Gerald Creasy wrote:In fact lets actually read the Bible for once rather than rely on superstitious hype.
In addition Third temple champions are beating a dead horse because Paul proclaims in Acts:
Act 17:24 God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands;
Paul was actually telling us the same thing the prophets, the modern rabbis and even God Himself told us...that there is no building that could contain Him, that He fills all of heaven and the earth. When God commanded the tabernacle be built, and when Solomon built the 1st Tmple, God never said he would inhabit them, He stated when they were built, He would come an live among His people.
If there is to be no 3rd Temple, how do you interpret Ezekiel and his description of that Temple in Ezekiel 40 - 42. What Ezekiel was shown was a physical Temple - not an allegorical, metaphorical, or spiritual temple, but he describes a physical Temple that has yet to be built. A Temple that size and of the dimensions foretold in Ezekiel has never yet been built.
If Ezekiel prophesied wrong, and the Temple is not going to ever be built, then the book of Ezekiel needs to be removed from the Scriptures. But the fact is, it will be built - in the Millennial reign of Messiah - and the sacrifices will resume, Ezekiel 43 - 45. These sacrifices will be once again accepted as holy by God and in fact the sacrifices will be offered by Messiah Y'shua (Christ Jesus) Himself! (This is not to be spiritualized into saying that He became these on the cross so therefore they will never again be offered physically).
Chapter 44:1-3 describes the Prince who enters through the eastern gate. Jews, Christians, and even Muslims agree that this Prince is the Messiah. No one but Messiah and God Himself enters or exits the eastern gate. That is why it was walled up and a cemetery built in front of it by the Muslims on the false belief that Messiah would not be able to enter through there without becoming unclean by the graves (not realizing that all He has to do is resurrect them).
Eze 44:1 Then he brought me back the way of the gate of the outward sanctuary which looketh toward the east; and it was shut.
Eze 44:2 Then said the LORD unto me; This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter in by it; because the LORD, the God of Israel, hath entered in by it, therefore it shall be shut.
Eze 44:3 It is for the prince; the prince, he shall sit in it to eat bread before the LORD; he shall enter by the way of the porch of that gate, and shall go out by the way of the same.
This Prince, Messiah Y'shua, prepares the sacrifices personally that are to be offered up on the altar in this new Temple. And careful attention should be given as to when He offers them, on the feasts, sabbaths, and new moons (see Lev 23 for more details on these holy days of God). These are seen in Ezekiel 45:17 through 46:
Eze 45:17 And it shall be the prince's part to give burnt offerings, and meat offerings, and drink offerings, in the feasts, and in the new moons, and in the sabbaths, in all solemnities of the house of Israel: he shall prepare the sin offering, and the meat offering, and the burnt offering, and the peace offerings, to make reconciliation for the house of Israel.
Eze 45:18 Thus saith the Lord GOD; In the first month, in the first day of the month, thou shalt take a young bullock without blemish, and cleanse the sanctuary:
Eze 45:19 And the priest shall take of the blood of the sin offering, and put it upon the posts of the house, and upon the four corners of the settle of the altar, and upon the posts of the gate of the inner court.
Eze 45:20 And so thou shalt do the seventh day of the month for every one that erreth, and for him that is simple: so shall ye reconcile the house.
Eze 45:21 In the first month, in the fourteenth day of the month, ye shall have the passover, a feast of seven days; unleavened bread shall be eaten.
Eze 45:22 And upon that day shall the prince prepare for himself and for all the people of the land a bullock for a sin offering.
Eze 45:23 And seven days of the feast he shall prepare a burnt offering to the LORD, seven bullocks and seven rams without blemish daily the seven days; and a kid of the goats daily for a sin offering.
Eze 45:24 And he shall prepare a meat offering of an ephah for a bullock, and an ephah for a ram, and an hin of oil for an ephah.
Eze 45:25 In the seventh month, in the fifteenth day of the month, shall he do the like in the feast of the seven days, according to the sin offering, according to the burnt offering, and according to the meat offering, and according to the oil.
Eze 46:1 Thus saith the Lord GOD; The gate of the inner court that looketh toward the east shall be shut the six working days; but on the sabbath it shall be opened, and in the day of the new moon it shall be opened.
Eze 46:2 And the prince shall enter by the way of the porch of that gate without, and shall stand by the post of the gate, and the priests shall prepare his burnt offering and his peace offerings, and he shall worship at the threshold of the gate: then he shall go forth; but the gate shall not be shut until the evening.
Eze 46:3 Likewise the people of the land shall worship at the door of this gate before the LORD in the sabbaths and in the new moons.
Eze 46:4 And the burnt offering that the prince shall offer unto the LORD in the sabbath day shall be six lambs without blemish, and a ram without blemish.
Eze 46:5 And the meat offering shall be an ephah for a ram, and the meat offering for the lambs as he shall be able to give, and an hin of oil to an ephah.
Eze 46:6 And in the day of the new moon it shall be a young bullock without blemish, and six lambs, and a ram: they shall be without blemish.
Eze 46:7 And he shall prepare a meat offering, an ephah for a bullock, and an ephah for a ram, and for the lambs according as his hand shall attain unto, and an hin of oil to an ephah.
Eze 46:8 And when the prince shall enter, he shall go in by the way of the porch of that gate, and he shall go forth by the way thereof.
Eze 46:9 But when the people of the land shall come before the LORD in the solemn feasts, he that entereth in by the way of the north gate to worship shall go out by the way of the south gate; and he that entereth by the way of the south gate shall go forth by the way of the north gate: he shall not return by the way of the gate whereby he came in, but shall go forth over against it.
Eze 46:10 And the prince in the midst of them, when they go in, shall go in; and when they go forth, shall go forth.
Eze 46:11 And in the feasts and in the solemnities the meat offering shall be an ephah to a bullock, and an ephah to a ram, and to the lambs as he is able to give, and an hin of oil to an ephah.
Eze 46:12 Now when the prince shall prepare a voluntary burnt offering or peace offerings voluntarily unto the LORD, one shall then open him the gate that looketh toward the east, and he shall prepare his burnt offering and his peace offerings, as he did on the sabbath day: then he shall go forth; and after his going forth one shall shut the gate.
Eze 46:13 Thou shalt daily prepare a burnt offering unto the LORD of a lamb of the first year without blemish: thou shalt prepare it every morning.
Eze 46:14 And thou shalt prepare a meat offering for it every morning, the sixth part of an ephah, and the third part of an hin of oil, to temper with the fine flour; a meat offering continually by a perpetual ordinance unto the LORD.
Eze 46:15 Thus shall they prepare the lamb, and the meat offering, and the oil, every morning for a continual burnt offering.
Please note that the Prince, Messiah Y'shua, offers up sacrifices prepared by His own hands on all the weekly Sabbaths, the Feasts, and the New moons. Also seen in these verses is that again Messiah is the only one who can go through this gate in the Millennial reign. Everyone else must enter and exit a different way through the other gates, physical gates in a physical Temple built in a physical Jerusalem. While this may go against 2000 years of erroneous teachings, and may shake some peoples theology - the fact remains that Scripture is Scripture and whether we like it or not, whether we fully understand it or not, the Temple will be built when Messiah returns, and there will be sacrifices offered, offered by the hand of Messiah Himself; and they will be accepted by God.
