The End Time Church: From the Cathedrals to the Catacombs

By Dan L. White

Copyright 2021 by Dan L. White, all rights reserved.

Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible (WEB) which is in the public domain.

Chapter 93

Building a New Temple

Since we have a new Ark, a spiritual Ark, will the old Ark of the Covenant be found?

Since we have a new Temple, a spiritual Temple, will another Temple be built?

A new Ark and a new Temple? God already has a new Temple, the flock of the Messiah, with a new Ark in it, the Messiah Himself. However, still another physical Temple is planned for construction, and the old acacia wood Ark is being spied out.

Who wants to build this physical temple?

The Jews of Judaism.

Who are the Jews of Judaism?

They are the Pharisees. As discussed before, when the second Temple was destroyed in 70 CE, the Sadducee priests no longer had a position of power. Priests served in the Temple, the Temple was gone. They lost their jobs, and like modern government bureaucrats, they lost their means of enriching themselves.

After the Temple was gone, the local synagogues still remained. Since they were the only game left in town for the anti-Christ Jews, those Jews who did not accept Yeshua as Messiah, the synagogues became the religious focal point of Judaism. The Pharisees ran the synagogues – the Pharisees became Judaism. Judaism is the Pharisees.

Now Judaism – the Pharisees – want a new temple. Judaism does not accept Yeshua’s flock as the new Temple, so they plan to build a new physical temple. Judaism does not accept Yeshua as the Messiah, so they don’t accept Him as the fulfillment of the Ark of the Covenant. They await the revealing of the old Ark.

Why does Judaism want a new temple?

The Jews want a new temple to welcome a new messiah, who will not be Yeshua, the King of the Jews.

From the Temple Institute web site, templeinstitute.org, About Us page.

“Rabbi Yisrael Ariel, founder and head of the Temple Institute, served in the paratrooper brigade which liberated the Temple Mount in the Six Day War of 1967, and was one of the first soldiers to reach the Mount.”

Ariel and some part of the Jews expected that when the Jews again possessed the Temple site, the Messiah would then return and He would immediately rebuild the Temple. With that belief, Ariel described how he felt when he rushed up to the western wall of the Temple platform.

“It is so very difficult to describe the feeling that filled us during that extraordinary time in the life of the nation. The words “ringing the bells of the Messiah” express in a limited way what was being felt in the heart.”

The Judaism information site chabad.org discussed the rebuilding of the temple by the Messiah.

https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/108400/jewish/The-End-of-Days.htm
One of the principles of Jewish faith enumerated by Maimonides is that one day there will arise a dynamic Jewish leader, a direct descendant of the Davidic dynasty, who will rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem, and gather Jews from all over the world and bring them back to the Land of Israel…

According to some traditions, G-d Himself will rebuild the third Temple. According to others, it will be rebuilt by Moshiach; still others suggest a combination of the two opinions. Some suggest that there will be two distinct periods in the messianic era: first a non-miraculous period, leading into a second, miraculous period.

Maimonides writes, “Neither the order of the occurrence of these events nor their precise detail is among the fundamental principles of the faith . . . one should wait and believe in the general conception of the matter.”

When the Jews regained the Temple Mount and the messiah did not come, then some changed their approach. Instead of waiting for the Messiah to come to build the temple, they decided that they should rebuild the temple, and then the Messiah will come to that temple. Maimonides said that the messiah would gather Jews from all over the world and bring them back to the land of Israel, and Jews from all over the world have already returned, seeming to lend support to the temple building concept.

Twenty years after capturing the Temple Mount, in 1987 Ariel founded the Temple Institute. Its purpose is to rebuild the Temple.

You will perceive that the whole basis of building a new temple to welcome the messiah is –

the rejection of the Messiah who already came.

Whether the Jews want a messiah to come and build a temple, or whether they build a temple first and then welcome a messiah, the messiah they look to will not be Yeshua the Son of God.

This is a most important fact to understand.

The temple project is founded on the religious belief that Yeshua is not the Messiah. The Jews plan to build the next temple to welcome the next messiah, not the One they already rejected.

This is no surprise. For about 2000 years they have not accepted Yeshua.

Notice the incredible first part of the book of John.

John 1
1) In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2) The same was in the beginning with God.
3) All things were made through him. Without him was not anything made that has been made.
4) In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
5) The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness hasn’t overcome it.

The Jews were that darkness, along with the rest of the world. The Creator came in the flesh and brought light to the Jews, His people. Their darkness did not overcome Him, but as a whole His light did not enlighten them.

