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Will the Temple in Jerusalem be rebuilt?

There are some who say that the temple will never be rebuilt because Christ, who died for us, is the ultimate and perfect sacrifice. Therefore, God will not accept any more animal sacrifices. Any animal sacrifice henceforth denies the atoning work of Christ and is therefore an abomination in God's sight. This is true because once God accepted Christ's sacrifice, nothing else would be acceptable. For God to go back to the Mosaic system would be for Him to forsake the New Covenant sacrifice and oblation of His only Son. Giving animal sacrifices, for the Christian, would be equivalent to trying to earn salvation by works (Gal 3:1-5). However, the important point here is that the Jews as a nation have vet to accept or recognise Jesus Christ. They do not believe in His atoning work on the cross. Therefore, the Jews, in their hardness of heart (Rom 11:8), will build the temple and reinstitute Mosaic ritualism and sacrifice system. However, God's presence and glory would never seal or accept the same, and therefore, though the physical temple be rebuilt, God's presence will not be there.

Some others say that the temple will not be built because they interprets the temple described in Ezekiel chs.40-46 as that pertaining to the rebuilt temple. From the dimensions given, that temple would cover the whole of Jerusalem. Since this would mean destroying the rest of Jerusalem in order to build this immense temple, and this is not physically or politically possible, therefore the temple will not be rebuilt. I think that the error here is in interpreting the temple in Ezekiel as the third temple. I believe the temple described in Ezekiel refers to the Millennial temple, when Christ has returned and is reigning for a thousand years on earth from Jerusalem. Jerusalem is then described as the holy city to which the nations are to come to worship the King, the Lord Almighty, and to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles (Zech 14:16, 20-21). In this sense, Jerusalem itself has become the temple. That the entire Jerusalem might be rebuilt as a single immense temple then, is possible, though I personally do not know, and it does not concern us at this moment.

However, the most important reason why the temple will be rebuilt before the second coming is because Jesus said so. In Matt 24:15, Jesus prophesied concerning "the abomination that causes desolation standing in the holy place" as spoken of through Daniel. What is this prophecy? In Daniel 9:27, Daniel mentions "And on a wing of the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation". This is the prophecy which Jesus referred to (He said, "let the reader understand"). In 168 B.C., the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes entered the Holy of Holies in the Jerusalem temple, built in there an altar to the pagan god Zeus, and sacrificed a pig on the altar. This Antiochus Epiphanes is the archtype of the "Man of Lawlessness" (the antitype) who will do the same to the rebuilt temple (1 Thess 2:4). Thus Antiochus' action prefigures a similar abomination that Jesus predicted would be erected. Going back to Matt 24, this means that there has to be a temple present for the Man of Lawlessness to desecrate. If not, this prophecy has no meaning. How can he desecrate a temple which is not even there?

Now some say that Jesus' words in Matt 24:15 had already been fulfilled when Titus entered Jerusalem in 70 A.D. However, although Titus entered the holy place, he did not set up an abomination, and he even tried to save it from being destroyed (Josephus "Wars of the Jews" 6.4.7). The temple was burned down and "not a stone was left unturned" (Matt 24:2). Titus was just another type prefiguring the antitype.

Yet others say that the temple spoken of by Jesus refers to the Christians (the temple of the Holy Spirit). However, this is out of context, and the temple mentioned by Jesus and Daniel refer to a physical temple, not a spiritual temple. We cannot over-spiritualise the term "abomination that causes desolation" because this will lead to all sorts of speculation and anyone can then take it to mean anything.