Millennial Temple

Why the need for sacrifice?

Millennial Temple Rebuilt

• Isa. 44:26b+28b, “who says of Jerusalem, ‘It shall be inhabited’ of the towns of Judah, ‘They shall be built, and of their ruins…he will say of Jerusalem, ‘Let it be rebuilt and of the temple, ‘Let its foundations be laid.’” (Jer. 31:2-4.)

• Amos 9:14, “I will bring back my exiled people Israel; they will rebuild the ruined cities”. (No building in the eternal state.)

Rebuilt after 2nd Coming

• Zech. 8:3-4,7+9b, “I will return to Zion and dwell in Jerusalem. The Jerusalem will be called the City of Truth, and the mountain of the Lord Almighty will be called the Holy Mountain…Once again men and women of ripe old age will sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each with cane in hand because of age…let your hands be strong so the temple may be rebuilt.”

God’s Glory Returns

• Ezek. 43:4-6, “The glory of the Lord entered the temple through the gate facing east. Then the Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple…Son of man, this is the place of my throne and the place for the soles of my feet. This is where I will live among the Israelites forever. The house of Israel will never again defile my holy name” (Exod. 16:7).

He Dwells in Jerusalem

• Zech. 8:3-, “This is what the Lord says: ‘I will return to Zion and dwell in Jerusalem. The Jerusalem will be called the City of Truth and the mountain of the Lord Almighty will be called the Holy Mountain’..

‘Once again men and women of ripe old age will sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each with cane in the hand because of his age.’”(Second coming-aging still on earth).

Offerings Again?

• Mal. 3:2-4, “But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap…He will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness, and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the Lord, as in days gone by, as in former years.”

Priests Selected

• Isa. 66:20-24, “And they will bring all your brothers from all nations, to my holy mountain in Jerusalem as an offering to the Lord…And I will select some of them also to be priests and Levites, says the Lord.”

Offerings-Even Gentiles

• Mal. 1:11, “My name will be great among the nations, from the rising to the setting of the sun. In every place incense and pure offerings will be brought in my name”. (See Isa. 60:6.)

If NO Millennial Sacrifices

Ezekiel 40th-48th Chapter would need be removed, as well as the other Old Testament Scripture.

Sacrificial System Obsolete?

• Heb. 8:13, “By calling this covenant “new”, he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear.”

• It will soon disappear, like Jesus’ return was prophesied as coming “soon”.

Sacrifices needed?

• Heb. 10:17-18, “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more. And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin.”

• Certainly, sacrifice is not needed for the remission of sin, yet it still may have some benefit.

• Heb. 10:3, “But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins”.

God Pleased in Sacrifices?

• Heb. 10:6, “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; with burnt offerings you were not pleased. Then I said, ‘Here I am-it is written about me in the scroll-I have come to do your will O God.’”

• So God is not pleased in sacrifice based on works and rituals, but faith in Christ.

Sacrifices Acceptable

• Phenehas, a priest referenced in Num. 25, speared a Israelite united with a Moabite women to stop the plague of 24,000. Then, in verse 12, “He and his descendants will have a covenant of a lasting priesthood, because he was zealous for the honor of his God and made atonement for the Israelites.”

• Priests of Zadok sacrifices acceptable.

Priestly Covenant

• Malachi 2:4-5, “And you will know that I have sent you this admonitions so that my covenant with Levi may continue, says the Lord Almighty. My covenant was with him, a covenant of life and peace, and I gave them to him; this called for reverence and he revered me and stood in awe of my name.”

Davidic Covenant

• Jer. 33:17, “David will never fail to have a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel, nor will the priests, who are Levites, ever fail to have a man to stand before me continually to offer burnt offerings, to burn grain offerings and to present sacrifices.”

Covenant is Everlasting

• Isa. 61:6-8, “And you will be called priests of the Lord…you will be named ministers of our God. You will feed on the wealth of the nations…For I, the Lord, love justice…

In my faithfulness I will reward them and make an everlasting covenant with them. (Millennial Kingdom/not eternity.)

