A Third Temple?

Several organizations are preparing to build a third temple in Jerusalem.

More than a decade ago temple activists began crafting ritual garments and vessels for the future holy of holies, which they believe will be rebuilt on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The golden menorah—the seven-branched candelabrum—is on display in the Jewish quarter of the Old City and ready to be placed in the future Jewish house of God.

It is not only Jews who are promoting the temple’s construction. Many evangelicals believe that Ezekiel’s unfulfilled prophecy regarding the rebuilding of the temple (Ezekiel 40ff.) will be fulfilled before the return of Christ. Many send money to Israel to support this endeavor. Their beliefs can largely be traced back to a highly intelligent and deeply devout Englishman with the patriotic name John Nelson Darby.

The Birth of Dispensationalism

About the year 1825 groups of Bible-believing Christians gathered in southwest England to study the Bible. They were concerned about the established churches, which they believed had abandoned or distorted many biblical principles. They called themselves “Brethren” and aimed to place their lives and their faith under the authority of the Word of God.

As early as 1831 John Darby joined the assemblies of the Brethren. A hallmark of his faith was the principle of literal biblical interpretation—a hermeneutical approach also known as “literalism.” One of the most prominent literalist theologians of later years, Charles Ryrie, described literalism as “the principle of grammatical-historical interpretation. . . . The meaning of each word is determined by grammatical and historical considerations.”[1] Ryrie did not deny that figurative and symbolic language is used in the Bible, but insisted that prophecy should be “normally” interpreted, “i.e., according to the received laws of language.”[2]

Darby’s literal interpretation of the Word of God led many to take an interest in Bible prophecy. Darby and the Brethren were convinced that God would fulfill the promises He made to Israel completely and literally. Among other things, based on Ezekiel 40-47, they believed that a third temple would be built. Later their beliefs came to be known as dispensationalism.

The conviction that the temple would be rebuilt in the time of the end was based on their interpretation of Daniel 9:27. Dispensationalists believe that this prophecy has not yet been fulfilled. Like Adventists, they interpret the “week” mentioned in this verse according to the day-year principle. They believe that the symbolic period of a week refers to a literal time period of seven years. Unlike Adventists, however, they are convinced that the “week” of Daniel 9:27 applies only to Jews and refers to the last seven years of earth’s history. They further believe that the person who will “put an end to sacrifice and offering” (NIV), or “cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease” (KJV), is the antichrist. The logical conclusion is that the temple must be rebuilt at some point in the future for the forthcoming antichrist to discontinue the sacrificial system.

A Millerite Counterbalance

In the same era as Darby was promoting the hermeneutics of literalism, another movement was growing in the northeastern United States, led by William Miller. As with Darby, Miller’s convictions led to a deepened study of the Word of God and a strong interest in biblical prophecy. The Millerites, however, modified the strict principle of literalism that Darby advocated.

Because Adventists follow the hermeneutics of Jesus, we do not support the construction of a third temple.

While also using the grammatical-historical principle of Bible interpretation, Millerites additionally applied the principle of progressive revelation. Progressive revelation means that later prophetic statements can change our understanding of earlier prophecy. Put simply, this meant that the Millerites understood the Old Testament in the light of the New.[3]

Unlike Darby, the Millerites and their successors, the Seventh-day Adventists, did not view Ezekiel’s words in isolation from other statements about the temple. Jesus referred indirectly to Ezekiel’s prophecy when He spoke with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well. In the future, He said, His followers would worship in “spirit and truth,” and inferred that worship in an earthly temple would soon be redundant (John 4:21-23).

Similarly, in the letter to the Hebrews, the apostle confirmed that the earthly temple, with its sacrifices and rituals, has been replaced by the heavenly work of our High Priest, to which they pointed (Heb. 8:1, 2).

Further, the apostle Peter taught that the physical temple would be replaced by the Christian church. He taught that followers of Jesus are individual stones in the body of Christ, which is the New Testament temple (1 Peter 2:4, 5; cf. Eph. 2:22).

Millerite Adventists recognized in the words of Jesus and the apostles the hermeneutic of progressive revelation. Thus, when they came into contact with dispensationalists, they rejected their strict literalist hermeneutic.[4]

Conditionality and Progressive Revelation

Progressive revelation does not mean that an original prophecy was wrong, but rather shows that God can adapt His plan. Moses made this clear.

