The question arises for those unfamiliar with the subject of the building of the Third Temple, the one that Antichrist will be instrumental in getting built: Where in the Bible do we find the fact that the Temple will be built? On top of that, where in the Bible do we read where that Temple will be placed?
Bible prophecy doesn’t divulge precisely when the Temple will be built. However, we have four passages as proof texts that there will be a Temple atop the Temple Mount.
- Daniel 9:20–21, 24–27 The first proof text is found in the book of Daniel, in a message delivered to the prophet by the angel Gabriel, one of the Lord’s mightiest messengers:
And while I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people, Israel, and presenting my supplication before the Lord, my God, for the holy mountain of my God;
Yea, while I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation. (Daniel 9:20–21)
The prophet had his mind, heart, and prayers, directed toward the one place on Earth considered the Most Holy: the Temple Mount, Mount Moriah. Daniel prayed that God would restore that place of worship to his people, the the Jews. The dumbfounded prophet could barely take in the breathtaking words of the angel:
Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.
Know, therefore, and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah, the Prince, shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.
And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.
And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate. (Daniel 9:24–27)
Gabriel laid out the entire plan from the time the prophet sat praying toward Jerusalem and the Temple Mount. The angel said everything was set to put an end to the miserable mess Satan had made of his creation and man’s part in the rebellion against the Lord.
The Messiah would come to offer Himself as Israel’s Savior, but would be “cut off”—that is, would die…be crucified.
Gabriel’s message from the Lord jumped forward quickly, telling that the city—Jerusalem—and the sanctuary—the Temple on Moriah—would be destroyed. This, of course, happened in AD 70 when the Roman legion did just as the prophecy foretold.
There was no Temple at the time Daniel sat dumbfounded before Gabriel as he took in the prophecy, but obviously one would be built.. But, that one yet to be built would be destroyed—again—in AD 70 by General Titus and the Roman soldiers, as covered earlier.
Gabriel indicated that the people who would destroy the city and sanctuary (the Romans, as it turned out) would produce the “prince that shall come” who would at some point “confirm the covenant with many.” Then the rest of human history leading up to the end of the age would gush upon the world like a flood.
This whole prophetic process would encompass seventy prophetic weeks, which adds up to 490 prophetic years. The Messiah being “cut off”—crucified—happened at the sixty-ninth prophetic week mark. The last of the seventy weeks won’t begin until the “prince that shall come” “confirms the covenant with many.” This is when Antichrist assures the peace and safety of the Jewish people.[i]
- Matthew 24:15–21 and Mark 13: 14–19 The second scriptural proof text that a Third Temple will be built is given by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself and recorded in two books of the Gospel.
When ye, therefore, shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)
Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains:
Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house:
Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes.
And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!
But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day:
For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. (Matthew 24:15–21)
But when ye shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not, (let him that readeth understand,) then let them that be in Judaea flee to the mountains:
And let him that is on the housetop not go down into the house, neither enter therein,to take any thing out of his house:
And let him that is in the field not turn back again for to take up his garment.
But woe to them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!
And pray ye that your flight be not in the winter.
For in those days shall be affliction, such as was not from the beginning of the creation which God created unto this time, neither shall be. (Mark 13:14–19)
Jesus plainly prophesied that the “desolation of abomination” was spoken of by “Daniel the prophet.” This would be the “prince that will come” Daniel was told about by Gabriel. This “abomination of desolation”—Antichrist, according to the apostle John (1 John 2:18)—will declare himself to be God while standing in the “holy place.”
Jesus and Daniel tell us that the worse time of human history will unfold from this point. The time when Antichrist stands in the “holy place,” the Temple atop Moriah, will be especially bad for the Jewish people, whom Jesus warns to flee into the mountains. They are not to even gather clothing. “Just go” is the command.
ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW VIDEO
THOMAS HORN EXPLAINS TO JIM BAKKER WHAT COULD HAPPEN THAT WOULD DEMAND THE BUILDING OF THE THIRD TEMPLE!
Antichrist will begin his reign of absolute terror in the middle of Daniel’s seventieth prophetic week, according to Jesus. Three and one-half years into the Tribulation, this abomination of a man will declare himself to be God, demand worship, and immediately begin genocide against the Jewish people worse than anything Hitler, Himmler, and Goering could have imagined. Jeremiah the prophet called this period “the time of Jacob’s trouble.” More about that prophecy later.