Earlier Covenant Conditional?

• 1 Kings 2:4,”If your descendants watch how they live, and if they walk faithfully before me with all their heart and soul, you will never fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.” (Because of sin in nation Israel)

• Jer. 33:19-21, “If you can break my covenant with the day and night…then my covenant with David…and my covenant with the Levites…can be broken.”

Covenant- Day/Night

• Isa. 60:20-21, “Your sun will never set again, and your moon will wane no more; the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your days of sorrow will end. Then all your people will be righteous and they will possess the land forever.” (Eternity)

Covenant on Hold

• Hosea 3:4-6, “For the Israelites will live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred stones, without ephod or idol. Afterward the Israelites will return and seek the Lord their God and David their king. They will come trembling to the Lord and to his blessings in the last days”.

• Currently the nation Israel is not promoting idol worship and the ephod that is associated with the priestly sacrificial system is not in place, and the nation may indeed be at the end of the “many days” quoted here.

Old Sacrificial Law Returns

• Mal. 4:1+4, “Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and that day that is coming will set them on fire… Remember the law of my servant Moses, the decrees and laws I gave him at Horeb for all of Israel.”

• Israel requires sacrificial system if united and following God with sun still rotating.

Jewish Law

• Micah 4:2-3, “Many nations will come and say, ‘come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of Jacob; He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths. The law will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord, from Jerusalem. He will judge between many peoples and will settle disputes for strong nations both far and wide”.

• The word used for “law” used here is “towrah”, which means “Pentateuch” or the first five books of the Old Testament, which has all the temple worship regulations.

Saints and Jewish Festivals?

• Jesus and the apostles still participated in this obsolete system. (Lk.22-Passover.)

• Early church fathers told to “Keep the Festival, not the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth.” (1 Cor. 5:8-but don’t be legalistic.)

Christians of Today?

• We are indeed “not under the law, but under grace” (Rom.6:14).

• Our bodies are “living sacrifices holy and pleasing to God- this is your spiritual act of worship” (Rom. 12:1).

• “Do we, then nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.” (Rom. 3:31).

Don’t Judge

• Col. 2:16, “Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of things that were to come; the reality, however is found in Christ.”

• We have never been commanded NOT to honor the Sabbath or Jewish Festivals.

Lord’s Supper

• Though the reality of the Lord’s Supper has come and his body has already been broken for us, we still participate in this.

• Likewise, many of the Jewish Festivals honor past events in the history of God’s people yet they are still commanded to be participated in.

• Isn’t there benefit in seeing Christ through these and remembering our past heritage?

Activities in Millennium?

For these obsolete festivities.

Entreat The Lord

• Zech. 8:20-22, “Many peoples and the inhabitants of many cities will yet come, and the inhabitants of one city will go to another and say, ‘Let us go at once to entreat the Lord and seek the Lord Almighty. I myself am going.’ And many peoples and powerful nations will come to Jerusalem to seek the Lord Almighty to entreat him.” (Jesus on Zion-no need prayer or entreat, if in the eternal state.)

Burnt Offerings

• Isa. 56:6-7, “And foreigners who bind themselves to the Lord to serve him… all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it and who hold fast to my covenant- these I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.”

More Offerings

• Ezek. 40:38-39, “A room with a door was the portico in each of the inner gateways, where the burnt offerings were washed. In the portico of the gateway were two tables on each side, on which the burnt offerings, sin offerings and guilt offerings were slaughtered.” (Lev. 6:14, 16:27,+29:11.)

• Millennial Temple ref. in Ezek. 43:18-27, 44:10-16, 45:13-15, 46:3-8, and 46:11-15.

