I posted this in the Red Heifer Birth Paves Way For Renewed Temple Service forum but I think its needed here too.
https://www.amazingfacts.org/news-and-features/af-blog/article/id/11897/t/red-heifer-or-red-herring-
Red Heifer or Red Herring?
Some are teaching that a perfect red heifer must be born in order to pave the way to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. One organization is even collecting funds to genetically create and raise such a heifer. But what does the Bible tell us about God’s temple?
The Temple Institute is an organization in Jerusalem raising money to prepare for the construction of a new Jewish temple. It is attempting to recreate temple vessels, a high priest’s breastplate, and even musical instruments for a Levitical choir. But they believe that in order to create a so-called state of purity to usher in the coming of the Messiah, the laws of purification found in
Leviticus 19 must be followed. These rituals originally involved a red heifer, ashes, and the cleansing of people and objects that have had contact with a dead body.
Christian Zionists, those who encourage the return of Jews to Israel, support the rebuilding of a temple in Jerusalem since they believe it is a fulfillment of Bible prophecy. One of the early teachers of this doctrine, called dispensationalism, was John Nelson Darby. A literalistic understanding of a new temple is taken from the following:
“Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God” (
2 Thessalonians 2:3, 4, emphasis supplied).
Must a literal temple be rebuilt on the original site of the temple mount in Jerusalem? Does a perfect red heifer need to be sacrificed in order for the Messiah to return to our earth? Will the
“man of sin” (the antichrist) sit in a building in Jerusalem in order for
“that Day” to come? It sounds plausible to many, but what does the Bible say about a true Israelite and the true temple of God?
The New Testament teaches that the name Israel points no longer points to a nation, but to Jesus Christ and to His followers, and regardless of ethnicity.
“There is neither Jew nor Greek ... for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (
Galatians 3:28, 29). All true Christians are now God’s “
spiritual Israel.” In fact, the apostle Paul boldly says,
“For they are not all Israel who are of Israel” (
Romans 9:6).
The devil has misdirected the focus of many from spiritual Israel (God’s church) to the literal building of a temple in Jerusalem. But Christ referred to the temple as His own body in
John 2:19–21. In fact, He later prophesied,
“See! Your house is left to you desolate” (
Matthew 23:38). What now is the true temple? It is the body of Christ, the church, of which people are made.
“If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are” (
1 Corinthians 3:17; see also
Ephesians 2:19–22 and
1 Peter 2:5).
Must a red heifer be sacrificed in a literal temple in Jerusalem for the antichrist to be revealed? In truth the antichrist power will seat itself over the church of God claiming the worship that belongs only to Jesus Christ. Let us turn our eyes away from the earthly Jerusalem below and lift our sights to the heavenly Jerusalem above,
“to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speakers better things than that of Abel” (
Hebrews 12:22–24)
http://amazingdiscoveries.org/AD-newsletter-spring-2008-Nation_and_Temple2
The original sanctuary (temple) and its artifacts, rituals, and sacrificial ceremonies were types or shadows that pointed to the real Messiah and Lamb of God who would come to fulfill, in Himself, all that these things. Of this temple it can be said that it was
"the temple of God," in a literal or physical sense.
When Jesus died He put an end to the need for that sanctuary of types and shadows. This is demonstrated in the very events that took place at His death such as the lamb escaping from the altar and the curtain in the temple being torn. This is also seen in the declarations Christ made to the Jewish leaders, especially in light of the fact that they did not want to accept Him as the Messiah and finally decreed His death. He told them,
"your house is left unto you desolate." He declared to the disciples that not one stone of the temple would be left upon another (
Matthew 23:38; 24:1-2).
In light of these considerations one has to reconsider the statement by Paul in
2 Thessalonians 2:3-4. A newly built temple cannot, in any sense of the word, be called
"the temple of God." In fact, the erection of such an temple and the reintroduction of sacrificial rites
would be blasphemy against the completed work and present priestly ministry of Christ in the heavenly sanctuary.
