That Third Temple (Part B)

There's your time stamp.

This is going to be to the consummation. This abomination that is created in God's house by this monster. He's called a beast by God, which is to say he's a monster.

He's just destructive and harmful in every sense of the word. So the near fulfillment of that Daniel 9 27, the Syrian king Antiochus Epiphanes. But the final will be through this coming beast. Mark 13 is the text Pastor Rick will be teaching from today. And the title of this study is that third temple.

He defiles the third temple. He is going to put his image there and nobody else's. And there's a lot more that's going to happen with this. When he puts his image there, he will endow that image through his false prophet with life. How's that going to happen? Is it going to be genuine life?

What is going on? His sidekick again, that false prophet of his will give that image of antichrist power to kill and to demand everyone to receive his mark, which we know the code 6 6 and 6. Now don't be afraid of that, that number. It's nothing for us to be afraid of.

It's something to identify and understand. It don't get into superstition. For us, the number 666 comes right before the number 667.

And pretty much that's it unless it's in the context of end time studies. We won't be here again to see this all acted out. But it will be considered a badge of allegiance to antichrist. You will have to get this mark or you will be considered a traitor and a blasphemer to him. Those who refuse will be exterminated. Revelation 13 15.

He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. This is transhumanism and it's already at work. There are scientists who are now becoming quickly, not all of them but many of them, shaman and frankensteins.

They're going into areas that they need to stay out of but they're not going to. Transhumanism essentially is the merger of robot and human using DNA and other parts of the human composition. It is utopia through technology, this blend. And they're starting to do it.

They're working on it. It is, you know, this artificial intelligence to what, where does it stop? There's a factor in the spiritual features of this.

When John says he was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, he is not joking. It is going to be literal. It's an intricate merging of the human to robot that is saying we don't need God and we will make this a better place for ourselves and anybody that gets in the way.

This is so serious to us. We're willing to have collateral damage. We're willing to kill people who will get in the way because the end will justify the means.

This is how humanism rolls anyway. The Lord says spoken by Daniel the prophet. Jesus took the prophecies of Daniel literally. You got those pseudo-scholars. Well, they're scholars. They're just not good scholars that, oh, Daniel could not have written the things he wrote.

He had to write after the events because there's too many details he could not pop. Well, that's what prophecy is. Prophecy is the impossible made possible because of God. It is God telling the future.

Predictive prophecy is that. And when God says you will be judged if you have not the blood of the lamb, that's predictive prophecy too with a guarantee. Spoken of by Daniel, Daniel 9.27. This is what Jesus is quoting. So here's Christ. They ask him a question and just like he took down his challengers, he's lifting up his believers using scripture. Look, scripture is so important. It's so easy for a pastor to decide let's make the church an entertainment center for people or let's make it the place of God's word and try to filter out anything that takes away from God's word. And this is what Christ did.

Here comes the word. Daniel 9, verse 27. Daniel speaking, God through him. Then he shall confirm a covenant that he there is the anti-Christ. And he confirms a covenant because he needs it. He has a need and he's using the Jewish people to get it. He wants their money. He wants their support. And when he comes to power, he'll break the deal.

That's bottom line. He shall confirm a covenant with many for one week. But in the middle of the week, now that week is a seven year period. Don't have time to go into how we know all this.

You can study. Nehemiah is another book that is, anyway. But in the middle of the week, he shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering and on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate even until the consummation, which is determined, is poured out on the desolate. And so there's your time stamp.

This is going to be to the consummation. This abomination that is created in God's house by this monster. He's called a beast by God, which is to say he's a monster.

He's just destructive and harmful in every sense of the word. So the near fulfillment of that, Daniel 9, 27. The Syrian king, Antiochus Epiphanes. But the final will be through this coming beast, Daniel 11, verse 31. And this is centered on Antiochus 2. And forces shall be mustered by him and they shall defile the sanctuary fortress. Then they shall take away the daily sacrifices and place there the abomination of desolation.