Sacrifices

• Ezek. 20:40-41, “For on my holy mountain, the high mountain of Israel, declares the Sovereign Lord, there in the land the entire house of Israel will serve me, and there I will accept them. There I will require your offerings and your choice gifts, along with all your holy sacrifices. I will accept you as fragrant incense…I will show myself holy among you in the sight of the nations.” (“Zebach”-Hebrew/slaughter of animals)

Jewish Festivals Again

• Zech. 8:13, “As you have been an object of cursing among the nations, O Judah and Israel, so will I save you, and you will be a blessing…The fasts…will become joyful and glad occasions and happy festivals for Judah.

• Ezek. 36:37b-38, “I will make my people as numerous as sheep, as numerous as the flocks for offerings at Jerusalem during her appointed feasts. So will the ruined cities be filled with flocks of people. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”

Feast of Tabernacles

• Zech. 14:16-17, “Then the survivors from all the nations that have attacked Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship the King, the Lord Almighty, and to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles. If any of the peoples of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord Almighty, they will have no rain.”

Passover

• Ezek. 45:21, “In the first month on the fourteenth day you are to observe the Passover, a feasting lasting seven days, during which you shall eat bread made without yeast.”

• Thought the event has occurred in the past, we are still called to participate, as the New Testament believers did. (See 1 Cor. 5:7-8.)

Day of Atonement

• Ezek. 45:15, “Also one sheep is to be taken from every flock of two…These will be used for grain offerings, burnt offerings and fellowship offerings to make atonement for the people.”

• Ezek. 45:22, “On that day the prince is to provide a bull as a sin offering for himself and for all the people of the land.”

Reminder of Sin

• Isa. 66:23, “From one New Moon to another and from one Sabbath to another, all mankind will come and bow down before me, says the Lord. And they will go out and look upon the dead bodies of those who rebelled against me; their worm will not die, nor will their fire be quenched, and they will be loathsome to all mankind.”

New Moon

• Ezek. 45:17b, “the burnt offerings, grain offerings and drink offerings at the festivals, the New Moons and Sabbaths- at all the appointed feasts of the house of Israel.”

• Ezek. 46:3, “On the Sabbaths and New Moons the people of the land are to worship in the presence of the Lord at the entrance to the gateway.

Sabbath

• Ezek. 46:4, “The burnt offering the prince of the Lord on the Sabbath day is to be six male lambs and a ram, all without defect.”

• Ezek. 46:12b, “He shall offer his burnt offering or his fellowship offerings as he does on the Sabbath day.”

Mortal Priests

• Two classes:

1)Those honored descendants of Zadok and

2) Other Levites who were in lineage of those who rebelled.

Priesthood Apostacy

• Started with priests rebelling with Absalom. Priests of Zadok, however, stayed with David during Absalom’s rebellion and guarded the arc of the covenant (2 Sam. 15th chapter).

• Continued with the priests during reign of Solomon with idol worship (1 Kings 11:4-8.)

• Golden calf worship in Dan and Bethel (1 Ki. 12:26-33).• House of Eli where his sons dishonored the

priesthood (1 Sam 2:27-36).

Levite Priests

• Ezek. 44:10-14, “The Levites who went far from me when Israel went astray and who wandered from me after their idols…They may serve in my sanctuary, having charge of the gates of the temple and serving in it; they may slaughter the burnt offerings and sacrifices…They are not to come near to serve me as priests or come near any of my holy things…Yet I will put them in charge of the duties of the temple”.

Priests of Zadok

• Ezek. 44:15, But the priests, who are Levites and descendants of Zadok and who faithfully carried out the duties of my sanctuary when the Israelites went astray from me…they are to stand before me to offer sacrifices of fat and blood…they alone are to come near my table to minister before me and perform my service.”

Priests are Mortal

• Ezek. 44:20-23, “They must not shave their heads or let their hair grow long, but they are to keep the hair of their heads trimmed. No priest is to drink wine when he enters the inner court. They must not marry widows of divorced women; they may marry only virgins of Israelite descent or widows of priests.”