“All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God. . . . However, if you do not obey the Lord your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come on you and overtake you” (Deut. 28:2-15, NIV).

God’s willingness to adapt His plan according to human response indicates that He accepts the principle of conditionality. Prophecy thus needs to be read thoughtfully because the conditionality of many prophecies is not immediately apparent. In other words, not all prophecies are qualified by the words “if . . . then.” They can, nevertheless, be conditional.

In Exodus 6:6-8 God promised the generation of Israelites who left Egypt that He would lead them to the land of Canaan. Later, however, the disobedience of His people caused Him to change His plan: “As surely as I live, declares the Lord, I will do to you the very thing I heard you say: in this wilderness your bodies will fall—every one of you twenty years old or more who was counted in the census and who has grumbled against me” (Num. 14:28-30, NIV). We note that there was no conditional clause in the original promise (Ex. 6:6-8), and yet its fulfillment was based on human obedience nevertheless.

Much later Jesus confirmed the conditionality of His promises to Israel. With sadness in His heart He confirmed that “the kingdom of God will be taken away from you [Israel] and given to a people who will produce its fruit” (Matt. 21:43, NIV).

The fact that God’s promises can be conditional—even when conditionality is not mentioned—helped early Adventists to recognize the importance of the principle of progressive revelation.

Literalism must be supplemented by the principle of progressive revelation.

Consider how Jesus, in John 7, interpreted Ezekiel’s prophecy of the temple. In his vision, Ezekiel saw the temple as a source of water: “Water was flowing down from under, from the right side of the house, from south of the altar” (Eze. 47:1, NASB). Jesus later participated in the water-drawing ceremony in Jerusalem, which the Jews based on Ezekiel’s prophecy and performed annually during the Feast of Tabernacles. At this feast Jesus appeared on the Temple Mount and cried out: “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink!” (John 7:37, NASB). His statement is surprising and, for the Jews of His time, shocking. Jesus did not say—as one might have expected—“Come to the temple to quench your spiritual thirst,” but rather, “Come to Me”!

The conclusion to which the reader of the New Testament is led is obvious: With the advent of Jesus, the significance of Ezekiel’s prophecy had changed. Jesus Christ, the Living Water, replaced the water that God, in His original plan, wished to flow from Ezekiel’s temple. The source of living water is not found in the temple now, but in Jesus (John 7:37).

Christ-centered

The literalism of dispensationalists is a principle that encourages many intelligent, faithful Christians in their beliefs, but that also has its limits. Literalism must be supplemented by the principle of progressive revelation.[5] Progressive revelation confirms that our interpretation of the Word of God should not focus on Israel, but must be Christ-centered. Referring to the Old Testament, Jesus reminded us that “they are they which testify of me!” (John 5:39, KJV; see also Luke 24:27).

The hermeneutics we employ lead to the conclusions we draw. Because Adventists follow the hermeneutics of Jesus, we do not support the construction of a third temple. Christ and His body, the church, is the New Testament reality to which much Old Testament prophecy pointed. That is why the support of our church is far more important than financing the building of a third temple in Jerusalem.

[1] Charles Ryrie, Dispensationalism (Chicago: Moody Bible Institute, 2007), p. 91.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Please note that not just the New Testament modifies prophetic statements. Even in the Old Testament, later prophecies can modify earlier ones. For example: Exodus 6:6-8 and Numbers 14:29, 30.

[4] Julia Neuffer, The Gathering of Israel: A Historical Study of Early Writings (Silver Spring, Md.: Biblical Research Institute, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, 1983), pp. 74-76, https://whiteestate.org/legacy/issues-gather-html.

[5] In his important book on this subject, The Israel of God in Prophecy, Hans LaRondelle underlines the limits of progressive revelation. Referring to typology as one aspect of progressive revelation, LaRondelle writes: “The discovery of a new typological pattern in Holy Scripture through which our hope for the apocalyptic deliverance of the Church of Christ is renewed and strengthened must be based, however, on clear New Testament authority” (Hans LaRondelle, The Israel of God in Prophecy [Berrien Springs, Mich.: Andrews University Press, 1983), p. 48).