Again, the near fulfillment, Antiochus Epiphanes, the far, is antichrist. But something interesting in that, Daniel 11, 31, is he refers to the sanctuary as a fortress. When Titus came to take the temple down, that first Jewish revolt, and it was a big revolt.

It went on almost five months. Those Jews were fierce. They turned the entire, they took over the Antonio fortress of the Roman 10th legion, which was right next to the temple, and they fought to the death and it was brutal. They turned the temple into a fortress, just interesting enough. But half of Daniel's seven years, his week, three and a half years, will, as I mentioned, be relatively peaceful because of that covenant that antichrist makes.

Then he breaks that covenant and then he goes full genocide towards that and after that. So, antichrist will claim to be God in this third Jewish temple during the great tribulation period. Jesus could not have been referring to the second temple where they had just asked him about the stones. That's the second temple. Lord, do you see this magnificent structure, this temple?

What do you think? That's Zerubbabel's temple, Solomon's having been destroyed and then rebuilt by Zerubbabel. This is the temple that Jesus is making this statement about. And when Rome destroys it, that's only a partial. Second Thessalonians chapter two, the temple still standing when Paul writes this, let no one deceive you by any means for that day will not come unless the falling away comes first.

That is a great apostasy and that's the church that that falling away is coming to. And the man of sin is revealed. That's antichrist, the son of hell, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped because he's going to want to worship because he is Satan's. He is what Jesus Christ is to the father. Antichrist is to Satan. His special creation.

And I'm saying that, of course, in a negative and sarcastic way about what's coming. He continues, Paul does, so that he sits as God in the temple of God showing himself that he is God. He'll tolerate no other.

He's going to believe this nonsense too. You see, Satan wanted to be counted equal with God. That's where it all went south. And that is going to be like father, like son.

You are like your father, the devil, in full bloom. With the return of the Jews to occupy and rule the promised land today, these things are in motion. When Christ said it, he presupposed the destruction of this. He couldn't tell, he told us, he said, this temple's going away.

Paul comes along and says with the knowledge it's going away, but there's going to still be a temple for him to come and defile just like the Lord said. And from 70 AD to 1948, Israel had no promised land and still no temple. Now they're in the land since 1948 and still no temple. They were driven from the land 65 years after that second temple was destroyed by the Romans. And for 1900 years, no land, which is unprecedented. You won't meet an Edomite or a Philistine or a Jebusite who says, I'm a Jebusite, but we have no land. The only people in history that have been displaced from their land and brought back in retaining their religion, their language, and their identity is the Jew, Israel.

Nobody as a people has suffered by them because they are Satan's primary and precious target. Well, Jesus says, standing where it ought not be. Matthew indicates the location as the holy place. In Matthew's account, parallel account, Matthew 24, therefore when you see Jesus speaking, the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet standing in the holy place. Why doesn't Mark say that?

Well, Mark's writing to a different audience. He's writing more to Gentiles, whereas Matthew is writing to Jews. And it'd be very close to their heart to hear him say, this abomination is happening in our beloved holy place. The only other time this phrase is used is in Acts chapter 21, referring to the Jewish temple. So what I'm establishing here is that this phrase, this clause, standing where it ought not, is the Jewish temple, the holy place. And when he says standing, it is going to be an ongoing blasphemous act, not just a one-time abomination of desolation. He's going to continue to do this because he hates the Jews that much. This temple will be rebuilt, built in the future, and the daily sacrificial system will be reinstated. And today, today the Jews only worship really in synagogues and at the Western Wall. That's a summary of what's going on. The Jews have been preparing, though, for this third temple since 1967. Since that war, they took back Jerusalem and they gave the Temple Mount to the Muslims to have custody of, which they have to this day, and that is a big factor of so much I'm going to say. It doesn't look like we're going to get past verse 14, does it? That's just a prophetic word.

