoice and find my hope in the temple of Christ's body. There can be no starker contrast than that of the time-bound temple of the Jews and the eternal temple of Christ's body.

Jesus draws a clear line between them when he cleansed the temple by casting out the money changers, and the Jews asked him, what sign do you show us for doing these things? And Jesus answered, destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. The Jews then said, it has taken 46 years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days? But he was speaking about the temple of his body, the Apostle John says, is into this body that I have been made a member.

Paul tells us that when the father raised Jesus to his right hand, he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. And secondly, I am now a living stone in the heavenly temple. This body is also the true temple. As you come to him, Peter says, a living stone rejected by men, but in the sight of God chosen and precious. You yourselves, like living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

All to which the earthly temple, only pointed, is now a reality in heaven, dear listener. I am a spiritual stone in a living heavenly temple. And Paul says the same thing in Ephesians, when he calls Christ the chief cornerstone of the heavenly temple, and he goes on to say, in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord. Amen. And then thirdly, the one and only temple is the heavenly temple.

The true temple is the heavenly one that could only be foreshadowed by Israel's earthly temple. It was meant to picture Christ, not to be an eternal verity in itself. When speaking of the passing nature of the earthly temple sacrifices, Hebrews says, and I quote, thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rights, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Unquote.

Hebrews chapter 9. So any earthly temple and its sacrifices can only be approximations at best. Only in heaven, where Christ now ministers on our behalf is true reconciliation made for sins. Temple sacrifices were not the thing itself, but only a copy or passing shadow of Christ and his real efficacious sacrifice. Hebrews says again, they, that is those sacrifices in the temple, serve as a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, unquote.

And then fourthly, temples are now obsolete and irrelevant to God. Hear this, dear listener, those of you who love the trendy tribulation temple. Temples are now obsolete and irrelevant to God. With the coming of Christ and the cutting of the new covenant, all of the rites, ceremonies, institutions of the old covenant matter not one whit at all. They are the, they are the first place.

They are obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away, as Hebrews says. When the author of Hebrews wrote this letter, the temple in Jerusalem was still standing. But in AD 70, the glorious Herodian temple vanished away, as he says, being raised to the ground, not one stone standing upon another, as our Lord predicted. There is no longer any need for an earthly temple.

As Hebrews says, once again, he does away with the first in order to establish the second, that is the heavenly temple. And by that will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all, unquote. There's no, no need to have an early temple. Well, if all of these things are true, and they are, what can we say about trendy tribulation temple teachers who claim that a third temple will be rebuilt before the great tribulation?

Countless dispensational Bible teachers claim breathlessly that plans are already in place and being executed to build a temple in Jerusalem, in which pious Jews will again offer sacrifices, anticipating the great tribulation, the abomination of desolation initiated by the Antichrist and its enduring prominence, then, the temple's prominence, throughout the 1,000-year millennium of Christ's reign on earth. This is a long-standing verity among dispensational premillennialists.

Tim LaHaye, in his book, Are We Living in the Last Times?, says unequivocally, and I quote him, all prophecy teachers who interpret the Bible literally agree that the Jewish temple will be rebuilt, unquote. Let me just say that in a rare point of agreement, I too believe with dispensationalists that the Jewish temple will be rebuilt. Are you surprised? Well, one should not be, if the student understands the interpretive principles of the genre of apocalyptic. One of those crucial interpretive principles of apocalyptic is that of recapitulation.

Recapitulation is defined as the Bible repeats biblical themes throughout redemptive history. Quite simply, recapitulation means that the Bible repeats biblical themes throughout redemptive history. And the classic example of this principle is how it's used by Paul in Romans chapter 5, between the two Adams, the first Adam and the second Adam. The first Adam was a type of the one who was to come, as the apostle Paul says. The one to come, of course, was Christ, who recapitulated Adam's place for the entire race of men, where Christ obeyed and where Adam disobeyed.

And thus, Christ won redemption for all that are his. Paul puts it this way, therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men. So, one act of righteousness led to justification and life for all men, a snapshot of recapitulation. Now, apocalypse uses this principle ubiquitously. And one of those repetitive themes is that of the abomination of desolation.

That is, how a temple is desecrated by an unclean act or person. Contrary to the literal method of interpretation, our Lord himself insists that this has happened three times, the abomination of desolation. It's happened three times already in redemptive history, not just some far-off point in the future. In Matthew 24, Jesus says, well, so when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel standing in the holy place, let the reader understand, our Lord says, let the reader understand. What does he mean by this enigmatic statement?

