Prophecy · The Kingdom
The Third Temple
Three last-days texts quietly assume a building that does not currently exist: Daniel’s final week has sacrifice and oblation to stop— which requires them running; Paul’s man of sin takes his seat “in the temple of God”; and John is handed a reed and told to measure a sanctuary whose outer court the Gentiles will trample for forty-two months. On the futurist reading these three texts describe one building — a third temple on the Second’s ground, standing in the tribulation, desecrated at its midpoint. This page treats the texts, the readings, and nothing from the newspapers — by design.
Which Temple?
— the Bible's temple timeline — and this page's one line of itThe Second Temple
516 B.C. – A.D. 70
Zerubbabel's house, Herod's marble — the temple Jesus called 'my Father's house' and predicted stone from stone
The tribulation temple
future, on the futurist reading
required by the texts this page treats: sacrifices stopped mid-week, the man of sin seated, a court measured and trampled
Ezekiel's temple
the millennial house
a DIFFERENT building: measured room by room in Ezekiel 40-48, with the glory returning — its own page on this site
The Three Texts
— what each one requiresThe case for a future temple is cumulative and entirely textual. Daniel 9:27 has the covenant-maker cause “the sacrifice and the oblation to cease” at mid-week — a cessation that presupposes an altar in operation. Paul, writing a decade before Herod’s temple fell, describes the man of sin enthroning himself “in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God” — the abomination with a pronoun. And John, writing (on the traditional dating) a generation afterA.D. 70, is told to measure “the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein” while its court is trampled forty-two months — a strange instruction if no temple would ever stand again.
And he will confirm a covenant with many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of the temple will come the abomination that causes desolation, until the decreed destruction is poured out upon him.”sacrifice stopped mid-week — which first requires sacrifice.
Let no one deceive you in any way, for it will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness—the son of destruction—is revealed. He will oppose and exalt himself above every so-called god or object of worship. So he will seat himself in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff and was told, “Go and measure the temple of God and the altar, and count the number of worshipers there. But exclude the courtyard outside the temple. Do not measure it, because it has been given over to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for 42 months.a sanctuary measured, a court trampled — forty-two months.
And the Apostle Paul also, saying, "For though ye have served them which are no gods; ye now know God, or rather, are known of God," has made a separation between those that were not [gods] and Him who is God. And again, speaking of Antichrist, he says, "who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped." He points out here those who are called gods, by such as know not God, that is, idols.
Irenaeus· Against Heresies, Book 3 (c. 202), on 2 Thess 2:4
Let no man deceive you by any means - That is, respecting the coming of the Lord Jesus. This implies that there were then attempts to deceive, and that it was of great importance for Christians to be on their guard. The result has shown that there is almost no subject on which caution is more proper, and on which men are more liable to delusion.
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869), on 2 Thess 2:3
“The Temple of God” — the readings
— literal house, the church, or the apostate see — each with holdersWhat Paul meant by “the temple of God” divides the traditions, and this site’s quarry carries the division honestly — including the Reformation-era reading in the very commentators quoted throughout these pages.
As God was in the temple of old, and worshipped there, and is in and with his church now, so the antichrist here mentioned is some usurper of God's authority in the Christian church, who claims divine honours; and to whom can this better apply than to the bishops of Rome, to whom the most blasphemous titles have been given, as Dominus Deus noster papa--Our Lord God the pope;
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710), on 2 Thess 2:4 — the historicist reading, in its own words
But the man of sin, the son of perdition - Eminently so called, is not come yet. However, in many respects, the Pope has an indisputable claim to those titles. He is, in an emphatical sense, the man of sin, as he increases all manner of sin above measure.
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755), on 2 Thess 2:3 — holding both: 'not come yet,' and the historicist application
The three readings, and who holds eachstated at full strength — no verdict
A literal rebuilt temple:the futurist reading, the early fathers’ (Irenaeus and Hippolytus read the Antichrist enthroned in a real Jerusalem sanctuary), and this site’s frame — naoswith the article, in a letter whose readers knew exactly one “temple of God”; and the only reading on which Daniel’s stopped sacrifices and John’s measured altar are the same event Paul describes.
The church:Paul does call the church God’s temple (1 Cor 3:16; Eph 2:21) — on this reading the man of sin’s seat is usurped authority within Christendom, not architecture. Its difficulty: everywhere Paul uses temple-language of the church he says so, and an apostasy-within reading strains “sitteth” as a bodily act.
The historicist application:Henry and Wesley above apply the passage to the papacy — the Reformers’ nearly unanimous reading, stated here in their own words because honesty requires it, and held today by a smaller but real tradition. Notice Wesley’s care even so: “the man of sin… is not come yet.”
What this page does not do, per the founder’s standing direction: no reporting on modern temple movements, red heifers, or construction politics. The texts require what they require; the calendar is not ours to write.
Measured, and Trampled
— Revelation 11:1-2 — ownership before desecrationThe measuring rod is Ezekiel’s and Zechariah’s instrument of ownership — what God measures, God claims. The sanctuary, the altar and the worshipers are measured; the outer court is deliberately left out, “given unto the Gentiles.” A temple can be desecrated and still be claimed; worshipers can be trampled and still be counted. The forty-two months tie the scene to the tribulation’s second half — the same span as the witnesses’ ministry and the beast’s authority.
It was the duration of Antiochus' treading down of the temple and persecution of faithful Israelites. The resurrection of the witnesses after three and a half days, answers to Christ's resurrection after three days. The world power's times never reach the sacred fulness of seven times three hundred sixty, that is, 2520, though they approach to it in 2300 (Da 8:14).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871), on Rev 11:2
But the court - is given unto the Gentiles - The measuring of the temple probably refers to its approaching destruction, and the termination of the whole Levitical service; and this we find was to be done by the Gentiles, (Romans), who were to tread it down forty-two months; i.e., just three years and a half, or twelve hundred and sixty days. This must be a symbolical period.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1832), on Rev 11:2
How the Desecration Ends
— 2 Thessalonians 2:8 — brightness, not renovationWhatever building the man of sin profanes, the remedy is not a cleansing ceremony, as in the Maccabees’ day, but an appearing: the Lord consumes the lawless one “with the spirit of his mouth” and destroys him “with the brightness of his coming.” And Scripture’s temple story does not end at the third temple in any case — it ends with no temple at all: “I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it” (Rev 21:22).
And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will slay with the breath of His mouth and annihilate by the majesty of His arrival.Where It Points
— a building that exists to be surpassedThe third temple, if the futurist reading holds, will be the strangest building in history: erected in unbelief, desecrated on schedule, vindicated by an arrival — and then eclipsed by Ezekiel’s house, which is itself eclipsed by a city with no temple because the Presence has no more veils. Every temple in the sequence exists to point past itself.
Closing
An altar the texts need running, a seat the man of sin needs standing, a court already assigned to the trampling. The third temple is prophecy’s most concrete unbuilt building — and the page’s discipline is the church’s oldest: watch the texts, not the cranes.