But I hope I can make that worthwhile. Over 90 ritual items to be used in the temple worship and sacrifice, the blood sacrifices, as well as the incense offerings, et cetera, the grain offerings, they have been remade by a group called the Temple Institute there in Jerusalem. They have, since 2008, they have put together the high priest uniform as well as the other priest, and the breastplate and the ephod, the altars, the lampstands, they are ready to go. They just have no building, but they have all the articles. But there are some essentials they've got to get in place before they do this.

One is, probably the key, is the Aaronic line. They've got to identify Jews who are from Aaron's line, descendants from Aaron, Moses' brother, and their records are lost. How are they going to do this? Well, there's enough grave sites in Israel, ancient grave sites, and they're still finding things, amazing things in Israel, and there's still so much untouched, and I'm going to get to some of that, that they'll find a grave that will say something like, you know, a high priest of descendants of Aaron, and they'll find enough DNA, and they'll be able to match.

That's going to happen. That's why we get to 144,000. There's 12,000 from each tribe, and it's listed in the revelation which tribes they're coming from, because the technology will be there. So evil will be using technology, and so will righteousness. And that is just quite amazing, and we see this happening today. When DNA was, you know, codified and put together, okay, we understand DNA, that was just another step towards fulfillment of prophecy.

And there's more. I may leave out some stuff, just not enough time, but they also have to have, as I mentioned, the articles to minister as priests and Levites, because they plan to bring livestock there and slaughter them at the altar and offer them, just as it was in the days of David and Moses, a red heifer. They have to find a red heifer. That's critical to the purification process. They won't be able to open the temple up till they purify the temple. Once it's built, okay, now let's purify it ceremonially, and they're working on that too.

And this is probably even more important than the other two. The precise location of the Holy of Holies. Where did the Ark of the Covenant sit? The Ark that was a chest that had the word of God in it, the tablets that Moses received from God, the remade tablets, because Moses, he dropped the others. Okay, he threw them down in anger.

There's no dropping. Anyway, God redid that. Incidentally, when God gave them those tablets, they were on tablets that Moses was able to carry, both of them, which is symbolic. God's word is something we can carry. We can carry it up a mountain if we are so ordered to, and we can bring it back down without throwing it. Anyway, Moses, I feel like, is my buddy in many ways, because I just sympathize. You know, I've said this quite a few times, when God called him, he said, can you get somebody else?

I just love it. It's so human, the whole story. Anyway, the precise location, where did that Ark sit? Where was the Holy of Holies?

Only the high priest could go in at the Day of Atonement on behalf of the people. Well, I have found some things that I'm not ready to share, but I'm going to share them. That means I can share them.

I just maybe don't know if I should, but I have to. They are going to change, possibly change my study notes, 30 years of study notes. If you could stack that up, you'd have a tower. Everywhere the temple is mentioned in the Old and New Testament, now is, hmm, I wonder if there is the traditional location of the temple. Now, there are those archaeologists in Israel that consider this fringe thinking, but we've got the facts. And, almost all the archaeologists are abject atheists, and they are not honest with each other. I mean, look what they did with Jericho, you know. Jericho is this, find out whether it's actually that. I mean, don't go thinking of the archaeologists as the way the truth and life is.

They're not, but they're very helpful, very useful, and they've done some wonderful things for us. But, the traditional location. So, here's the temple that once stood, Solomon's Temple. Right now, they think on what is now the Temple Mount, where the Dome of the Rock is. And, just to the west of that temple is a wall that is believed to be the only real leftover, it's a retention wall for the earth, for the structure, to keep it in. And, it's believed to be what was part of the second temple. Well, if you look at that wall, it's got different layers of stone on it from different ages of different people adding different things. You've got things from Herod's time, the Romans have put, the Muslims have put, I mean, you've got these layers there. But, the Jews really believe this is the closest structure to where the temple stood.

And, that's why it is so important to them. It's called a wailing wall. The Jews today aren't even interested in entertaining that it might not be there. New research has discovered that that entire Temple Mount was likely the Antonia fortress and not the temple.