Well, he means that he is calling on one that already happened that Daniel predicted. Well, the first abomination that caused desolation was committed by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BC when the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and the temple. The second abomination that caused desolation was committed by Antiochus Epiphanes in AD 167 when he invaded Jerusalem and tried to impose Greek customs and ways on the Jews by sacrificing a pig on the altar of the temple. This is the one to which the prophet Daniel alluded in his prophecy. And then, of course, the third abomination that caused desolation was the one being foretold here by Jesus in Matthew 24.

And that came when Titus of Rome invaded Israel in AD 66 and burned and destroyed the temple in AD 70. So, as we saw once again in our treatment of Daniel and the genre of apocalyptic, Daniel was first prophesying of that desecration of Antiochus Epiphanes, not one far off in the future, but Jesus understanding full well the genre of apocalyptic like we all should. That he was using at this very moment, this genre, even as Daniel did, Jesus wants the reader to understand that the abomination of which he spoke was very much like that prophesied by Daniel being recapitulated.

That is a man of sin who so pollutes the temple that it is profane, that is unusable as a sacred place. To Jesus' mind, the abomination of desolation he was prophesying would recapitulate that spoken of by Daniel. So, if the reader understood apocalyptic, they too would see this. When we understand apocalyptic, we understand Jesus' Olivet Discourse. That is, he foresaw Titus' abomination of desecration, not that of some far off future Antichrist.

Well, with these things in mind, let me first take up the fatal misunderstandings, the fatal misunderstandings to the idea of dispensational premillennialism, fatal misunderstandings of the trendy tribulation temple that's coming. Number one, the temple coming is being rebuilt by unbelieving Kabbalist Jews, not pious believers. Yes, the trendy tribulation temple is being rebuilt by unbelieving Kabbalist Jews, not pious believers, dear listener. And there's a kind of catch-22 involved with the trendy tribulation temple, a catch-22. It is being rebuilt by unbelieving Kabbalist Jews.

So, it cannot be, by definition, God-honoring. But if they were Jews God-honoring and believing in the Messiah, they wouldn't rebuild it in the first place. So, you see, do you see what I mean by this? Well, first of all, those spearheading the rebuilding of the temple are unbelieving Kabbalist Jews. They are unbelievers.

We know this of a certainty. Kabbalah is the ancient mystical interpretation of the Torah according to principles ensconced in the ancient mystery religions going back to Babylon and Egypt and even further. Features like the Tree of Life and the mystical interpretation of Numbers or Gematria, these are employed to uncover the deeper meaning of God's Word. Do you see where this goes? Ostensibly, the true wisdom of the Torah is hidden from man by God and can only be uncovered by the practice of Kabbalah.

Well, one of the foremost advocates of Kabbalah is a man named Rabbi Chaim Richman, the international director of the Temple Institute, which is dedicated to rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem. In addition to this damning evidence, we can observe from the construction of the Council of the Seventy itself or the Third Temple Sanhedrin that it is structured precisely after the pattern of the Kabbalah Tree. Now, dear listener, if you weren't aware of this, understand now that the Third Temple cannot be rebuilt unless and until the Jewish religious authorities or the Sanhedrin, and of course, that goes all the way back to Moses.

It was the Sanhedrin also which crucified Jesus and persecuted the early church. This Third Sanhedrin must first be established, and this has been done already. In fact, the meeting chamber has already been built according to the precise patterns of the Kabbalah and not the Bible. Oh, dear listener, much more can be said, but suffice it to say that there is abundant evidence that the Third Jewish Temple is not being constructed as a temple to the God of the Bible, Yahweh, as were the first and second temples, but rather after the pattern of the God of the mystery religions.

It is, in the first place, a synagogue of Satan, as Revelation calls it, and it also will be, in the second place, a temple of an antichrist, not Christ. How could it be anything different? I solemnly warn all of you, this temple is a friend of the beast and an enemy of Christians, no matter how enthusiastic are its Christian supporters now. How could it be any different, dear listener? The Jewish Sanhedrin crucified the Lord of Glory.

After his resurrection and ascension, they persecuted his followers, the church in synagogue after synagogue as chronicled by Acts. Anyone who thinks that things will be different once the temple is rebuilt and sacrifices are inaugurated, these are naive fools. Secondly, we must also note about the trendy Tribulation Temple. We must note number two, an earthly temple would be an abomination to God, not a sweet savor. Yes, an earthly temple, and this includes one rebuilt in Jerusalem, would be an abomination to God, and not a sweet savor.

Despite the gaga rose-colored glasses that trendy Tribulation teachers have on, when they teach on the rebuilding of the temple, our Lord sees it clearly for what it is, a stench in his nostrils. A metaphor in the Bible for when God is pleased with worship is a sweet savor unto the Lord. All through the Pentateuch, God calls properly offered sacrifice, a sweet savor unto the Lord. That sacrifice and worship improperly offered, he rejects as a stench in my nostrils. It must be clearly understood from the outset, excuse me, dear listener, that the purpose for the temple and its sacrifices was to serve as a type and picture of things to come.