Priests Teach

• Ezek. 44:23-24, “They are to teach my people the difference between the holy and the common and show them how to distinguish between unclean and the clean. In any dispute, the priests are to serve as judges and decide it according to my ordinances. They are to keep my laws and my decrees for all my appointed feasts, and they are to keep my Sabbaths holy.”

Feet of Jesus

• Ezek. 43:6b, “Son of man, this is the place of my throne and the place for the soles of my feet.” (Inside the Holy of Holies in the Millennial Temple.)

• Ezek. 44:17-19 discusses their clothes of priests of Zadok needed to be taken off “so that they do not consecrate the people by means of their garments.” (These garments have the glory of God on them, from being in His presence.)

Meals Served

• Ezek. 44:3, The prince himself is the only one who may sit inside the gateway to eat in the presence of the Lord.”

• As the priests of Zadok are the only ones able to serve near the presence of Jesus, it’s assumed that they are the ones serving the princes their meals on festival days, Sabbaths, and New Moon celebrations .

Moses/Elders

• Exodus 24:9, “Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up and saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement made of sapphire, clear as the sky itself. But God did not raise his hand against these leaders of the Israelites; they saw God, and they ate and drank.”

Princes are Elders

• Micah 3:1 (KJV), “And I said, Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob, and ye princes of the house of Israel; Is it not for you to know judgment?”

• Ezek. 45:8b–10, “My princes will no longer oppress my people but will allow the house of Israel to possess the land according to their tribes. This is what the Sovereign Lord says: You have gone far enough, O princes of Israel! Give up your violence and oppression and do what is just and right. Stop dispossessing my people, declares the Sovereign Lord. You are to use accurate scales, and accurate ephah, and an accurate bath.”

• Millennial princes will be different from many prior leaders of Israel.

Prince Duties?

Ezek. 46:4,10,+12 references princes offering sacrifices on Sabbath, New Moons, and other Jewish festivals. On the other days of the year the Priests of Zadok do this job.

Gifts to Prince

• Princes received gifts when working at the temple on the special occasions.

• Ezek. 46:16, “If the prince make a gift from his inheritance to one of his sons, it will also belong to his descendants; it is to be their property by inheritance.”

• Past princes had used inaccurate scales in taxing the people.

• Notice that the princes had children.

Only One True Prince

• Ezek. 37:24-28, “My servant David will be king over them, and they will all have one shepherd. They will follow my laws and be careful to keep my decrees. They will live in the land I gave to my servant Jacob, and the land where your fathers lived. They and their children and their children’s children will live there forever, and David my servant will be their prince forever. I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant. I will establish them and increase their numbers, and I will put my sanctuary among them forever. My dwelling place will be with them; I will be their God, and they will be my people. Then the nations will know that I the Lord make Israel holy, when my sanctuary is among them forever.”

No Sacrifice in Revelation?

• Revelation gives end times prophecy from a Gentile perspective, as the church is raptured out prior to Millennial Kingdom.

• Raptured Gentiles not directly involved with Millennial Temple activities, and aren’t mandated to celebrate- they have no sin!

• Ezekiel gives end times from a Jewish perspective, and most of the last days Jews will not be part of the rapture.

Hints in Revelation

• Rev. 11:19b, “Then God’s temple in heaven was opened and within his temple was seen the ark of his covenant.”

• Rev. 15:5, “After this I looked and in heaven the temple, that is, the tabernacle of the Testimony, was opened”.

• Ark and tabernacle are central to OT sacrificial system. But are fulfilled in eternal state, but sin mandates Jews.

2 Tribulation Olives

• Rev. 11:4, “These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth.

• 2 Witnesses: Enoch (Gentile) and Elijah (Jew). Heb. 9:27-mandates all die except those living at time of the rapture.

• Matches with two olive tree witnesses for Christ- Jewish cultured olive and Gentile wild olive tree.

Lampstand

• Zech. 4:2, “I see a solid gold lampstand with a bowl at the top and seven lights on it, with seven channels to the lights. Also there are two olive trees by it, one on the right of the bowl and the other on the left.”

