We are still in the pause between the blowing of the sixth and seventh trumpets. Today we learn something interesting about the third temple of the end times and about the previous two temples.
John is told in our passage today to measure the temple in Jerusalem. This is the third temple, the one that the Antichrist will desecrate at the 3.5 year mark of the seven-year Middle East peace treaty. Some people in our day scoff at the idea that the temple will ever be rebuilt due to the religious tensions and conflicts in the region, but the Scriptures promise a third temple. I think a third temple is very feasible politically as well, because for a long time now politicians have tried to arrange a two-state agreement that persuades the Palestinians to live peacefully alongside Israel. Earlier in our study we discussed the fact that archaeologists now think that the temple Solomon built may have lain slightly to the side of where the Dome of the Rock stands now. If so, the two-state agreement may allow for the temple to be rebuilt right beside the dome. The Antichrist is probably the political figure who finally manages to put this two-state agreement in place.
The third temple is also financially feasible. The people of Israel are ready to rebuild the third temple. An organization in Jerusalem called The Temple Institute has been in place for quite some time. This institute has been getting all the temple vessels and furnishings ready in preparation for the day when they can move ahead with the project. They are making all these items in accordance with their description in the Old Testament. If you're curious, The Temple Institute has a very interesting website that explains everything in detail. My boss at work, who has visited Jerusalem a number of times and who has visited The Temple Institute, donates to the project on a regular basis. Many evangelical Christians all over the world support the nation of Israel and look forward to the building of the third temple, so Gentiles as well as Jews are donating funds for the building of the third temple.
John tells us: "I was given a reed like a measuring rod and was told, 'Go and measure the temple of God and the altar, with its worshipers. But exclude the outer court; do not measure it, because it has been given to the Gentiles. They will trample on the holy city for 42 months." (Revelation 11:1-2) Before we talk about why the Gentiles of the end times are going to "trample" Jerusalem in the last days, we need to take a look at the outer court of the first and second temples. The outer court was intended for Gentile worshipers. Gentile converts to Judaism were not allowed inside the temple proper, but they could worship the God of Israel in the outer courtyard. This is the courtyard in which Jesus often taught, for He wanted both Jews and Gentiles to hear the word of God. He did not discriminate against anyone. But some things that went on in the outer courtyard in Jesus' day were highly discriminatory against Gentile believers.
The outer court is the courtyard Jesus cleared of those who had set up booths to change money and to sell sacrificial animals. The money changers were there to make a profit because monetary offerings at the temple had to be paid with shekels. Gentile believers traveling from other countries would not be in possession of shekels, so their money had to be changed. Most foreign money had images of kings and emperors on it, a thing that was forbidden to the Jewish people, and most foreign money had blasphemous statements written on it, such as statements that declared emperors or kings to be God. This is why foreign money could not be used at the temple. The money changers charged a hefty fee for exchanging currency, so much so that it had become a form of robbery by Jesus' time. He threw the money changers out of the courtyard because they had made the temple "a den of thieves". (Matthew 21:13)
Jesus cleared the courtyard of the sellers of sacrificial animals because they were also robbing the people, and this particularly imposed hardship on Gentile believers. Gentile believers sometimes came a long distance in order to worship at the temple for the three major festivals at which all Jewish males (and male converts to Judaism) were required to appear. It was difficult and impractical for them to lead animals for days or weeks across all types of terrain, so sellers set up booths inside the courtyard for them to purchase animals at highly inflated prices. Some scholars think a portion of the priests were in cahoots with the sellers of animals because any animal brought to the temple had to be inspected by the priests before it could be offered. If the animal was rejected, the person had no choice but to purchase another one, and "pre-approved" animals were available in the courtyard supposedly for convenience of the worshipers but in reality as a profitable business in which the sellers of animals may have been sharing a portion of the profits with the priests.
Neither the money changers nor the sellers of animals had any business being inside the temple complex. They belonged outside the complex on the side of the street. The space they took up was space that was set aside for Gentiles to worship God. They were crowding a lot of these people out altogether, and it made Jesus angry, and on the day when Jewish people were to cleanse their homes of leaven (a symbol of sin) before the Passover, Jesus cleansed His house (the temple) of these sinful thieves.
John is not to measure the outer court of the temple because Jerusalem will be "trampled" by Gentiles for 42 months, which equals 1260 days, or 3.5 years. This would be the final 3.5 years of the Great Tribulation. Since the outer court was originally intended for Gentiles who served the God of Israel, the fact that Gentiles will trample it and Jerusalem in the end times indicates that these Gentiles do not serve the God of Israel. These people are not good people. On an occasion when the Lord Jesus was speakings of the end times, He warned the people to escape Jerusalem when they saw the temple (the third temple) desecrated. He told them that this would be the fulfillment of the prophecy in the book of Daniel regarding an "abomination" in the temple. This abomination corresponds with what we've been told in Revelation about the Antichrist setting up an image of himself in the temple 3.5 years into the seven-year treaty. The Lord warned the people to flee Jerusalem in those days because terrible times of persecution were about to come against the Jewish people. In Luke's account of one of Jesus' discourses on the end times, we find Jesus saying, "Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled." (Luke 21:24b)
We don't know exactly what the Gentiles are going to do in Jerusalem and at the third temple during the Great Tribulation. We know the Antichrist will set up an image of himself in the temple and insist that he be worshiped as God. Jews who are Jewish by religion and not simply by genealogy are going to refuse to do this. Some scholars think that a portion of non-religious Jews may think the Antichrist is the Messiah, and I can't speak with any certainty on whether or not this is true, but a great number of non-religious Gentiles will think he is the Messiah. They won't know the Scriptures and won't recognize the Antichrist for who he is, so they will support him in his terror campaign against the Jews. The Jewish people will have to flee Jerusalem for their lives. The Antichrist will hate the Jewish people more than anyone has ever hated them before, and so will the Gentiles who give their allegiance to the Antichrist. Since the temple will be unfit for Jewish believers to worship God during the last 3.5 years of the Great Tribulation, most of the people who visit the temple in those days will be Gentiles. Most of the people in Jerusalem in those days will be Gentiles since so many Jews will have fled the city. These will not be Gentiles who come to faith in Christ during the Great Tribulation, and these will not be Gentiles who have converted to Judaism. These will be Gentiles who serve the Antichrist and who adhere to the false religion of those days.
Remember in the beginning of our study of Revelation when we talked about the apostate church of the end times? It's going to involve a mix of paganism, humanism, and all sorts of other ungodly beliefs and practices. This is why those who come to Jerusalem and the temple in the end times are said to be "trampling" it underfoot. They are unholy. They are bringing in beliefs and rituals that defile the house of God. They are not honoring the Lord in any way. So, when John excludes the outer court when he measures the temple, he is symbolically excluding these pagan Gentiles and their sinful and immoral beliefs. The only Gentiles who were allowed in the outer court of the first two temples were Gentiles who converted to Judaism. Pagan Gentiles could not enter. Pagan Gentiles could not be counted as the people of God. So in the end times we see that these Gentiles who enter the third temple are said to be trampling the courtyard underfoot because they don't belong there. They are not the people of God.
As terrible as all this sounds, something amazing is going to happen during the final 1260 days of the Great Tribulation. The Lord is going to appoint two mysterious characters known as "the two witnesses" to prophesy to the world during those 1260 days. They are going to be able to perform signs and wonders comparable to those of Old Testament figures like Moses and Elijah. In tomorrow's study we are going to meet these fascinating characters, discuss who they may be, and learn about how they astonish the world.
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