As Hebrews chapter 8 puts it, they serve as a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, as Hebrews insists, earthly temples were not meant to endure forever. When the real thing comes, the copies and shadows must go away. In fact, not just the temple and its sacrifices, per se, must now of necessity go away, but the entire old covenant and the Jewish order must disappear. Hebrews chapter 8 says, in speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away, unquote.

That which was ready to vanish away was the temple in the author of Hebrews day. And it did in A.D. 70 when Titus took Jerusalem and burned the temple. Dear listener, if you want to know what God thinks of temples now, look at Jerusalem in A.D. 70. Yes, if you want to know what God thinks of temples now, you're so excited about the tribulation temple to come. No.

If you want to know what God thinks of temples, look at Jerusalem in A.D. 70. Yes. Read Josephus' account of that siege and how barbaric it was. The true temple in heaven is now functional on the death of Christ. Christ has entered the true heavenly temple with his own blood, to which all those sacrifices in the earthly temple of the Jews only pointed as a copy or shadow.

Hebrews chapter 9 says, for Christ has entered not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf, unquote. Oh, this is glorious, truly glorious. Even more, Christ ministered in that heavenly temple with his own blood on our behalf. Hebrews 9 says, he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and cows, but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption, unquote.

You profane and desecrate the blood of Christ and that eternal redemption when you get the vapors over the rebuilding of a third temple. Many of you not only get excited over the prospect because you think it indicates the approach of end times, but you also pray for it and you give money to its rebuilding. Like John Hagee does, who has given over $70 million to causes in Israel, including the rebuilding of the temple. God demonstrated the finality of Christ's work and the obsolete nature of the temple when at his son's death, the text tells us, and behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.

Matthew 24 tells us that single act demonstrates to us that we now have access to the presence of God, where before it was restricted in the earthly temple. Hebrews says again, therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain that is through his flesh. Oh, the body of Jesus is now the curtain by which we have access. The old temple curtain is done with, through, finished. Brothers, we must listen to the message of Hebrews.

I've been citing it prolifically. It is a message that has direct application to this very issue of the rebuilding of the temple. Hebrews was a book written by a Jew for Jews in order to dissuade them from abandoning the Christian church and going back to the temple and its now obsolete sacrifices, which is what you dispensationalists want to do with the tribulation temple. There were so many reasons to love the temple and its rituals and its liturgies. They were so beautiful.

Those great traditions going back generations, they were so difficult to surrender. But Hebrews is uncompromising. As I swore in my wrath, he says, they shall not enter my rest. It was no time to compromise. Christ had come.

The old order was vanishing away. The temple was obsolete. A much more glorious temple and sacrifice had come. The real one that saves us once for all, as Hebrews says, from our sins. So what has changed, dear listener?

What can a third temple add for the Jew except abomination that causes desolation of the heavenly spiritual temple? There is one temple now for both Jew and Gentile, the heavenly one, where our risen mediator has gone into heaven itself, as Hebrews says, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf, unquote. Dear listener, no Jew will please God with a temple. There is only one way to God, the Father, now, and that is through Jesus and his blood, by which we have confidence to enter into the holy places, as Hebrews says. Dear listener, if you love Jews and you want to see them saved, preach the gospel to them.

Urge them to become a part of the church and stop swooning over the trendy tribulation temple. What makes you think for a moment that when that temple is rebuilt, that God will take pleasure in it, that the sacrifices offered in it will be a sweet savor unto the Lord? It is in Christ's sacrifice that God the Father takes pleasure completely and finally, once for all. Dear listener, a restored temple in which animal sacrifice is renewed. Think about this.

Animal sacrifice renewed. It is an implicit rejection of Christ and his sacrifice, even as Hebrews says on page after page. It is an insult, an abomination to the Father and the Son to rebuild the temple. Your trendy tribulation temple is sheer unbelief, unbelief in the sacrifice of Christ, unbelief in which the so-called Christian is complicit by encouraging and enabling the Jew to take up the temple and its building. It is an implicit rejection.

The temple, rebuilt temple, is an implicit rejection of the very gospel itself. And then to add insult to injury, the dispensationalist asserts that this tribulation temple will endure for the entire thousand-year millennium and that Christ will take delight in it. Do you seriously mean to tell me that the one who offered his sacred blood once for all is really going to be pleased with the now profane blood of bulls and goats that could never take away sin, though repeatedly offered, as Hebrews says?