- 2 Thessalonians 2:3–4 The third scriptural proof text of a Third Temple being constructed is given by the apostle Paul:
Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. (2 Thessalonians 2:3–4)
Daniel calls him “the prince that shall come.” Jesus calls him “the abomination of desolation.” Paul calls him “the son of perdition [Apollo (see the must-watch new documentary “Belly of the Beast” for the chilling truth around this)].” Regardless of the names by which he is called, he will sit in the Third Temple—the Tribulation Temple—and declare himself to be God. He will demand that all on earth worship him. He will have a hatred for the Jewish people that is directly from the mind of Lucifer the fallen one —Satan.
As a matter of fact, this man will be indwelt at this point by the devil himself, who has always wanted the worship reserved exclusively for Jehovah. John the apostle calls him “Antichrist”:
Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time. (1 John 1 2:18)
- Revelation 11:1–2 It is John, as “the revelator,” who gives us the fourth scriptural proof text of a Third Temple atop Mount Moriah:
And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein.
But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months. (Revelation 11:1–2)
This, of course, describes how the non-Jewish people will move about the outside of the Temple while Jews worship within. The reference to forty-two months has to be the first three and one-half years of Daniel’s seventieth week—the seven-year Tribulation period. This means, it is very likely that the Tribulation Temple will be standing atop Mount Moriah almost at the very beginning of this last seven years before Christ’s Second Advent.
The Jews are worshiping, according to John’s description, in a rebuilt Temple until the halfway mark of the seven years, and then Antichrist desecrates the Temple and declares himself to be god. He then begins slaughtering every Jewish person he can lay hands on. So, this reference is to the first half of the seventieth week described by Daniel.
The point is that this is yet another proof that a Temple—the Third Temple—will stand on top of the Temple Mount at some point. It will be, again, a Temple, not of joy, but for carrying out Antichrist’s genocide against the house of Israel. It will be set up to carry out the time of Jacob’s trouble.
Here are Jeremiah’s words about Daniel’s seventieth week—the last three and one-half years of that era, which the Lord called “great Tribulation”:
For, lo, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel and Judah, saith the Lord: and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it.
And these are the words that the Lord spake concerning Israel and concerning Judah. For thus saith the Lord; We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace. Ask ye now, and see whether a man doth travail with child? wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned into paleness? Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be saved out of it. (Jeremiah 30:3–7)
Just as Jesus in the Olivet Discourse likened the Tribulation to a woman about to give birth, Jeremiah also likens all of Israel under Antichrist’s evil persecution to a woman in labor pain. The end-times scenario above is one that many early Church Fathers agreed with. The late Grant Jeffrey once noted:
Lactantius wrote about a rebuilt Temple that would stand in the last days prior to Christ’s return. In his book The Divine Institutes, he described the seven-year Tribulation period and the persecution that will be brought about by the Antichrist: “Then he will attempt to destroy the temple of God and persecute the righteous people; and there will be distress and tribulation, such as there never has been from the beginning of the world.”
Another early church theologian, Victorinus, also wrote about the Third Temple. His Commentary on the Apocalypse explored the prophecies found in the book of Revelation. Victorinus wrote about the False Prophet, the partner of the coming Antichrist, saying the False Prophet will place an image, or statue, of the Antichrist in the rebuilt Temple.…”
One of the greatest of the early church writers, Irenaeus, taught that the new Temple would be a genuine Temple built by the religious Jews…and in his book Against Heresies [he] affirmed his understanding of the Scripture’s prophecies about animal sacrifice being reinstated in the future Temple [ii]
Israel Saved
The last seven words of this Tribulation prophecy in Jeremiah constitute God’s bottom line in dealing with His chosen people. They are wonderful words promising a magnificent future for all of believing Israel: “he shall be saved out of it.”
Jacob is the “he” of this passage—the father of the twelve tribes named after him, representing all of the nation Israel. We see the promise of that Jeremiah 30:7 prophecy fulfilled in the following.
And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. (Zechariah 12:10)
A remnant of the Jewish people, those who will recognize the returning King Jesus as their Messiah, will thus be “saved” and will form the Israel that will be greatly blessed by God during the Millennium and beyond.
NEXT: God’s Prophetic Timeline
[i] There are many excellent studies on this prophecy given Daniel by Gabriel. There isn’t space here to go into detail, but it’s recommended that you look to Dr. John Walvoord, Dr. Chuck Missler, and other Bible prophecy scholars to get the profound implications of Daniel’s prophecy. The point we are considering here is that a Third Temple will be built—t Temple that Antichrist will desecrate.
[ii] Grant Jeffrey, The New Temple and the Second Coming, (Colorado Springs, CO: WaterBrook Press, 2007) 18, 20.
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