This, again, gasp time. So, the Romans had the 10th Legion there to keep the Jews in line. How many troops would you need in Jerusalem to keep the Jews in line? A Legion is about 6,000 men. We know from Josephus and other historians that that Legion in Jerusalem was a city almost. It had granaries, bakeries, restaurants, brothels.

It had to support the 6,000 plus troops and it took several thousand people to do it. So, as a very conservative guess, the Antonia fortress housed, conservative, 10,000 people. Well, if you go to the Jewish Museum, the Israeli Museum in Jerusalem, they have a whole layout of Jerusalem to scale. The temple and the Antonia fortress, the City of David, and the city sprawled out.

They have the Kidron Valley, the Valley of Hinoam, the Tarofian Valley, they've got it all. It's just wrong. Gasp again. It's okay.

No. Because this, what I'm saying, is borderline blasphemous to the Jew that goes to the Western Wall believing this was his temple. But I still have to back a lot of this up and I intend to do that. So, this huge fortress, 36 acres. Now, we just were talking about this in our Sunday study and in our midweek in Samuel. David just conquered Jerusalem and went up and I discussed Mount Zion versus Mount Moriah. But my research is now leaning more and more towards Zion, the City of David, is where Mount Moriah is and not the traditional site of the Temple Mount. I don't know if I've lost you, but I'm all around Jerusalem myself right now.

And you go to Jerusalem, you can't figure out where you are. It's such a complex city and the archaeological digs are astounding, the construction. I'm from a background of heavy construction and they have enormous construction beneath the city where all the ruins are. They've got windows you can walk up to some and look down. Okay, I'm digressing.

Let's go back to. So, the traditional site of where the temple is may have actually been all the Roman fortress. The Dome of the Rock is there. If you've ever seen a picture of the Dome of the Rock, you have to say that's one ugly rock.

I mean, really, it's not just because it's the Muslims and I'm not attacking them with this statement. I am saying it's not a smooth, flat rock. Well, now we've got a problem. Because, you see, that's supposed to be the threshing floor of Arunah who sold the Temple Mount where Mount Moriah is, where Abraham was told to offer Isaac, where Melchizedek met Abraham.

Not at the same time of those events. If that's a threshing floor, it's impossible. It's too lumpy, too many holes and craters in it. Nobody could thresh wheat on that rock.

It is not possible. Now we're getting into a process of elimination. So then what is that rock? The Praetorium of Pilate is a very good candidate for this, where the Romans, inside the fortress of Antonia, judged criminals standing on that rock. John's Gospel, chapter 19, verse 13. When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus out and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called the Pavement. The Greek word? The stone.

It's a 65 foot diameter. But in Hebrew, Gabbatha. What is that? The knoll. What is a knoll? A knoll is that rock. That's what the Jews called it. That thing's a knoll. It's just stone.

It's just sticking up. It is an exact representation of what is going on there. Therefore, if this assumption is right, that's a traditional ground for the temple. And this is important. Why is this important? Because if the temple is going to get built, how are you going to get the Muslims out of the way if you're going to build it where Solomon had his temple?

See, this is a big thing. There's some space up there to say, well, it could be over this way a little bit, and the Antichrist is going to negotiate that. Yeah, that's possible, but not likely, because Revelation 11, too, says, leave the outer court for the Gentiles in the building of the temple. Thanks for tuning in to Cross Reference Radio for this study in the Book of Mark. Cross Reference Radio is the teaching ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia. To learn more information about this ministry, visit our website, crossreferenceradio.com. Once you're there, you'll find additional teachings from Pastor Rick. We encourage you to subscribe to our podcast. When you subscribe, you'll be notified of each new edition of Cross Reference Radio. You can search for Cross Reference Radio on your favorite podcast app. That's all we have time for today, but we hope you'll join us next time as Pastor Rick continues to teach through the Book of Mark, right here on Cross Reference Radio.