John 1
10) He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world didn’t recognize him.
11) He came to his own, and those who were his own didn’t receive him.

At this almost-end time, more and more Jews are now receiving their Messiah Yeshua. However, most of His own, the tribe of Judah, still do not receive Him.

John 1
17) For the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth were realized through Yeshua Christ.

The English word grace has lost its original meaning of mercy or favor, and has come to mean freedom to break the Commandments, a license to sin. The Greek word translated grace is charis, and a form of charis was used in the Septuagint to simply mean good will. John 1:17 gives a contrast between the law given through Moses and the goodwill of God given through Christ, or the old covenant through Moses and the new covenant through Yeshua. Since most Jews missed the goodwill of God through Yeshua, they are left with the covenant of Moses, which inevitably is the bad will of God for the unpaid debt of sins.

Christ brought us God’s goodwill, in contrast to the old agreement, which had God’s bad will. Until Yeshua, we had no way out of that bad will in the Moses covenant. That is the case with the Jews now. Their history is spotted with God’s bad will.

John 1
29) The next day, he [John] saw Yeshua coming to him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

32) John testified, saying, “I have seen the Spirit descending like a dove out of heaven, and it remained on him.
33) I didn’t recognize him, but he who sent me to baptize in water, he said to me, ‘On whomever you will see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.’
34) I have seen, and have testified that this is the Son of God.”
35) Again, the next day, John was standing with two of his disciples,
36) and he looked at Yeshua as he walked, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!”
37) The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Yeshua.
38) Yeshua turned, and saw them following, and said to them, “What are you looking for?” They said to him, “Rabbi” (which is to say, being interpreted, Teacher), “where are you staying?”
39) He said to them, “Come, and see.” They came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day. It was about the tenth hour.
40) One of the two who heard John, and followed him, was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother.
41) He first found his own brother, Simon, and said to him, “We have found the Messiah!” (which is, being interpreted, Christ).

All that is what the Jews as a people have missed. All the very first flock of Yeshua were Israelites, but most Jews have never found Him. Nearly 2000 years after He came to them, they’re still looking for their messiah. And they plan to build their temple to welcome some other messiah.

This welcoming of a new messiah is not emphasized in the hubbub about the new temple, because it would displease some of the many Christian supporters of the Temple Institute. Personal interviews, though, can be more candid. In the YouTube video, “Donald Trump “THIRD TEMPLE” for whole world,” a member of the new Sanhedrin, speaking English as a second language, commented directly on this messiah and the new temple.

“Every nation will keep its language, its culture, its beliefs – It’s not globalization. It’s to worship one God on Temple Mount.”

Interviewer: “You believe that Messiah ben David is coming to this temple?”

“Messiah Ben David is very soon, and he is a Jew. He is not Jesus.”

At least once before, you may recall, the Jews picked the wrong messiah.

After the Jews rejected the one true Messiah in 30 CE, about a century later they welcomed another messiah with open arms and nine fingers.

This messiah made them cut off a finger to serve in his army. Yeshua’s followers cut off their spiritual foreskins instead of their fingers. This messiah fought Rome. Yeshua did not fight Rome, the prime kingdom of this world, simply because His kingdom is not of this world. This messiah did not rise again when he was killed. Yeshua did. This messiah was not like the Lord of heaven and earth. He was just another warlord.

This messiah that the Jews picked – the wrong one – was Simon Bar Kokhba.

Let’s look at some quotes from our Chapter 58 of The End Time Church, titled “The Missing Messiah”.

“When the Jews revolted against Rome in 132, a bold leader emerged…

New World Encyclopedia – There is little historical information about the early stages of the revolt. It apparently began in 132, when the rebuilding of Jerusalem as a Roman city damaged the supposed tomb of Solomon. According to the ancient historian Cassius Dio, (Roman history 69.13:1-2):

Soon, the whole of Judaea had been stirred up, and the Jews everywhere were showing signs of disturbance, were gathering together, and giving evidence of great hostility to the Romans, partly by secret and partly by open acts; many others, too, from other peoples, were joining them from eagerness for profit, in fact one might almost say that the whole world was being stirred up by this business.

In this situation Simon ben Kosiba emerged as a decisive and effective military and political leader. His surviving letters make it clear that he was in a position of authority among the revolutionary forces by April 132 until early November 135.
New World Encyclopedia, article Simon bar Kokhba, 5/11/19.