• Lampstand is OT Witness for Christ, with the two olives representing Gentiles prior to Abraham and Jews thereafter.

• 2 Lampstands in Rev. 11- OT/NT witness.

Alternate Lampstand Meaning

• They may also represent churches.• Rev. 2:5b, “If you will not repent, I will

come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.” (Church at Ephesus.)

• The OT single lampstand could be a type of the church of Philadelphia or Smyrna, as the Jews were unified at that point.

• The 2 lampstands in Revelation could represent 2 lights for Christ-Smyrna/Phil.

Elijah’s Return

• Mal. 4:5-6, “Remember the law of my servant Moses, the decrees and laws I gave him at Horeb for all Israel. See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse.”

Elijah’s Witness

• To repent because Christ is coming soon.

• Elijah witnessed to Jews in “the land”.

• The “fathers” and “children” may represent literal relationships within the family unified through faith in Jesus or symbolic for OT law harmonized with NT teachings.

• Repentance delayed “wrath” on the land.

Elijah will Restore

• Matt. 7:11, “Jesus replied, “To be sure, Elijah comes and will restore all things. But I tell you, Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but have done to him everything they wished.”

• Elijah’s witness will fall mostly on deaf ears again, but some will repent and eventually leave the systems of the world and be hunted down after abomination.

• ?Restoration of temple worship or right relation.

Elijah and Tribulation Temple

• It appears Elijah will promote a faith based restoration in temple worship during the first part of tribulation, as the law of the OT and sacrificial system will be promoted.

• Elijah is killed by the beast who comes out of the Abyss (Rev. 11:7) and later sets up the abomination in the temple (Dan. 9:27).

Enoch’s Return

• Jude 14, “Enoch, the seventh from Adam prophesied about these men: ‘See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones to judge everyone, and to convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly acts they have done in the ungodly way, and of all the harsh words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.’”

Enoch’s Message

• Also a call to repent.• May be focused more on the unsaved

Gentile world of the need for obedience, and not just words about faith.

• His message will be timely with all the false doctrines and heretics of the last days.

• The two witnesses may harmonize the Jewish and Gentile last days saints.

Wild Olive-Gentiles

• Rom. 11:17+20, “If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap form the olive root…But they were broken off because of unbelief”.

• Branches are unspiritual Israel.• Wild olive shoot is Gentile believers.• Olive root is Jesus Christ.

Cultured Olive-Israel

• Rom. 11:24+26, “After all, if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will these , the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree…Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved.”

Two Tabernacles

• 1 Cor. 3:16, “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?”

• 2 Cor. 5:1-2, “Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling.”

• 2 Pet. 1:13b, “as long as I live in the tent of this body, because I know that I will soon put it aside.”

The Will

• Heb. 9:16, “In the case of a will, it is necessary to prove the death of the one who made it, because a will is in force only when somebody has died”.

• Heb. 9:26b, “But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.”

• Wage of sin was done away at Calvary, but sin is still here until we die or rapture.

Two Covenants

• Heb. 9:15, “For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance- now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.

• We are free from the bondage of sin, but we still sin (Rom. 3:23), so the new covenant is not fully realized until eternity.

Freedom from the Law?

• Matt. 5:17, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” Jesus gave meaning to the law and was totally committed to its obedience.

• Rom. 3:31, “Do we, then nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.”

• Not “under the law”, its penalty-Rom. 6:13.

Temple till New Order

• Heb. 9:8-10, The Holy Spirit was showing by this that the way into the most Holy Place had not yet been disclosed as long as the first tabernacle was still standing. This is an illustration for the present time, indicating that the gifts and sacrifices being offered were not able to clear the conscience of the worshiper…matter of food and drink… external regulations applying until the time of the new order.”

New Order

• Rev. 21:4, “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death, or morning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

• Eternity

Temple Covenant Complete

• Rev. 21:22-23, “I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.”