The real abomination of desolation here is the very rebuilding of the temple and its sacrifices, which are a stench in the nostrils of the Father. And once in a while, I'll hear the lame explanation, oh, pastor, there'll only be memorial sacrifices, as if this explains anything once more. The dispensationalist denigrates and demeans the gospel. Do we not already have a memorial of Christ's sacrifice? What might that be, dear listener?

And of course, it is the Lord's supper, a meal for Christian and Jew. Our Lord commands us, do this in remembrance of me. The body and blood of Christ in the bread and wine of the supper is our memorial, not profane, reinstituted animal sacrifice. The rebuilt temple and reinstituted sacrificial system is a monstrosity and profanity to the gospel. And you dispensationalists who teach and advocate it are participants in this profanity.

That is not all. Number three, those who serve and support the rebuilt temple unwittingly serve the beast. I'm constantly amazed at how excited trendy tribulation temple teachers get when they talk about when the Antichrist will enter the trendy tribulation temple and declare himself God. I actually heard one of these trendy tribulation temple teachers repeat it over and over as he described the rebuilding of the temple. This is actually where the Antichrist will declare himself God.

Personally, if I believed this nonsense, it would nauseate me, not thrill me. And over the years, as I've studied very carefully the genre of apocalypse, I've come to see that writers such as the Apostle John were drawing on a rich heritage of symbols to describe present-day realities with which they and their audience lived. Ezekiel, Daniel, our Lord, the Apostle Paul, and the Apostle John all did this. And one of those symbols was that of the beast. They have always been beasts.

There have always been beasts to afflict the people of God, not just one in the far-flung future. The serpent was the very first beast to afflict our first parents. Now, the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. And the book of Job chronicles the very prototype of Revelation's beast from the land and the sea. Job says, Behold, Behemoth, beast from the land, which I made like you.

Or can you draw out Leviathan, the beast from the sea? Babylon also is characterized all through the prophets as a beast and monster from the land that afflicts Israel. Babylon has swallowed me like a monster, Jeremiah says. He has filled his stomach with my delicacies. And then Egypt is also pictured as a beast from the sea that is Rahab, who afflicts the people of God.

Isaiah 30 and 7 says, Egypt's help is worthless and empty. Therefore, I have called to Rahab, who sits still, unquote. Well, on and on we could go. But suffice it to say that when the Bible speaks of beasts afflicting the people of God, it is not restricting itself to one mega beast in the future in the end times. If this is your teaching, you are just plain wrong.

The Bible is clear that there have always been beasts in every generation which have afflicted the people of God. It was true in Daniel's generation, that is Babylon and Medo-Persia. He wasn't prophesying about end times. And it was also true in John's generation, that is the Roman Empire. John wasn't speaking of some far off end times beast and antichrist.

Consequently, dear dispensational premillennialist, you are unwittingly serving the beast of scripture already, especially as you become enablers of the rebuilding of the third temple. I have news for you. If your eyes were open, if you're hearing what the spirit says to the churches, as John says, you would understand that the beast of revelation is already here and you unwittingly serve him. You bear his mark, the mark of the beast already, and you don't even know it. That mark is not a barcode tattooed on your forehead or hand or a microchip implanted on your forehead or hand.

Rather, as the Bible pictures consistently throughout, the mark of the beast is the sum total of your thoughts, that is your forehead, and the sum total of your actions, that is your hands, with which you do things. And this is all given over to the service of the beast. Before God, dear listener, you are marked by your thoughts and your deeds, whether they are good or evil.

When they are given over to the rebuilding of a profane abomination, like a temple in Jerusalem, complete with blood sacrifices that can never atone for sin, where your antichrist will appear to declare himself God, well then, you bear the mark of the beast when you're given over to this. And let me say it again. If you serve the rebuilding of the trendy tribulation temple, that is, you pray for it, you hope for it, you become thrilled at the thought of it, you give money towards its rebuilding, you make it a part of your belief system, well then, you bear the mark of the beast. The temple, when it is rebelled, will serve the beast.

Well, behold the biblical alternative to your obsession with the trendy tribulation temple. Give it up. Return to the true temple, the one not made with hands. As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men, but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves, like living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Unquote.

I love this temple. It is the only one for me. How about you? Are you content to be a living stone in the spiritual house of God of which Christ is the cornerstone? What a beautiful ministry we have as priests offering spiritual sacrifices, not bloody animal ones.

Join me in exalting the Lord Jesus Christ in his spiritual temple, his body, rather than profaning him by exalting a trendy tribulation temple. This has been Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church. We meet for holy worship on Sunday. I invite you to join us in the spiritual worship, spiritual sacrifices we make on Sunday at 10 a.m. at 1014th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. Call us for feedback or more information at area code 208-523-0196. That's area code 208-523-0196.