Simon the son of Kosiba was not seen merely as a military leader. He was seen by many Jews as the king and messiah they had been waiting for, a messiah who was a human king who would lead them against Rome. Ben Kosiba became their king and gathered an army of 400,000 men, to lead them against Rome.

Originally named ben Kosiba, he was given the surname Bar Kokhba, meaning “Son of the Star,” by the leading Jewish sage Rabbi Akiva, who believed him to be the promised Messiah, ibid.

That rabbi said of Simon ben Kosiba, “This is the King Messiah” (Yer. Ta’anit iv. 68d). That’s the reason he was called – even to this day Bar Kokhba — Son of the Star.

Encyclopedia Judaica says:
The appellation Bar Kokhba was apparently given to him during the revolt on the basis of the homiletical interpretation, in a reference to messianic expectations, of the verse (Num. 24:17): “There shall step forth a star out of Jacob.”…
“Bar Kokhba.” Encyclopaedia Judaica. Encyclopedia.com. (May 11, 2019). https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/bar-kokhba.

Livius.org, a collection of articles on ancient history, said this about the Son of the Star.

According to the Christian church historian Eusebius (c.260-c.340), Simon claimed to be a luminary who had come down to the Jews from heaven (History of the church 4.6.2). On some of his coins and in his letters, he calls himself ‘Prince’ (Nasi), a word that had very strong messianic connotations (cf. Ezekiel 37.24-25 and several Qumran documents). His loyal followers liked to make a pun on his name: his real name was Simon ben Kosiba, but he was usually called Bar Kochba (son of the star), which again is a messianic claim.

Rabbi Aqiba, the president of the rabbinical academy at Yavne and the official religious leader of the Jews in this age, declared that the successful Jewish commander was the Messiah; at least two rabbis – rabbi Gershom and rabbi Aha – agreed…
Livius.org, Wars between the Jews and Romans: Simon ben Kosiba (130-136 CE), 9/30/11.

Maimonides, who lived in the twelfth century and was one of the most respected Torah scholars of the middle ages, wrote this about Simon ben Kosiba, but with still another name, Ben Koziva.

“Rabbi Akiva, the greatest of the sages of the Mishnah, was a supporter of King Ben Koziva, saying of him that he was the king messiah. He and all the contemporary sages regarded him as the king messiah, until he was killed for sins which he had committed” (Maim. Yad, Melakhim, 11:3).

Although sometimes later denied, the belief that Bar Kokhba was the messiah was widespread, supported by “the greatest of the sages” and “all the contemporary sages.” Apparently even the Sanhedrin gave their approval to Bar Kokhba.

The basically authentic statement about a Sanhedrin at Bethar (Sanh. 17b) suggests that at a certain time a bet din participated in Bar Kokhba’s rule.
“Bar Kokhba.” Encyclopaedia Judaica. Encyclopedia.com. (May 11, 2019). https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/bar-kokhba””

That messianic miss with Simon Bar Kokhba seems to be a picture of what happens at the end of this age, when most Jews are again looking for the wrong messiah.

Christ gave an end time warning about false messiahs.

Matt 24 International Standard Version
4) Yeshua answered them, “See to it that no one deceives you,
5) because many will come in my name and say, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and they will deceive many people.

John 5
39) “You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and these are they which testify about me.
40) Yet you will not come to me, that you may have life.
41) I don’t receive glory from men.
42) But I know you, that you don’t have God’s love in yourselves.
43) I have come in my Father’s name, and you don’t receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him.

That’s quite a prediction. If another comes as the messiah, the Jews will receive him.

Since Judaism does not accept Yeshua as the perfect sacrifice, they plan to restart animal sacrifices and have already held trial sacrificial services, even without a temple. They do not believe in spiritual circumcision so they still practice physical circumcision. They still wear fringes and prayer shawls and put mezuzahs by their doors, among other physical things left over from the old covenant. What do those physical signs show? They show that they reject Yeshua as their sacrifice, their redeemer, their messiah. They are still waiting for their messiah.

Judaism has long believed that the messiah will come and rebuild the temple, and then the temple services will be restored as before. They have never believed that this will be Yeshua. Now a growing number of Jews want to build a third temple so that the messiah will come to this temple, and restart temple services, and lead the whole world to an era of peace.

They are gaining support for the building of this temple, from people of many different religions, but this fact must never be overlooked —

Judaism wants to build a third temple because they reject the true Messiah. They are looking for another messiah to sit in this temple and be exalted as world ruler. It appears that most of the world will join them in this, rejecting the true Messiah and embracing the false, in the third temple.